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Written Question
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership: Intellectual Property
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on smallholder farmers of the measures in the Intellectual Property Chapter of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership relating to the requirement for signatory countries to ratify the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants 1991.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The UK’s accession to CPTPP will not change the UK’s existing commitments under the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

The Government does not foresee any impacts on UK small farmers due to the UK’s legal obligations under CPTPP Article 18.7.2 because there will be no changes to the UK’s existing legislative framework in this area.

UPOV provides for plant breeders’ rights, aiming to encourage the development of new varieties of plants, with benefits such as food security and mitigating climate change.

Mechanisms are available within CPTPP to discuss issues raised by signatory countries.


Written Question
Import Controls: Occupied Territories
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the legality of imports from illegal Israeli settlements.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The UK’s position on settlements is clear: they are illegal under international law and undermine the prospect of a two-state solution.

Under the existing UK-Israel trade agreement, goods originating from illegal Israeli settlements are not entitled to tariff and trade preferences under either the agreement between the UK and Israel, nor the agreement between the UK and the Palestinian Authority.

This will not change in the upgraded FTA with Israel. The UK will not compromise on any of our longstanding positions on the Middle East Peace Process throughout this negotiation, including with respect to settlements.


Written Question
Israel: Foreign Relations
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment his Department has made of the potential risks of (a) existing and (b) enhanced (i) security, (ii) defence, (iii) science and (iv) technology relationships with Israel under the 2030 roadmap.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

We enjoy a close strategic partnership with Israel on a wide range of issues. The Memorandum of Understanding we signed in 2021 demonstrated our intent to deepen and expand cooperation across our mutual priorities for our mutual benefit. The subsequent 2030 roadmap outlines how this strategic partnership will continue to serve our collective interests, deepening UK-Israel cooperation across the breadth of our relationship, including science and tech, research and development and security, health, climate and gender.


Written Question
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-pacific Partnership
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will have discussions with the Leader of the House on allocating time for debate on a substantive motion relating to the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership ahead of the conclusion of the statutory 21 sitting day period for which the treaty is laid before Parliament.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government is committed to effective scrutiny of its trade agenda and has put in place a comprehensive framework for scrutiny of free trade agreements (FTAs). This includes a commitment to seek to hold a general debate on a new FTA where one is requested by the relevant Select Committee, subject to parliamentary time being available.

The scheduling of parliamentary business is not a matter for the Department for Business and Trade.


Written Question
Mali: Religious Freedom
Tuesday 5th March 2024

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of violence in central Mali on religious minority groups.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The UK is closely monitoring rising instability in Mali. There has been an increase in human rights abuses and violations, including on religious minority groups. The violence is sadly widespread but does not appear to be religiously motivated. Following the recent withdrawal of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), it is essential that the authorities in Mali deliver on their commitment to a political transition, with free, fair, transparent and inclusive presidential elections. The UK is committed to working with our partners to support initiatives to protect human rights in Mali.


Written Question
Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing
Monday 4th December 2023

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the amount of deductions made under the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy to (a) Housing Benefit and (b) Universal Credit claimants in each year since 2013.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (RSRS) sufficient to produce such an estimate can be found on Stat-Xplore. Stat-Xplore includes the mean of RSRS reduction, the number subject to the RSRS and the number of spare rooms for both Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Housing Element Claimants.

Stat-Xplore can be found here.


Written Question
Unpaid Work
Monday 4th December 2023

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data her Department holds on the number of people who have undertaken unpaid trial shifts in (a) England and Wales and (b) Scotland in each of the last five years.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Minimum wage legislation prohibits unpaid work trials that are excessive and not part of a genuine recruitment process. An unpaid trial work period lasting a few hours may be reasonable and legal. This is because the main purpose would be to test the individual, and what is done would probably have little or no other value to the employer. However, an unpaid trial lasting more than one day is probably illegal in all but exceptional circumstances.

DBT does not hold information about the number of people who have undertaken unpaid trial shifts in England, Wales and Scotland in each of the last five years.

If someone has undertaken an unpaid work trial and thinks they should have been paid NMW, they can call the ACAS helpline or make a complaint to HMRC.


Written Question
Methylphenidate: Shortages
Thursday 30th November 2023

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the National Patient Safety Alert entitled Shortage of methylphenidate prolonged-release capsules and tablets, lisdexamfetamine capsules, and guanfacine prolonged-release tablets, issued on 27 September 2023, alert reference NatPSA/2023/011/DHSC, what progress she has made on tackling supply disruptions affecting Xaggitin XL 18 and 36 mg prolonged-release tablets.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are aware of disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites.

The National Patient Safety Alert to the National Health Service advises healthcare professionals on the management of patients during this time. We have well-established processes for managing and mitigating medicine supply issues, which involve working with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.

The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, including Xaggitin XL 18 and 36 milligrams, which are expected to resolve in early 2024.


Written Question
Personal Independence Payment
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was for his Department to respond to enquiries about Personal Independence Payments in the period between June 2023 and September 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Enquiries relating to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can come through various channels and relate to many different areas of work. An enquiry could be made for a range of reasons and could involve several contacts or multiple requests. For these reasons we are unable to provide an average response time.

For telephony enquiries we operate a service where most enquiries are handled at the point of contact in real time by our Case Workers on the PIP enquiry line. Some enquiries will be forwarded (transferred) to more experienced colleagues or specialists, and in a very small number of cases a call back may be needed.


Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Women
Wednesday 25th October 2023

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of payband SCS2 civil servants in his Department on full-time equivalent contracts are women as of 18 October 2023.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP Paid Staff Only September 2023 data

Full-time SCS2 that are Female is 35%

DWP encourages temporary promotion opportunities (known as Temporary Duties Allowance in DWP) to be filled fairly and transparently. Temporary promotions for a duration of more than one month require authorisation from an HR Business Partner and a leader of an appropriate senior grade.

Temporary promotions (known as Temporary Duties Allowance in DWP) for a duration of more than 6 months from the outset should be decided through a formal selection exercise, either through a fair and transparent Expressions of Interest exercise or advertised on Civil Service Jobs.