Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Infrastructure and Projects Authority received reports on the (a) budget and (b) expected costs of the High Speed Rail Two Project in (i) 2016 and (ii) 2017.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Yes.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the level of VAT applied to children’s (a) swimming lessons and (b) other sports.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to the majority of goods and services. While there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations; one exception being certain supplies of education, which are generally exempt from VAT when certain conditions are met.
VAT is the UK’s third largest tax forecast to raise £161 billion in 2022/23, helping to fund key spending priorities such as important public services, including the NHS, education and defence. Nevertheless, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of his Department's progress on increasing the number of electric vehicle charging points across Bristol North West constituency.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is supporting local authorities in England through its £381 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund.
The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has been allocated £6,644,000 of capital funding and £688,000 of capability funding through the LEVI Fund, to transform the availability of local charging infrastructure across the area, including Bristol North West. Capital funding covers the costs associated with the installation of EV chargepoints and resource funding will secure dedicated in-house expertise to support WECA to plan, procure and tender the delivery of local chargepoints. In addition, Bristol City Council has previously been awarded £284,000 for the installation of 155 public chargepoints through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress her Department has made on the draft Audit Reform Bill; and when she plans to publish it.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has carried out significant work towards audit and corporate governance reform legislation but has not set a date for publication of a draft Audit Reform Bill. The Government is committed to legislating when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what date the transparency measures on public tree removal in the Environment Act 2021 will be implemented.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
New Forestry Enforcement Measures and the Duty to Consult were introduced by the Environment Act 2021.
The New Forestry Enforcement Measures help better equip the Forestry Commission to combat unauthorised and illegal felling, with unlimited fines and more transparent enforcement processes. These changes commenced on 1 January 2023.
The Duty to Consult introduces a new duty on local authorities to consult the public on street tree felling that will take place in England, increasing the awareness and transparency of decision making on urban trees and creating a space for the public to contribute to these decisions. The guidance for the new Duty to Consult is being finalised and we aim to commence the measure soon.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has assessed the potential merits of introducing legislation to make solar panel installation on new build homes compulsory.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Renewable energy, such as that generated from rooftop solar panels, will make a significant contribution to achieving net zero. In June 2022 an uplift to the energy efficiency standards for new buildings came into force and we will consult this year on the Future Homes Standard. The standards are performance based, meaning we do not mandate any particular technologies, but we expect that in order to comply with the uplift most developers will choose to install solar panels on new homes.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what consultation her Department has held with civil society on the AI Safety Summit.
Answered by Paul Scully
The first major global summit on AI safety, hosted by the UK, will bring together key countries, as well as leading technology companies and researchers, to agree on the safety measures needed to evaluate and monitor the most significant risks emerging from the newest developments in AI technologies.
The Department is committed to engaging with a wide range of stakeholders as it develops AI policy and has, throughout consultation on the AI Regulation White Paper, engaged with a wide range of stakeholders across industry, academia, regulators and civil society. The feedback received will be factored in the Department’s response to the consultation and inform the development of the regulatory framework.
We are adopting this same spirit with regards to our international policy and the Summit, for which preparations are still ongoing. We look forward to sharing more information in due course.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has taken steps to help ensure that left-hand drive HGV vehicles are driven safely in the UK.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) complete robust roadside inspections of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) and passenger carrying vehicles (PCV) stopped at the roadside to ensure they meet the standards required to operate on Britain’s roads. The DVSA complete checks on the drivers of those vehicles to ensure they meet the driver licensing and driver certificate of professional competence (CPC) requirements. The DVSA also complete checks to ensure drivers comply with tachograph rules and requirements to ensure they are operated safely. There is no distinction made between left-hand and right-hand vehicles; the same standards apply across all vehicles.
Individual police forces are responsible for dealing with driving offences.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many officials have been allocated to work on the Global Summit for AI Safety; and when she plans that the draft agenda for the Summit will be published.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety this autumn, bringing together countries to agree measures needed to mitigate the most significant AI risks. Officials across the Government are working to deliver the Summit, including teams in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as well as the UK’s diplomatic network, and work continues on the exact scope and outcomes. We look forward to updating the House further as our preparations for the Summit continue.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to prevent patient data from being accessed by website trackers on (a) the NHS North Bristol Trust and (b) other NHS England websites.
Answered by Will Quince
Each NHS organisation is responsible for its website and for ensuring that any tracking technology used on its site meets strict legal requirements. As soon as NHS Bristol Trust became aware of this issue they engaged with the Information Commissioner’s Office and took immediate steps to protect the privacy of their website users, removing Meta Pixel from their website and strengthening the cookies consent process.
In June 2023, NHS England published guidance for all NHS organisations on website activity trackers and how to ensure they are used appropriately, including how to audit the tracking and profiling which takes place on their website. The guidance also includes links to more detailed guidance provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Whilst NHS England does use cookies and similar technologies on its website, those technologies are not used to share patient data held by NHS England.