Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to help encourage the manufacture of new zero-emission aircraft.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
As part of the Jet Zero Strategy, government co-invests in zero-carbon aircraft technology through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme. To date, it has supported collaborative R&D projects totalling over £500m which will help develop new and enabling technologies for zero emission aircraft.
Government provided a £15m grant to the ATI-led FlyZero project, which found that green liquid hydrogen offers the greatest potential to power future zero-carbon emission aircraft. Building on FlyZero, government is funding the ATI-led ‘Hydrogen Capability Network Phase 0 Project’ to accelerate the development of liquid hydrogen propulsion aircraft technologies, capabilities and skills in the UK.
Government also set up the Jet Zero Council, a partnership with industry to drive the ambitious delivery of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions. It includes a focused Zero Emission Flight Delivery Group to advise on how government and industry can put the UK in a leading position in the race to achieve zero emission flight.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending planning regulations for telecommunication infrastructure upgrades to allow objections to be considered where masts or cabinets are to be located on an existing footpath or cycleway and where sufficient space for the proposed infrastructure is available adjacent to the proposed site.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Through our UK Wireless Infrastructure Strategy the government has set a new ambition of nationwide coverage of standalone 5G to all populated areas by 2030, as well as outlining our commitment to extending 4G coverage to 95% of the UK's landmass.
On 4 April 2022 amendments to Part 16 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 came into force to support the deployment of 5G and extend mobile coverage.
Alongside these amendments, we published a new Code of Practice for wireless network development. This sets out guidance for Mobile Network Operators and infrastructure providers, their agents and contractors, local planning authorities, and all other relevant stakeholders in England. Guidance is included in the Code of Practice on site selection, and minimising obstructions on footways, which operators should follow.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential benefits of greater flexibility in the Help to Buy ISA scheme outside London to take account of regional house price variations.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
While the Government keeps all aspects of savings policy under review, first-time buyers tend to buy smaller lower priced first properties. The Help to Buy: ISA’s property price cap of £250,000 for properties outside London (£450,000 within London) therefore allows the Government to target support more precisely at the people the scheme is intended to help. Since its launch in 2015, the scheme has supported 531,507 property completions across the UK, with a mean property value of £176,828 compared with an average first-time buyer house price of £245,350.
Further information on the Government’s home purchase support schemes can be found at: https://www.ownyourhome.gov.uk
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish a Government response to the consultation entitled Reforming the leasehold and commonhold systems in England and Wales, published on 11 January 2022.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We will provide a response in due course.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the letter of 13 February 2023 from the Minister of State for Housing and Planning to the hon. Member for Bedford, reference 24093761, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to give freeholders on private and mixed tenure estates (a) equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge the reasonableness of estate rentcharges and (b) a right to apply to the first-tier tribunal to appoint a new manager to manage the provision of services covered by estate rentcharges.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Announcements will be made in the usual way.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he had made of the potential merits of requiring that health support workers are the first point of contact for prison leavers with substance dependency; and what steps he is taking to provide these leavers with timely access to health services.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is vital that all prisoners and prison leavers with a substance dependency can access timely and high-quality treatment to recover from the misuse that drives offending, with dedicated staff in place to ensure continuity of the appropriate support and treatment once someone is released. We work closely with the NHS, Department for Health and Social Care and the Welsh Government to make this possible.
The Ministry of Justice is investing up to £120m over the next three-years to keep drugs out of prisons and get offenders off drugs and into recovery. This includes focusing on prison in-reach by providing prisoners with the opportunity to engage with community treatment pre-release via video calling, and recruiting Health and Justice Coordinators in every probation region to improve links between prison and local treatment services, ensuring continuity of care upon release.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help protect employees from (a) tracking surveillance and (b) covert monitoring.
Answered by Paul Scully
Monitoring of employees by employers must not breach the duty of trust and confidence implied into an employee's contract of employment and must comply with the European Convention of Human Rights, Data Protection legislation and Equality Act 2010. Employers are neither expressly permitted to monitor employees, nor are they prohibited from doing so.
Organisations that process workers’ personal data for the purposes of monitoring their activities or surveillance must comply with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA’). This means that the data processing must be fair, lawful and transparent.
The UK GDPR and the DPA are administered and enforced independently of the government by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO publishes a range of advice and guidance for organisations on their data protection obligations.
The ICO have been consulting on draft guidance on the data protection considerations which are likely to be relevant if an employer is minded to use tracking or surveillance technologies to monitor the activities of employees. The draft guidance discusses the need for employers to make workers aware of the nature, extent and reasons for the monitoring unless exceptional circumstances mean that covert monitoring is necessary. The draft guidance, entitled Employment practices: monitoring at work can be viewed on the ICO’s website.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a comparative assessment of the potential merits of providing (a) single-year and (b) multi-year financial settlements for police forces.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Spending Review 2021 provided certainty on budgets for all forces across England and Wales, with total funding increases confirmed for 3 years. In June 2022, the government also provided additional funding of £350m over 3 years to support forces in meeting the costs of the 2022 pay award. This has enabled forces to plan ahead and ensure they are delivering efficiency savings to generate the best value for money for the tax payer.
On 31 January, the Government confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £287 million when compared to 2022/23. This settlement honours the commitments made at Spending Review 2021, giving forces the certainty to plan, complete and maintain their work to recruit additional officers through the Police Uplift Programme.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help improve Government relations with police forces.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government welcomes open and honest engagement with policing partners and Ministers meet regularly with senior policing leaders and staff associations on a range of matters.
We are continuing to invest in policing and are recruiting 20,000 additional officers to ensure policing has the resources it needs to fight crime. By March 2023, we will have the highest number of officers on record.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing ownership records, alongside registered keeper details on V5C documents in the context of present lack of ownership documentation allowing people to change ownership or keepership of a vehicle without requesting checks.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The vehicle register held by the DVLA, is not a register of legal title or ownership of vehicles.
Based on the latest available data, the DVLA is confident that just over 92% of the keepers on record are contactable and traceable based on the information held.