Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the average annual tonnage of wood imported for burning in (a) industrial and (b) domestic settings; which (i) countries and (ii) sites in those countries that wood is imported from; and how many tonnes on average comes from each of those countries each year.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Figures on the amount of imported wood and waste wood by country is published in The Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) Table 6.6, but information on sites is not collected. Imports of waste wood are used in the industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors and all imports of wood are burnt in the domestic sector; of the 2,319 thousand tonnes of wood consumed in the domestic sector in 2022, 198 thousand tonnes were imported.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the average annual tonnage of wood burnt in homes in the UK.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Figures on the amount of imported wood and waste wood by country is published in The Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) Table 6.6, but information on sites is not collected. Imports of waste wood are used in the industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors and all imports of wood are burnt in the domestic sector; of the 2,319 thousand tonnes of wood consumed in the domestic sector in 2022, 198 thousand tonnes were imported.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether officials in his Department with responsibility for engaging with hon. Members are given training on the types of visas that are available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Officials responsible for engaging with Hon. Members are required to complete an initial 12-week training programme, which includes training on the visa routes available.
Following the initial training programme, officials are subject to assurance checks on all their work until they are assessed to meet the required quality standard.
Ongoing development ensures that officials keep their understanding of immigration routes up to date.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has approved the business case costings for the New Hospital Programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 25 May 2023, the Government announced that the New Hospital Programme (NHP) is expected to represent over £20 billion of capital investment for the financial year 2030/31, and that there would be a rolling programme of investment in health infrastructure in the longer term. Future spending beyond this current spending review period will be subject to the usual spending review processes.
The NHP has developed a third version of its Programme Business Case (PBC) which includes costs for the programme’s future spend. This was approved by the Department’s Joint Investment Committee on 19 February 2024. Following this approval, the PBC will go through Government assurance processes in May 2024.
Future spend will be confirmed through the usual processes of future spending reviews, and all funding allocations for specific schemes within the NHP will only be confirmed once the individual Full Business Cases have been reviewed and agreed by ministers.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) supply chain, (b) labelling and (c) other processes and requirements are in place to ensure that imported wood comes from a sustainable forestry scheme.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The United Kingdom Timber Regulations (UKTR) prohibit the placing of illegally harvested timber on the market. Under the Withdrawal Act, UKTR applies to GB. Businesses must exercise due diligence on timber imports to demonstrate legality of harvest.
The Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulations and associated Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA), aim to improve the supply of verified legal timber to the UK market. Producer countries who have agreed a VPA with the UK and can demonstrate effective nationwide controls verifying legality of harvest, can issue FLEGT licences.
Under the UK Government Timber Procurement Policy, all timber products procured for use on the Government estate must meet accepted standards of legality and sustainability.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the Export Control Joint Unit reviews urgent trade sanctions license applications in a timely manner.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
In making decisions on whether to grant a licence to permit something otherwise prohibited by sanctions legislation & regulations, the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), comprised of subject matter experts and officials in the Department for Business and Trade, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Ministry of Defence, acts on behalf of the Secretary of State. ECJU is obligated to consider applications on a case-by-case basis, determining whether granting a licence would be consistent with the stated purposes of the sanctions regime, licensing grounds, and United Nations or international law obligations. When assessing applications ECJU also consults and considers views from a range of other government departments.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for consulting on activity regulations to be introduced under the Animals (Low-Welfare Abroad) Act 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Future decisions on which animal activities will fall in scope of the legislation will need to be evidence-based and subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. This Government continues to make animal welfare a priority and we are currently exploring a number of options to ensure progress as soon as is practicable. Additionally, we are supporting several Private Members’ Bills to deliver on animal welfare measures in the Kept Animals Bill, and I will be in the chamber tomorrow to listen to the proposals put forward by my Right Honourable Friend the member for North Devon.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the Food Security Index will be measured; and whether it will include nature-friendly farming practices.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The first draft of the new annual Food Security Index will be published at the Farm to Fork Summit this spring. We are in the process of developing the content of the index. We expect it will include a selection of indicators giving an assessment of food security across the five themes identified in the UK Food Security Report, including domestic food supply. Productive, resilient and environmentally sustainable domestic food production is a key element of our food security.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason his Department has reduced the amount of support given to people living in asylum accommodation which provides all their meals to £8.86 per week.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The level of the allowance given to those supported under section 95 and section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 is reviewed each year to ensure it covers an asylum seeker’s essential living needs.
In setting the rates, we have utilised an alternative methodology to determine the costs of essential needs, which uses a ‘disaggregated CPI’ (Consumer Prices Index). The methodology has been designed to offer a more accurate measure of changes in the price of items to cover essential living needs. As previous rate increases have been made using CPI rates, this has led to an overestimate of the cost of essential needs for an individual in catered accommodation, therefore, using the methodology set out above, the catered rates have been slightly reduced.
Individuals accommodated in hotels and other catered sites are also provided 3 meals a day, snacks, water, toiletries, and some other services, in addition to their weekly allowance. Additional support is also available to pregnant women, young children, and individuals who provide evidence of exceptional needs.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure that specialist medical services for Tourette's Syndrome are accessible to people outside of London.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Most services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) as they are best placed to plan and improve the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and funding. I know, for example, that there have been recent ICB discussions within the provider trust in Leeds related to strengthening the local offer for Tourette’s syndrome.
Nationally, the government is taking steps to alleviate workforce demands to support services for Tourette’s syndrome. This includes, increasing the number of trained clinical psychologists available. Health Education England, now merged with NHS England, supported a 60 per cent expansion in the clinical psychology training intake over the past two years.
Clinical psychologist trainees are able to undertake specialist placements focusing on Tourette’s syndrome, in addition to Tourette’s syndrome featuring as part of the broader neuropsychology curriculum.