Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps the Government has taken to ensure that businesses, including hospices, are supported with their energy costs.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) provides a discount on the wholesale element of gas and electricity bills to ensure that all eligible businesses, including hospices, who receive their energy from licensed suppliers, are protected from high energy costs over the winter period. Following a HMT-led review into the EBRS, the new Energy Bill Discount Scheme will run from April until March 2024 and continue to provide a discount to all eligible non-domestic customers, including hospices.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the fraudulent and criminal behaviour of car-hire companies which operate in tandem with organised crime to (a) use and (b) steal motor vehicles of customers.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously and is dedicated to protecting the public from this devastating crime, including those perpetrated by organised criminals.
We will shortly publish a new strategy to address the threat of fraud.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help prevent the closure of pharmacies.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Pharmacies provide vital and easily accessible healthcare in the heart of our communities. The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion annually to community pharmacy and in September we announced a further one-off investment in the sector of £100 million.
Access remains good with 80% of the population living within 20 minutes walking from a pharmacy and the Pharmacy Access Scheme financially supports pharmacies in areas where there are fewer pharmacies. `
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Joint Submission by Human Rights Watch and Lawyers for Justice to the Committee Against Torture on Palestine, published July 2022, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in the Palestinian Authority on arbitrary arrest and torture in detention.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Human Rights is a crucial element underpinning the UK's foreign policy. We continue to urge the Palestinian Authority (PA) to respect human rights, to ensure complaints of mistreatment or arbitrary detention are properly investigated and to continue to improve the performance of the security sector. The UK remains committed to a two state-solution, as Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Minister of State for the Middle East, made clear on his visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories from 11-13 January. And an essential aspect of our efforts to prepare the ground for a two state-solution is to support a stable PA that can deliver services to its people and act as an effective partner for peace with Israel. The UK will continue to monitor these areas closely and raise with the highest levels of the PA.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to provide residents with increased powers over planning decisions in their communities.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Further to the Secretary of State’s statement, UIN HCWS415, of 06 December 2022, our reforms to the planning system will enhance the opportunities for community involvement, ensuring development is brought forward in a way that works best for local people. We will improve the process for producing plans so that it is simpler, faster and easier for communities to engage with. There will be clear opportunities to get involved at key stages in the process, made easier by plans themselves being shorter with more accessible documents.
In addition, we are seeking new powers to introduce 'neighbourhood priorities statements'. These will provide communities with a way to determine priorities for their area and formally input into the local plan. We are also seeking new powers to introduce a new 'street votes' system. This will allow residents to propose development, such as extensions to existing homes, on their street and vote on whether it should be given planning permission.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
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 links between BGI Group and the People's Liberation Army; and if his Department will ban BGI Group in the UK in light of reports of that company's involvement in genetic data harvesting and involvement in abuses against Uyghurs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom has an established policy to manage modern slavery risks and we continue to take action to limit exposure to human rights and modern slavery abuses in supply chains. Governmental commercial teams are required to undertake due diligence to ensure risks in supply chains are mitigated. Managing risks within existing contracts is the responsibility of those who are party to the contract and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
There is no specified procurement evaluation criteria in UK legislation or policy related to entities of Chinese origin and to take account of the national origin of companies would be against the principles in UK law related to equal treatment. The Department evaluates bids and if there is sufficient evidence of human rights or modern slavery abuses in any of the supply chains, we take appropriate steps to exclude them from that procurement. Procurement rules include ‘exclusion grounds’ of mandatory grounds, where contracting authorities must exclude and discretionary criteria, where they may exclude. If a bidder is convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, there is a mandatory exclusion. However, even if there is no conviction, strong evidence of breaches is likely to be grounds for discretionary exclusion.
BGI Genomics is a supplier on the National Microbiology Framework contract, launched in 2021. The mandatory and discretionary exclusion criteria was requested from all suppliers at the time the Framework was tendered. BGI Genomics was awarded a call-off contract from the Framework contract by the UK Health Security Agency in August 2021 which also involved compliance with mandatory and discretionary selection requirements. This call-off contract lapsed on 14 November 2021 and no further contract with BGI has been let.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will extend the departmental ban on Hikvision to include (a) BGI Group and (b) other Chinese state linked companies implicated in abuses against Uyghurs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom has an established policy to manage modern slavery risks and we continue to take action to limit exposure to human rights and modern slavery abuses in supply chains. Governmental commercial teams are required to undertake due diligence to ensure risks in supply chains are mitigated. Managing risks within existing contracts is the responsibility of those who are party to the contract and decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.
There is no specified procurement evaluation criteria in UK legislation or policy related to entities of Chinese origin and to take account of the national origin of companies would be against the principles in UK law related to equal treatment. The Department evaluates bids and if there is sufficient evidence of human rights or modern slavery abuses in any of the supply chains, we take appropriate steps to exclude them from that procurement. Procurement rules include ‘exclusion grounds’ of mandatory grounds, where contracting authorities must exclude and discretionary criteria, where they may exclude. If a bidder is convicted of an offence under section 1, 2 or 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, there is a mandatory exclusion. However, even if there is no conviction, strong evidence of breaches is likely to be grounds for discretionary exclusion.
BGI Genomics is a supplier on the National Microbiology Framework contract, launched in 2021. The mandatory and discretionary exclusion criteria was requested from all suppliers at the time the Framework was tendered. BGI Genomics was awarded a call-off contract from the Framework contract by the UK Health Security Agency in August 2021 which also involved compliance with mandatory and discretionary selection requirements. This call-off contract lapsed on 14 November 2021 and no further contract with BGI has been let.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department plans to take steps to tackle the levels of (a) borrowing and (b) capital risk at Eastleigh Borough Council.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government announced that it is legislating to provide appropriate powers to address instances of excessive risk from local authority borrowing and investment. The Department regularly engages with local authorities about their financial management and related policies. As part of engagement with the sector on the new capital measures, we are engaging with a small number of local authorities, including Eastleigh Borough Council, who may be most affected. My department will continue to work with them to understand their plans for reducing their levels of risk ahead of the legislative measures coming into effect, and we expect Eastleigh Borough Council and similar local authorities to engage with us throughout this process.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department or its Arm's Length Bodies has a working relationship, including on contractual or commercial terms, with BGI Group or any of its subsidiaries.
Answered by George Freeman
BEIS does not have any contractual or commercial terms with BGI Group (BGI) or any of its subsidiaries.
Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the final report by the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence on National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of China’s policy to pursue a global collection mechanism for Chinese government genetic databases.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK is committed to promoting the ethical development and deployment of AI and other new technologies, in the UK and overseas, and we closely monitor related threats. The Ministry of Defence is supporting the National Science and Technology Council to develop our strategic understanding of the opportunities, threats and implications posed by new and emerging technologies. This includes close working with allies, partners, academia and civil society. We will shortly publish the first Defence AI Strategy setting out our approach to exploiting these critical technologies, as well as our intent to influence and shape global AI developments to promote security, stability, and democratic values.