Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to review the current 24 week time limit on abortion on the grounds of risk of injury to the physical or mental health of a pregnant woman or any of her children based on the latest science on viability.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
It would be for Parliament to decide whether to make any changes to the law on abortion. As with other matters of conscience, abortion is an issue on which the Government adopts a neutral stance and allows hon. Members to vote according to their moral, ethical or religious beliefs.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the compliance limits set for waste water and sewage effluent being released into rivers and streams in response to the recent fines levied against Southern Water for illegally discharging sewage into rivers and coastal waters.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The investigation and subsequent prosecution of Southern Water focused on unlawful discharges of sewage through the storm system thus bypassing full treatment at Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) and discharging to the environment in non-storm conditions. The sites all discharged either directly into, or in close proximity to, designated shellfish waters off the North Kent coast, around the Solent, and Langstone and Chichester Harbours.
During the current water company investment round (2020 - 2025), water companies are required to install overflow operation monitors on storm overflows at around 3500 WwTW, including Southern Water WwTWs, along with Flow Passed Forward Flow monitors. Permits will be reviewed and conditions tightened to afford even greater levels of scrutiny and environmental protection. The data from these monitors will be used to assess compliance with permit Flow Passed Forward Flow limits when overflows operate. As well as ensuring that the required flows are passed forward for full treatment through the WwTW when the overflow operates, the monitors will also be used by the Environment Agency to check that the overflows only operate within permit requirements of rainfall and snowmelt.
The Government is pushing forward in working towards improving the state of the water environment by setting robust and ambitious water quality targets within the Environment Bill. Alongside these targets the Government will consider the policy levers required to meet the targets, including taking further action to tackle sources of water pollution.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What steps he is taking to enhance UK soft power overseas.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Integrated Review highlighted the UK’s status as a soft power superpower.
The FCDO is continuing to fund projects and programmes that support UK soft power, including through a 27% increase this year in funding for the British Council
Since 2016, we have provided over £370m via the BBC World2020 programme, which has seen the creation of 12 new language services, and we continue to support our Chevening, Marshall and Commonwealth scholarships.
Our international leadership and determination to work as a force for good in the world is an important part of our soft power, as we are seeing through our hosting of the G7 and COP26, and our support for a globally accessible Covid-19 vaccine.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question
What steps her Department is taking to tackle geographic inequality of opportunity.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Tackling geographic inequality and Levelling Up across the whole country is a key ambition of this government.
To support this, in December the Minister for Women and Equalities announced the Equality Data Programme, to ensure that geographic and socio-economic inequality is taken into account, alongside other factors, when identifying barriers to opportunity.
Sponsorship of the Social Mobility Commission has now moved across to the Equality Hub and will play a crucial role in tackling regional inequalities.
Additionally, as part of our commitment to spreading opportunity the Cabinet Office will relocate to Glasgow and York as part of the Places for Growth programme.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of whether the recruitment of more legal advisers will assist the covid-19 recovery in the courts system; and what steps he is taking to ensure that a career as a legal adviser is as attractive as a career in the CPS by correlating pay grades.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Legal advisers are an important component of Covid-19 recovery in the courts system, and the recruitment of legal advisers continues to be a priority for HMCTS. Last year 145 trainee legal advisers were recruited following a national campaign, and a further campaign is underway to recruit a minimum of 100 trainee legal advisers by October 2021. Legal adviser pay and grading does not correlate with that of CPS lawyers due to the differing nature of the roles. The Ministry of Justice has submitted a pay flexibility case to invest in changes to our reward framework via a multi-year deal effective from August 2020. The case is currently being considered by the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, and aims to reduce both operational and financial risks.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what measures are in place to ensure that Historic England can compel owners of ancient monuments, which are on the at risk register, to repair and keep in good order those ruins and buildings.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Historic England has no powers to compel the owners of Scheduled Ancient Monuments to keep them in good order, however its Heritage At Risk Repair Grants budget can help fund the repair and conservation of those that have been included on its Heritage at Risk Register. It can also fund activities that help to reduce or avoid related risks.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the advice to women to seek medical advice or call an ambulance on 999 if they experience certain complications from medical abortions at home, whether Emergency Departments are recording the complications medical abortions based on whether those pills were taken (a) at home, (b) partially at home, or (c) in a clinic; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring Emergency Departments to distinguish between home and in-clinic medical abortion complications.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
This level of detail is not recorded in the Emergency Care Data Set or Hospital Episode Statistics accident and emergency data. The Department acknowledges there are limitations with the abortion complications data that is collected. We are planning to examine with partner organisations how well these systems are working in relation to recording complications arising from abortions and whether improvement is required.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of assigning family members of clinically vulnerable or disabled relatives who live in care homes, key worker status; and what steps he is taking to bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that vulnerable people have access to support and care from their families.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
New visiting arrangements will start on 8 March. From that date, every care home will be asked to ensure that each resident can receive regular indoor visits from one person whom they have nominated as their single named visitor. In addition, with the agreement of the care home, visitors to residents who need personal care will have access to the same testing and personal protective equipment as care home staff so that they can provide extra support, like help with washing, dressing or eating.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
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 ensure people with a learning disability are given priority for receiving a covid-19 vaccine in the next phase of the vaccination programme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
On 24 February the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation published a clarification of their advice on vaccinating people with a learning disability. They confirmed their view that priority should be given to those with a severe and profound learning disability, but recognised the issues around coding of learning disability on general practitioner (GP) systems and supported a practical approach of inviting everyone who is on the GP Learning Disability Register for vaccination in cohort six.
Asked by: Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including café au lait marks in children's Red Book health records to improve the early diagnosis of neurofibromatosis Type 1.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The content of the red book is determined by The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The Department continues to work with the Royal College and the National Health Service to ensure the red book is up to date and accessible.