Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help protect farmers against new strains of potato blight.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a holistic approach that carefully considers all available plant protection methods and keeps the use of pesticides to levels that are ecologically and economically justified. IPM lies at the heart of our approach to minimise the environmental impact of pesticides and is a key tool for businesses facing the challenges of pesticide resistance, removal of pesticides from the market, and changing pest pressures due to climate change. Within the National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP) we will set out our policies to increase the uptake of IPM by farmers, growers, amenity managers and amateur gardeners.
Having an IPM approach can reduce the risks associated with pesticides, combat pesticide resistance, and support sustainable agricultural productivity. IPM aims to diversify crop protection and reduce reliance on the use of chemical pesticides by making use of lower risk alternatives and promoting natural processes. For example, creating habitats for natural predators of plant pests, or using crop rotations to break pest, weed and disease cycles. When alternative methods are ineffective or unavailable, IPM also aims to optimise and minimise the use of chemical pesticides through targeted and precise application.
We have recently commissioned a package of research projects that will bring together scientific evidence underpinning IPM and to look at ways of further encouraging its uptake. This work will support farmers’ access to the most effective IPM tools available and ensure that we understand changing trends in pest threats across the UK.
Defra is also a partner in the European Research Area Network (ERA-Net) Co-Fund on Sustainable Crop Production (SusCrop). This research network aims to enhance cooperation and coordination of different national and regional research programmes focussing on agriculture and climate change, sustainable farming systems and biodiversity, sustainable water management, resource efficiency and resilience in the food chain. It also seeks to increase productivity through technological innovation.
Projects within SusCrop ERA-Net include: ‘Eco-friendly solutions for the integrated management of late and early blight of potatoes (ECOSOL)’ which aims to Identify Effective Biological Control Agents and Plant Resistance Inducers for the Control of Potato Late Blight in the field.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the strength of the economy in Scotland.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
Scotland’s economy grew in 2023 and our back to work plan is working with fewer people inactive. We have achieved this alongside our priority of halving inflation.I’m sure my Honourable Friend was also pleased to hear the growth measures we will take to keep Scotland prospering that were announced at the Budget today.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of Scottish hospitality businesses per sector have submitted requests to split their quarterly VAT payments in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
I believe that my honourable friend is referring to the recent consultation on an “Alternative Method of VAT Collection - Split Payment”. The consultation has now closed, and HMRC and HMT are taking this forward. You can see the full details here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/alternative-method-of-vat-collection-split-payment
You may be interested to know that information on numbers of businesses in the trade sectors is published in the Annual UK VAT Statistics, which can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/value-added-tax-vat-annual-statistics
Further information is also available here:
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support she is providing to Buckie Job Centre to further assist unemployed people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Job Entry Targeted Support in Scotland.
In addition, the government is investing an additional £150 million into the Flexible Support Fund, which will increase the capacity of the Rapid Response Service, supporting people through redundancy and providing additional local support to claimants by removing barriers to work such as travel expenses for attending interviews and child care.
Our Jobcentre Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies we record every day, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.
To date, in Scotland, the Department has recruited 823 Work Coaches since March 2020, bringing the total number of Work Coaches in Scotland to 2,255. Within the Morayshire Cluster (Forres, Elgin and Buckie Jobcentres) six new Work Coaches have joined team with a further six due to start shortly.
The Morayshire Cluster works closely with the Moray Pathways which is a consortium of partners and providers across Moray offering customers skills, training, employment support. We deliver a multi-agency service to support our younger customers move forward towards employment from the Moray Community Hub.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support she is providing to Elgin Job Centre to further assist unemployed people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Job Entry Targeted Support in Scotland.
In addition, the government is investing an additional £150 million into the Flexible Support Fund, which will increase the capacity of the Rapid Response Service, supporting people through redundancy and providing additional local support to claimants by removing barriers to work such as travel expenses for attending interviews and child care.
Our Jobcentre Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies we record every day, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.
To date, in Scotland, the Department has recruited 823 Work Coaches since March 2020, bringing the total number of Work Coaches in Scotland to 2,255. Within the Morayshire Cluster (Forres, Elgin and Buckie Jobcentres) six new Work Coaches have joined team with a further six due to start shortly.
The Morayshire Cluster works closely with the Moray Pathways which is a consortium of partners and providers across Moray offering customers skills, training, employment support. We deliver a multi-agency service to support our younger customers move forward towards employment from the Moray Community Hub.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support she is providing to Forres Job Centre to further assist unemployed people.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Job Entry Targeted Support in Scotland.
In addition, the government is investing an additional £150 million into the Flexible Support Fund, which will increase the capacity of the Rapid Response Service, supporting people through redundancy and providing additional local support to claimants by removing barriers to work such as travel expenses for attending interviews and child care.
Our Jobcentre Work Coaches provide support on finding a job, help with retraining or skills advice, CV, job applications and access to the new vacancies we record every day, as well as signposting to our Jobhelp website.
To date, in Scotland, the Department has recruited 823 Work Coaches since March 2020, bringing the total number of Work Coaches in Scotland to 2,255. Within the Morayshire Cluster (Forres, Elgin and Buckie Jobcentres) six new Work Coaches have joined team with a further six due to start shortly.
The Morayshire Cluster works closely with the Moray Pathways which is a consortium of partners and providers across Moray offering customers skills, training, employment support. We deliver a multi-agency service to support our younger customers move forward towards employment from the Moray Community Hub.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the HM Treasury:
What level of financial support his Department has provided to Scotland in the Spending Review 2020.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Spending Review 2020 is for the whole of the UK. For Scotland, SR20 confirms an additional £2.4 billion for the Scottish Government on top of its baseline for 2021-22, building on an unprecedented upfront guarantee of £8.2 billion in 2020-21 to support the Covid response; SR20 confirms several UK-wide programmes, such as for vaccines, green growth clusters, offshore wind capacity and digital infrastructure, which will benefit people and businesses in Scotland; SR20 also provides targeted support by reprofiling City and Growth Deals in Moray, Tay Cities, Borderlands and the Scottish Islands from 15 to 10 years to accelerate investment in local economic priorities.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the local economy in Moray constituency of (a) spending and (b) investment by (i) his Department and (ii) the armed forces since 2015.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Ministry of Defence's (MOD) over-riding priority is to provide national security for the UK as a whole and its extensive regional footprint exists to provide UK national security.
Spending or investment decisions are appraised on the basis of costs and benefits to UK society overall irrespective of the location of the expenditure, as required by HM Treasury Green Book.
The department does not routinely undertake assessments of the effect of national spending or investment decisions on local economies.
MOD Regional Expenditure with UK Industry and Commerce and Supported Employment is published at the Government Office Regional level as a National Statistic at the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/774871/Finance_and_economics_annual_statistical_bulletin_201718.pdf
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff have been employed in the programme team to deliver the Emergency Services Network, in each month since that Network was established.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria his Department plans to use to allow police forces to assess the comparative performance of Emergency Services Network and Airwave.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Department has already committed to respond to the Hon. Member for Moray and the Home Affairs Select Committee in writing on this issue, within the required timescale.