Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support the Chinese government in protecting tigers.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
I met the Chinese delegation to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of Parties in London immediately before the conference which was held in Johannesburg from 24 September to 5 October 2016. We discussed the conservation of a number of species including tigers.
At the Conference, the UK, working with the Member States of the European Union and other countries, achieved strong outcomes for tigers including agreement to proposed decisions to scrutinise captive breeding facilities, and a regional photographic repository of seized tiger skins to aid enforcement action.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on what the additional £13 million to tackle the illegal wildlife trade announced in her Department's press release, UK leading global fight against illegal wildlife trade, published on 17 November 2016, will be spent.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK has a strong record as a global leader in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), and remains committed to working to bring an end to this scourge.
We intend to use the additional £13 million in UK funding announced on 17 November to tackle IWT through a number of new initiatives to reduce demand, strengthen enforcement and develop sustainable livelihoods for communities affected by IWT. This is likely to include expanded British Military training for African park rangers; additional funding for Interpol to expand its work with key nations, tracking and intercepting illegal shipments of ivory, rhino horn and other illegal wildlife products; and up to £4million for the International Consortium for Combatting Wildlife Crime.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with her Indian counterpart on preventing the practice of capturing and breaking young elephants in India for use in the tourism industry.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Prime Ministers David Cameron and Narendra Modi met in London in November 2015 and issued a joint statement in which they resolved to work together to improve protection for both captive and wild Asian elephants. There have been no discussions with the Indian Government specifically on banning the use of elephants in tourist attractions or preventing the capturing and breaking of young elephants for use in the tourism industry. However, further official level discussions have taken place with the Indian High Commission to discuss the joint statement and discuss specific areas on which we might work constructively beyond international fora such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Within CITES the UK has led on securing agreement to measures to increase focus on protecting Asian elephants. These include the strengthening of national legislation and enforcement to combat illegal trade in live Asian elephants, for range countries to develop strategies to manage their captive domestic populations and to develop and apply a regional registration and marking system covering domestic Asian elephants.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the GP Forward Review published in April 2016, how many of the 3,000 mental health therapists will have been employed by the end of each year to 2020.
Answered by David Mowat
Therapists working in general practice will be a mix of trainees and experienced therapists and will be part of integrated services in primary care, working in multi-disciplinary teams in general practices. Existing providers will employ new therapists and they will be deployed, along with experienced therapists, into general practices. The first new integrated services will start in 2017. The exact therapist numbers within each clinical commissioning group is to be determined locally.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many medical assistants he plans to introduce into general practice in each year until 2020.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The numbers of medical assistants employed in general practice will be determined by individual employers. Health Education England (HEE) will begin work to pilot and evaluate the medical assistant role in 2017. HEE are also supporting an employer led Trailblazer Group which will enable the development of an apprentice route into this occupation.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of GP practices to receive support in 2016-17 under the General Practice Resilience Programme.
Answered by David Mowat
The General Practice Resilience Programme is a four-year £40 million programme which devolves funding to NHS England’s 13 local teams to secure and deliver a wide menu of support to practices prioritised locally, against nationally set criteria.
NHS England is offering support to over a thousand general practices under the first wave of the General Practice Resilience Programme. The assessments carried out by NHS England local teams, concluded on 18 October 2016, identified 1,062 individual practices that will benefit from support this year to help improve sustainability and resilience, including support upstream of difficulties occurring. NHS England believe that the actual number to be offered support is likely to be greater, as some NHS England local teams are additionally targeting support across geographical areas more generally.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) value of unused mobile spectrum and (b) benefits to the economy of bringing that unused spectrum into use through introducing a 30 per cent cap on mobile spectrum holdings.
Answered by David Gauke
The independent communications regulator, Ofcom, is responsible for designing the framework for spectrum allocations. Ofcom has published its most recent assessment of the most effective allocation of mobile spectrum, including consideration of spectrum caps, as part of its consultation on the design of the forthcoming mobile spectrum auction. The relevant documents can be found using the following link: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/award-of-the-spectrum-bands.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help prevent the hunting to extinction of endangered species.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) legal rules are in place to ensure that any international movement of trophies from the hunting of endangered species can only take place if the hunt is assessed as not having a detrimental impact on the survival of the species.
In light of growing concerns about the sustainability of the hunting of some species, we have worked with EU Member States to introduce stricter controls on the importation of hunting trophies of certain endangered species, including lions and African elephants. As a result, the importation of hunting trophies of certain species from certain countries is currently prohibited.
We have also been pressing for tough, transparent, global standards for the hunting of protected species. I attended the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES where Parties agreed to remove the loophole that allowed such trophies to be transported as personal effects. As a result, export permits will be needed for almost all hunted animals of endangered species included in Appendix II of CITES, including lions and African elephants, as well as those in Appendix I. Building on this, we agreed clear criteria the exporting country should consider when assessing that the hunt was both legal and sustainable before issuing an export permit.
Finally, in the case of lions and African elephants, the UK has to then confirm that we agree with this assessment and issue a corresponding permit before any import can take place. As a result, we secured greater scrutiny of trade in trophies to ensure the sustainability of exports.
We will continue to monitor the impact of trophy hunting and will work to put in place greater protection, including prohibiting imports, if this is shown to be needed.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to prohibit the importation of trophies secured from the killing of (a) lions, (b) elephants and (c) other mammals in African countries.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
Through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) legal rules are in place to ensure that any international movement of trophies from the hunting of endangered species can only take place if the hunt is assessed as not having a detrimental impact on the survival of the species.
In light of growing concerns about the sustainability of the hunting of some species, we have worked with EU Member States to introduce stricter controls on the importation of hunting trophies of certain endangered species, including lions and African elephants. As a result, the importation of hunting trophies of certain species from certain countries is currently prohibited.
We have also been pressing for tough, transparent, global standards for the hunting of protected species. I attended the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES where Parties agreed to remove the loophole that allowed such trophies to be transported as personal effects. As a result, export permits will be needed for almost all hunted animals of endangered species included in Appendix II of CITES, including lions and African elephants, as well as those in Appendix I. Building on this, we agreed clear criteria the exporting country should consider when assessing that the hunt was both legal and sustainable before issuing an export permit.
Finally, in the case of lions and African elephants, the UK has to then confirm that we agree with this assessment and issue a corresponding permit before any import can take place. As a result, we secured greater scrutiny of trade in trophies to ensure the sustainability of exports.
We will continue to monitor the impact of trophy hunting and will work to put in place greater protection, including prohibiting imports, if this is shown to be needed.
Asked by: David Mackintosh (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on ensuring elephants are given the highest level of international protection.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The UK Government is committed to tackling the crisis facing the African elephant from poaching and illegal trafficking. We fully support the existing global ban on ivory trade. The UK has discussed the global level of protection afforded to the elephant with EU Member States on numerous occasions. In particular, the proposal submitted to the 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to include all populations of African elephant in Appendix I was debated in EU CITES meetings in preparation for CoP17.