Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
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 monitor and tackle the environmental impact of single-use packaging waste on terrestrial trail ecosystems, including public rights of way.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local councils are responsible for keeping their public land clear of litter and refuse.
We are targeting some of the more commonly littered items to reduce the presence of these in our communities. The sale of single-use vapes was banned from 1 June 2025 and a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers will go live in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland in October 2027. The Deposit Return Scheme will cover plastic and metal drinks containers (like bottles and cans which make up 55% of litter volume), and the goal is to reduce litter and help keep our streets, rivers, and oceans clean.
We have a number of restrictions on other unnecessary single use plastic products and we will continue to review the latest evidence on problematic products and/or materials to take a systematic approach, in line with circular economy principles, to reduce the use of unnecessary single-use plastic products and encourage reuse solutions. These measures help reduce litter at the source and reduce pollution on terrestrial trail ecosystems.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will review the current eligibility criteria for NHS-funded COVID-19 vaccinations, in light of the emergence of a new variant and rising hospitalisations.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation carefully considered the latest evidence on the risk of hospitalisation and mortality in specific groups, as well as cost-effectiveness analysis, in order to provide the Government with advice on the autumn 2025 programme. The evidence indicates that whilst the risk from COVID-19 is now much lower for most people, adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and those who are immunosuppressed are those at highest risk of serious COVID-19 disease.
Therefore, a more targeted vaccination programme aimed at individuals with a higher risk of developing serious disease, and where vaccination was considered potentially cost-effective, was advised for autumn 2025.
The latest UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) data in the national flu and COVID-19 surveillance report supports the current eligibility, showing that there is a strong association between age and COVID-19 hospitalisation rates. The highest hospital admission rate for COVID-19 in the report published on 27 November 2025 was in those aged 85 years old and over.
Currently XFG and its sub lineages, sometimes called the ‘Stratus’ variant, are the most prevalent SARS-CoV-2 lineages in England. This lineage is closely related to previous variants that circulated in the United Kingdom. At this time there is no indication that XFG causes more serious disease, or that the vaccines being used in the autumn 2025 campaign will not be effective against it. The UKHSA will continue to monitor both COVID-19 outcomes and variant prevalence as we enter the winter season.