Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department has taken to improve the energy efficiency of older homes.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government recognises the UK has some of the oldest housing stock in Europe, with over 35% of houses being built before 1945. We are committed to ensuring that no-one is left behind in the transition to Net Zero, supplying solutions that work for all buildings, income groups, and housing types.

The Government recently published its ‘Adapting Historic Homes for Energy Efficiency: A Review of the Barriers’, reviewing approaches to retrofitting complex-to-decarbonise homes, including historic and listed buildings.

Alongside this the Government is allocating £20 billion over this parliament and next on energy efficiency and low carbon heating, improving supply chains and enhancing the consumer advice offer to constituents.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the level of funding provided for dementia care and research.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We want a society where every person with dementia, and their families and carers, receive high quality, compassionate care, from diagnosis through to end of life. Everyone with dementia should have meaningful care following their diagnosis. This includes information on local services and access to relevant advice and support on what happens next. Local authorities are required to provide or arrange services that meet the social care needs of the local population, including carers, under the Care Act 2014. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision of dementia care services, and NHS England expects ICBs to commission services based on local population needs. It is for individual ICBs to distribute funding at a local level.

The Government is strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and has committed to doubling the funding for dementia research to £160 million per year by the end of 2024/25. The Department delivers research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and in 2022/23, the most recent year we have data for, we estimate that the total Government spend on dementia research was £96.9 million. The Department via the NIHR has instigated momentous new programmes of work, such as investing almost £50 million over five years into the NIHR Dementia Translational Research Collaboration Trial Network which will expand the United Kingdom’s early phase clinical trial capabilities in dementia, speeding up the development of new treatments.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department has taken to support users of off-grid energy with energy costs.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

I refer my Hon. Friend to the answer I gave my Hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn on 22 January 2024 to Question 10266.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to support access to dentists in (a) Penrith and The Border constituency and (b) England.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We want to make sure that everyone needing a National Health Service dentist can access one. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry in England will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. This is especially important for those who live in rural or coastal communities where we know access can be particularly challenging.

Our plan includes a new Golden Hello scheme for dentists who want to move to those areas which persistently struggle to attract dentists into NHS work. A Golden Hello of £20,000 will be offered per dentist, for a total of up to 240 dentists.

There are other measures in our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will help to improve access across all areas of the country. The new patient premium is designed to support dentists to see patients who may not have seen an NHS dentist for some time, and is offered in recognition of the additional time that may be needed for practices to assess, stabilise, and manage patients’ oral health needs. We will also raise the minimum Unit of Dental Activity rate from £23 to £28, supporting practices across the country to deliver more NHS care.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has taken recent steps to support independent cinemas.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government recognises that cinemas are a hugely important part of the UK’s fantastic film industry and has been supporting them throughout the uncertainties of the past several years with the pandemic and rising energy costs.

We supported more than 200 independent cinemas through the pandemic, who received £34.4 million from the Culture Recovery Fund as well as benefiting from other pan-economy measures. The Government has also delivered an £18 billion package of support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme supporting businesses - including cinemas, arts venues, and charities - through the winter.

The Government’s £500m Film and TV Production Restart Scheme also helped keep the cameras rolling at the other end of the screen supply chain. The scheme supported over 100,000 jobs and productions worth more than £3 billion. To build on this, and support the industry to not only survive but thrive, further actions have been taken. This includes the Government’s current £1.6 million annual funding of the British Film Commission, the £28 million UK Global Screen Fund, and the continued success of our screen sector tax reliefs. This has been further bolstered at Spring Budget 2024 with the new UK Independent Film Tax Credit, with films with budgets up to £15 million being eligible for an increased benefit of 53% - which is estimated to increase spending on independent films by 70% before 2032.

The British Film Institute (BFI), a DCMS Arms Length Body, is also conscious of the pressures faced by the cinema sector. The BFI’s Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) is a collaboration of 8 film hubs, managed by leading film organisations and venues around the UK. Film hubs are centres of expertise and support that connect cinemas, festivals and creative practitioners. You can also read more about the National Lottery funding the BFI makes available to bring film to a wider UK audience, including through BFI FAN, at: https://www.bfi.org.uk/get-funding-support/bring-film-wider-uk-audience.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the availability of homes in Cumbria.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The Government is providing £212 million from the Housing Infrastructure Fund for Cumbria County Council’s Carlisle Southern Link Road, which intends to support the delivery of up to 10,325 new homes in Carlisle.

