Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the devolved administrations on future co-operation over shared environmental resources with neighbouring countries after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
My Department has worked collaboratively with the Devolved Administrations to establish the Inter-Ministerial Group (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (IMG(EFRA)), which meets up to 10 times a year. My officials and I also have regular discussions with Devolved Administrations on a variety of topics, including on future co-operation over shared environmental resources with neighbouring countries, for example as part of the mapping of current North-South cooperation between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that cataract removal surgery is available to everyone who would benefit from it.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), with their clinical expertise, are responsible for commissioning high-quality care to meet the needs of their populations. CCGs are required to carefully consider the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines in making commissioning decisions. These are available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng77
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government has ruled out the inclusion of the British Overseas Territories in plans to replace environment funding from the Financial Instrument for the Environment, LIFE, after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Funding for environment projects after the UK leaves the EU will be assessed as part of the forthcoming Spending Review. As announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement package on 13 March this year, the Government has published a call for evidence which invites ideas on how the British Overseas Territories’ biodiversity can be safeguarded: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/safeguarding-the-environment-in-british-overseas-territories-call-for-evidence/call-for-evidence-document.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress HMRC has made on its moving its inland pre-clearance operations to new purpose-equipped sites at Hayes and Milton Keynes; and what contingency measures HMRC has implemented to mitigate delays as a result of that move.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
HMRC’s new Inland Pre-Clearance sites are now operational. The move resulted in a temporary backlog of consignments for examination. HMRC has triaged consignments using a principled risk-based approach, releasing some consignments without prejudice to any further compliance action, and has also examined other consignments at the port. HMRC is now moving remaining containers from the ports for examination.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Government's Industrial Strategy, what plans the Government has to support the UK automotive industry in the ambition set out in the that strategy to secure the UK’s position as a world leader in shaping the future of mobility.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Government has a long-standing programme of support to maintain the competitiveness of the UK automotive sector. Through our Industrial Strategy and landmark Automotive Sector Deal, we are placing the UK at the forefront of new automotive technology development.
Government and industry have pledged joint commitment of £1 billion over 10 years to 2023 for the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) with three APC competitions running this year. Government has committed £246m to the Faraday Battery Challenge including £80m for the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre to scale up new technologies. And in the last Budget, Government committed up to £80m for research and development of electric motor technology. The Sector Deal also includes £32 million of joint funding for an industry-led supply chain competitiveness programme to help grow the UK supply chain and assure international competitiveness.
In May 2018, as part of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced our intention for the UK to be at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero emission vehicles and in July we published Road to Zero to deliver on that commitment. As well as the technology investment, we have committed £1.5bn for consumer incentives, charging infrastructure and R&D to support the transition to zero emission vehicles.
We are determined to ensure that the UK continues to be one of the most competitive locations in the world for future automotive investment, alongside other advanced manufacturing.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-UK EU children are residing in the five local authorities selected by his Department for the private beta testing phase two of the EU Settlement Scheme in (a) total and (b) in each local authority pilot site area.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office does not hold data on how many EU National children reside in the five local authorities which participated in the second Private Beta test phase of the EU Settlement Scheme.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of non-UK EU children in care and (b) the number of those children in each local authority that were part of his Department's private beta phase two testing pilot by (i) age and (ii) EU nationality.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The precise number of non-UK EU children in care is not known. Local authorities do not routinely collect this data. The Home Office has estimated that there are approximately 5,000 EU children in care in the UK, not including care leavers. This estimate is based on ONS data on the proportion of EEA citizens per Local Authority and government data on volumes of children in care per Local Authority
The second Private Beta phase included some applications for Looked After Children made by five local authorities. The local authorities which participated did so voluntarily for some of the EU children in their care. In total 19 applications were made on behalf of looked after children by these local authorities. Applicants were aged between 5-17 and comprised 6 different nationalities.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of non-UK EU children in care who could not take part in his Department's private beta phase test pilot (a) in total and (b) in each local authority pilot site because they did not have a passport.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
According to the rules laid before parliament (on 11/10/2018) for the second Private Beta phase of the EU Settlement Scheme, only a child being looked after (within the meaning of section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) by one of the five named local authorities, with a chipped passport, was eligible to apply.
The Home Office did not estimate the number of children who could not take part in the Private Beta phase because they did not have a passport.
All EU applicants, including looked after children, will be able to apply with an ID card or a passport once the scheme is rolled out fully from 30 March 2019. In addition, from that date it will be possible for applicants to submit alternative evidence of their identity and nationality where they are unable to provide a passport or national identity card due to circumstances outside of their control, or for compelling practical or compassionate reasons.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-UK EU children in care took part in the Home Office's private beta testing phase two of the EU Settlement Scheme (a) in total and (b) in each local authority area; how many (i) received settled status, (ii) received pre-settled status, (iii) were refused, (iv) requested an administrative review (A) in total and (B) in each local authority area.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
In total 19 applications were made on behalf of looked after children by the participating local authorities. We are unable to provide a breakdown by local authority as this may identify some of the children involved.
16 have received settled status.
0 have received pre-settled status
0 have been refused
0 have requested an administrative review
We are working with the relevant local authorities to gather further evidence for the 3 outstanding cases.
Asked by: Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether during the private beta testing phase two of the EU Settlement Scheme his Department instructed local authorities to support eligible non-UK EU children in care to secure British citizenship.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
During the second Private Beta phase of the EU Settlement Scheme, participating local authorities were not instructed to support eligible EU national children in care to secure British citizenship.
Local authorities participated on a voluntary basis to apply on behalf of some children in their care. Only looked after EU national children (within the meaning of section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) were eligible to participate in this phase of the scheme.
The Private Beta phase did not involve applications for British citizenship, which is a separate process.