Lord Lansley

The Department for Business and Trade held a public Call for Input into a trade deal with Maldives and is evaluating those responses and other factors to ensure that the opinions and interests of businesses, civil society groups, trade unions, public bodies and individuals are considered.

The start of negotiations would be preceded by the publication of our strategic approach.

The UK is not currently a member of the UNWTO. However, the previous Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism met the UNWTO Secretary General at the World Travel Market in November 2019 and DCMS officials regularly engage with the UNWTO.

We are aware that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) listed an emergency use authorisation for Evusheld in December 2021, which was revised on 24 February 2022. The FDA has modified their dosing regimen according to its available data and consider that a higher dose of Evusheld may be more likely to prevent infection by the Omicron subvariants BA.1 and BA.1.1 than the originally authorised Evusheld dose.

We continue to monitor emerging data for Evusheld and other treatments for applicability in the United Kingdom for prevalent variants and which patient groups could potentially benefit. Evusheld is not currently authorised in the UK.

The Department is exploring prophylactic use of antivirals for the immunocompromised and evidence continues to be reviewed for potential use in the National Health Service.

The RAPID C-19 collaboration considers national and international trial evidence as it emerges for COVID-19 therapies, for potential treatment and prophylactic indications.

Later this spring, a post-exposure prophylaxis sub-study is expected as part of the PANORAMIC national study to investigate the effect of prescribing oral antivirals to those who are a household contact of a COVID-19 positive individual. In addition, the PROTECT-V study is trialling sotrovimab and niclosamide as prophylactic drugs administered over a six-month period in vulnerable renal and immunosuppressed patients.

HMG is not providing any funding to the Albanian prison system at present. We have no specific plans to provide financial support to the Albanian prison system, although we continue to scope out possibilities for collaboration in areas of shared interest and benefit, including assisting reform of the Albanian justice system.

Sudan is not subject to multilateral economic sanctions. The multilateral sanctions in force are those by the UN and EU focused on Darfur, covering arms embargoes and targets sanctions on individuals associated with human rights abuses. The US lifted bilateral economic sanctions on Sudan in October 2017. Sudan does however remain on the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. The UK is working with the Government of Sudan and international partners to help address Sudan's severe economic challenges as an important part of supporting the transition to democracy agreed in 2019.

The Government is aware from both local planning authorities and the development industry that, with delays caused by COVID-19, there is a risk of unimplemented planning permissions lapsing, undermining the delivery of projects. We recognise these concerns and we are considering whether permissions should be extended.

The Government recognises the disruption Covid-19 has caused to housebuilding, which is why we have taken decisive steps to re-open the housing market and ensure housebuilding can now safely recommence, with immediate effect. The Government published a “Plan to Rebuild” on Monday 11 May, setting out the UK Government’s Covid-19 recovery strategy. This makes clear that construction work can be undertaken across England providing sites are able to operate safely in line with Covid-19 guidelines. A number of developers have already announced plans to restart work on sites.

To support customers, Help to Buy Equity Loan Agents are already offering more time for purchasers to complete their transactions. Homes England released this guidance on 1 May.

The Government will examine the most suitable delivery vehicles and associated legislation for bringing forward development at scale and meeting our objectives for sustainability and high-quality design. This will include looking at the case for Government using its own powers to establish new town or urban development corporations. Any development corporation, whether proposed by Government or local bodies, should always entail appropriate community involvement.

The Government will examine the most suitable delivery vehicles and associated legislation for bringing forward development at scale and meeting our objectives for sustainability and high-quality design. This will include looking at the case for Government using its own powers to establish new town or urban development corporations. Any development corporation, whether proposed by Government or local bodies, should always entail appropriate community involvement.

The Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service continue to remove foreign national offenders (FNOs) where routes are available. Between January 2019 and June 2021, 9,286 FNOs were removed from the UK.

We are absolutely committed to removing FNOs from the UK and we continue to work closely with international governments to maximise the removal of serious and persistent offenders.

We are regularly reviewing progress to ensure that all options are being pursued and that our early removal mechanisms are working as effectively as possible.

A revised Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) between the UK and Albania was signed in July 2021, replacing an earlier Agreement to allow for a wider adaptation of sentences to align the custodial periods on transfer. Both parties agreed at the time of signature not to specify exact numbers of returns, since a new Albanian government due to be formed in September 2021. We have not had any formal requests to enter into discussions with the new administration.

To date, 24 Albanian prisoners have been transferred to serve their prison sentences in their home country.