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Written Question
Disposable Wipes
Monday 8th November 2021

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to strengthen regulation on single use wet wipes.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are considering a range of options to tackle the drain blockages and fatbergs caused by wet wipes and are working to assess the effects of wet wipes containing plastic on sewers to identify possible solutions. In general, we prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning items outright. Alongside our upcoming consultation on single-use plastic items, we will be asking some questions about wet wipes to help us build our evidence base, inform our policy approach and take appropriate action.

The Defra guidance on making an environmental claim has been updated recently to include the Competition Markets Authority’s published guidance available here: Make an environmental claim for your product, service or organisation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This guidance aims to help businesses understand and comply with their existing obligations under consumer protection law when making any environmental claims.

We will continue to encourage the water industry and wet wipe manufacturers to work together to raise consumer awareness about the appropriate disposal of wet wipes and other non-flushable products, and to ensure that the labelling is clear. This will be crucial for generating meaningful behavioural change with consumers.


Written Question
Disposable Wipes
Monday 8th November 2021

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to ensure that single use wet wipe products do not falsely claim to be biodegradable.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are considering a range of options to tackle the drain blockages and fatbergs caused by wet wipes and are working to assess the effects of wet wipes containing plastic on sewers to identify possible solutions. In general, we prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning items outright. Alongside our upcoming consultation on single-use plastic items, we will be asking some questions about wet wipes to help us build our evidence base, inform our policy approach and take appropriate action.

The Defra guidance on making an environmental claim has been updated recently to include the Competition Markets Authority’s published guidance available here: Make an environmental claim for your product, service or organisation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This guidance aims to help businesses understand and comply with their existing obligations under consumer protection law when making any environmental claims.

We will continue to encourage the water industry and wet wipe manufacturers to work together to raise consumer awareness about the appropriate disposal of wet wipes and other non-flushable products, and to ensure that the labelling is clear. This will be crucial for generating meaningful behavioural change with consumers.


Written Question
First Time Buyers
Monday 14th June 2021

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the 30 per cent discount of the First Homes policy is intended to replace the requirement for a deposit from the purchaser or whether a deposit is still required.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

The discount is not intended to replace the deposit on a home but will make it significantly cheaper. We expect mortgage companies to be able to offer high loan-to-value mortgages on the discounted price of a First Home which, combined with the reduced cost of the home itself, could mean deposits are thousands of pounds cheaper than purchasing the same home on the open market.


Written Question
First Time Buyers
Monday 14th June 2021

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his policy is in the event that a developer cannot find sufficient purchasers to satisfy the First Homes policy.

Answered by Christopher Pincher

We do not anticipate a lack of demand for First Homes - we are already receiving a very high level of interest in these homes since the launch of the first site in Bolsover, Derbyshire on 4 June.

However, our guidance for First Homes, published alongside the written ministerial statement on 24 May 2021, recommends that if a home remains unsold after a total of 6 months of marketing, despite making every reasonable effort to ensure the home is sold to a suitable person, the developer should be able to release the home onto the open market and pay the local authority a percentage of the sale price equal to the proposed percentage discount. This will ensure that home do not remain unsold long term, whilst also ensuring developers still make the contributions required of them under the conditions of their planning permission.


Written Question
Health
Thursday 4th March 2021

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

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 the proposed reforms to Public Health England will enhance the role of nature-based interventions to support health and wellbeing.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Prevention of ill-health remains a top priority. In July 2020, Environment Secretary George Eustice announced a £4.27 million investment for a cross-government project aimed at preventing and tackling mental ill health through green social prescribing.


The Government will continue its focus on health improvement and preventing ill-health, with support from the expert teams who currently sit in PHE, who will continue with their excellent work. We will be consulting with staff and engaging with an external stakeholder advisory group on where PHE’s health improvement functions would be best placed in order to support the public health system in our aim to increase healthy life expectancy.


Written Question
Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme
Monday 18th January 2021

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to assess the potential effect of the fall in oil prices on the take-up of the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive and heat pump installation.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

There are no plans to assess the potential effect of the fall in oil prices on the Renewable Heat Incentive. The number of heat pump accreditations onto the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive scheme had recovered to pre-Covid 19 volumes by December 2020, and the price of oil may rise again as the world economy recovers from the Covid 19 pandemic. The domestic Renewable Heat Incentive is due to close to new applications in March 2022.


Written Question
Heating
Monday 18th January 2021

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the installation of heat pumps.

Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government takes the role heat pumps can have in driving down carbon emissions very seriously and has set an ambitious target of 600,000 heat pump installations a year by 2028. BEIS are currently supporting heat pump deployment via both the Domestic and Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). As per November 2020 the total number of Non-Domestic RHI accredited applications for heat pump based installations was 2,500 and 62,492 in the Domestic RHI.

BEIS are also providing support via the Future Homes Standard, which will ensure that new homes are built zero carbon-ready without the need for costly retrofitting, a new market-based policy which puts industry at the heart of efforts to develop the heat pump market, our commitment to phase out the installation of high-carbon fossil-fuel heating off the gas grid through targeted regulation, and a range of other policies such as the Home Upgrade Grant and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. We are planning to publish consultations on the market mechanism and off-gas-grid regulations in due course, alongside the forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy.

As part of the £1.5 billion Green Homes Grant (GHG) scheme, the government will fund up to two-thirds of the cost of installing low-carbon heat (including air source, ground source and hybrid heat pumps) and energy efficiency measures in homes. Under the scheme, the government aims to retrofit 600,000 homes in England and to date, over 60,000 applications have been received.


Written Question
Health: National Parks
Monday 9th November 2020

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of access to national parks on (a) mental and (b) physical recovery from illness.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government wants people to remain fit and active at all times. The Chief Medical Officer is clear that being physically active is important to long-term health and crucial for keeping people healthy during the ongoing pandemic. Evidence suggests that regular physical activity can promote good physical health and help manage stress and anxiety.

Throughout the pandemic, parks and outdoor green spaces have remained open. People are able to go outdoors for a walk, run, cycle or any other independent way they normally get active. The Government has published detailed guidance for members of the public on how they can exercise outdoors and for outdoor facilities on re-opening.


Written Question
Prison Officers: Retirement
Wednesday 21st October 2020

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to review the retirement age for prison officers.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

We highly value our hardworking prison staff and offer access to medical professionals and an employee assistance programme to ensure continued physical and mental wellbeing. There are currently no plans to review the retirement age of prison officers.


Written Question
Prison Officers: Crimes of Violence
Wednesday 21st October 2020

Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the trends in the number of assaults on prison officers since the publication of the Hutton report on Public Service Pensions in 2011.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The level of violence in prisons is high and any assault against our hardworking prison staff is unacceptable. We are addressing this by giving all staff the tools and training they need to help reduce violence.

While violence fell in 2012, the year after the Hutton report, this steadily rose until 2019, but has now begin to level off – with a decrease by 15% in the last four quarters.

The causes of violence are complicated. The increase in the use of psychoactive substances in prisons since 2013 has been a significant factor in the previous increase in violence.

We have made significant investment to boost staff numbers and recruited more than 4,000 additional prison officers between October 2016 and December 2019. This has given us the capacity to implement the key worker role, allowing staff dedicated time to provide support to individual prisoners, helping us to deal with emerging threats and improve safety.

We work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to bring those guilty of assaulting staff to justice. Additionally, as outlined in our Sentencing White Paper we will double the maximum sentence for assaulting an emergency worker from 12 months to two years.

We are also giving officers PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer and are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This will fund tough new measures including x-ray body scanners, baggage scanners and phone-blocking technology.