Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which modifiable risk factors the Health Promotion Taskforce will focus on in the development of the forthcoming strategy for dementia in England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Department will set out our future plans on dementia for England later this year. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is contributing to the development of the new strategy, which will include a focus on prevention and risk reduction. The concept of brain health in encouraging people to reduce their dementia risk is also being explored. Officials are engaging with a range of stakeholders on the new strategy including members of the Dementia Programme Board and other Government departments.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what role the Health Promotion Taskforce will have in the development of the forthcoming strategy for dementia in England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Department will set out our future plans on dementia for England later this year. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is contributing to the development of the new strategy, which will include a focus on prevention and risk reduction. The concept of brain health in encouraging people to reduce their dementia risk is also being explored. Officials are engaging with a range of stakeholders on the new strategy including members of the Dementia Programme Board and other Government departments.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress his Department has made on mandating disability awareness training for all private hire vehicle drivers.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Effective disability awareness training can help ensure that taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers have the knowledge, skills and confidence to provide passengers with appropriate assistance, so that they can travel independently and with confidence.
The Department wants every local licensing authority to require taxi and PHV drivers to complete this training and will make this clear in updated best practice guidance, due to be published for consultation later in the year.
The Government also remains committed to introducing mandatory disability awareness training for taxi and PHV drivers through new National Minimum Standards for licensing authorities when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department plans to support UK participation in any international observation mission for the Colombian presidential elections in 2022.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is committed to building a Network of Liberty that will put us at the heart of economic, diplomatic and security partnerships. Promoting democratic values is a key part of this, and election observation allows us to support democracies and strengthen democratic electoral processes around the globe.
We are considering our approach for the Colombian Presidential elections, and will continue to support ongoing work by existing international election observation organisations, such as the Mission for Electoral Observation (MOE) in Colombia. We are clear that independent election monitoring is vital for credible and inclusive elections.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that bonuses paid to senior water company management are aligned with their company’s requirements to meet environmental objectives.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Board Leadership, Transparency and Governance principles issued by Ofwat set out expectations on transparency of executive pay (see link here: Board leadership, transparency and governance – Ofwat). Water companies are now required by their licence conditions to meet the objectives of the principles, and to demonstrate the link between their performance and performance-pay for executive teams.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England data from March 2020 to September 2021 which shows that urgent suspected urology cancer referrals were at 83.5 per cent of the pre-covid-19 outbreak baseline, what steps his Department is taking to (a) raise awareness of prostate cancer amongst higher risk men and (b) help ensure that those missing from the treatment pathway are identified before their cancer has progressed to be non-curable.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The ‘Help us help you’ campaign has raised awareness of abdominal and urological symptoms and urged people to consult their general practitioner (GP). A new phase of campaign is planned for early 2022 to address some of the barriers which prevent people coming forward. The National Health Service is working with Prostate Cancer UK to raise awareness of prostate cancer risk and encourage men to use Prostate Cancer UK’s risk checker.
Primary Care Networks are working with GP practices to implement the 2021/22 Early Cancer Diagnosis Directed Enhanced Service Specification, to optimise suspected cancer referral practice, support earlier diagnosis of cancer, and identify people before their cancer has progressed to non-curable. The NHS is focusing on reducing the number of people waiting over 62 days on cancer pathways, particularly rescheduling diagnostic procedures or treatments for those whose care was delayed by the pandemic. An additional £1 billion has been made available to the NHS in 2021/22 to support the recovery of elective activity and cancer services.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to South Cambridgeshire District Council not signing off its 2018-19 accounts and not publishing audited accounts for 2019-20 and 2020-21, what steps he is taking to help ensure that local councils are required to resource and prioritise the production of annual accounts within statutory deadlines.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
It is vital that local authorities continue to fulfil their responsibilities in the timely completion of audits to maintain transparency and assurance of local authority accounts.
It is for local authorities to do all they can to clear the backlog of delayed audits. In the meantime, the Department continues to prioritise measures to improve timeliness of completed audits, and have taken several steps to improve the situation, including extending the publication deadline for 2019/20 accounts from July to November to ease pressures on councils and audit firms as a result of COVID19. We are also making available an additional £15 million in 2021/22 to help affected bodies meet the growing cost pressures in the audit market and will consider in due course funding arrangements for future years. In October 2021, we laid regulations to allow for greater flexibility around fee-setting and fee variations.
In its capacity as interim system leader for local audit, the Department recently wrote to s151 officers of local authorities to stress the need for local authorities to prioritise clearing outstanding audits and the timely completion of draft accounts going forward in preparation for external audit.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made in response to the recommendations of the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government responded to the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech on 26 April 2021, setting out actions alongside regulators to ensure the UK remains at the global cutting edge of technology and innovation in financial services.
These actions include improved regulatory support for new and growing fintechs; initiatives to supercharge commercial support for UK fintechs seeking to expand internationally; and a new visa ‘scale up’ stream to attract global talent and boost the fintech workforce.
The Government’s full response is available at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-04-26/hcws938.
On 29 October the Government announced £5 million of seed funding for a new Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) as part for Spending Review 2021. CFIT was a central recommendation of the Kalifa Review, and it will focus on creating the right conditions for firms to scale, encouraging the mainstream adoption of fintech solutions, and fostering collaboration between growing regional fintech hubs.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to close Bassingbourn Barracks.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Following the update to the House by the Secretary of State for Defence on 25 November, I am pleased to confirm that there are no plans to close Bassingbourn Barracks, and the Mission Training and Mobilisation Centre (MTMC) will continue to be based there.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to investigate the potential (a) acceptance of and (b) need for regulation on cultured meat as a food source.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In 2019, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned a study on consumer views towards emerging technologies including cultured meat. The FSA also plans further work on consumer perceptions of cultured meat, with the findings due in early 2022. Cultured meats would require pre-market authorisation as they are likely to be novel foods and any applications would need to be assessed for safety under the process required by the Novel Food Regulations 2015/2283. This authorisation process will take consumer views into account in any recommendations to the Government.