Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.81 of the Autumn Statement 2023, published in November 2023, what his planned timetable is to open the consultation on the VAT treatment of private hire vehicles.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

As announced at Spring Budget, the Government will launch the consultation on the impacts of the July 2023 High Court ruling in Uber Britannia Ltd v Sefton MBC in April.

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 in response to the Kimberley Liu: Prevention of future deaths report, published on December 29, 2023.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Department takes all prevention of future death reports seriously, including working with healthcare partners where appropriate to develop our responses. We are conscious of the statutory deadline for these reports, and the Department will provide a formal response in due course.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislative proposals to ensure that football clubs donate a proportion of their profits to help ex-professional football players suffering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy with their health and social care.

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

The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. I welcome work by the football industry to protect players from harm and provide practical support to former players who develop neurodegenerative conditions. One example of this is the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Football Brain Health Fund, supported by the Premier League and announced in September 2023, which aims to assist former players and their families who have been impacted by dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The Government has no plans to legislate in this area, but will continue to liaise with the football authorities about their work to protect players and provide support, including funding initiatives.

The Government continues to take the issue of head injuries very seriously. In December 2021 DCMS published its Command Paper report on concussion in sport, outlining the steps the Government is undertaking to help reduce risks associated with head injuries by improving understanding, awareness, prevention and treatment of concussion in sport. As part of this, in April 2023 the Government announced the first UK concussion guidelines for grassroots sport, in conjunction with the Sport and Recreation Alliance. This guidance is intended to be a helpful tool in reducing the risks associated with concussion and marks an important step in making sport safer for thousands of people who enjoy sport at a grassroots level, as well as an aid to professional sports.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the football industry on (a) the scale of and (b) tackling Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy suffered by ex-professional football players.

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

The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. I welcome work by the football industry to protect players from harm and provide practical support to former players who develop neurodegenerative conditions. One example of this is the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Football Brain Health Fund, supported by the Premier League and announced in September 2023, which aims to assist former players and their families who have been impacted by dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The Government has no plans to legislate in this area, but will continue to liaise with the football authorities about their work to protect players and provide support, including funding initiatives.

The Government continues to take the issue of head injuries very seriously. In December 2021 DCMS published its Command Paper report on concussion in sport, outlining the steps the Government is undertaking to help reduce risks associated with head injuries by improving understanding, awareness, prevention and treatment of concussion in sport. As part of this, in April 2023 the Government announced the first UK concussion guidelines for grassroots sport, in conjunction with the Sport and Recreation Alliance. This guidance is intended to be a helpful tool in reducing the risks associated with concussion and marks an important step in making sport safer for thousands of people who enjoy sport at a grassroots level, as well as an aid to professional sports.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her Department's policy is on maintaining (a) supply of and (b) access to commonly prescribed medicines.

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

There are approximately 14,000 licensed medicines, and the overwhelming majority are in good supply. However, the medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global, and supply disruption is an issue which affects countries all around the world.

There are a number of reasons why supply can be disrupted, including manufacturing difficulties, regulatory non-compliance, access to raw materials, sudden demand spikes, or distribution issues. Supply issues are driven by a range of factors, many of which are non-specific to the United Kingdom.

Whilst we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise, and help mitigate risks to patients. We work closely with industry, the National Health Service, and others, to develop bespoke mitigation plans, which are tailored to each issue, to help ensure patients continue to have access to the medicines they need.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent staff were employed in the health improvement directorate of (a) the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and (b) Public Health England in each year since 2017.

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

A Health Improvement Directorate was not part of the structure of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) when it was established as part of the Department, in October 2021. The OHID incorporated people and health improvement functions from different parts of Public Health England (PHE) and the Department. The following figures show the total civil servant full time equivalent (FTE) complement of the OHID since its establishment in October 2021:

- 1,115 FTE civil servants as of 31 March 2022;

- 923 FTE civil servants as of 31 March 2023; and

- 777 FTE civil servants as of 31 December 2023.

The number of FTE staff recorded as assigned to PHE’s Health Improvement directorate from 2017 to 2021 was:

- 991 as of May 2017;

- 1,041 as of March 2018;

- 1,064 as of March 2019;

- 1,086 as of March 2020; and

- 1,062 as of March 2021.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made (a) of the number of vaping products that have been seized by trading standards and (b) of those, the number that (i) were non-compliant with UK regulations and (ii) have gone through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency notification process.

