Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to section 1 of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, what progress his Department has made on establishing the Supported Housing Advisory Panel.

Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Secretary of State is establishing The Supported Housing Advisory Panel in accordance with the duty set out in the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023. The primary focus of the Panel will be delivering better outcomes for people, and a fairer, more just approach to supported housing for the most vulnerable, as the measures in the Act are developed and implemented.

We will be recruiting the members through open competition and the advert will be open shortly.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Evidence Needs Statement published by the UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership in June 2023.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK established the cross-Administration UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership (UKBCEP) to progress the evidence base on blue carbon habitats in UK waters. Through this partnership, Defra, DESNZ and the Devolved Administrations share information, data and knowledge on blue carbon evidence across UK administrations.

The UKBCEP’s Evidence Needs Statement, published last year (2023), will support our ambition to fill critical evidence gaps relating to blue carbon habitats, increasing our understanding and thereby our ability to protect and restore these important habitats. These evidence gaps currently prevent the inclusion of coastal wetlands in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI)that would allow for saltmarsh habitats to contribute to the UK’s Net Zero target in accounting terms.

The UKBCEP’s Evidence Needs Statement will help to address this, and together with our £640,000 funding commitment, will enable the development of a UK Saltmarsh Code, which will allow saltmarsh carbon to be marketed and traded as a carbon offset, prompting further investment in these crucial habitats; and support the creation of a restoration project pipeline for blue carbon habitats in the UK.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress his Department has made on publishing national supported housing standards under the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023.

Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government is determined to improve standards in supported housing, which is why – thanks to my Hon Friend the Member for Harrow East - the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 provides for National Supported Housing Standards, which will be enforced through a licensing regime across all local authorities in England. In developing these standards, my department is engaging extensively including with residents of supported housing and people with lived experience. The Government will be consulting formally on the proposed National Supported Housing Standards in due course.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that people with neurodivergent conditions receive appropriate and accessible support when using public services.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The government are implementing a National Autism Strategy and the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan.

Additionally, the Department of Health and Social Care are rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training where part one has been completed by over 1.4 million people.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she plans to take to ensure that companies bidding for support under the Contracts for Difference Scheme are not solely reliant on China’s solar photovoltaic supply chain.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Renewable supply chain development is a key Government priority.  The Government asks that all large renewable projects seeking support through Contracts for Difference submit a Supply Chain Plan to the Government, setting out among other things their commitments to investment in the resilience of their supply chains, including diversification and tackling modern slavery.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including a grant scheme for saltmarshes in the Nature for Climate Fund.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The UK recognises the important role that saltmarsh can play in climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Saltmarsh habitats are also richly biodiverse, benefit fish stocks and provide a crucial buffer from coastal flooding.

Building on this recognition, the UK Government is supporting blue carbon restoration efforts through various initiatives, for example by providing £640,000 funding for domestic blue carbon habitat restoration.

This includes funds to support the development of a Saltmarsh Code to help drive investment flows from the private sector towards nature. This funding has also increased the capacity of the Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef initiative (ReMeMaRe), helping to create a pipeline of restoration projects in saltmarsh and other key estuarine and coastal habitats.

Defra has set up the UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership in partnership with the Devolved Administrations to address evidence gaps that currently prevent the inclusion of saltmarsh habitats in the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI). Inclusion of saltmarsh in the GHGI and the development of a Saltmarsh Code will allow blue carbon to be marketed and traded as a carbon offset, leveraging private investment into these vital natural carbon stores.

In addition, funding has been made available for saltmarsh restoration through the Landscape Recovery and Countryside Stewardship Environmental Land Management schemes. In the ELMS Countryside Stewardship scheme approximately 5,000 hectares of saltmarsh is being maintained or restored to a good condition.

The £750m of Nature for Climate funding is due to end in March 2025 and the Programme will be delivering against its agreed Business Case in that time. The Fund’s impact is being evaluated and any future funding for Trees, Peat and Saltmarshes will be a matter for the next Spending Review. We are continuing to explore further means of supporting saltmarsh restoration.

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 tackle microplastic pollution originating from textiles.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Microplastics can enter the environment from several sources such as vehicle tyre wear, machine-washing clothes and from textiles themselves.

Defra funded a rapid evidence assessment in 2022 to better understand the costs, benefits, and efficiencies of installing filters in washing machines to trap textile microfibres during the laundry cycle and before discharge to wastewater treatment works. Evidence gaps were identified from the review and the conclusion was made that further information is required to meet the legal framework to drive action. For example, there is a need to better understand how to avert additional costs incurred by consumers of new washing machines with filters, and the consumer’s sustainable disposal of used filters. We need to ensure all evidence to support the introduction of filters is robust and fully reviewed. We have conveyed this to the industry, and we look forward to any proposals they are able to share when they are able to do so.

