Sammy Wilson

I refer the Rt. hon. Member to the answer I gave on 7^th May to question UIN 48699 (Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament).

The Trade Remedies Authority is responsible for assessing the evidence presented to them by UK industry and other stakeholders in an investigation prior to submitting a recommendation to the Secretary of State. If industry is concerned about the impact of unfair foreign trade practices, they should directly engage the Trade Remedies Authority.

UK bicycle manufacturers stand to benefit from the Secretary of State’s pro-business agenda, as outlined in the Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper. The strategy targets key growth levers, boosting scale-ups, growing the co-operative economy, revitalising high streets, improving access to finance, unlocking new markets, and strengthening business capabilities, creating a more competitive and resilient business environment. Recently, the Business Secretary announced a new Business Growth Service (BGS) to streamline the process for businesses across the UK to access the support they need to grow. The Department will continue to engage with the industry on key issues moving forward.

I refer the Rt. hon. Member to the answer I gave on 7^th May to question UIN 48699 (Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament).

The Trade Remedies Authority is responsible for assessing the evidence presented to them by UK industry and other stakeholders in an investigation prior to submitting a recommendation to the Secretary of State. If industry is concerned about the impact of unfair foreign trade practices, they should directly engage the Trade Remedies Authority.

The updated GPSR largely formalises the reality of how businesses are already operating and the measures are therefore likely to have limited impact in practice. However, where businesses do require some support, we are exploring ways in which the Government can help. We are providing more guidance in this area, will keep this under review and continue to engage businesses directly to ensure we are supporting them to trade freely with the EU.

We are committed to ensuring all video games are enjoyed safely and responsibly by everyone and that, where they contain loot boxes, appropriate protections are in place for players of all ages, including children. In 2020, the previous Government ran a call for evidence on loot boxes which found an association between purchasing loot boxes and problem gambling behaviours, although research has not established whether a causal link exists.

In response, DCMS convened a Technical Working Group of video game representatives which developed new industry-led guidance, published in July 2023, to improve player protections. Measures include disclosing the presence of loot boxes prior to purchase, and giving clear probability disclosures so players can easily access clear and simple information to inform their decision to purchase.

The Government has urged all video games companies to adopt the guidance in full and we have commissioned independent academic research to assess its effectiveness.

Gambling operators providing services to customers in Great Britain must be licensed by the Gambling Commission and comply with the conditions of their operating licences. The Commission expects operators to obey the laws of all other jurisdictions in which they operate, and requires them to report any regulatory investigation or finding into their activities in any other jurisdiction.

Operators must inform the Commission if they have a substantial customer base outside of Britain and state why they consider themselves legally able to offer facilities to those customers. It is for authorities in other jurisdictions to investigate whether operators are complying with their gambling laws, but where a licensee is found to be operating illegally overseas, the Commission may consider their suitability to hold a licence in Britain.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating advertising in the UK, and operates independently of the Government. There are a range of robust rules in place through the Advertising Codes enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ensure that gambling advertising and marketing is socially responsible and does not exacerbate harm.

Compliance with the Codes is required as part of Gambling Commission licence conditions. The ASA continually reviews the best available evidence to ensure rules are effective and updates protections as required.

Gambling operators providing services to customers in Great Britain must be licensed by the Gambling Commission and comply with the conditions of their operating licences. The Commission expects operators to obey the laws of all other jurisdictions in which they operate, and requires them to report any regulatory investigation or finding into their activities in any other jurisdiction.

Operators must inform the Commission if they have a substantial customer base outside of Britain and state why they consider themselves legally able to offer facilities to those customers. It is for authorities in other jurisdictions to investigate whether operators are complying with their gambling laws, but where a licensee is found to be operating illegally overseas, the Commission may consider their suitability to hold a licence in Britain.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating advertising in the UK, and operates independently of the Government. There are a range of robust rules in place through the Advertising Codes enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ensure that gambling advertising and marketing is socially responsible and does not exacerbate harm.

Compliance with the Codes is required as part of Gambling Commission licence conditions. The ASA continually reviews the best available evidence to ensure rules are effective and updates protections as required.

