Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that public sector workers in Northern Ireland are able to receive a pay award that is equal to levels in England and Wales.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The UK Government is providing the Northern Ireland Executive with a comprehensive £3.3 billion spending settlement to stabilise public services, better manage public finances and pave the way for transformation of public services.
Within this package, the UK Government provided £846 million to support the Northern Ireland Executive’s budget pressures in 2023-24, including public sector pay pressures
It is the Executive’s responsibility to decide on the level of public sector pay awards for devolved areas in Northern Ireland and to balance these costs against other priorities.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to raise awareness of what can be done to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Prevention and early intervention are paramount to preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and we want to ensure that every family receives the support and guidance they need during the early days of parenthood.
Health visitors have an important role supporting child health, wellbeing, and parenting confidence. They support families in improving health literacy, managing minor illnesses, and preventing accidents, including promoting safe sleeping for babies. Health visitors can also work with early years services to ensure that safer sleep messages are promoted across early years services. Further information is available at the following link:
The Department is also working alongside NHS England and the National Child Mortality Database (NMCD) to increase the data bank on SIDS, to increase our evidence base, understanding, and inform actions and policy.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking with local authorities to improve the time taken to process planning applications.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We are taking action to speed up determinations for planning applications in a number of ways. Reforms in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act seek to streamline the development management process and support decisions which are timely, transparent, and of high quality.
The Government has also recently increased planning fees and provided a range of new funding streams through the Government’s capacity and capability programme, including the £29 million Planning Skills Delivery Fund to provide local planning authorities with additional resources needed to deliver a high quality and timely planning service.
In addition to this, on 6 March the Government launched an Accelerated Planning Service consultation. This sets out measures to offer a new application route with accelerated decision dates for major commercial applications and fee refunds wherever these are not met. It also includes measures to more closely monitor the performance of local planning authorities in making decisions within statutory periods rather than using extension of time agreements.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of people with long covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government does not currently routinely record the total number of people with long COVID, or new cases identified. However, the most recent data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that for the four week period ending 5 March 2023: 1.9 million people, or 2.9% of the population, in private households in the United Kingdom reported experiencing long COVID symptoms; 83,000 people first had, or suspected they had, COVID-19 less than 12 weeks previously; 1.73 million people had symptoms for 12 or more weeks, 1.3 million people for at least a year and 762,000 for at least two years; and 1.5 million people reported day-to-day activities adversely affected. Of these, 381,000 people reported that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.
On 25 April 2024, the ONS will be publishing additional analysis from the fortnightly Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study, including data on trends in ongoing symptoms of COVID-19. This article will expand on the existing analysis published in the Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study’s data tables, to look more in depth at trends in self-reported symptoms of COVID-19, including ongoing symptoms and associated risk factors.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of progress towards implementing the Sinjar agreement in Iraq.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Progress towards implementing the Sinjar Agreement has been hindered by a number of factors, including tensions between the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government and the extremely complex politics of the region. We encourage the governments to agree a candidate to appoint as mayor of Sinjar, an important and necessary step to improve the security situation and lives of people living there. The UK continues to work with international partners on this issue.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the Department of Health in Northern Ireland on NHS dental provision.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 13 December 2023, I met with the Ministers and officials from across the four nations to discuss dentistry provision. There was an agreement to continue to work on a United Kingdom-wide basis for international recruitment initiatives. The Permanent Secretary of Northern Ireland's Department of Health, alongside Government officials, was present for the meeting. The Government's Chief Dental Officer for England also meets regularly with his counterparts in the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she is taking steps to ensure that developers of wind farms supply a single point of contact for the public.
Answered by Graham Stuart
All applications for development consent are published on the Planning Inspectorates web-site and are publicly available. The information includes details of the applicant and a link to their web-site which also explains the purpose of the project and the applicant's contact details.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Energy intensive industries given £12 million boost to cut emissions and costs, published on 13 February 2023, how much of that £12 million went to businesses in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department announced £12 million funding awarded through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF). The IETF provides grant funding to existing industrial sites, helping industry to invest in more efficient technologies and reduce emissions by bringing down the costs and risks associated with investing in decarbonisation technologies. Of the £12 million announced in the press release, £1.5m of this went to businesses in Northern Ireland.
The Spring 2024 window of Phase 3 of the IETF is currently open to applications and closes on 19th April.
Information on competition winners of the IETF can be found here.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her expected timescale is for the availability of the Galleri blood test in cancer testing and diagnosis across the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS-Galleri trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help the National Health Service to detect cancer early, when used alongside existing cancer screening. The trial recruited the target of 140,000 participants, and interim results are expected in spring or summer 2024.
If the trial is successful, the NHS has committed to rolling out up to one million Galleri tests in 2024 and 2025, as part of an interim implementation pilot. The clinical trial is currently planned to conclude in 2025, with results expected in 2026.
Should the final results be positive, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) may consider the use of the test in a national screening programme. A UK NSC-recommended national screening programme would need to consider the effectiveness of the test, balancing the risk of false positives and unnecessary invasive treatments, against potential early detection.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will hold discussions with his Chinese counterpart on (a) ending transnational repression of and (b) the removal of bounties placed on Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in the UK.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We continue to make clear with the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities our strong objection to the National Security Law, and attempts to apply it extraterritorially. That extends to the decisions by the Hong Kong National Security Police to issue arrest warrants and bounties for activists living in the UK in 2023. We will not tolerate any attempts to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK. On 17 December, the Foreign Secretary called on the Chinese authorities to repeal the National Security Law and end the prosecution of all individuals charged under it. On 16 February the Foreign Secretary met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference and unambiguously set out the UK's position across a number of areas of disagreement, including on Hong Kong. The National Security Law has no authority in the UK and we have no active extradition agreement with Hong Kong or China.