Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to publish the final pricing and billing rates for the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Producers were required to submit their final 2024 data by 1 April 2025. Following this deadline, regulators are conducting regulatory checks. Once checks are conducted to an appropriate level, we will use 2024 data and insight from regulator checks to publish packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) base fees in June 2025.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that family carers are meaningfully involved in the (a) planning and (b) decision-making processes of local integrated care systems.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the National Health Service Act 2006, integrated care boards (ICBs) must make arrangements to ensure patients, and their carers and representatives are involved in the planning and commissioning of health and care, whether through consultation or the provision of information.
While developing the Joint Forward Plans, ICBs and partner trusts must consult with individuals, patients, carers, and communities in the planning process to ensure the plan reflects the needs and preferences of the local population.
The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced provisions for ICBs to promote the involvement of patients, and their carers and representatives, if any, in decisions relating to the care and treatment of the person they care for.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, How much (a) NHS England and (b) NHS Trusts spent on postage in the 2024–25 financial year; and what steps he is taking to help reduce these costs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on National Health Service total spend on postage for the 2024/25 financial year in England is not held centrally, and will be held locally by individual trusts.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 support (a) hidden and (b) unpaid carers from ethnic minority communities; and whether he has made an assessment of support needs in Leicester East constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers. Local authorities are required to undertake Carer’s Assessments to support people caring for their family and friends who appear to have a need for support, and to meet their eligible needs upon request from them.
The Department works with the sector and partners to deliver an annual programme of universal and targeted support to local authorities and their partners. This includes the Partners in Care and Health (PCH) contract.
PCH’s work to support sector partners includes a workstream dedicated to supporting local authorities’ work with unpaid carers. This workstream includes work to identify and support unpaid carers, with a particular focus on identifying those from ethnic minority communities and those who are least likely to self-identify as a carer.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 (a) identify and (b) support (i) hidden and (ii) unpaid family carers who (A) are and (B) are not engaged with formal care systems.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers. Local authorities are required to undertake Carer’s Assessments to support people caring for their family and friends who appear to have a need for support, and to meet their eligible needs upon request from them.
The Department works with the sector and partners to deliver an annual programme of universal and targeted support to local authorities and their partners. This includes the Partners in Care and Health (PCH) contract.
PCH’s work to support sector partners includes a workstream dedicated to supporting local authorities’ work with unpaid carers. This workstream includes work to identify and support unpaid carers, with a particular focus on identifying those from ethnic minority communities and those who are least likely to self-identify as a carer.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle potential abuse of the Extended Producer Responsibility exemption threshold; and whether he has made an assessment of the impact of the £2 million turnover exemption on fair competition.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As the environmental regulator for England, the Environment Agency (EA) conducts compliance checks to ensure businesses accurately assess themselves against regulatory thresholds. These checks include, but are not limited to, open-source reviews of company accounts via the Companies House website and requests for evidence to verify reported turnover.
The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 provide for the assessment of turnover thresholds within corporate groups. Where such a group exists, the turnover of all companies performing a producer function must be aggregated to determine whether the £2 million threshold is met. This measure prevents businesses from establishing additional entities to remain below the threshold.
All EA producer compliance monitoring audits include a review of company structures to ensure that all relevant organisations within a corporate group comply with the regulations.
In October 2024, the Government published an updated impact assessment for the introduction of Extended Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR), this includes an analysis of the impact of pEPR on competition.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 54068 on Housing: Contracts, what her definition her Department uses for the terms (a) Bed Space and (b) Bed Space Size in the context of the Accommodation Contracts.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no definition of those within current accommodation contracts.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the financial impact of being required to apply Extended Producer Responsibility charges retrospectively in the absence of published official rates for relevant material streams on businesses.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Regulations do not impose a retrospective charge and were subject to the required legal and parliamentary scrutiny before coming into force
To prepare businesses for the implementation of the packaging pEPR scheme we have now published illustrative base fees, based on local authority waste management costs forming the basis for indicative local authority payments for 2025, and on packaging tonnages reported by large producers for the first 6-months of 2024. These illustrative base fees for the first time show point estimates as opposed to ranges, providing further certainty to businesses. Producers were required to submit their final 2024 data by 1 April 2025. Following this deadline, regulators are conducting regulatory checks. Once checks are conducted to an appropriate level we will use 2024 data and insight from regulator checks to publish packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR) base fees in June 2025.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the terms (a) Bed Space Size and (b) Bed space in public sector accommodation contracts refer to the number of individuals a room or property is intended to accommodate.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Each department is responsible for specifying its own contract requirements, so the meaning of “Bed Space Size” and “Bed space" may vary based on the criteria established by each department.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of raising the minimum age for eligibility for the COVID-19 booster during the spring vaccination programme on healthcare services in (a) Leicester and (b) England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the Department on the approach to vaccination and immunisation programmes. The aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme is to prevent serious disease, leading to hospitalisation and/or mortality, arising from COVID-19.
The JCVI has advised that the available national data continues to demonstrate that older people and those who are immunosuppressed are at greatest risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19. The data available to the JCVI is national data, and they therefore made no assessment specific to Leicester.
On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice can be found at the following link:
On 12 December 2024, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice that a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered in spring 2025 to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in a care home for older adults, and the immunosuppressed aged six months old and over. The Government’s response can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/advice-accepted-on-spring-2025-covid-19-vaccination-programme
Eligibility for the spring 2025 campaign, including minimum age requirements, is the same as in previous spring campaigns, such as the 2024 campaign. The Government has no plans to change eligibility for spring 2025, and has accepted the JCVI’s advice for this campaign in full. The spring 2025 campaign began in England on 1 April, and will conclude on 17 June.
The JCVI also advised on eligibility for the autumn 2025 and spring 2026 programmes. The Government is considering this advice carefully and will respond in due course.