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

The underage and illicit sale of tobacco, and more recently vapes, undermines the work the Government is doing to regulate the industry and protect public health. The Government is increasing investment for our enforcement agencies by £30 million per year. In addition, the Government also announced £3 million of investment to a new illicit vapes enforcement unit, led by National Trading Standards, building on existing work by trading standards officers across the country. They identified that 2.1 million illicit vapes were seized across England by trading standards in 2022 to 2023. These vapes often contain unknown ingredients, higher levels of nicotine, and are often made easily available through markets that target children. The Department does not hold data on the total number of vaping products seized by Trading Standards that have successfully gone through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s notification process.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of the regulation of online (a) ordering and (b) delivery of (i) age-restricted products and (ii) bladed items to self-service lockers.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Under the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 it is the legal responsibility of sellers to ensure that age-restricted bladed articles are not delivered or arranged to be delivered to a self-service locker.

The law requires (set out what is expected of online sales of knives and age verification and the requirements on those who deliver) This legislation is enforced by the police and Trading Standards.

We keep the law in this area under close review and the Government has recently taken action to prohibit the sale, manufacture, supply and possession of zombie style knives and machetes, subject to the relevant Statutory Instrument being approved by Parliament.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications were made to the NHS low income scheme in 2023.

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

In 2023 there were 378,367 applications for the NHS Low Income Scheme, which provides income related help to people who are not automatically exempt from charges but who may be entitled to full or partial help if they have a low income and savings below a defined limit.

Source: NHS Business Service Authority data warehouse.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish the modelling produced by NHS England which shows that the NHS Dental Recovery Plan will deliver 2.5 million NHS dentistry appointments.

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

On 7 February 2024, we published Faster, simpler and fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, which is backed by £200 million and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. The plan sets out our actions to improve dental access for patients by helping the sector to recover from the pandemic, as well as actions needed for long-term reform.

Further information on the modelling for the number of additional appointments being delivered under the plan will be shared with the Health and Social Care Select Committee shortly, and also to be placed in the Library.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he plans to take to ensure the (a) independence, (b) impartiality and (c) academic integrity of the counter-extremism centre of excellence.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

The Civil Service code applies to all civil servants. Further details of our work on Counter Extremism will be set out in the usual way.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the new definition of extremism.

Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)

Over the past year, a wide range of stakeholders were engaged to ensure a balance of views on the definitions development. The definition was tested across Government, with practitioners and with subject matter experts.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether trading standards officers are required to share information on seized non-compliant (a) tobacco and (b) vaping products with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

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

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) works in collaboration with a number of enforcement and regulatory agencies to share intelligence, support strategic planning, produce guidance, and review emerging issues. There is no legal requirement for Trading Standards to share seizure data with the MHRA, however this data is shared in cases where the MHRA can provide evidence to support ongoing compliance and enforcement investigations.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the average number of full time equivalent trading standards officers per local authority over each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The department does not collect this information centrally.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full time equivalent staff are dedicated to the work of the Illicit Tobacco Taskforce; how often will the taskforce meet; has the taskforce met to date; whether illicit vaping products will be included as part of its remit; and what recent estimate has he made of losses in tax revenue from the illicit trade in (a) tobacco and (b) vaping products in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

We plan to establish the taskforce during 2024/25. We are not yet able to give details on meeting frequency or staff numbers.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to tackle the sale of illegal vapes on the black market.

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

The Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children, with youth vaping tripling in the last three years, and one-in-five children having now used a vape. Underage sales and illicit vapes are undermining the work the Government is doing to protect our children's health.

To address this, in April 2023, the Government announced a £3 million investment over two years to enhance work on illicit vape enforcement. Led by National Trading Standards, this builds on existing work by local trading standards officers across the country to ensure that vapes sold in the United Kingdom comply with The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, as well as other relevant legislation that applies to vaping products. Activities include data collection and analysis to understand the scale of illegal products and sales, and market surveillance work. Through this work, they identified that 2.1 million illicit vapes were seized across England by trading standards from 2022 to 2023.

To strengthen our enforcement activity, the Government will also provide an additional £30 million of funding per year for enforcement agencies, including trading standards. This increase in investment will help to stamp out criminal activity by boosting the enforcement of illicit tobacco and vapes.

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 prevent patients (a) experiencing and (b) at risk of homelessness from being discharged from hospital to no fixed abode.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to promoting safe and timely discharge for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, to appropriate accommodation. Between 2020 and 2022, the Department delivered £16 million to 17 local sites, to pilot Out of Hospital Care Models to people experiencing homelessness following a hospital stay. These models provide interim accommodation, care, and support while full assessments of individual needs are carried out. There are positive preliminary findings, and a final evaluation is due next month. From this we will share learning to encourage local areas to adopt similar models.

Improving how discharges are arranged for people experiencing, or at risk of homelessness, is also supported by our wider work to improve discharge processes. We have ensured every acute hospital has access to a care transfer hub to manage discharge for people with more complex needs, who need extra support. Furthermore, in January 2024 the Department published guidance on discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness to support staff involved in planning safe and supportive discharge of these patients from hospital. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much additional funding will be provided to integrated care boards through the dentistry recovery plan by area.

