Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that people transferred onto the Adult Disability Payment while awaiting his Department's decision to increase their mobility rate who are subsequently deemed by Social Security Scotland to be eligible for an enhanced mobility rate receive a backdated payment for the period following their notifying his Department of their change in circumstances and their transition to Adult Disability Payment.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
These are matters for the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of banning the import of fur.
Answered by Mark Spencer
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues about a wide range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department provides funding to research (a) understanding and (b) treatment of Lewy Body dementia.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is strongly committed to supporting research into dementia. In 2019 we committed to double funding for dementia research. We will double funding for dementia research to £160 million per year by 2024/25. The Department funds research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and has provided funding to research which seeks to increase understanding and treatment of Lewy Body dementia. For example, NIHR Programmes spent almost £1.8 million on research in this remit over the past five years. NIHR infrastructure is dedicated to supporting research across all disease and therapy areas, including research into Lewy Body dementia, funded by public funders, medical research charities and the life sciences industry.
Examples of projects funded by the NIHR include the £1.6 million COBALT study which investigates whether adding the drug Memantine to existing medications (acetylcholinesterase inhibitors) improves overall health and function for people with Lewy Body dementia and Parkinson’s disease dementia.
Through an NIHR-funded project, DIAMOND-Lewy, researchers from Newcastle University and University of Cambridge have created a Management Toolkit for better diagnosis and disease management of Lewy Body dementia. The guide is designed to be used by practitioners to facilitate the detection of Lewy Body dementia in patients.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the speed of reforms to the (a) packaging waste recycling note and (b) packaging waste export recycling note systems.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government Response to both the consultation on extended producer responsibility for packaging published in March 2022 and the consultation on reforms to the Packaging Waste Recycling Note (PRN) and Packaging Waste Export Recycling Note (PERN) System published in October 2022 set out a number of measures to improve the operation of the system. These included enhanced reporting requirements for accredited reprocessors and exporters, the introduction of an operator competence (‘fit and proper person’) test and additional requirements on exporters to evidence that packaging has been received at overseas reprocessing sites and recycled. These reforms will be introduced in our new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations, which currently are out for consultation. The Government will keep the operation of the system under review and consider other measures as necessary to ensure its effective operation.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that the extended producer responsibility for packaging scheme (a) is designed in cooperation with industry, (b) is effective and (c) keeps additional costs to (i) businesses and (ii) consumers to a minimum.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Government recently took the decision to defer the introduction of extended producer responsibility for packaging by 12 months having considered feedback from stakeholders and current economic pressures. This additional time will be used to further engage with industry and local authorities on the operational design of elements of the scheme including the scheme governance, administration arrangements and the fees and payments model. This also provides more time for businesses to prepare and to adapt to the new data reporting requirements and for Government to consult on the draft Regulations that will implement extended producer responsibility providing further opportunity for stakeholder feedback. I want to ensure the scheme is effective, delivers improvements to local authority packaging waste services and provides value for money to obligated businesses.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of (a) consulting widely on the design of the Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers, (b) improving kerbside recycling and (c) increasing glass remelt targets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
UK Government, Welsh Government and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland consulted in 2019 and 2021 on the detail of introducing a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In January 2023 we published the government response to the 2021 consultation, setting out policy decisions and next steps for introducing the scheme (link here). There was strong support, with 83% of consultation responses supporting the introduction of a DRS.
Defra is working closely with devolved administrations and industry to support successful DRS delivery across the UK.
Regarding kerbside recycling, following support at public consultation, new section 45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended by the Environment Act 2021) stipulates that all local authorities in England must make arrangements for a core set of materials to be collected for recycling from households. This core set includes: paper and card; plastic; glass; metal; food waste and garden waste. These materials must always be collected separately from residual waste so that they can be recycled. Commencement dates will be set out in regulations in due course.
In the Government response to the consultation on Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility published in March 2022 we set out our intention to increase the glass remelt target to 80% by 2030.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department consulted relevant stakeholders on the closure of HMRC's self-assessment helpline between 12 June and 4 September 2023 prior to the announcement of that closure; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of that closure on customers that are not able to access HMRC's digital support services during that period.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The summer quarter is the quietest for Self-Assessment (SA) queries. HMRC piloted the temporary and time-limited closure of the SA helpline so that c.350 advisers could be moved to other work, including clearing post items, which experience heavier demand at this time of year.
The SA helpline reopened on 4 September, five months prior to the SA filing deadline of 31 January.
Around two-thirds of all Self-Assessment calls can be resolved online by customers; piloting a seasonal Self-Assessment helpline is about positively encouraging people to use these services when they can.
The intention of the pilot was to evaluate the impact of freeing up HMRC advisors to help those with urgent or complex queries or who cannot access digital services, and to work on correspondence.
HMRC will evaluate the impact of the pilot and gather feedback from customers and external bodies as a part of the evaluation.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to incentivise investment in infrastructure for climate resilience and adaptation.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Investment in infrastructure resilience is delivered through both public and private funding. The third National Adaptation Programme sets out in detail how each infrastructure sector is approaching the challenge of climate resilience, now and in the future, including the way in which regulatory frameworks drive investment in climate resilience.
Where the Government has concerns about the level of investment in resilience we have acted swiftly. For example, through the recent Plan for Water we have accelerated £2.2 billion of investment in measures to secure a resilient, clean and plentiful supply of water now and in the future. The 2023 Green Finance Strategy also contains a range of initiatives to help drive increased private financial flows into environmental outcomes, including climate adaptation.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish a response to her Department's consultation on the Commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into Great Britain, which closed on 16 October 2021.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We are carefully reviewing the feedback gathered from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published in due course.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report by Global Justice Now, Stopaids and Just Treatment entitled Bitter Pills published on 12 July 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The United Kingdom has well established systems for controlling costs and ensuring we get value for money for spending on medicines. The UK’s system is seen as world-leading, due in large part to the role of the National Health Service as a single buyer providing access to the vast majority of the UK market. However, the Department does not recognise the specific methodology used in this report.
The 2019 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access is expected to generate around £7 billion in income for the NHS over five years, while also supporting access to and uptake of the most clinically and cost-effective medicines.
Negotiations are ongoing to agree a new voluntary scheme which should continue to support patients, the economy and the affordability of medicines to the NHS.