Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to introduce smoking wardens to enforce the generational ban on tobacco products.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service.
This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old or younger this year will never be legally sold tobacco products.
The Government is providing an additional £30 million a year for enforcement agencies such as trading standards, Border Force and HM Revenue and Customs to implement and enforce the law. The Smokefree generation consultation also proposes to introduce new powers for local authorities to issue on-the-spot fines, otherwise known as fixed penalty notices.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions his Department has had with Bradford Council on a commencement date for construction of the Shipley eastern relief road.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Following the Prime Minister’s Network North announcement, my officials have been in contact with Council officers to resume the review of the Strategic Outline Case (SOC) for the scheme, the first stage of business case development, in order that a decision can be made on whether the scheme can progress to the next stage.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions the provisions in the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 allowing a constable to seize any tobacco or cigarette papers in the possession of any person apparently under the age of sixteen years whom they find smoking in any street or public place have been used in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on use of police powers, as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical bulletin, available here: Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
However, data is not collected on the seizure of tobacco or cigarette papers under the Children and Young Person Act 1933.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what systems the Gambling Commission has in place to (a) monitor, (b) close down and (c) take other action against illegal gambling sites.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
As set out in the response to WPQ 2835, the best available estimates suggest the black market accounts for less than 2.5% of bets in this country. The Gambling Commission takes a risk-based approach to the illegal provision of gambling facilities. The 2021 fees uplift increased investment in how the Commission monitors and tackles the black market. It operates on a system of escalating interventions where it identifies unlicensed operators interacting with British customers, from initial cease and desist letters up to more robust disruption. This includes working with internet search and service providers to delist illegal operators and restrict access, working with payment providers and financial institutions to cut illegal operators off from payments, and working with software providers to prevent access to popular products and games.
As we committed to in the white paper, we are also legislating through the Criminal Justice Bill to give stronger powers to the Gambling Commission to take down criminal gambling websites, and plan to reform the Commission's fee structure to give it greater flexibility to respond to emerging risks, such as black market gambling.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the potential revenue lost from illegal gambling.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. The tax gap statistics are published annually and are available at: Measuring tax gaps - Measuring tax gaps 2023 edition: tax gap estimates for 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
HMRC does not separately estimate a betting and gaming duty tax gap; it forms part of the ‘other excise duties’ tax gap, namely betting and gaming, cider and perry, spirits-based ready-to-drink beverages and wine duties gaps.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the number of online illegal gambling sites accessible from the UK.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
There are inherent difficulties in accurately estimating the scale of the unlicensed gambling market in this country. We are not aware of any robust estimates for precisely how many unlicensed sites are accessible from the UK, and this is further complicated by the high churn in black market operations.
However, the Government is aware of a number of studies including from the industry which suggests that the black market accounts for less than 2.5% of bets. Data from the Gambling Commission also suggests that the scale of the black market has remained low and stable, with little variation in the number of complaints it has received about illegal gambling websites.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Shipley to her predecessor, dated 27 September 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord Markham) replied to the hon. Member on 20 November 2023.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2023 to Question 197731 on Schools: Redundancy Pay, if she will take steps to ensure that all severance payments over £50,000 for school staff are approved by her Department or the Treasury.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The responsibilities for academy trusts on severance pay and exit packages are set out in the Academy Trust Handbook (ATH), which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academy-trust-handbook. Where the academy trust is considering a staff severance payment, including a non-statutory/non-contractual element (also referred to as a special severance payment) of £50,000 or more, the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) prior approval must be obtained before making any offer to staff. The ESFA will refer such transactions to HM Treasury. Additionally, in accordance with HM Treasury’s Guidance on Public Sector Exit Payments, academy trusts must obtain prior ESFA approval before making a non-statutory/non-contractual staff severance payment where: an exit package, which includes a non-statutory/non-contractual severance payment, is at, or above, £100,000; and/or the employee earns over £150,000. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-sector-exit-payments-guidance-on-special-severance-payments.
The ATH is also clear that staff severance payments should not be made where they could be seen as a reward for failure, such as gross misconduct or poor performance.
The responsibility for maintained schools’ severance and exit payments sits with the school and the Local Authority.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the levels of productivity in the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
The most recent indicator of National Health Service productivity comes from the January to March 2023 Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) quarterly total public sector productivity measure, which is available at the following link:
This measure doesn’t specifically identify health productivity but as health is around 40% of the measure, it is an indication of health productivity. The latest figures for January to March 2023 showed public service productivity was 11.6% above the average 2020/21 level suggesting NHS productivity is recovering.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the level of capacity in the independent health sector which can be used to help reduce waiting times in the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
The Elective Recovery Taskforce heard that service planning in the independent sector, including to help reduce waiting times, is best informed by close working relationships with local systems and confidence in patient flows. To better inform planning and capacity utilisation in the independent sector, we are working with NHS England to enhance the patient choice offer. At the point of referral, patients will be actively offered a list of providers, including local independent sector providers, which are clinically appropriate for their condition.
From October 2023, all patients waiting over 40 weeks who have not had a first outpatient appointment booked, or where a decision to treat a patient has been made but the patient does not have a date for their treatment, will be able to initiate a request to transfer to another provider via the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System. This will include independent sector providers where appropriate.
To reduce waiting times for diagnostic tests, NHS England recently announced 13 Community Diagnostic Centres run by the independent sector, creating capacity, and enabling treatments to be started sooner.