Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
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 impact of seasonality in the plant and tree growing industry on (a) testing and (b) assuring the quality of peat-free growing media.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Government recognises that some sectors within the horticulture industry are encountering challenges in transitioning to peat-free growing media. We have consulted and collected evidence to improve our understanding of these challenges, including seasonality, asking for views about potential exemptions to support the transition. That is why we intend to provide time limited exemptions for those parts of the sector for whom the transition is particularly difficult.
Government also recognises that the quality of peat free growing mixes can be variable. We are in discussions with industry representatives to explore opportunities for developing a minimum standard that will support the industry in making informed buying choices. The prospect of regulation will provide the certainty to the industry to continue this work and realise the associated market opportunities.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to ensure that accommodation sites for asylum seekers will be distributed equally across the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The enduring solution to this challenge is to stop the illegal, dangerous and unnecessary small boat crossings that are overwhelming our asylum system. Not only is every crossing attempt a potential tragedy, as we have seen far too often, but the people arriving via these small boats have travelled through, and have left, safe countries with fully functioning asylum systems to reach the UK.
The former Minister for safe and Legal Routes announced a move to full dispersal on 13 April 2022. The new system of full dispersal accommodation allows the Home Office to move from using hotels to less expensive and more suitable dispersed accommodation. Under full dispersal plans, all Local Authorities in England, Scotland and Wales are considered a dispersal area and are required to to take part in asylum dispersal. This will lead to a more equitable distribution of asylum seekers across the UK and reduce pressures on the minority of Local Authorities which previously participated.
To support full dispersal, delivery plans have been developed in partnership with local government across all UK regions. Plans were designed to ensure a more equitable spread of dispersed accommodation across the UK. Regional Governance Boards will monitor performance against plans.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve the Skilled Worker visa system.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
By embracing technology, we are delivering a streamlined, simplified and modern visa system.
The system is working well, the Skilled Worker route is attracting the brightest and best, making a positive contribution to our economy.
We have simplified the employer sponsorship process and by 2025 will have a fully digital end-to-end application system providing greater efficiency for our customers.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of his Department developing a cross-departmental child rights strategy to help support its humanitarian aid response for children.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK Government is committed to the promotion, protection and realisation of children's rights as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including when crises hit.
Children are a central part of FCDO's work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, including through access to quality education and health care, or through protecting them from violence. Consideration of children's rights is integrated across recent strategies, including the recently published Preventing Sexual Violence in ConflictInitiativeStrategy which commits the UK to enhancing support available to survivors and children born of sexual violence in conflict, and a new Position Paper on Addressing the Climate Crises through Girls' Education which recognises that girls can be agents of change in their communities.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the number and proportion of buses outside Greater London that are fitted with the necessary equipment for audio-visual next stop and final destination announcements.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The percentage of buses, in England outside London, using the Audio Visual information system, to provide route/direction, next stop and diversion information to passengers was 15% in 2020/21.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that local Trading Standards are (a) investigating e-liquid capacity in notified e-cigarette devices and (b) removing from the market any products above the 2ml e-liquid volume limit.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Local enforcement agencies are responsible for ensuring that e-cigarettes, vapes, comply with The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 in the United Kingdom. The Department continues to work with enforcement agencies to ensure these regulations are enforced in England, including related to restrictions on e-liquid capacity and volume.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the research by Coadec entitled How the Online Safety Bill could change liability rules, and what this means, published in February 2022, and its findings on the comparative average cost of compliance with the Online Safety Bill for large and small businesses.
Answered by Paul Scully
Online intermediaries are protected from liability for illegal content they host, unless it is flagged and not removed. These protections support digital innovation in the UK.
Recognising that technology is fundamental to how companies protect users, the Online Safety Bill will empower Ofcom to be able to require technology companies to use automated technology that identifies and tackles illegal content and protects children.
The regulatory framework set out in the Online Safety Bill is designed to ensure that regulatory expectations on services are reasonable and proportionate to the severity of the potential harm posed and the resources available to the service.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that age restrictions implemented by the Online Safety Bill will not reduce online access to (a) sexual health and (b) LGBT+ educational resources.
Answered by Paul Scully
Under the child safety duties in the Bill, services which are likely to be accessed by children will only be required to protect children from content and activity that meets the Bill’s definition of content that is harmful to children. This is content of a kind which presents a material risk of significant harm to an appreciable number of children in the UK. This would not include content that is designed to educate and inform children, such as content on sexual health and LGBT+ educational resources.
In addition, content will only meet the definition of pornographic content in the Bill if it is produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal. Part 5 of the Bill, which imposes restrictions for children in relation to pornographic content published or displayed by online providers, will not require providers to block children’s access to content where it is reasonable to assume that the content was created principally for educational reasons.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Joint Cybersecurity Advisory Alert AA22-257A, published on 14 September 2022 which states that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have attempted cyber attacks on UK critical national infrastructure in 2022.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
We do not comment on individual cyber incidents. The government’s approach to tackling cyber threats is set out in the National Cyber Strategy (2022), including detecting, disrupting and deterring state, criminal and other malicious cyber actors and activities against the UK. The strategy also sets out our ambition for improvements in the cyber resilience of critical national infrastructure, which includes being more prepared to respond to and recover from incidents, better incident planning and regular exercising.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Departments policy paper entitled Levelling Up the United Kingdom published on 2 February 2022, when he plans to launch the Task Force on Older People's Housing.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Ensuring older people have access to the right homes that suit their needs can help them to live independently for longer and feel more connected to their communities. Our Government is committed to further improving the diversity of housing options available to older people and boosting the supply of specialist elderly accommodation, including housing with care.
The taskforce on older people's housing, which we announced in the Levelling Up White Paper will explore how we can improve the choice of and access to housing options for older people
Arrangements for the taskforce are still ongoing and further details will be released in due course.
We continue to work in partnership with DHSC colleagues and with housing, health and social care stakeholders to look at how we can further support the growth of a thriving older people's housing sector.