Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to help ensure that charity collection bags posted through letterboxes are biodegradable.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In April 2021 we published our response to the call for evidence on the need for standards for bio-based, biodegradable and compostable plastics. The Government has no plans to make charity collection bags biodegradable. Government measures focus on extracting maximum value from plastic materials by making sure we keep it in circulation for longer, moving away from a take, make, throw model and shifting towards a circular economy.
The Government wants to see the recycling of plastic film (including bread bags and plastic carrier bags) increased and plastic films will be included in the plastic recyclable waste stream required to be collected by local authorities from every household in England by March 2027.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate his Department made of the number and proportion of vehicles that were untaxed in the last two years.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) operates a comprehensive package of measures to tackle unlicensed vehicles. These range from reminder letters, penalties and court prosecutions through to the use of automatic number plate recognition cameras, wheelclamping and the removal of unlicensed vehicles. The DVLA is currently running a publicity campaign to highlight the consequences of not licensing vehicles. The DVLA also runs adverts on social media, mobile gaming, search engines, poster sites, and radio.
The DVLA collects more than £7 billion in vehicle excise duty each year on behalf of HM Treasury. Every two years, a roadside survey is carried out to estimate the number of unlicensed vehicles on the roads. The last survey, carried out in June 2021, showed that 98.1 per cent of vehicles were correctly licensed.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of untaxed vehicles.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) operates a comprehensive package of measures to tackle unlicensed vehicles. These range from reminder letters, penalties and court prosecutions through to the use of automatic number plate recognition cameras, wheelclamping and the removal of unlicensed vehicles. The DVLA is currently running a publicity campaign to highlight the consequences of not licensing vehicles. The DVLA also runs adverts on social media, mobile gaming, search engines, poster sites, and radio.
The DVLA collects more than £7 billion in vehicle excise duty each year on behalf of HM Treasury. Every two years, a roadside survey is carried out to estimate the number of unlicensed vehicles on the roads. The last survey, carried out in June 2021, showed that 98.1 per cent of vehicles were correctly licensed.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
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 ensure the availability of NHS dentists in Enfield Southgate constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England will transfer to integrated care boards (ICBs) from April 2023. ICBs will be responsible for meeting the needs of their local population of all ages, working with patient groups. NHS England has made available to commissioners an Assurance Framework to provide assurances on commissioning.
In circumstances where a patient is unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through a National Health Service dental practice, they are advised to contact NHS 111 for assistance.
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which sets out how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to NHS dental care whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices. These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place in 2023.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department's Human Rights and Democracy report 2021, for what reason his Department has not continued with the practice of annual reporting of the number of allegations of torture by foreign authorities made by British citizens to his Department.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO remains committed to transparency in line with the Ministerial Code and publishes monthly and annual consolidated consular management data on GOV.UK. Published data includes the number of cases where assistance has been provided to British nationals around the world, including the number of cases where British nationals report allegations of torture and mistreatment overseas. We will also reconsider including information on the number of open allegations of torture and mistreatment made to consular officials by British nationals overseas in future Human Rights and Democracy Reports.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how the annual data on the number of allegations of torture by foreign authorities made by British citizens to his Department will be reported to Parliament.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO remains committed to transparency in line with the Ministerial Code and publishes monthly and annual consolidated consular management data on GOV.UK. Published data includes the number of cases where assistance has been provided to British nationals around the world, including the number of cases where British nationals report allegations of torture and mistreatment overseas. We will also reconsider including information on the number of open allegations of torture and mistreatment made to consular officials by British nationals overseas in future Human Rights and Democracy Reports.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many of the open torture cases reviewed in the 2022 review related to the abuse of British citizens in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In 2022, as part of the FCDO's internal annual review of torture and mistreatment cases reported to consular staff by British nationals overseas, the FCDO reviewed all 131 torture and mistreatment cases that were open on 31 December 2021. 32 of these were from the Middle East region.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many cases were reviewed as part of his Department's annual review of open torture cases in 2022.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In 2022, as part of the FCDO's internal annual review of torture and mistreatment cases reported to consular staff by British nationals overseas, the FCDO reviewed all 131 torture and mistreatment cases that were open on 31 December 2021. 32 of these were from the Middle East region.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children in care who go missing are (a) found and (b) kept safe.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department takes the matter of any child going missing very seriously, and statutory guidance is in place which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-who-run-away-or-go-missing-from-home-or-care.
This guidance outlines the responsibilities of local authorities working with partners, to prevent children going missing and to gather and share information and intelligence to reduce this risk. The guidance applies to all children going missing, whether this is from the family home or from care.
The guidance requires that every children's home has clear procedures to prevent children from going missing. The guidance also ensures there are detailed interviews when a child has returned from being missing.
The department is firmly committed to ensuring that when care is the best choice for a child, the care system provides stable, loving homes close to children’s communities. The government is investing £259 million in capital funding to provide high quality homes for some of our most vulnerable young people, to ensure that they can be closer to families, schools, and health services.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the criteria are for selecting members of the NHS pay awards body; and what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the independence of that body.
Answered by Will Quince
Members of the NHS Pay Review Body are appointed following an open recruitment process which is run in accordance with the Governance Code on Public appointments and is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Job description and person specifications setting out the essential criteria for the role vary slightly depending on the member vacancy advertised. The Office of Manpower Economics provides an independent secretariat to the pay review bodies separately from the Department.