Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with Cancer Research UK on the 10-Year Cancer Plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and officials within the Department have regularly met with representatives of Cancer Research UK and other charities, with the previously announced 10-Year Cancer Plan being discussed on a number of occasions.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support the Government is providing to UK-based egg producers.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK egg industry operates in an open market and the value of egg commodities, including the farm gate egg price, is established by those in the supply chain including farmers, processors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers.
Recognising the challenges that the agricultural industry, including the egg sector, is currently facing due to the rise of input costs as a result of the war in Ukraine, the Government has put in place a number of measures to support supply chains. These include cuts to VAT and fuel duty and support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. Defra has also recently announced improvements to the Avian Influenza compensation scheme and granted a concession to the rules for the labelling of free range eggs from hens that have been housed longer than the 16-week period for which an automatic derogation applies.
I also hosted an egg industry roundtable on 6 December 2022. This involved representatives from across the UK egg supply chain. The roundtable focused on the various challenges that the sector is currently facing. The meeting was productive and conducted in a constructive manner with a clear willingness from all parties to address issues affecting the supply chain.
Defra continues to monitor the egg market and to work closely with the industry.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the environmental impact of the textiles industry, which is why we identified textiles as a priority waste stream in our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy for England
In 2021 Defra funded WRAP's Textiles 2030 programme, a voluntary business initiative with ambitious carbon and water targets. Signatories represent over 62% of clothing put on the UK market
We are considering the merits of an EPR scheme within a policy framework while we assess options to reduce waste and the environmental impact of textiles.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) affray, (b) wounding, (c) actual bodily harm and (d) possession of an offensive weapon under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government keeps the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme under consideration and understands that a case may be made for additional offences to be included within the scheme. We will listen to any representations made to this effect.
As a general rule, it is right that there is finality to sentencing. That is why Parliament intended for this to be an exceptional power reserved for the most serious cases, including all indictable-only offences, and certain triable either-way offences such as some terrorism offences and child sex offences.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of taking steps to ensure social housing providers adopt priority registers that ensure the most vulnerable people are prioritised when raising housing concerns.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Local authorities have the freedom to tailor their allocation priorities to meet the needs of their local communities, including the most vulnerable people. In framing their social housing allocation scheme, they must ensure that reasonable preference (priority) is given to people who are homeless, in overcrowded housing or who need to move for medical or welfare reasons. This is to ensure that the priority for social housing goes to those who need it most.
Furthermore, as outlined in separate allocations guidance, local authorities have the power to frame their allocation scheme to give additional preference to particular descriptions of people who fall within the statutory reasonable preference categories and have urgent housing needs.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support research on a cure for pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In the last five years, the NIHR has funded 14 projects into pulmonary fibrosis with an award value of £12.7 million and supported the delivery of more than 300 studies via its infrastructure, including research on potential treatments.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the affordability of court transcription services.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The MoJ is required, under the public procurement regulations 2015, to publicly compete all opportunities for contract. This process helps the MoJ drive value for money through competition for these contracts from a healthy and established transcription industry. Our internal governance process help ensure that value for money is a key factor in how we procure and select our suppliers. We are confident that the rates being currently charged are in line with wider market rates.
The services are currently being reprocured due to existing contracts coming to expiry.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using automatic speech recognition technology for courtroom transcriptions.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Transcription services for MoJ are currently being re-procured and as part of the re-procurement strategy, MoJ did consider whether full automation would be an option.
The MoJ recognises that there are potential merits to using automated technology for courtroom transcriptions, including a potential reduction in the time it takes to produce a transcription and comparative value for money.
However, the first consideration is that transcriptions must achieve very high levels of accuracy (99.5%) to ensure the justice system can operate fairly and effectively.
The assessment by MoJ has concluded that even software with learning capability, cannot yet reliably meet the accuracy requirements for the service without human intervention.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) improve access for and (b) prevent refusals of services by businesses to people who use guide dogs.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
No one should be refused access to businesses or services because they use a guide or other assistance dog.
Under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), businesses and public bodies that provide goods and services to the public must not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people, including those with assistance dogs. The Act places a duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve access to premises, buildings and services. This could include allowing the use of assistance dogs so that disabled customers have the same access to goods and services and are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers. Taxi and private hire drivers have a specific duty under the Act to carry guide dogs and assistance dogs at no extra cost to the passenger.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published guidance for all businesses, including service providers, on this subject. The guidance explains that assistance dogs should be treated as auxiliary aids and not as pets. The guidance is available at: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/assistance-dogs-a-guide-for-all-businesses.pdf and makes clear that businesses and service providers should allow assistance dogs access to buildings where dogs would normally not be permitted whenever this is reasonable.
Anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against in the services offered to them - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to resolve the issue. Before doing so, they might first find it useful to contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) which provides free bespoke advice and in-depth support to individuals with discrimination concerns via their website - http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com, or by telephone on 0808 800 0082 or by text phone on 0808 800 0084.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of commissioning research into the impacts of plastic on human health.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. The Department has commissioned research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) on microplastic toxicity in humans through its Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health with Imperial College London and the UK Health Security Agency. This will be reported in peer reviewed academic journals in due course.