Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will meet with the UK plastics recycling industry to discuss the exclusion of UK recyclate from the End of Life Vehicles regulations.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are monitoring ‘European preference’ and ‘Made in Europe’ clauses included in legislation and strategies. We are working across government departments and with key industry stakeholders to understand potential impacts. The government is also reviewing the new EU circularity requirements for vehicle design and on management of end-of-life vehicles to determine the potential impacts for UK businesses. We recognise the interconnected nature of the automotive industry between UK and EU markets, and we will work with industry and other key stakeholders to assess the implications of the EU’s new regulations, particularly on end-of-life vehicles.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of excluding UK recyclate from the End of Life Vehicles regulations on (a) the environment and (b) the plastics industry.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are monitoring ‘European preference’ and ‘Made in Europe’ clauses included in legislation and strategies. We are working across government departments and with key industry stakeholders to understand potential impacts. The government is also reviewing the new EU circularity requirements for vehicle design and on management of end-of-life vehicles to determine the potential impacts for UK businesses. We recognise the interconnected nature of the automotive industry between UK and EU markets, and we will work with industry and other key stakeholders to assess the implications of the EU’s new regulations, particularly on end-of-life vehicles.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of excluding UK recyclate from the Single Use Plastics Directive on (a) the environment and (b) the plastics industry.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are monitoring ‘European preference’ and ‘Made in Europe’ clauses included in legislation and strategies. We are working across Government departments and with key industry stakeholders to understand potential impacts.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has considered the potential merits of creating a dedicated disability rights enforcement body.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) holds the role of enforcing equality legislation as part of its statutory obligations, including protection from disability discrimination. The EHRC is an independent Non Departmental Public Body and Great Britain’s national equality and human rights body. It regulates equality law across England, Wales and Scotland and human rights across England & Wales. The EHRC makes its own enforcement decisions, including any inquiries and investigations it decides to conduct.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the avenues available to disabled persons to (a) access and (b) enforce their rights as prescribed by the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) protects people who have a long-term physical or mental impairment that substantially affects their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The Act provides a range of protection for disabled people in a range of areas of life - including employment, services, education and transport. The types of protection include direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, discrimination arising from disability, the duty to make reasonable adjustments, harassment and victimisation.
Any disabled person who may have been personally discriminated against because of a disability may also contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). EASS is a government-commissioned helpline that provides free advice and support to individuals in England, Scotland, and Wales on issues relating to equality and human rights. Although EASS does not provide legal advice or enforce the Equality Act 2010, it supports individuals to resolve their disputes informally and can refer cases to the Equality & Human Rights Commission.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has an enforcement role and is able to provide individuals with support in bringing cases. As an independent body, it makes its own decisions on how best to use its resources to offer support in cases that have a strategic or wider significance.
Further details about the referral process is available on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/our-work/our-legal-work/our-legal-powers/contacting-us-about-legal-issue.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the data protection practices of overseas third-party age-verification providers operating under the Online Safety Act.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act impose obligations on data controllers – which include age verification services - to process data fairly, lawfully, and transparently. The UK’s data protection legislation provides for extraterritorial scope, which applies to organisations offering goods or services or monitoring the behaviour of data subjects within the UK.
The Information Commissioner’ Office can investigate any concerns raised about the misuse or mishandling of data.
Ofcom and the ICO recently issued a joint statement on age assurance to provide greater clarity on how services can meet their obligations under the OSA and UK data protection legislation.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
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 18 March 2026 to Question 115765, on NHS: Redundancy Pay, whether he will consider giving the NHS Staff Council a mandate to negotiate NHS partial retirement and statutory redundancy payments with trade unions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has received correspondence from the NHS Staff Council on this matter.
The Department considers all requests from the NHS Staff Council for a mandate to negotiate and make changes to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service on a case-by-case basis. Changes to policy are considered in light of the available evidence, analysis, and relevant legal advice.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many households in (a) Salford and (b) Wigan were assessed as owed homelessness duty, broken down into (i) prevention duty, (ii) relief duty and (iii) main duty in each year since 2020.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government collects data on the number of people in temporary accommodation as a quarterly snapshot. To compare the number of people in temporary accommodation in Salford and Wigan year-on-year, you can compare the latest data from 30 September 2025 here with the same day in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.
The government publishes annual data on the number of households owed a prevention and relief duty by local authority. You can find the data on gov.uk for 2024/25, 2023/24, 2022/23, 2021/22 and 2020/21. If homelessness is not successfully prevented or relieved and an applicant is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance and has priority need, the main duty is owed and the applicant will be placed in temporary accommodation. To compare the number of people owed a main duty in Salford and Wigan year-on-year, you can use the links to the published temporary accommodation data given above.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many households were living in temporary accommodation in (a) Salford and (b) Wigan in each year since 2020.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government collects data on the number of people in temporary accommodation as a quarterly snapshot. To compare the number of people in temporary accommodation in Salford and Wigan year-on-year, you can compare the latest data from 30 September 2025 here with the same day in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.
The government publishes annual data on the number of households owed a prevention and relief duty by local authority. You can find the data on gov.uk for 2024/25, 2023/24, 2022/23, 2021/22 and 2020/21. If homelessness is not successfully prevented or relieved and an applicant is unintentionally homeless, eligible for assistance and has priority need, the main duty is owed and the applicant will be placed in temporary accommodation. To compare the number of people owed a main duty in Salford and Wigan year-on-year, you can use the links to the published temporary accommodation data given above.
Asked by: Michael Wheeler (Labour - Worsley and Eccles)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of dwellings in the private rented sector in (a) Salford and (b) Wigan in each year since 2020.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Office for National Statistics publishes annual estimates of private rented sector dwellings in each local authority. These estimates can be found on gov.uk here.