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

We currently invest more than £3 billion in National Health Service dental services each year. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry is backed with £200 million, delivering new initiatives to address the challenges facing NHS dentistry.

The amount spent by each integrated care board (ICB) will depend on a number of factors, including how many new patients are seen in each ICB, whether any practices in the ICB will benefit from the increase to the minimum Unit of Dental Activity value, and where Golden Hello payments are offered.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many extra (a) appointments and (b) treatments will be delivered through each element of the dentistry recovery plan.

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

We want to make sure that everyone needing a National Health Service dentist can access one. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment.

The methodology underpinning this modelling has been shared with the Health and Social Care Select Committee and has also been placed in the libraries for both Houses. This includes information on the estimated number of treatments and appointments delivered by each of the interventions in our dentistry recovery plan.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2024 to Question 11162 on Telecommunications: Infrastructure, how many notices her Department has received from Ofcom of instances of operators not complying with their statutory duties in the last 12 months.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Ofcom is an independent regulator and, as such, does not discuss open cases with the Department. Where there are issues of non-compliance with statutory duties, Ofcom will deal with these cases directly with the operator. If Ofcom were to find, following an investigation, that any operator had failed to comply with its regulatory obligations it would publish that information on its Enforcement Bulletin.

I would, however, reiterate that I am aware of ongoing concerns about operator compliance with their duties under the Electronic Communications Code (Conditions and Restrictions) Regulations 2003 (“the 2003 Regulations”) and particularly about new pole installations.

I recently met Melanie Dawes, CEO of Ofcom, to discuss this, and to explore ways DSIT and Ofcom can work together to raise awareness of statutory roles and responsibilities and ensure better compliance. This work is being taken forward by officials and I will be monitoring progress.

I also wrote to all fixed line operators on 14 March, setting out the government’s concerns and emphasising the importance of infrastructure sharing. Specifically, I have asked them to do everything possible to share existing telegraph poles before installing new ones. You can find a copy of the letter here.

The government has already taken steps to support this through measures in the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 making it easier for operators to upgrade and share the use of existing infrastructure.

Separately, DSIT will be meeting with operators in the near future to discuss revisions to the Cabinet Siting and Pole Siting Code of Practice and how these can be delivered to promote better working practices.

I also met with interested MPs on Monday 25 March 2024. I remain keen to hear and understand the concerns shared by MPs and their constituents, to inform our ongoing work, as well as to keep you informed of the progress that is being made and the next steps we have planned.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vaping products were registered with the Environment Agency; how much was received by Government in UK WEEE Regulations Compliance Fees for vaping products; and if he will make an estimate of how many vaping products were (a) recycled and (b) incorrectly disposed of in each of the last five years.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Vape producers need to register with the Environment Agency under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations and report the tonnage of vapes that they place on the market each year. Prior to 2022, vapes were not reported at a product specific level; they were reported as Category 7 EEE, which encompasses all Toys, Leisure, and Sports Equipment. Therefore, within the data the Environment Agency received from registered producers, it is not possible to identify the types of products that a company handles and thus it is not possible to determine how many vaping products were reported as being placed on the market.

For 2022 and 2023, the Environment Agency requested Compliance Schemes in England to submit data on the tonnage of vapes that their producer members placed on the market. For 2022, the total is 1,637 tonnes. The 2023 data is pending. Producers that register directly with the Environment Agency rather than with Compliance Schemes still include vapes within their Category 7 data, meaning the Environment Agency does not collect or hold vape specific data for direct registrants.

The Government does not hold detailed data on compliance fee payments under the UK WEEE Regulations, as this is managed independently of government. Compliance fee payments are broken down by categories, laid down in the WEEE Regulations and not by individual product level.

Treatment sites that recycle WEEE submit recycling data to the Environment Agency. This data is also not product specific and thus it is not possible to determine how many vaping products have been recycled. The Environment Agency does not collect or hold data on incorrect disposal of vapes.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2024 to Question 13013 on NHS 111: Dental Health, how many calls NHS 111 received relating to the categories of (a) Toothache without Dental Injury, (b) Dental Problems, (c) Other Dental Problems- Fillings, Crowns Bridges, Appliances etc, (d) Dental Module, (e) Dental Bleeding, (f) Toothache After Dental Injury, (g) Dental Injury and (h) Total volume of Triages with a Dental Symptom in each financial year since 2010-11.

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

On 7 February 2024, we published Faster, simpler and fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, which is backed by £200 million and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. The plan sets out our actions to improve dental access for patients across the country, and to address the challenges facing National Health Service dentistry.

The following table shows how many NHS 111 calls were received, broken down into the mentioned categories, each year since 2018, the earliest year this data is available:

The above table provides the same information as for PQ13013, with one error to be corrected shortly on Hansard.