Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the (a) UK-EU Summit - Joint Statement, updated 19 May 2025, (b) UK-EU Summit - Common Understanding, updated 19 May 2025 and (c) UK-EU security and defence partnership, published 19 May 2025, when measures relating to UK passport holders using EU eGates will be able to take effect.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The UK-EU Common Understanding confirms that there will be no legal barriers to eGate use for British Nationals traveling to and from EU Member States after the introduction of the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES). This is a positive step forward and we are now working quickly with Member States to get these arrangements in place and improve our citizens’ travel experience reducing lengthy and imbalanced queues at various entry points across the EU.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the (a) UK-EU Summit - Joint Statement, updated 19 May 2025, (b) UK-EU Summit - Common Understanding, updated 19 May 2025 and (c) UK-EU security and defence partnership, published 19 May 2025, what his planned timetable is for discussions with (i) the EU and (ii) EU Member States on improving access arrangements for touring in Europe.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 19 May, the Government published a renewed agenda for UK-EU cooperation. The Government agreed with the European Commission to proceed swiftly with the commitments and will keep Parliament updated on significant developments.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the (a) UK-EU Summit - Joint Statement, updated 19 May 2025, (b) UK-EU Summit - Common Understanding, updated 19 May 2025 and (c) UK-EU security and defence partnership, published 19 May 2025, what his planned timetable is for agreeing measures for increased exchange of criminal records for (i) third country and (ii) other nationals in the UK and EU.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 19 May, the Government published a renewed agenda for UK-EU cooperation. The Government agreed with the European Commission to proceed swiftly with the commitments and will keep Parliament updated on significant developments.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the (a) UK-EU Summit - Joint Statement, updated 19 May 2025, (b) UK-EU Summit - Common Understanding, updated 19 May 2025 and (c) UK-EU security and defence partnership, published 19 May 2025, what his planned timetable is to agree arrangements enabling information exchange between the UK and the EU Drugs Agency on drug-related threats.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 19 May, the Government published a renewed agenda for UK-EU cooperation. The Government agreed with the European Commission to proceed swiftly with the commitments and will keep Parliament updated on significant developments.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the (a) UK-EU Summit - Joint Statement, updated 19 May 2025, (b) UK-EU Summit - Common Understanding, updated 19 May 2025 and (c) UK-EU security and defence partnership, published 19 May 2025, what his planned timetable is for discussions on arrangements to enable information exchange between the UK and the EU Drugs Agency.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 19 May, the Government published a renewed agenda for UK-EU cooperation. The Government agreed with the European Commission to proceed swiftly with the commitments and will keep Parliament updated on significant developments.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to section 2.1 of HM Treasury's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, how much the Environment Agency's priority tracked service cost.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency launched the priority tracked service on 1 April 2025. The priority tracked service is an optional service paid for by service users. The service will fully recover its costs and scale up to reflect uptake. Currently, charges are £100 per hour.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to section 2.1 of HM Treasury's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, when the Environment Agency's priority tracked service will launch.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency launched the priority tracked service on 1 April 2025. The priority tracked service is an optional service paid for by service users. The service will fully recover its costs and scale up to reflect uptake. Currently, charges are £100 per hour.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to section 2.1 of HM Treasury’s policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, which new initiatives have been launched to support priority sectors.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra, jointly with Welsh Government are currently consulting on proposals to streamline the process for setting and amending exemptions within the environmental permitting framework, empowering regulators to operate in an agile and outcome-driven fashion in support of both economic growth and environmental protections.
The regulations the Environment Agency (EA) implements spans aspects of sectors, such as advance manufacturing and clean energy, in the priority list. In April the EA launched a pilot priority tracked service for significant infrastructure and major housebuilding projects, ahead of launching a full service later in the year, to allow developers to work with a dedicated team on their permits and track progress. On 31st March, the EA launched a “standard rules” approach to support research and development activities at industrial installations, this will make it easier to trial and scale-up new technologies and processes to boost investment and productivity.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to section 2 of her Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, when the administrative costs of regulation baselining exercise will conclude.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government has committed to cut the administrative costs of regulation to business by 25% by the end of this Parliament. To do this, we must determine the cumulative administrative costs of regulation which has not been done for 15 years. At that time, the exercise took approximately 18 months, which was consistent with efforts of other countries that have undertaken similar exercises.
We are working in partnership with businesses to understand their real-life experiences of regulatory compliance to establish a robust regulatory baseline. We will publish an update on this baseline exercise and our expected timelines in due course.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to section 2 of the policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, how many people are employed by the British Hallmarking Council.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)