Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what evidential threshold will be used when reviewing the travel status of countries under the new traffic light system.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Travel status decisions are taken by Ministers informed by evidence including the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s analysis as well as other relevant information about the risk of the spread of variant. The advice, evidence and methodology which informs these decisions relates to on-going development of Government policy and therefore cannot be published at this time.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve dermatology waiting times; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the collection of waiting times data in dermatology.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional support his Department is providing to dermatology services in 2021.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the 23 recommendations in the Dermatology Getting it right first time Programme National Specialty Report: Proposed Recommendations, published on 15 September 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timetable is for publishing the Getting It Right First Time dermatology national specialty report.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department's travel advice against travelling on cruises will be removed for countries that are given green status under the new traffic light system.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The FCDO remains fully committed to working closely with the Department for Transport and key industry leaders following the publication of the second Global Travel Taskforce report. International cruises will restart alongside the wider restart of international travel in line with the "traffic light" system. This will be subject to continued satisfactory evidence from the domestic restart and cruising in other countries. Travel advice will continue to be informed by the latest public health risk assessments.
For now, national restrictions on international travel remain in place, including only permitting travel abroad for a limited number of reasons set out in law. Holiday travel is not included.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of aligning his Department's advice on travel for cruising with current advice for the aviation sector.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The FCDO remains fully committed to working closely with the Department for Transport and key industry leaders following the publication of the second Global Travel Taskforce report. International cruises will restart alongside the wider restart of international travel in line with the "traffic light" system. This will be subject to continued satisfactory evidence from the domestic restart and cruising in other countries. Travel advice will continue to be informed by the latest public health risk assessments.
For now, national restrictions on international travel remain in place, including only permitting travel abroad for a limited number of reasons set out in law. Holiday travel is not included.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Vespex, a product manufactured by Merchento for controlling wasp populations, is under consideration for use in the UK.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No, the company has not made an application for a biocidal product authorisation and so the product Vespex is not under consideration for use in the UK.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with which Commonwealth countries the UK has reciprocal social security arrangements.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The UK has reciprocal social security agreements, covering pensions and some other benefits, with the following Commonwealth countries: Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, Malta, Cyprus, Canada and New Zealand. All the agreements except for Canada and New Zealand provide for state pension up-rating.
The Department plans to respond to the request from Canada in due course.
Asked by: Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to respond to the Canadian Government’s request for a reciprocal social security agreement.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The UK has reciprocal social security agreements, covering pensions and some other benefits, with the following Commonwealth countries: Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, Malta, Cyprus, Canada and New Zealand. All the agreements except for Canada and New Zealand provide for state pension up-rating.
The Department plans to respond to the request from Canada in due course.