Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to fund (a) moves to low-carbon heating and (b) other home improvements in energy efficiency.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is investing £6.6 billion over this Parliament on clean heat and improving energy efficiency in buildings, including through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Home Upgrade Grant, and Boiler Upgrade Scheme. In addition, £6 billion of new government funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028.
The new ECO+ scheme will be worth £1 billion and run from Spring 2023 – March 2026. The scheme will target a broader pool of households in the least efficient homes in lower council tax bands as well as the most vulnerable.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial steps his Department is taking to (a) treat and (b) prevent HIV.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England are responsible for providing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment and care, which continues to have very high coverage and effectiveness across England. In 2021, among those with known treatment status, 99% received treatment, and 98% of those treated were virally suppressed.
The Department is investing over £3.5 million from 2021 to 2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme, to work alongside local prevention activities by developing resources for populations most affected by HIV and to deliver over 20,000 HIV tests for free annually during National HIV Testing Week.
Since 2013, the Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access to most sexual health services, including free and confidential HIV testing, and provision of the HIV prevention drug pre-exposure prophylaxis through the Public Health Grant, funded at £3.4 billion overall in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need and to commission the service lines that best suit their population. A key commitment in the HIV Action Plan published in 2021 is the investment of £20 million over three years by NHS England to implement opt-out HIV testing in Emergency Departments in local areas with extremely high HIV prevalence.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2022 to Question 98848 on Energy Bills Rebate: Meters, what discussions his Department has had with energy companies to help ensure that those customers entitled to the Energy Bills Support Scheme, who has not received the October 2022 prepayment voucher on time, will be able to claim and receive that payment.
Answered by Graham Stuart
On 4th December, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to all energy suppliers with customers on traditional prepayment meters, who I subsequently met with, reiterating the importance of ensuring these customers receive their vouchers.
As of 1st December, energy suppliers had issued 4,044,554 vouchers to customers with traditional prepayment meters, of which 2,659,344 had so far been redeemed. The Government will continue to publish this data on a monthly basis during the scheme.
Vouchers are valid for three months from the date of issue and can be extended.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to reduce delays in notification of the results of bids for Green Freeports in Scotland; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of delays in the establishment of Green Freeports on employment, innovation and development opportunities in Scotland.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The UK and Scottish governments have jointly announced the two winners of the Green Freeports competition: The Forth Green Freeport, and Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport.
With five high-quality applications received, both the UK Government and Scottish Government have been working jointly to consider the bids in full detail.
The tax reliefs offered to Green Freeports will be available for years to come and have a lasting impact on the Scottish economy.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his timetable is for the announcement of successful bids for Green Freeports in Scotland.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The UK and Scottish governments have jointly announced the two winners of the Green Freeports competition: The Forth Green Freeport, and Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport.
With five high-quality applications received, both the UK Government and Scottish Government have been working jointly to consider the bids in full detail.
The tax reliefs offered to Green Freeports will be available for years to come and have a lasting impact on the Scottish economy.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2022 to Question 67074 on Jobcentres: Pay, what recent estimate he has made of when holiday pay will be issued to Jobcentre staff.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is committed to making statutory holiday payments in respect of overtime and other similar payments to colleagues and continues to work to implement a solution to enable these payments as soon as is practicable. Work is continuing to overcome significant system challenges. As a result, the Department is not yet in a position to provide a definitive estimate of when these payments will be made to colleagues.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has (a) included and (b) made an assessment of the potential merits of including low dose Naltrexone on its RAPID C-19 programme.
Answered by Will Quince
The multi-agency research to access pathway for investigational drugs for COVID-19 (RAPID C-19) was established in 2020 to ensure that treatments for COVID-19 were made available safely to National Health Service (NHS) patients as soon as possible. The initiative has enabled rapid patient access to therapeutics including dexamethasone, remdesivir, tocilizumab and sarilumab and baricitinib, novel antibody treatments such as sotrovimab, and the two oral antivirals molnupiravir and nirmatralvir+ritonavir (Paxlovid).
RAPID C-19 has made no assessment of low dose naltrexone for COVID-19 and its role in reviewing potential COVID-19 treatments is now ending as the NHS moves back to routine commissioning arrangements for these treatments. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will therefore appraise new licensed treatments, as appropriate, through its standard Technology Appraisal process and will continue to update its COVID-19 rapid guidelines as the evidence base evolves.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to announce how the funding for the Levelling Up Parks Fund will be allocated in Scotland.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Allocations of the Levelling Up Parks Fund within Scotland is a devolved matter. The overall allocation for Scotland will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what percentage of pre-payment electricity customers have received the first payment, from October 2022, of the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Customers with traditional prepayment meters should have received their first and second Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) discount vouchers. These have been sent by SMS text, email or post. Data for October indicates all vouchers have been dispatched by suppliers and take up so far is over 60%.
EBSS credit has been applied automatically to smart prepayment meters. As of 1 November, 97% of Smart prepayment customers had their credit applied.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions his Department has had with the utility companies on the paying of the Energy Bills Support Scheme to pre-payment customers.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Officials in this Department and in Ofgem, the industry regulator, speak to all suppliers on progress and monitoring of the scheme regularly. Additionally, suppliers are required to report every month on how they have provided the discount to their customers.