Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18801 on European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill, whether he received legal advice on that Bill.
Answered by Fleur Anderson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to the Secretary of State’s reply of 17 December 2024 to Question 18801.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to review the regulations surrounding the sale of potent medications such as (a) finasteride, (b) dutasteride, and (c) selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors via telehealth companies, in the context of the correlation between these medications and long-term health conditions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to review the legal avenues of online prescribing and the dispensing of prescription-only medications.
Decisions about what medicines to prescribe are made by the doctor or healthcare professional responsible for that part of the patient’s care, and prescribers are accountable for their prescribing decisions, irrespective of the forum in which these decisions are made.
Clinicians are expected to work with patients to make decisions about their care and treatment as part of shared decision making, including discussing risks, benefits, and possible consequences of different options, in line with professional guidelines laid down by the General Medical Council, which are available at the following link:
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure greater oversight of UK-based multinational corporations.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As set out in the King’s Speech, the Government will publish a draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill to strengthen audit and corporate governance oversight of corporations including UK-based multinationals. The draft Bill will uphold standards and independent scrutiny of companies’ reporting and governance, supporting investment and economic security.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will hold discussions with Ofcom on the adequacy of (a) the competitiveness of pricing, (b) customer retention practices and (c) service standards in the (i) mobile and (ii) television service sector.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I have held regular meetings with Ofcom, both on their own and with others, when these and many other issues have been discussed.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the two-child limit on recent trends in the level of child poverty; and whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of ending the policy via the child poverty strategy.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We published the framework ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy’ on 23 October and will explore all available levers to deliver an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, as part of a 10-year strategy for lasting change.
The Child Poverty Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, which includes considering social security reforms, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
The Child Poverty Taskforce continues its urgent work to publish the Strategy in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he received legal advice on the European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
I refer the Honourable Member to the reply I provided to the question he previously tabled on this subject and published on 17 December 2024 (UIN 18801).
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help improve road safety for cyclists; and what financial support she has provided for programmes delivered by The Bikeability Trust since July 2024.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In 2022, Active Travel England was established as an executive agency to the Department for Transport, with the strategic aim of enabling people to walk, wheel and cycle and protecting them when they do by reducing road danger through the creation of safe infrastructure. The agency has been supporting the development of designs and the assessment of design quality through the use of recently published active travel design assistance and scheme review tools. Officials use these tools for ongoing design assurance and to identify critical safety issues that are associated with an increased risk of collisions for people walking, wheeling, or cycling, and work with local authorities to remove or mitigate them.
To further improve road safety for cyclists, we are investing up to £30 million this year to scale up Bikeability training to over 500,000 more children, and will announce further funding for Bikeability training in the coming months.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to increase the use of nature-based solutions to tackle climate change.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has a vital role to play to ensure nature-based solutions are a core part of tackling climate change and averting its impacts. Nature-based solutions deliver multiple benefits for climate, biodiversity and people, and can therefore play a critical role in helping deliver the Government's priorities, such as ensuring nature recovery. Defra’s Secretary of State has made nature recovery one of the five top priorities for the Department.
This Government is committed to achieving its tree planting targets and is committed to the legal target to plant 16.5% tree cover by 2050. We will also restore hundreds of thousands of hectares of peatland and we are developing delivery mechanisms for peatland restoration.
Defra has secured a farm support budget of £2.4 billion for the next financial year. This means we can maintain the momentum of our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which will rise to the highest funding levels ever by 2025/26. Through this investment, we are helping to secure a healthy and resilient future for English farming and restore our natural landscapes for generations to come whilst continuing to support farmers and landowners in their low-carbon, nature friendly practices.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment the Department has made of the adequacy of public toilet provision; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a public toilet commissioner to ensure (a) consistent standards and (b) accessibility for all communities.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are best placed to understand local priorities, including on the important issue of provision of public toilets whether they are operated by local councils directly or through community schemes.
As set out in the Local government finance policy statement 2025 to 2026 published on 28 November, we are taking action to address the significant challenges councils face, including through the first multi-year funding settlement for local government in 10 years and reducing the number of funding pots so that councils have more certainty and flexibility to judge local priorities, to meet the needs of local people, and to decide how best to deliver on our national priorities.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
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 (a) improve support, (b) ensure equitable access to specialist services and (c) promote workplace adjustments for people living with migraine; and what plans he has to work with local health boards to (i) review the level of need for migraine-specific services and (ii) ensure appropriate provision.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
As health is a devolved matter, no plans have been made to work with local health boards to review the level of need for migraine-specific services and ensure appropriate provision. In England, NHS England is responsible for allocating funding to integrated care boards (ICBs), which are, in turn, responsible for commissioning specialist migraine services that meet the needs of their populations, subject to local prioritisation and funding.
The process of commissioning services should take into account best practice guidance, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on the diagnosis and management of headaches in over 12-year-olds, which was updated in December 2021. The NICE guideline provides recommendations on principles of care for people with migraines, which may include a multidisciplinary approach to care, based on clinical need, and involving access to a range of health professionals, including specialist neurology nurses, neurologists, and pain management specialists. Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, the Government expects the healthcare system to take them fully into account when designing services.
Occupational health as advisory support has a broad remit. It plays an important role in supporting employers to maintain and promote employee health and wellbeing through assessments of fitness for work, advice about reasonable adjustments, work ability or return to work plans, and signposting to treatment for specific conditions such as migraines.