We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all stakeholders in order to ensure there are robust protections in place to protect those at risk of gambling related harm, particularly children and young people. While gambling is a devolved matter for Northern Ireland and regulation is thus a consideration for the Northern Ireland Executive, the department has noted the findings on prevalence and consequences of gambling from the Department for Communities' 2024 Northern Ireland Gambling Prevalence Survey.

We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all stakeholders in order to ensure there are robust protections in place to protect those at risk of gambling related harm, particularly children and young people. While gambling is a devolved matter for Northern Ireland and regulation is thus a consideration for the Northern Ireland Executive, the department has noted the findings on prevalence and consequences of gambling from the Department for Communities' 2024 Northern Ireland Gambling Prevalence Survey.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The department has a range of programmes to support continuing professional development for teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), for 2025/26 these include:

• The subject knowledge for physics teaching programme, which supports non-specialist teachers of physics in teaching the requirements of the key stage 3 and key stage 4 physics curriculum.
• The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, mathematics hubs and the advanced mathematics support programme, which provide professional development to teachers of mathematics from reception to key stage 5.
• The National Centre for Computing Education, to support the teaching of computing and increase participation in computer science qualifications.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has not had any discussions with teaching groups on the potential merits of establishing a continuing professional development fund with industry, but funding to support STEM education beyond the 2025/26 financial year will be considered as part of the forthcoming spending review.

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Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The department has a range of programmes to support continuing professional development for teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), for 2025/26 these include:

• The subject knowledge for physics teaching programme, which supports non-specialist teachers of physics in teaching the requirements of the key stage 3 and key stage 4 physics curriculum.
• The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, mathematics hubs and the advanced mathematics support programme, which provide professional development to teachers of mathematics from reception to key stage 5.
• The National Centre for Computing Education, to support the teaching of computing and increase participation in computer science qualifications.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has not had any discussions with teaching groups on the potential merits of establishing a continuing professional development fund with industry, but funding to support STEM education beyond the 2025/26 financial year will be considered as part of the forthcoming spending review.

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Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

The government is committed to ensuring that anyone, can pursue an education and career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

An important focus is on primary mathematics where the government has a commitment to improve the quality of mathematics teaching across nurseries and primary schools, learning from the success of phonics. The government continues to support continuing professional development for mathematics teachers in schools and post-16 institutions. Mathematics is the most popular A level.

To support the teaching of computing and increase participation in computer science qualifications, the government funds the National Centre for Computing Education. This support includes programmes designed to encourage greater participation from girls and industry-led events that raise pupils’ awareness of careers in computing.

In science, to ensure that every pupil has access to high-quality teaching, the department funds the ‘Subject Knowledge for Physics Teachers’ programme. This intensive retraining programme comprises six modules to upskill non-specialist teachers of physics and enhance their subject knowledge, confidence and pedagogical knowledge.

Oak National Academy also offers free, optional and adaptable materials for use at key stages 1 to 4 in mathematics, computing and all three sciences.

The department also funds the STEM Ambassadors programme, a nationwide network of over 30,000 registered volunteers representing thousands of employers, who engage with young people to increase their interest in STEM subjects and to raise awareness of the range of careers that STEM qualifications offer.

The government will continue to support learners who wish to have a career in STEM through its technical education offer, with a range of high-quality qualifications and apprenticeship opportunities at all levels. Examples of this include:

• 12 T Levels in STEM subjects, including engineering, science, digital and media. T Levels are promoted to young people via the Skills for Life national communications campaign.
• Over 370 employer-designed apprenticeship standards in STEM. Apprenticeships are a great way for anyone, regardless of their background, to receive high-quality training and skills to begin, or progress in, a successful career in STEM.

We have also established a comprehensive network of 21 Institutes of Technology across England to significantly increase the number of learners with higher technical skills in key STEM sectors, such as manufacturing and engineering, construction and digital.

The department has announced an Initial Teacher Training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 academic year recruitment cycle worth £233 million, which is a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the government is offering a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.

The legislation sets out strict requirements to protect the welfare of animals at the time of killing, including male chicks from the egg production sector.

Permitted killing methods for chicks, such as gas stunning and maceration, are based on scientific research and assessment to ensure birds are spared any avoidable pain, distress, or suffering. All laying hen hatcheries in the UK use argon gas mixtures as their stunning method.

