Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the government endorsed Trustmark scheme protects consumers from rogue traders.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This Government is working to ensure we have a high-quality and professional construction industry, with consumer protection at its heart. We work closely with TrustMark, which is sponsored by the Department and licenced by the Government, as the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme that covers work a consumer chooses to have carried out in or around their home.
The Government is supporting TrustMark to continue to further its ability to improve the quality of the information it has and to identify firms and individuals that pose a risk to consumers.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of strengthening waste regulations (a) for the list of approved destinations of and (b) on the environmental standards for aluminium scrap exports on (i) encouraging domestic recycling and (ii) reducing carbon leakage.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are currently considering the role of exports in dealing with the UK’s scrap aluminium and how they can complement domestic recycling efforts.
Overseas facilities receiving UK waste must be operated in accordance with standards that are broadly equivalent to those established in UK legislation. We work with the UK regulators to ensure the proper enforcement of our rules and regulations.
Defra is committed to building a circular economy that enhances industry competition and capitalises on the UK’s potential in aluminium processing, whilst realising our environmental objectives.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to reform the (a) Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) and (b) Packaging Waste Export Recycling Note (PERN) system to (i) address market imbalances that disadvantage UK recyclers, (ii) reduce the price disparity between PRNs and PERNs, (iii) strengthen oversight of overseas export destinations and (iv) support domestic recycling infrastructure.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Yes, we have been working closely with relevant stakeholders to identify and prioritise options to reform the PRN system, including levelling the playing field between UK reprocessors and exporters, and increasing transparency in the system. We plan to consult on these shortly.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of small modular reactor projects on (a) long-term waste management and (b) decommissioning.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Under the Energy Act 2008, prospective operators of nuclear power stations providing power directly to the grid are required to have a Funded Decommissioning Programme (FDP), making arrangements to cover the full costs of decommissioning and their full share of waste management and disposal costs, approved by the Secretary of State before nuclear-related construction can begin, and to then comply with that programme thereafter.
Based on current proposals for small modular reactors, the government anticipates that waste from such projects would be largely similar in nature to the current operating fleet, with low level waste disposable in existing facilities, while more hazardous waste would be stored pending disposal in a geological disposal facility when it becomes available.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review planning requirements for converting homes into houses in multiple occupation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local planning authorities already have planning powers to limit the concentration or proliferation of HMOs within their locality. They can remove the national permitted development right for smaller HMOs to protect the local amenity or wellbeing of an area by introducing an ‘Article 4’ direction which, once in place, requires all new HMO proposals to secure planning permission. We keep the powers to regulate HMOs under review.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to launch its consultation on the future of the British National (Overseas) 5+1 Indefinite Leave to Remain visa route.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We will be consulting on the new settlement rules later this year.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims were made by people holding student visas by nationality in the last 12 months; and what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the number of such claims.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of people claiming asylum after entering the UK with a visa or other leave, by nationality and type of leave, in the year ending June 2025 is published in table Asy_01e of the ‘Asylum summary tables’. Data for the year ending September 2025 will be published on 27 November 2025.
The UK keeps its visa system under regular review, and the government has been clear that we will do whatever it takes to tackle the issue of visa abuse.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure that the carbon border adjustment mechanism will support a reduction in carbon leakage in all the sectors in scope of the legislation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will be introduced on 1 January 2027 to address the risk of carbon leakage.
Carbon leakage occurs when production and associated emissions shift from one country to another due to different levels of decarbonisation effort, for example, as a result of carbon pricing and climate regulation.
The CBAM will place a carbon price on specific industrial goods imported to the UK from the aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen and iron & steel sectors that are at risk of carbon leakage, to ensure they face a comparable carbon price to those produced in the UK.
This will support UK decarbonisation efforts to lead to a true reduction in global emissions rather than simply displacing carbon emissions overseas, and give industry confidence to invest in the UK knowing their decarbonisation efforts will not be undermined.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help support the aluminium industry through its negotiations on free trade agreements.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We have taken decisive action to support the UK aluminium industry through recent trade agreements that reduce barriers and enhance market access by removing tariffs.
Additionally, thanks to the strength of the UK-US partnership, the UK remains the only country to benefit from a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium exports to the US, avoiding the global rate of 50%. The UK is the only country to have secured this commitment, giving our companies a competitive advantage.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help support the aluminium industry in the context of (a) US tariffs and (b) global competition.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Thanks to the strength of the UK-US partnership, the UK remains the only country to benefit from a preferential 25% tariff on steel and aluminium exports to the US, avoiding the global rate of 50%. The UK is therefore uniquely positioned as the only country to have secured this commitment, giving our companies a 25% competitive advantage over global competitors.
After US global tariffs were introduced in May, the Business Secretary instructed the Trade Remedies Authority to work with the aluminium industry to gather and assess evidence for possible trade protection measures.