Asked by: David Burton-Sampson (Labour - Southend West and Leigh)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to businesses of updating (a) IT and (b) HR systems to comply with the EHRC's proposed HR changes.
Answered by Nia Griffith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales Office)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is independent of government. The purpose of the EHRC’s Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations is to ensure or facilitate compliance with the Equality Act 2010 or an enactment made under that Act. The EHRC has opened its consultation on the draft updated statutory Code of Practice, seeking views from affected stakeholders. We encourage all those affected stakeholders to submit a response to the consultation. We will then consider the EHRC’s updated draft once they have submitted it.
Asked by: David Burton-Sampson (Labour - Southend West and Leigh)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with the insurance industry on potential changes to liability insurance premiums for businesses due to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Treasury Ministers and officials have regular meetings with a wide variety of organisations, including insurers, on an ongoing basis.
Insurers make commercial decisions about the terms on which they will offer cover following an assessment of the relevant risks. This is usually informed by the insurer’s claims experience and other industry-wide statistics.
However, the Government is committed to ensuring that insurers treat all customers fairly and insurance companies are required to do so under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) rules.
The FCA is the independent body responsible for regulating and supervising the financial services industry. The FCA requires firms to ensure their products offer fair value. The FCA monitors firms to make sure they provide products that are fair value, and, where necessary, it will take action.
Asked by: David Burton-Sampson (Labour - Southend West and Leigh)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when the tariff free period on Ukrainian (a) poultry and (b) eggs imports will end; and whether he plans to extend that agreement.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government is fully committed to securing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and will support Ukraine for as long as it takes. As a part of this commitment, tariffs on all goods under our Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine are temporarily removed until March 2029, except poultry and eggs where tariffs are removed until March 2026.
This is a reciprocal agreement, with tariffs also removed on UK exports to Ukraine. Before the end of the liberalisation period both the UK and Ukraine will review options and jointly decide whether to extend the liberalisation commitments further.
Asked by: David Burton-Sampson (Labour - Southend West and Leigh)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps he is taking with the Northern Ireland Executive to help tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Fleur Anderson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)
Last year, seven women were killed in Northern Ireland and rates of violence against women are higher in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK.
In January, I was pleased to welcome the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls to Northern Ireland to meet Executive Ministers and the Police Service, and to visit the excellent Foyle Family Justice Centre. We discussed ways we can work together and share best practice to tackle violence against women and girls.
Asked by: David Burton-Sampson (Labour - Southend West and Leigh)
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 (a) encourage the uptake and (a) increase the availability of lung cancer screenings.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To encourage uptake of lung screening, we are directly targeting activity at areas that we know will make a difference. This includes awareness campaigns such as the NHS Help Us, Help You campaign, to increase awareness of cancer symptoms, including lung cancer, and encourage people to get checked.
Latest data shows early diagnosis for lung cancer is eight percentage points higher than pre-pandemic. This improvement has largely been driven by roll out of Lung Cancer Screening Programme. The Lung Cancer Screening Programme is a national screening programme in the National Health Service designed to identify cancers at an earlier stage and has led to over 3,000 more lung cancers being diagnosed at an earlier stage. When fully rolled out, the Lung Cancer Screening Programme will detect around 9,000 cancers earlier each year and support the NHS Long Term plan to detect more cancers earlier.
Asked by: David Burton-Sampson (Labour - Southend West and Leigh)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, what steps his Department is taking to reform Companies House.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) is fundamentally reforming Companies House, enabling it to play a greater role in improving corporate transparency, improving the quality of data and information on the company register and giving Companies House greater powers to contribute to our efforts in tackling economic crime.
The reform of Companies House is backed by £63 million of investment from the Department for Business and Trade and fees have been increased to fund greater investigation and enforcement capabilities.
The first phase of reforms came into force in March 2024. Further measures, including the introduction of Identity Verification, are in the process of being implemented.
Asked by: David Burton-Sampson (Labour - Southend West and Leigh)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help reduce the backlog in small claims business cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The courts, as the cornerstone of the civil justice system, play a crucial role in supporting economic growth, enabling businesses and citizens to resolve disputes in a timely fashion and uphold their rights.
Though most civil claims made in the county courts result in a default judgment or out-of-court settlement, there have been long standing challenges with delays in the 3% of claims that require a full trial. HM Courts & Tribunals Service is working in partnership with the judiciary to address this.
We have increased the use of mediation, making mediation a requirement in all defended claims for under £10,000. This enables more claims to reach a consensual resolution at an earlier stage and frees up resource to deal with those claims that require judicial determination. In addition, increased digital working through our reformed systems allow money claims, including those involving businesses with legal representation, to reach trial readiness over three times quicker than paper claims.