Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness of hydrogenated vegetable oil as a fuel source for NHS vehicles; and what his Department's planned timescale is for (a) assessing the results of its trial on its potential use and (b) publishing its conclusions.
Answered by Will Quince
Unipart Logistics completed a trial of HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) on four vehicles for a period of 40 days across February and March 2023. Whilst this found a major reduction of 90% in carbon dioxide impact, the trial also found a 62% increase in fuel costs and highlighted the operational challenge of HVO not being available at fuel retailers. The results, and next steps, are currently being considered.
The National Health Service is committed to reducing its reliance on fossil fuels across its estate and will continue to explore new options and innovations
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce (a) hare coursing, (b) theft and damage to farm equipment and (c) other rural crime; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to driving down rural crime, which is why we are providing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit and the National Rural Crime Unit (NRCU).
The Home Office committed to provide one-off funding of £200,000 to the NRCU this year to assist with set up costs of the new unit. The NRCU will provide support to forces nationally in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime.
Police Uplift Programme (PUP) funding has been used to tackle rural crime by forces and led to the formation of new teams and to bolster capabilities.
New measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act came into force on 1st August 2022, which empower and equip the police and courts with the powers they need to combat hare coursing. These powers included creating two new criminal offences; trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare; and being equipped to trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare.
The Government supported the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which will help to prevent the theft of agricultural equipment such as quad bikes by requiring immobilisers and forensic markings to be fitted before new equipment is sold to customers, and equipment to be registered on a database. The Act gained Royal Assent on 20 July.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of GPs who have qualified since 2015 and left the NHS to practice overseas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not hold the data requested.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to provide assistance to (a) local authorities and (b) people affected by coastal erosion to tackle issues related to coastal erosion in the next two years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is making a record investment of £5.2 billion in its flood and coastal erosion risk management capital programme, between 2021 to 2027. Currently, over £1 billion of the £5.2 billion capital investment programme for 2021-2027 is supporting projects in the programme will help better protect coastal communities from erosion or flooding.
In addition, the Government is investing £200 million between 2021 and 2027 in the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation programme to support local places including coastal communities. This includes the £36 million coastal transition accelerators programme which will support communities in areas at significant risk of coastal erosion to transition and adapt to a changing climate.
East Riding of Yorkshire and North Norfolk were identified as the areas to lead off the programme as they have proportionally the highest number of properties at risk from coastal erosion in England and are facing the greatest challenges from erosion and loss of coastline. Other coastal communities and risk management authorities will benefit from the learning that will be shared from this programme to inform future climate resilience and adaptation.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
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 reduce the number of patients waiting more than six weeks for diagnostic tests in the areas covered by the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
Answered by Will Quince
In February 2022 the National Health Service published the “Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care”. This plan set out a series of commitments to reduce the backlog, including that 95% of patients needing a diagnostic test should receive it within six weeks by March 2025.
To meet this commitment, we are rolling out a network of up to 160 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) across the country to deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England. These will deliver up to 17 million tests by March 2025, having added the capacity for nine million more per year once they are all fully operational.
As of July 2023, 114 CDCs are operational, and have delivered over 4.4 million tests, checks, and scans since July 2021. This includes three operational CDCs within the Humber and North Yorkshire which have conducted 63,565 tests since September 2021.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made in improving survival rates for cardiac arrests outside of hospitals; and what plans he has to increase the (a) number of public-facing public sector workers who have completed cardiac first aid training and (b) number and accessibility of defibrillators in public places.
Answered by Will Quince
The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government. We want people to have the best chance of survival from cardiac arrest, and rapid intervention is central to improving outcomes.
This is why the Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) that expands the number and accessibility of publicly supported defibrillators
NHS England have partnered with St John Ambulance to co-ordinate skills development to significantly increase the use of AEDs by individuals in community settings. This includes a national network of Community Advocates to champion the importance of first aid, training 60,000 people that will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028. Many public sector organisations already provide first aid courses that include CPR and cardiac first aid training.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of reservoir capacity (a) in and (b) serving Yorkshire.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer given on 26 June 2023, PQ 190522.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to increase the range of health services provided by Bridlington Hospital; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for healthcare services which meet the reasonable needs of the people for whom they are responsible. ICBs are responsible for evaluating the changing needs of the populations for which they are responsible and planning new service provision as required.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment of the extent to which local authorities adhere to his Department's guidance on setting local speed limits.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
No assessment has been made of the extent to which local authorities adhere to the Department for Transport’s guidance on setting local speed limits.
The Department for Transport’s guidance Setting Local Speed Limits is non-mandatory guidance designed to make sure that speed limits are appropriately and consistently set while allowing for flexibility to deal with local circumstances, but the final decision is for the authority, working with the police who would carry out any enforcement.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make a comparative assessment of the average time taken by the Land Registry to process a property transfer as of 5 July (a) 2023, (b) 2022 and (c) 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
HM Land Registry's (HMLR's) top priority is improving application processing times and I refer my Right Honourable friend to paragraph three of the answer I gave to Question UIN 187953 on 14 June 2023 for further information.
HMLR publishes information on GOV.UK about its latest processing times here. Applications to transfer a property fall within the category of 'changes to existing registered titles', sometimes known as register update services. The table below shows the average time taken to process changes to existing titles for the stated time periods:
Time period | Average time taken to process changes to existing registered titles |
July 2018 | 4 days |
July 2022 | 22 days |
June 2023 | 19 days |
(Includes data for all manual register updates. Data for July 2023 is not yet available.)
The time taken to process an application to change an existing title should not impact a property sale because it usually takes place after a transaction has completed. However, if any application becomes urgent, customers can ask for it to be fast tracked for no extra cost. 95% of these applications are completed within 10 days.