Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Wales Office:
What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support offshore wind in Wales.
Answered by James Davies
Floating offshore wind will create thousands of high-quality jobs in Wales, drive economic growth and help us reach our net zero and energy security ambitions.
I will continue to work with colleagues across Government and The Crown Estate as they progress plans to bring forward 4 Gigawatts of projects in the Celtic Sea by 2035.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with Building Digital UK on Type A procurements for Cornwall; and what the timetable is for announcing a decision on those procurements.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As part of Project Gigabit, we are delivering two local supplier procurements (Type A) for Central Cornwall and South West Cornwall. Combined, the two procurements are estimated to cover up to 19,000 premises, with a total value of £18 million. We expect to award contracts in January 2023.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the two bomb attacks in Jerusalem on 23 November 2022.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are appalled by the recent terrorist attacks. There can be no justification for such acts of violence. Every Israeli and Palestinian has the right to live in peace and security.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that standards on (a) food labelling and allergens and (b) staff training on allergens in restaurants are (i) maintained and (ii) enhanced.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Information provided to the consumer must not mislead and must enable the safe use of food. The United Kingdom maintains high standards on the information provided on food labelling to ensure consumer confidence. The Government food strategy sets out further action on consumer information and transparency.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) aims to reduce harm to people with food hypersensitivity and ensure that related food safety standards are maintained. This includes improving the provision of information for people with allergies and working with food businesses to increase allergen training in the sector. The FSA’s programme on food hypersensitivity is focused on policy, research and evidence to support enforcement and engaging with consumers and businesses.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the quality of nursing in care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I created the post of Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care. Deborah Sturdy is providing outstanding leadership for social care nursing in this role. She has been raising the profile of social care nursing and increasing the recognition of excellence in social care. As we take forwards our social care reforms, social care nurses and care workers are front and centre of our workforce ambitions.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve the condition of roads in England.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
During this Parliament the Government is investing over £5 billion in highways maintenance. It is up to the respective highway authority how best to spend this funding to fulfil their statutory duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980. The Department encourages good practice in highway maintenance through channels such as the Well Managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice produced by the UK Roads Leadership Group (UKRLG).
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression.
Answered by Ben Wallace
Ukrainian forces have outperformed their Russian opponents using conventional military defensive tactics, the resourceful employment of special forces, and guerrilla attacks. They have stubbornly held ground, carried out counter-attacks to keep Russian forces off-balance, and prevented repeated Russian attempts to breakthrough or encircle their forces. Russia is now using massed artillery to wear down Ukrainian defences. Ukraine has proved to be nimble and resilient against this approach, limiting Russian gains.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Government is taking to improve prosecution rates for (a) fraud and (b) economic crime.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
In the year ending September 2021, the CPS prosecuted 7,609 defendants where Fraud and Forgery were the principal offence. 84.9% of those defendants were convicted. In the last five years, the SFO secured reparations for criminal behaviour for organisations it investigated totalling over £1.3bn.
The CPS deploy a network of prosecutors around the world to help extradite suspects and secure the evidence needed to bring criminals to justice in this jurisdiction.
The Government has introduced the Online Safety Bill, requiring all companies to take robust action against illegal content. Companies will need to remove material that amounts to an offence in the UK regardless of where in the world it originated.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve the recognition of vocational qualifications.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) provide an important and valued route for many young people and adults. We are streamlining and improving the quality of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below. Our reforms will put employers at the heart of the system, ensuring that all qualifications are fit for purpose, high quality and lead to good outcomes. We are creating clearly defined academic and technical routes at level 3, leading to future study and or skilled employment.
As set out in our level 3 consultation response published in July 2021, students will continue to be able to study qualifications similar to current Applied General qualifications where there is no overlap with T Levels. On 11 May we published a provisional list of 160 qualifications that overlap with the first two waves of T Levels. These qualifications will have funding approval withdrawn for anyone eligible to access the qualification through the 16-19 funding offer on 1 August 2024, unless awarding organisations successfully appeal their qualifications’ inclusion. The final list will be published in September 2022.
Asked by: Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help promote the value of technical qualifications.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The department is strengthening routes for all students to progress through the system, by introducing high-quality technical qualifications that support young people’s progression and meet the needs of employers.
In January this year the department launched our ‘Get the Jump’ campaign, which helps 14-19 year olds explore all their education and training options. We recognise that technical education routes have lower levels of awareness, therefore this campaign spotlights T Levels, Apprenticeships, Traineeships and Higher Technical Qualifications in particular.
The department is also working closely with the Careers and Enterprise Company and Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme to ensure that teachers and careers leaders have the information and resources they need to communicate the benefits of T Levels to their students.