We are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. In recent years there has been rapid global progress in the development of technologies that allow chicks to be sexed in-ovo (within the egg). We welcome the UK egg industry’s interest in the development of day zero sexing technology.

We are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards.

In its 2024 ‘Opinion on alternatives to culling newly hatched chicks in the egg and poultry industries’, the Animal Welfare Committee considered a range of technologies that could help end the routine culling of male chicks by identifying or determining the sex of chick embryos before hatching. In recent years there has been rapid global progress in the development of these technologies, and we welcome the UK egg industry’s interest in the development of day zero sexing technology.

The cross-Government Motor Insurance Taskforce met for the first time on 16 October 2024 and the Secretary of State is keen to reconvene again soon. We will provide updates on the Taskforce in due course.

The Government is committed to strengthening workers’ rights at sea, which is why as part of the Employment Rights Bill we are introducing powers for Ministers to create a legally-binding Seafarers’ Charter. This will protect and improve seafarer working conditions, including by addressing seafarer fatigue.

We will continue to work with like-minded states and through international forums to raise international standards for seafarer welfare.

We have recently published our Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy that sets out our plans to decarbonise the domestic maritime sector. This Strategy includes a package of policy and regulatory measures across both the port and shipping industries. Reducing emissions builds on the increased efficiency of operators, combined with a transition to cleaner zero, and near-zero greenhouse gas emission fuels and energy sources, and this Strategy considers the role of these fuels, and how we will support their uptake.

All policies laid out in the Strategy will be developed further and will be subject to formal consultation before implementation.

The Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy sets out Government’s plans for decarbonising the domestic maritime sector, including goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and policies to support this. The Maritime Strategy will be published later this year. It will focus on our four priorities of people, growth, environment and safety. Ports have a crucial role to play across all of these.

The planned meeting of The Motorcycle Strategic Focus Group for autumn 2024 has now been rescheduled for 20 January 2025. The Government is considering plans to review existing requirements for motorcycle training, testing and licensing, taking account of long-standing Department for Transport and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency plans and recent sector proposals.

The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) determines entitlement to the extra health-related amount of Universal Credit. It is not based on a person’s condition, but on how it affects their ability to function. It recognises that conditions can vary in their severity and therefore people with the same condition can have different WCA outcomes.

WCA reassessments are prioritised for customers on the health element of UC who report a change in their health condition. Routine department-led reassessments are scheduled according to expected prognosis length for recovery and subject to available assessment capacity.

The healthcare professional who performs the WCA, will advise a DWP decision maker on when an individual should be re-assessed. This advice is based on when the individual’s condition is expected to have improved to the point were looking for work or preparing for work may become a realistic option. For those with Limited Capability for Work, re-referral dates can be 6, 12, 18 or 24 months. For individuals with more serious or complex conditions, who have Limited Capability for Work and Work-related activity (LCWRA), a 3-year re-referral date can be chosen.

Individuals, who have LCWRA, with the most severe and lifelong health conditions or disabilities, whose level of function means that they will always have LCWRA and are unlikely ever to be able to move into work, are not routinely reassessed.

The Work Capability Assessment is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced. This needs to come alongside a proper plan to support disabled people to work, which will, in turn, bring down the benefits bill.

We are taking the time to review this in the round before setting out next steps on our approach in the coming months.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion meet applicable standards of safety, quality, and efficacy. The MHRA rigorously assesses the available data, including from the Yellow Card scheme, and seeks advice from their independent advisory committee, the Commission on Human Medicines, where appropriate, to inform regulatory decisions.

It is important to note that a reaction reported to the Yellow Card scheme does not necessarily mean it has been caused by the medicine, only that the reporter had a suspicion it may have. Underlying or concurrent illnesses may be responsible, or the events could be coincidental.

The following table shows the number of Yellow Card reports classified as serious, excluding fatal outcomes, and those with a fatal outcome, received for misoprostol from initial licensing of the medicine up to 13 May 2025:

Reports received via the Yellow Card scheme can contain more than one suspect medicine. It should be noted that misoprostol is used in combination with mifepristone, as such 60 of the serious reports and five reports with a fatal outcome include both products as the suspect drug.

