Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to publish a consultation on banning the sale of single-use e-cigarettes.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government recently ran a call for evidence on youth vaping (using an e-cigarette), which closed on 6 June. This will identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vaping products and explore where the Government can go further, including on disposable vapes. As part of this process, we are assessing a range of factors such as the economic impact of any future restrictions including related to disposable vapes. We will respond to the call for evidence shortly.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of (a) the industry proposal to introduce fines of £10,000 to retailers found selling e-cigarettes to children and (b) other alternative strategies to reduce youth access to single use e-cigarettes.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No assessment has been made of the proposal to introduce fines of £10,000 to retailers found selling vapes (e-cigarettes) to children. The Government recently ran a call for evidence on youth vaping, which closed on 6 June. This will identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vaping products and explore where the Government can go further, including on single use vapes. We will respond to the call for evidence shortly.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department held discussions with disability groups prior to the award of the assessment contract to Capita by the Student Loans Company.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Procurement for this contract was managed by the Student Loans Company (SLC). SLC, through its Disabled Students’ Stakeholder Group (DSSG), has important relationships with third sector bodies and advocacy groups in the education and disability sectors. SLC engaged with a number of organisations who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights in developing quality standards for the new model, prior to the invitation to tender, which was published in July 2022. To support the new service design, SLC also established a DSSG Procurement sub-group consisting of DSSG members and other sector bodies to discuss how the new quality standards could be defined and measured at each stage of the customer journey. SLC also invited written contributions from members.
As this procurement was managed by SLC, the Department did not hold any discussions with disability groups on this matter prior to the contract being awarded.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of implementing the statutory gambling operator levy as a smart levy.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government’s recent white paper set out a range of proportionate measures to tackle practices and products which can drive harm and ensure that people who are at risk of gambling harm and addiction are protected. This includes a statutory levy on operators that will help fund research, education and treatment for those struggling with gambling addiction.
We will shortly consult on the details of how the levy will be designed, including proposals on the total amount to be raised by the levy and how it will be constructed, ensuring that a rate is fair and proportionate for different gambling sectors, including the land-based gambling industry. This approach will account for the varying association of different sectors with harm and their financial position.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish the Dental Recovery Plan.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are currently working on a plan for dentistry, to be published shortly, to improve access to dental care across England. There are several fronts where we need to take further action to support and recover activity in National Health Service dentistry, to improve access to care for all ages.
Our plan for dentistry will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. Our plan will include addressing how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with the World Bank on the countries it is negotiating with on (a) development policy financing and (b) seed laws.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The World Bank does not have a policy in place that restricts farmers in choosing their seeds. The Bank advocates the use of quality seeds and has helped protect farmers, local production, and food security in developing countries. An efficient national agricultural innovation system and an effective seed certification system is essential to meet the challenges agriculture faces in developing countries. The UK is supporting this longer-term goal to do both, boost food security, incomes, and climate adaptation and resilience. World Bank operations, including also development policy loans, are designed at country level, in support of government priorities and plans and in consultation with other stakeholders. The World Bank has committed to full alignment of all its sovereign lending with the Paris Agreement by 1 July 2023. We are holding the Bank to account through the Board.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of increasing limits on (a) stakes and (b) prizes for the land-based gambling industry.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Our gambling white paper set out the government’s plans for modernising the regulation of gambling in Great Britain. This included a number of measures to adjust outdated and overly restrictive rules to enable the land-based sectors to thrive sustainably. The reforms strike a balance between respecting the choices of people who gamble safely, and ensuring those that are at risk of gambling harm and addiction are protected and safeguarded.
The white paper proposed a raft of changes which will benefit the land-based sector, including a reform of outdated restrictions on gaming machine supply and modernisation of payment methods across the land-based sector. Since publishing the white paper, ministers and officials have engaged with representatives across the land-based sector to understand a range of issues of interest, including stakes and prizes.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the (a) side effects of abortion pills and (b) rate and severity of complications that arise from abortion pills taken at home instead of in a clinic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No formal assessment has been made on either of the points raised. Like any medication, some women may experience side effects from taking abortion pills. In accordance with clinical guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on abortion care, services should provide all women with information on what to expect during and after an abortion and how to identify signs and symptoms that indicate they need to seek medical attention and who to contact if they do.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of changes in the level of costs to the NHS since the (a) approval of taking the second abortion pill at home in 2018 and (b) temporary approval during the pandemic and subsequent permanent approval of taking both abortion pills at home in 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such estimate has been made.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 July 2023 to Question 191860 on WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, who will lead the UK delegation; what instructions his officials will be given on the authorisation of measures that will involve a cost to the public purse; and if he will make a statement to the House on (a) his Department's approach before and (b) the outcomes of the convention after November 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The United Kingdom delegation will consist of officials from the Department of Health and Social Care, as is usual practice for this Conference of the Parties. A decision on who will attend is yet to be made.
The delegation will not agree to any decisions which would impact on our ability to deliver our bold ambition to be Smokefree by 2030. Any measures involving a cost to the public purse will follow the normal Departmental approval processes.
Following the conference, decisions will be published on the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control website. There are no plans for a statement on the conference to be made to the House.