Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help banks and payment service providers to easily (a) identify and (b) prevent romance scams.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government takes the issue of authorised push payment (APP) fraud, of which romance fraud is one form, very seriously, and is dedicated to protecting the public from this devastating crime. Working alongside the regulators, law enforcement, and industry, the Government continues to support numerous fraud-prevention initiatives, including the Payments Systems Regulator’s work to enhance information sharing between payment providers.
Information sharing between firms plays a key role in identifying scammers and preventing scams. As noted in the Home Office’s recent Fraud Strategy, the Government, regulators and industry are working together to identify opportunities for greater information sharing to better tackle fraud ‘up stream’. The PSR has set up an industry working group, including Pay.UK and UK Finance, to agree what data could be shared.
In order to prevent APP fraud, HM Treasury is investigating amending legislation to enable payment service providers such as banks to delay payments beyond the existing legislative timescales in limited, high-risk fraud scenarios. This will allow enhanced customer engagement to take place. This could enable firms to take more of a ‘risk-based’ approach to payments processing.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182475 on Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control, if she will make it her policy to change the compensation calculation for farmers in England whose cattle have been culled due to tuberculosis so that each animal is individually valued.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Until 2006, compensation for TB affected cattle in England was determined using individual valuations. There was however significant evidence of overcompensation so, following a public consultation in 2004, Defra moved to a table-based valuation system. Almost all cases of TB compensation in England are now determined using table valuations. Table valuations are objective and based on real market data. There are no plans to alter this approach.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress his Department has made on expanding the availability of 12-week transitional accommodation for prison leavers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The transitional Community Accommodation Service-Tier 3 (CAS3) was launched in 2021, initially in five probation regions, providing up to 12 weeks' accommodation on release, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Between 1 July 2021 and 17 June 2022, over 2,300 individuals, who would have otherwise been homeless, were accepted on to CAS3.
We expanded the service to cover Wales in June 2022, and are now in the process of extending it to the remaining six probation regions in England, to support the thousands of offenders who leave prison homeless.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 23 February 2023 to Question 148528 on Asbestos: Regulation, what the outcome is of the further review by the Health and Safety Executive of its retained EU Law which could impact on the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is not in a position to confirm the outcome of its review of retained EU law at this current time. HSE will communicate its decisions as soon as possible at the appropriate time.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with her counterpart in the Welsh Government on differences between compensation payments in England and Wales for farmers whose cattle have been culled as a result of tuberculosis; and whether she plans to take steps with her counterpart to align compensation payment levels.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Bovine TB is the most significant animal health problem facing cattle keepers in England and Wales and so my Department works closely with Welsh Government to support the development of more effective disease eradication policies. However, responsibility for animal health matters, including approaches to compensation, is fully devolved.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of cancer patients received radiotherapy cancer treatments in Loughborough in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This data is not held centrally in the format requested.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
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 there is no regional variation in access to radiotherapy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for setting evidence-based national service standards for radiotherapy and for ensuring that these, as well as any applicable Technology Appraisal Guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, are implemented within local systems. These arrangements will be further strengthened by the establishment of nine specialised commissioning joint statutory committees, which will bring regional specialised commissioning expertise and integrated care systems together.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the theft of tools from vans.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is working with Combined Industries Theft Solutions (CITS) and the police-led National Business Crime Centre to explore ways to prevent the theft of tools including theft from vans.
We are working closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, chaired by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime, taking forward a programme of work to prevent and reduce theft of and from vehicles, which includes training police officers on methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles and working with industry to address vulnerability in vehicles.
The Government is tackling acquisitive crime as a priority and is committed to reducing the ability for criminals to profit from crime, making it less attractive for offenders to commit thefts of goods, including tools. We have established a group of expert policing and academic partners who are taking forward work across a number of themes. These include actions to identify where and how stolen goods are sold; examining ways to ensure property is marked, identifiable and traceable; and encouraging due diligence checks by second-hand traders and increased enforcement from police.
We are looking at adding this by SI to the matters covered by Greg Smith's PMB once it has passed.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help ensure that businesses separate recyclable waste from general waste.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We want to increase the recycling of packaging material, food and other recyclable material in the ‘non-household’ municipal sector, which includes businesses, public organisations (e.g. schools, universities, hospitals and government buildings) and other organisations. This will help us to increase the amount of material that we recycle and reduce the amount of waste that we send to landfill.
Following support in response to initial consultation, the Environment Act 2021 stipulates that all businesses will be required to arrange for the collection of a core set of materials (glass; paper and card; plastic; metal; and food waste) for recycling in England
In 2021 we published a second consultation on recycling consistency. This consultation sought views on increasing consistency in recycling, including on the materials in scope of collection; exemptions; statutory guidance for waste collectors and cost reduction options for micro firms.
We are finalising our policy positions and analysis for impact assessment – we aim to publish the consultation response soon.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
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 adequacy of the data available on the trends in the levels of practitioners in the dental workforce.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department and it’s arms length bodies utilise data collected by NHS Digital on the dental workforce, including on levels of practitioners in the dental workforce, which are available via the following links:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/dental-working-hours
This data is adequate for the role of informing policy in relation to National Health Service dentistry.