We are also working with the UK water industry to understand the effectiveness of other interventions in the wastewater system to tackle microplastic pollution and to characterise and quantify microplastics and fibres entering wastewater treatment works. Research to-date shows that wastewater treatment plants are effective at removing microplastics and -fibres from wastewater from the home environment, with up to 99% of microplastic particles removed throughout the wastewater treatment process.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the extent of the impact of the (a) design and (b) manufacture of textiles on microplastic pollution.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Department has not made (actual) assessments of the impact of the design and manufacture of textiles on environmental microplastic pollution. Defra recently funded a project to develop and validate methods to detect, quantify and characterise microplastics and microplastic fibres from textiles used in clothing in rivers and their sediments. The techniques were tested on urban and rural rivers, and it was found higher levels of microplastics were present in the urban river.

Defra provided grant funding of £860000 to WRAP's Textiles 2030, which began in 2021. The programme brings together brands & retailers representing more than 62% of all clothing placed on the UK market to drive industry collaboration on circular design, circular business models, (resale, rental, subscription, repair, recycling) and closing the loop on materials (recycling).

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of wastewater treatment networks in filtering out microplastics.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Government recently funded an external rapid evidence assessment to better understand the costs, benefits, and efficiencies of installing filters in washing machines. The filters aim to trap textile microplastic fibres during the laundry cycle and before discharge to sewer networks and wastewater treatment works. The assessment concluded further evidence was needed to determine how to avert additional costs incurred by consumers of new washing machines with filters, and the consumer’s sustainable disposal of used filters.

A water industry investigation of the levels and types of microplastics entering a range of UK wastewater treatment works reported that conventional treatment can remove 99% of microplastics by number and 99.5% by mass.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to encourage investment in the energy supply chain industry.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The recently published BloombergNEF (BNEF) Energy Transition Investment Trends Report (2023) reported that total public and private investment in UK low-carbon sectors in 2023 reached £60 billion rising from £35 billion in 2022. The Government understands the importance of growing domestic energy supply chains, therefore at Spring Budget 2024 £120m funding to the Green Industries Growth Accelerator (GIGA) was announced, in addition to the £960m already allocated. This will support investments in manufacturing capabilities for the clean energy sectors where the UK has clear strengths: carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS), hydrogen, offshore wind, electricity networks, and nuclear. The Government is also providing up to £160 million to leverage private investment into the port infrastructure required to support floating offshore wind deployment at scale.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on steps to improve the efficiency of processing planning applications for large energy projects.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State has regular discussions with ministerial colleagues on a number of issues. Planning reform is discussed regularly at Cabinet level and there have been major Government announcements recently on this issue as part of the Autumn Statement and Spring Budget.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made an estimate of the number of energy projects waiting to be connected to the national grid.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Data from the Electricity System Operator (ESO) shows that there were 1530 energy projects in the transmission connection queue at the end of February 2024.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the assessment process for NHS continuing healthcare funding in accurately capturing the needs of people living with dementia.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has no plans at this time to assess the efficacy of the NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) assessment process. Eligibility for CHC is not determined by age, clinical condition, or financial means. It is assessed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the totality of an individual’s needs, including ways in which these interact with one another. We continue to work with our partners to deliver CHC policy effectively, including NHS England, who are responsible for oversight of CHC delivery.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made a recent estimate of the total cost to (a) consumers and (b) the Exchequer of issuing curtailment payments to energy companies in the last 12 months.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The System Operator is responsible for managing constraints on the networks. It does this by curtailing a type of generation, for example wind, and turning up an alternative generation, as needed. Costs are funded through electricity bills, not through the Exchequer. Annual network constraint costs for 2023 were £1.4bn (2023 prices).

To manage the level of constraints on the system and ensure the UK's homes can be powered by clean, green energy in future, government is working with Ofgem, network owners and others to halve the build process from 14 years to 7 through our Transmission Acceleration Action Plan.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how much the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment has spent on increasing the capacity of solar photovoltaic manufacturing.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) is a G7 initiative. The G7 plan to report in 2025 on amounts invested and mobilised. The UK is on track to meet our up to $40 billion contribution to the $600 billion target through our British Investment Partnerships work, which is supporting numerous renewable energy initiatives. In 2022, we improved access to clean energy for over 6 million people. Our investments include: $69 million by the Private Infrastructure Development Group; support by British International Investment to a $36 million solar PV storage plant in Mozambique; eight solar projects through Manufacturing Africa unlocking £26.7 million, and £6 million through the Transforming Energy Access platform.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the average amount of microplastics present in sewage sludge.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Research has been performed to improve the understanding of microplastics in sewage sludge. Defra has contributed to the design and development of the UK Water Industry Research funded and led Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP) in this area. While the third CIP phase, reported in 2022, estimated an average mass of microplastics in final sludge products (generated from the sewage treatment processes), it was noted there could be large differences in the estimated values, and in sludge products from different works, and between sludge product samples taken at different occasions from the same treatment works.

Found: Helen Hayes MP ( Labour, Dulwich and West Norwood ), Marco Longhi MP ( Conservative, Dudley North ), Kerry

Found: Helen Hayes MP ( Labour, Dulwich and West Norwood ), Marco Longhi MP ( Conservative, Dudley North ), Kerry

Found: Helen Hayes MP ( Labour, Dulwich and West Norwood ), Marco Longhi MP ( Conservative, Dudley North ), Kerry