Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure the continued availability of veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland beyond 2025.
Answered by Steve Baker - Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
The Government’s priority is to secure a long-term sustainable solution on veterinary medicines. To that end, the Government’s priority is to pursue such a solution through discussions with the EU, as well as preparing for safeguards in all scenarios. We will be setting up a Veterinary Medicines Working Group shortly to help us with this.
In the meantime, we have put in place a grace period arrangement until the end of 2025 which supports continuity of supply to Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how much his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Fay Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales Office)
Nothing. The Office of the Secretary of State for Wales does not have any legacy computer systems.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
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 is taking to help energy intensive industries to decarbonise.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government has committed up to £20 billion to support early deployment of carbon capture, usage and storage, and up to £500 million for the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund to help industry decarbonise, for which phase 3 opened last month.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how much funding his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Scotland Office has not had any funding budgeted for nor spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in the last three financial years. The Scotland Office does not have any legacy computer systems and the IT services for the department are provided by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much funding her Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is responsible for the provision and management of up-to-date IT infrastructure and applications for the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
The CPS does not currently maintain any legacy IT infrastructure on behalf of the AGO.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Steve Baker - Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
The Northern Ireland Office does not have any legacy computer systems and therefore has not budgeted or spent anything relating to legacy computer systems in any of the last three financial years.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Please see the figures for budget and spending by the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS.
The Ministry of Justice does not record its budgets and expenditure to a level of granularity that permits it to identify spend that is specifically for software updates to legacy computer systems.
The Ministry of Justice maintains a fund specifically for the reduction and eradication of technical debt – this fund focusses on improving and replacing legacy infrastructure and software applications; migrating business-critical applications from legacy hosting arrangements to the cloud, which is much more modern and secure; and bringing its digital and technology estate up to required standards.
The table below sets out the Ministry of Justice budget and expenditure of the Technical Debt fund for the past three full financial years – 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23.
| Budget | Expenditure |
FY 20/21 | £15.08m | £19.17m |
FY 21/22 | £32.78m | £26.56m |
FY 22/23 | £67.64m | £60.32m |
Total: | £115.5m | £106.05m |
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including individuals who were employed by a franchise organisation of the Post Office and who were impacted by the Horizon scandal in the compensation schemes.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government wants everyone affected by the Horizon scandal to come forward to get the compensation they deserve.
With reference to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme, which is still open to late applications, claimants must have, or have previously had, a contract directly with the Post Office to be eligible for compensation. The full eligibility criteria are published on the Post Office website.
The Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme is limited to those who participated in the 2019 Group Litigation Order legal action against the Post Office and did not have a Horizon-related conviction.
Compensation is also available to individuals who have had their convictions relating to Horizon shortfalls overturned.
The Government has no current plans to extend the scope of these schemes further.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she make an assessment of the potential merits of including Post Office clerks who were impacted by the Horizon scandal in the compensation schemes.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government wants everyone affected by the Horizon scandal to come forward to get the compensation they deserve.
With reference to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme, which is still open to late applications, claimants must have, or have previously had, a contract directly with the Post Office to be eligible for compensation. The full eligibility criteria are published on the Post Office website.
The Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme is limited to those who participated in the 2019 Group Litigation Order legal action against the Post Office and did not have a Horizon-related conviction.
Compensation is also available to individuals who have had their convictions relating to Horizon shortfalls overturned.
The Government has no current plans to extend the scope of these schemes further.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans her Department has to make this winter's Covid-19 vaccine available for purchase.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans to make the COVID-19 vaccines the Government holds for National Health Service use available for purchase. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), a body of independent experts, advises the Government on who should be offered vaccination through the national programme for COVID-19. Vaccination for COVID-19 through the NHS is free for those eligible and there are no plans to introduce charges.
Current COVID-19 vaccines offer good protection against serious outcomes but only short-lived protection from mild symptomatic disease. The aim therefore is to offer vaccination to those the JCVI advises are at higher risk of hospitalisation and death. This risk is strongly linked to older age and some specified clinical conditions.
All vaccines that have been licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for use in the UK may be prescribed by physicians privately as well as through the NHS. Currently COVID-19 vaccines are not available privately but as is the case for many other vaccines, manufacturers and providers are able to set up a private market alongside the NHS offer when they consider this viable and appropriate. The Government is supportive of the emergence of a private market for COVID-19 vaccines. Supply of vaccines for such a market would be, as with all other vaccines, a matter for the private providers working with manufacturers to obtain through the open market.