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Written Question
Department for Education: Written Questions
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to respond to Question 17725 on Academic Freedom tabled by the hon. Member for Sheffield Central on 8 March 2024.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

A response was published to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central to Question 17725 on 21st March 2024.


Written Question
Academic Freedom
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with the Office for Students on ensuring that the forthcoming guidance for higher education providers on (a) securing free speech within the law and (b) publishing and maintaining a freedom of speech code of practice is published before 1 August 2024.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The remaining provisions of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will come into force in two phases. The main provisions of the Act, introducing free speech duties on higher education providers, constituent institutions and students' unions, and the new complaints scheme, will come into force on 1 August 2024. The Office for Students (OfS) has already launched two consultations that will feed into new complaints scheme rules and guidance for students’ unions on the OfS’s approach to regulating them. These will be published before the 1 August 2024.

The second phase involves provisions relating to new conditions of registration on providers and monitoring of overseas funding. These will come into force on 1 September 2025.

The OfS expects to consult shortly on the proposed revisions to the regulatory framework, including on its approach to the recovery of costs, as well as on more detailed guidance on securing free speech within the law and on maintaining a free speech code of practice. The OfS consultations are not yet live, and the OfS will require time to run the consultation, analyse the results and publish a response before they can publish the guidance to which they relate. Precise timings on the publication of guidance are a matter for the OfS.


Written Question
Sports: Gambling
Wednesday 20th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of self-regulation by the sporting industry in reducing the quantity of gambling messaging seen by viewers.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

In our approach to gambling advertising, we have struck a balanced and evidence-led approach which tackles aggressive advertising that is most likely to appeal to children, while recognising that advertising is an entirely legitimate commercial practice for responsible gambling firms.

We have welcomed the industry's whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting adverts during live sports programmes. According to figures from the Betting and Gaming Council, the ban reduced the quantity of gambling advertisement views by children (age 4-17) by 70% over the full duration of live sporting programmes.

Further, alongside the Premier League’s announcement that it will ban gambling sponsors from the front of shirts by the end of the 2025/26 season, the gambling white paper commitment for a cross-sport Code of Conduct for gambling sponsorship has now been agreed by a number of the country’s major sports governing bodies. This will guarantee that where gambling sponsorship does appear, it is done in a responsible way to ensure fans, especially children, are better protected. This code will include provisions to ensure replica shirts for both children and adults are available without front-of-shirt gambling logos and a proportion of in-stadia advertising is dedicated to safer gambling messaging.


Written Question
Ophthalmic Services
Friday 8th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 19 June 2023 to Question 188964 on Ophthalmic Services, what recent progress her Department has made on developing standard service specifications for enhanced eye care services.

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

The new standard of clinical specification for community eye care services, both minor and urgent, was published by the Local Optical Committee Support Unit on 23 February 2024. The specification will help local commissioners in getting the best outcomes, if they choose to commission these services as part of their local eye care provision. The specification is available at the following link:

https://locsu.co.uk/what-we-do/pathways/community-minor-and-urgent-eye-care-clinical-specification/


Written Question
Ophthalmic Services
Friday 8th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that appropriately-qualified optometrists are able to access NHS prescription forms to help reduce the onward referral of patients with eye health conditions.

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

When commissioning community enhanced eye care services, we would expect integrated care boards to consider the need to give appropriately qualified optometrists access to National Health Service prescription forms.


Written Question
Nurses: Pay
Friday 8th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure all general practice nursing staff will receive a pay uplift for 2023-24.

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

We hugely value and appreciate the vital work carried out by general practice (GP) nurses. The Government accepted the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body’s recommendation on salaried GP staff pay, and increased the 2023/24 GP contract to provide funding for them to receive a 6% pay rise. We encourage all practices to pass this on to staff. As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, it is for GPs to determine employee pay.


Written Question
NHS: Pay
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions she has had with the NHS Pay Review Body on its potential recommendations on the 2024-25 pay round.

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

My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has had no discussions with the NHS Pay Review Body on its potential recommendations for the 2024/25 pay round.

My officials have regular engagement with the Pay Review Bodies (PRB) secretariat, however as independent bodies the PRBs will not discuss their potential recommendations with stakeholders, these are received alongside their report.


Written Question
Horizon Europe
Friday 1st March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will take steps to (a) expand the Government's support for the Horizon Europe pump priming collaboration and (b) end the rule that research applications to Horizon Europe must identify a call and topic in Pillar 2.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The British Academy has received considerable interest in the Pump Priming grants scheme, and the Government is pleased with the level of engagement, including from those new to the programme. There are no plans to expand the recently launched pump priming grants.

Applications for Horizon Europe grants are made directly to the European Commission. All calls within Horizon Europe work programme 2024 and beyond are funded by the UK’s association to Horizon Europe.


Written Question
Overseas Students
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ending funding for the UK Council for International Student Affairs on the adequacy of support available to international students.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The government appreciates the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to UK higher education.

The government remains committed to the ambitions set out in its International Education Strategy, including the aim to host 600,000 international students in the UK per year by 2030. The government is proud to have met this ambition two years running.

Universities also offer a range of dedicated support to their international students before they arrive in the UK, on arrival and during their studies. Organisations such as the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) and the British Council continue to provide information to international students entering the UK.


Written Question
Offshore Industry: Biodiversity
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill on the global biodiversity framework.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The UK is committed to implementing the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework which aims to halt and reverse global biodiversity loss and contains a target to protect at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030.

The UK has a comprehensive legal framework of environmental protection measures for offshore oil and gas activities. Section 12 of the Impact Assessment published alongside the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill sets out how the environmental principles of the Environment Act have been considered in the development of this Bill.