Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling mobile phone roaming between mobile service network operators in rural areas.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is committed to extending geographic mobile coverage to 95% of the UK by 2022, as well as providing an uninterrupted mobile signal on all major roads.
Roaming in rural areas has the potential to improve consumer choice and could be a solution for the problem of “partial not-spots.” This is currently mandated for emergency calls so that a 999 call can be made from any mobile in all areas where there is a signal from at least one operator.
The Government’s recently published consultation on our Statement of Strategic Priorities urges Ofcom to fully consider the costs and benefits of roaming as an approach to improving mobile coverage more generally, and to maintain the option of requiring roaming by including appropriate provisions when granting rights of use for spectrum.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with devolved Administrations on the consultation on proposed amendments to the domestic Food Information Regulations 2014 (FIR) (England) and parallel FIR regulations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales relating to allergen information for foods that are prepacked for direct sale to the consumer on the same premises from which they are sold.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The consultation on allergen information provisions, which closed on Friday 29 March, was a joint UK wide consultation between Defra, the Foods Standards Agency in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and Food Standards Scotland. As food labelling is a devolved issue, the decision to run the consultation across the whole of the United Kingdom was dependent upon the support and involvement of the devolved administrations. Throughout the process, Defra officials have been working closely with officials from Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency.
Looking to the future, we will continue to work closely with the devolved administrations to ensure that all UK consumers have complete trust in the food they consume.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with eating disorders clinicians on how to improve (a) treatment wait times, (b) inpatient care, (c) outpatient care and (d) post-treatment support.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
It is the role of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide evidence and guidance to the National Health Service on healthcare. NICE has published guidance on the recognition and treatment of people with eating disorders. NICE guidelines are based on the best available evidence, with recommendations put together by clinical experts, people using services, carers and the public.
The ‘eating disorders: recognition and treatment guideline’ (NG 69) was published in 2004 and revised in 2017. It includes information on inpatient and day patient treatment, and monitoring people not in treatment. It is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG69
For waiting times, NHS England commissioned the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) to develop the ‘Access and Waiting Time Standard for Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder’ Commissioning Guide. The guidance sets out how commissioners and providers should improve treatment pathways to meet the access and waiting time standard.
To inform the work of the team that drafted the guide, the NCCMH set up an Expert Reference Group made up of professionals and clinicians from specialist and technical areas. The guide therefore builds on views from over 700 professionals and 1,700 children and young people.
The guidance was published in 2015 and is available at the following link:
The ‘Clinically-led Review of NHS Access Standards’ Interim Report, published in March, states that NHS England will test four-week waiting times for adult and older adult community mental health and it is expected that eating disorders will be included in this. The proposals will be field tested at a selection of pilot sites across England, before wider implementation. Alongside the field testing, engagement will take place across the health service before making recommendations to the Government and full implementation beginning spring 2020.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions his Department has had with representatives from the (a) hospitality sector, (b) agriculture sector and (c) health sector on the immigration White Paper.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government published the White Paper ;The UK’s future skills-based immigration system (Cm 9722) on 19 December 2018. The White Paper is the start of a new conversation and we have launched a year-long engagement programme to take the views of stakeholders across the UK to hear their priorities, concerns and ideas before policies and processes are finalised and the new system comes into force from January 2021. We are determined to ensure that the future system is efficient and able to respond to users’ needs.
We have already delivered around 30 events reaching well over 500 stakeholders, for example, business and employer representatives, including the Confederation of Business Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses, as well as those from the health and social care sector, the hospitality industry and the construction and automotive industries. We are holding discussions with sectors and also across the UK, and have already held events in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with events in Wales being scheduled for April This is in addition to our continued engagement and negotiations with the EU and international partners.
As part of this engagement, we have established a range of advisory groups to enable detailed discussions with private, public and voluntary sector employers and industry representatives. Membership details of these groups will be published on gov.uk shortly.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Migration Advisory Committee on future immigration policy after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
My Rt Hon Friend the Home Secretary and I met the Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee on 20 March 2019.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has had discussions with the devolved Administrations on the development of solar energy in (a) Angus and (b) other parts of Scotland; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
Ministers and officials in the Department regularly discuss a range of issues with the devolved administrations. At official level, the Department has increased its engagement with the Scottish Government. In January, the BEIS Permanent Secretary jointly chaired a Senior Civil Service away day with his Scottish Government counterpart, where amongst other issues, energy was discussed.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing banking hubs in rural locations.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Decisions on opening and closing bank branches are taken by the management team of each bank on a commercial basis. Banks themselves are best placed to make these commercial decisions based on their strategies. However, the Government has and will continue to encourage providers to think creatively about the merits of alternative models including in rural areas.
Existing services, such as the Post Office, already offer a range of banking services across an extensive network that ensures essential banking facilities remain available in as many communities as possible. Individual and small business customers can withdraw money, deposit cash and cheques and check balances at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.
Since 2010, Post Office branch numbers have been at their most stable for decades and 99% of the national population now lives within three miles of a branch. Furthermore, 93% of the national population live within one mile of their nearest post office branch. Almost 98.7% of the rural population lives within 3 miles of a post office.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what analysis his Department has carried out on the correlation between changes in crude oil prices and changes in petrol and diesel prices paid by motorist at the pumps.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The pump prices for petrol and diesel are affected by a number of factors including the oil price and exchange rate. It is important for motorists to be confident that they are being treated fairly, and that when wholesale costs of fuel come down, these reductions are passed on transparently, and without unnecessary delay.
The Government believes this is achieved through effective market competition. In 2013, the Office of Fair Trading found that competition in the road fuels sector was working relatively effectively, although a competition problem was identified in the market for road fuels on motorways, for which action was taken at Autumn Statement 2014.
The Government will continue to make it clear to industry that it expects it to pass any savings that result from lower oil prices onto customers.
The Government has also frozen fuel duty in every year from 2011 to lessen the impact of high fuel prices on households and business costs. By the end of 2019-20, fuel duty will have been frozen for nine successive years, saving the average car driver £1000 compared to the pre-2010 fuel duty escalator plans.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent discussions his Department has had with other UK Government departments on increasing the number of civil service personnel outside of London.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Places for Growth programme seeks to deliver the Government’s commitment to
move Civil Service roles and public bodies out of London and the South East of England
This commitment was set out in the Conservative Party Manifesto of 2017 and then
restated in the Industrial Strategy White Paper and the Government Estates Strategy (July
2018)
The Cabinet Office is supporting departments and public bodies to identify opportunities
for relocation of roles to cities across the regions and nations of the United Kingdom. The
Programme is providing support and coordination across Whitehall to move roles and
organisations to locations that have the skills and capacity to enable organisations and
cities to flourish
The Programme is also engaging with city leaders across the UK to understand the local
economic and industrial priorities which will inform the decision-making process.
Asked by: Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government is going to meet the targets for referral to treatment of individuals with eating disorders of (a) four weeks for under-19s and (b) one week for the most severe cases.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The National Health Service is making good progress towards the children and young people’s eating disorder waiting time target, with latest data for Quarter 3 2018/19 (October – December 2018) showing that 80.7% of young people started treatment for an urgent case within one week against a target of 95% by 2020/21. This report also showed that 86.8% of young people started treatment for a routine case within four weeks against a target of 95% by 2020/21.
This data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cyped-waiting-times/