Misoprostol is licenced for a variety of indications, including gastroprotection in duodenal and gastric ulcers, termination of pregnancy, and induction of labour. Mifepristone is licenced for termination of pregnancy and induction of labour.

A list of the possible side effects of mifepristone and misoprostol are provided in the product information document for healthcare professionals, the Summary of Product Characteristics, and in the UK Patient Information Leaflet.

A Yellow Card report is considered serious according to two criteria. Firstly, a reported reaction can be considered serious according to our medical dictionary. Secondly, if the original reporter considers the report to be serious, they can select from the six serious criteria available, which are: patient died due to reaction; life threatening; resulted in hospitalisation or prolonged inpatient hospitalisation; congenital abnormality; involved persistent or significant disability or incapacity; or if the reaction was deemed medically significant.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new, licensed medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources.

The NICE is unable to make a recommendation about the use of omaveloxolone for treating Friedreich's ataxia in people aged 16 years old and over, in the NHS. This is because the company, Biogen, withdrew its evidence submission. The NICE will review its decision if the company decides to make a new submission. Further information is available at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ta11431

NHS England does not fund medicines where the company has not engaged with the NICE. This is to avoid a potential pathway for circumventing the NICE’s appraisal process.

Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death, disability, and ill health. It causes approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, one in four of all cancer deaths, and kills up to two-thirds of its users.

Smoking also substantially increases the risk of many major health conditions throughout people’s lives, such as strokes, diabetes, heart disease, stillbirth, dementia, and asthma. Three quarters of smokers wish they had never started smoking but are unable to stop due to the addictive nature of tobacco.

It is estimated that smoking costs the country £21.8 billion a year in England. This includes an annual £18.3 billion loss to productivity, through smoking related lost earnings, unemployment, and early death, as well as costs to the National Health Service and social care of over £2 billion.

On 5 November 2024, the Department published an impact assessment on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. This found that the introduction of the smoke-free generation policy, the progressive increase in the age of sale, will get smoking rates in England for 14 to 30 year olds to 0% as early as 2050. Over the next 50 years it will save tens of thousands of lives, and avoid up to 130,000 cases of cases of lung cancer, strokes, and heart disease.

The impact assessment explored a one-time age increase, but this has been discounted as it does not achieve the policy objective to prevent future generations from ever taking up smoking and getting smoking prevalence to 0% to achieve a smoke-free United Kingdom. Simply raising the age of sale to one set year will only raise the age that people start smoking, and would not break the cycle of addiction and disadvantage.

The estimated familiarisation and staff training costs included in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill impact assessment are assumed to be one-off costs, and individual estimates are provided for each specific policy.

The bill will gradually end the sale of tobacco products across the country, so an individual born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be legally sold these products, including through proxy purchasing. Although it will mean the legal age of sale effectively increases by one year each year, the regulations will not change every year. This means it will be a one-off cost for retailers in terms of training staff.

Some indicative estimates for staff training are included for secondary legislation. This, however, will be subject to consultation and, where proportionate, further work will be completed to assess the costs and benefits of these measures.

We will continue to work closely with retailers to support them in implementing the smoke-free generation policy in the future.

Tackling waiting lists, including for neurology, is a key part of our Health Mission. We are committed to getting back to the NHS Constitutional standard that at least 92% of patient wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, within our first term.

To reduce waiting times for neurological services, NHS England is working hard to improve the delivery of services for admitted patients with neurological disorders, including at a trust level, whilst also enhancing the use of advice and guidance to optimise referrals, and improving productivity in outpatient services through reducing the number of missed appointments and by optimising follow up systems.

NHS England’s Neurology Transformation Programme is also working to develop guidance for health systems on all aspects of neurology pathway improvement in integrated care systems, including specialised services, secondary care, and community services. This work is focused on improving equity of access to, and timeliness of, care.

Diagnostics, and in some cases surgical procedures, are key parts of the neurological pathways. At the 2024 Autumn Budget, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £1.5 billion of capital funding for new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners. This will build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures and over 1.25 million diagnostic tests, as well as new beds, which will create more treatment space in emergency departments, reduce waiting times, and help shift more care into the community.