Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to regulate hygiene standards within the (i) hairdresser, (ii) barber and (iii) beauty industries.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Businesses in the hair and beauty sector, which includes barber shops, hairdressers and beauty salons are required to comply with the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated regulations, which place duties on businesses to assess the risk of infection for employees and others affected by their work, including members of the public.
While Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has the policy lead for the hair and beauty sector, responsibility for enforcing health and safety legislation at individual businesses rests with the local authority where the premises are located.
Where there is evidence that risks are not being properly managed, local authorities are able to intervene and take appropriate enforcement action to ensure that employees and customers are protected.
Local authorities are also responsible for managing hygiene standards in businesses, but this is not within HSE’s remit.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to bring forward regulations to require all road cyclists to wear an approved safety helmet.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Highway Code recommends that cyclists should wear helmets. The Government encourages cyclists, particularly children, to do so, but has no plans to make this a legal requirement. The safety benefits of mandating helmets would be likely to be outweighed by the fact that it would put some people off cycling, thereby reducing the wider health and environmental benefits.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made representations to his counterpart in Nicaragua on the suppression of (a) human rights and (b) religious freedoms in that country.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We share widespread international concern about the relentless suppression of democratic, religious, and other freedoms in Nicaragua. We continue to urge the Nicaraguan authorities to re-establish democratic freedoms in our engagements with the Nicaraguan Embassy and in Managua, as well as through our public statements in international fora. Most recently, on 28 February at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council, we raised our grave human rights concerns, including relating to freedom of religion and belief, and arbitrary detentions. Nicaragua's declaration on 27 February that it is leaving the UN Human Rights Council does not change the need to hold the authorities accountable for the suppression of human rights in Nicaragua.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to support steps to help tackle malnutrition at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris in March 2025; and whether he plans to maintain funding for such programmes in the official development assistance budget from 2027.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minister has set out a new strategic vision for government spending on defence and security and Official Development Assistance (ODA). Detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used will be worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review based on various factors including impact assessments.
The UK worked in close partnership with France to make the recent Nutrition for Growth (N4G) summit in Paris a success. The Minister for International Development led the UK delegation. Alongside the Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and other partners, the Minister launched the Global Compact on Nutrition Integration.
Partners have welcomed the Compact as a new initiative to drive change, and a positive signal of the UK's continued leadership on development. We will continue to support new approaches like this as we modernise our approach to international development.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that sugar beet growers receive an adequate price for their product.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of sugar beet farmers who are vital to UK sugar production. Also, that sugar beet itself, used in crop rotations, is beneficial to soil and crop health and allows arable farms a season of “rest” from cereal production.
We are committed to promoting fairness across the food supply chain. That includes seeing a price agreed for sugar beet that benefits both growers and processors, in the context of the global market. There is a well-established process in place to agree the sugar beet price; designed to be independent between both parties. An Inter Professional Agreement is agreed each year between both parties and sets out the process for negotiating and agreeing price, terms and conditions for the upcoming crop year, as well as any dispute resolution process.