In Barrow-in-Furness, the Government is spending to support the delivery of over 800 new homes at Barrow Waterfront, including up to £24 million from the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land Fund, and £1.5 million from the Brownfield Land Release Fund to support the release of land at Marina Village.

To the end of March 2023 £4.4 million has been allocated to Cumbria from the Affordable Homes Programme (2021-126) to deliver 74 new affordable homes. Overall, since 2010, 4,400 affordable homes have been delivered in Cumbria (3,100 for rent, of which 1,200 for social rent).

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to support low income households in Penrith and The Border constituency to transition to net zero.

Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government is allocating around £20 billion over this Parliament and next improving energy efficiency and low carbon heating of homes, reducing reliance on fossil fuel heating and reducing household energy bills for low income households in Penrith and The Border constituency as well as other constituencies.

The Government will deliver upgrades to over half a million homes in the coming years through Social Housing Decarbonisation, Home Upgrade Grant Schemes and Energy Company Obligation Schemes.

The Government has spent over £2 billion to support transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), focusing on reducing barriers to adopting ZEVs, including offsetting higher upfront cost, and accelerating rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help increase staff retention in the veterinary sector.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is aware of the challenges facing the veterinary sector, including retention of qualified veterinary surgeons. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, as the regulator for the veterinary profession, published its Workforce Action Plan in 2022 to progress issues of recruitment, retention and return. Defra works closely with the RCVS on issues concerning the veterinary profession and continues to keep reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act, where amendments might support increases in recruitment and retention, under review.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to mitigate the threat from bluetongue virus as the midge vector increases in activity.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) officials took robust action following findings of cases of Bluetongue virus, following our well-established processes for managing cases of disease. We are planning for a possible resurgence of the disease over the coming months as the weather warms, and the risk of infected midges blowing over from northern Europe increases. We recently held a Ministerial roundtable with key industry stakeholders to discuss the options and understand their priorities over the coming months. Surveillance of susceptible animals and epidemiological assessments continue, and we are actively engaging with vaccine manufacturers on the development of BTV-3 vaccines for use in the UK. We are modelling the risk of incursion and proactively raising awareness with animal keepers in higher-risk areas, and are monitoring vector activity.

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 (a) the police and (b) animal welfare stakeholders on the actions of people involved in catapult groups on social media.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The use of catapults against animals, and the sharing of disturbing imagery associated with such use on social media, is an issue that has been relayed to my officials by certain local police forces and the National Wildlife Crime Unit. I am informed a new national group has recently been created to address the catapulting of wildlife, focusing on education, prevention, detection and justice. Officers from Essex Police and the Metropolitan Police are leading the group, named Operation Lakeshot, and they are working in partnership with the RSPCA and Nature Watch.

The government takes wildlife crime seriously and it is a matter of concern. Under provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and the Animal Welfare Act 2006, there are a range of offences around deliberate attempts to kill, injure, or inflict harm on wildlife. Furthermore, the Online Safety Act 2023 will also require social media firms to take action to tackle content that results in the unnecessary suffering of animals, or that encourages activity that causes the unnecessary suffering of an animal. This includes removing such content.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) steps she is taking and (b) discussions she has had to support businesses prepare for the full implementation of the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

In recent months, the Department for Business and Trade has met with a range of business representative organisations, as well as other stakeholders, to discuss the new tipping legislation and address any remaining concerns. Businesses and other stakeholders also had the opportunity to respond to the public consultation. The responses are currently being analysed to inform the final version of the statutory Code of Practice.

The final version of the Code will be published in the coming weeks, to ensure businesses have sufficient time to ensure they are compliant, ahead of coming into force in the summer.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sir Robert Goodwill (Chair); Rosie Duffield; Barry Gardiner; Dr Neil

Found: grateful if you wou ld pass on m y thanks to the Committee , and part icularly to the Chair, Dr Neil

Found: West Derby ) Rosie Duffield MP (Labour, Canterbury ) Barry Gardiner MP (Labour, Brent North ) Dr Neil

Found: meeting Members present: Sir Robert Goodwill (Chair); Ian Byrne; Rosie Duffield; Barry Gardiner; Dr Neil

Found: meeting Members present: Sir Robert Goodwill (Chair); Ian Byrne; Rosie Duffield; Barry Gardiner; Dr Neil

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Steven Bonnar; Ian Byrne; Rosie Duffield; Barry Gardiner; Dr Neil