Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the number of Official Veterinarians needed to maintain current export certification volumes through to the point at which dynamic alignment with the EU-UK SPS agreement takes effect.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates. The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the timetable is for implementing dynamic alignment with the EU-UK SPS agreement; and what assessment has been made of whether current certification capacity can be sustained throughout that timetable.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates. The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has in place should Official Veterinarian capacity decline before certification requirements arising from current export arrangements are removed.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates. The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to UK exporters of disruption to certification capacity during the period before dynamic alignment with the EU-UK SPS agreement takes effect.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates. The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the number of Official Veterinarians currently undertaking export certification on a full-time basis.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is currently negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU. These negotiations are at an advanced stage and expected to remove the requirement for Export Health Certificates. The Agreement will have implications for Official Veterinarians undertaking export certification, including the demand for Export Health Certificate (EHC) services. Defra are working with the veterinary profession and wider industry stakeholders to monitor this capability and ensure an effective and well-managed transition.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what fire intensity multiplier her Department uses when assessing the impact that higher fuel loads of vegetation will have on the ferocity of wildfires.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
MHCLG is the lead department for wildfire. Defra works closely with them on wildfire preparedness and incident response. In England and Wales, the Met Office’s Fire Severity Index is used to evaluate how severe a wildfire could become if one were to ignite under current weather patterns. Defra is undertaking a range of research projects to review new and existing evidence on wildfire and best practice approaches to building environmental resilience and manage this natural hazard.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help Syria develop local governance and security structures.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Rt Honourable Member to the answer provided by the former Minister for the Middle East on 4 June in response to Question 5915.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact on the a) effectiveness and b) future of the Common Travel Area between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland of ferry operators requiring passengers travelling between both countries to hold valid passports.
Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
No change has been made to the Government’s operation of the Common Travel Area (CTA) arrangement. The CTA continues to afford British and Irish citizens the ability to move freely and reside in either jurisdiction and enjoy associated rights and privileges, including the right to work, study, etc.
We are committed to maintaining the CTA and preventing abuse of it.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2026 to Question 12794, how the commitment made in the Written Statement of 2 June 2026 to maintain and regularly update the UK National Screening Committee's prostate cancer screening model as new evidence becomes available will operate in practice; and when the Committee expects to assess the recently published evidence on the Stockholm3 test.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Despite some recent misinformed media coverage, I can confirm to the Hon. Members that there has been no change to the policy in respect of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing for men aged over 50 years old. Any such man who is concerned about prostate cancer, regardless of whether they have symptoms, remains free to make an appointment with their general practitioner, raise their concerns, and ask for a PSA test, exactly as they have done in the past. No impact assessment was therefore made when the guidance in this area was consolidated and updated in June, as there was no change in policy to assess.
The two main studies from the Cochrane review were included in the UK National Screening Committee modelling when they made their most recent recommendation regarding prostate cancer screening, and it should be noted that the Cochrane review came to the same statistical conclusions as the UK National Screening Committee regarding ‘mortality reduction", sometimes called lives saved, from PSA testing and subsequent treatment.
With regard to the next review of prostate cancer screening, I refer the Hon. Members to the article published by the UK National Screening Committee on 11 August 2026, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2026 to Question 12794, what timetable the UK National Screening Committee is working to for (a) reviewing the recently published evidence on the Stockholm3 test, (b) incorporating that evidence into its prostate cancer screening model, and (c) assessing the implications of that evidence for screening policy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Despite some recent misinformed media coverage, I can confirm to the Hon. Members that there has been no change to the policy in respect of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing for men aged over 50 years old. Any such man who is concerned about prostate cancer, regardless of whether they have symptoms, remains free to make an appointment with their general practitioner, raise their concerns, and ask for a PSA test, exactly as they have done in the past. No impact assessment was therefore made when the guidance in this area was consolidated and updated in June, as there was no change in policy to assess.
The two main studies from the Cochrane review were included in the UK National Screening Committee modelling when they made their most recent recommendation regarding prostate cancer screening, and it should be noted that the Cochrane review came to the same statistical conclusions as the UK National Screening Committee regarding ‘mortality reduction", sometimes called lives saved, from PSA testing and subsequent treatment.
With regard to the next review of prostate cancer screening, I refer the Hon. Members to the article published by the UK National Screening Committee on 11 August 2026, which is available at the following link: