Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the consignments of end-of-life tyres submitted to the Environment Agency's enhanced verification procedure for Annex VII documents between 1st October 2025 and 15th December 2025, have subsequently been subject to a Change Of Destination request made by brokers to carriers and how these requests are recorded by the Environment Agency.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) received two “change of destination” requests for shipments within the enhanced verification process.
One request was submitted while the shipment was already at sea, and the other before it left the UK. Both were sent by email and recorded by the operational team.
Whilst there is no legal requirement for exporters to inform the EA about a change of destination under the Waste Shipment Regulations, the EA monitors such changes to ensure waste is not diverted to an unsuitable destination.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, further to the Government’s announcement in July 2025 of the decision to remove the T8 waste tyre exemption, if she will clarify the process involved in achieving that, confirm the timeline to end the T8 waste tyre exemption and confirm when the three month transition period is to start.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Removal of the T8 waste exemption for mechanically treating end-of-life tyres is part of a package of reforms to the waste exemption regime. These reforms encompass the removal of two other exemptions, substantial amendments to seven exemptions and the introduction of a number of other controls.
Regulations will be made under section 2 of Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 and subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. The work preparing these regulations is underway and will be laid at a date subject to Parliamentary time.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the consignments of end-of-life tyres submitted to the Environment Agency's enhanced verification procedure for Annex VII documents between 1st October 2025 and 15th December 2025 and have arrived at their final destination have returned geo-tagged photos as proof of arrival.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency has received 79 completed annex VII documents since 28 December 2025 with attached geotagged photographs. Any photos submitted without the required geotagging are considered non-compliant and further action is taken.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the consignments of end-of-life tyres submitted to the Environment Agency's enhanced verification procedure for Annex VII documents between 1st October 2025 and 15th December 2025, have arrived at their final destination overseas.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) has issued 44 Information Notices, and in return received 1,891 Annex VII documents relating to outward shipments from the UK since 28 October 2025 when the new procedures were introduced.
The EA’s enhanced verification procedure requires completed annex VII documents to be submitted 8 weeks after shipment to confirm it has arrived at its destination.
The deadline for the first completed document was 28 December. The EA has since received 112 Annex VII documents from the receiving sites- this number will increase as more shipments reach the 8-week deadline.
The EA continues to request completed Annex VIIs and is actively following up the outstanding returns.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2025 to Question 63305 on Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants, on what dates they held the meetings with the Patient Safety Commissioner to discuss the recommendations of the Hughes report.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since the publication of the Hughes Report on 7 February 2024, ministers and Departmental officials have met with the Patient Safety Commissioner on several occasions to discuss the recommendations of the Hughes report.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism for work capability assessors.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since 09 September 2024, the educational material for all Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS) Health Professionals (HPs) has been provided by DWP. In reviewing the material ahead of that date, we considered practice in the NHS, and have now implemented the Oliver McGowan training as part of the mandatory training requirements for every HP.
Following the completion of core training to undertake the role, HPs will engage in an annual training programme, and HAAS has been provided with materials (such as Continual Professional Development modules) to support the development of HPs where learning needs are identified. This approach ensures that both service wide and individual training needs are met and will be of benefit to those with neurodiversity.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2024 to Question 327 on Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants, how many meetings have been held with the Patient Safety Commissioner on the recommendations of the Hughes report.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials and ministers have met with the Patient Safety Commissioner on several occasions, and we are happy to continue to engage with the Patient Safety Commissioner on this matter.
The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report in due course.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which hospitals received funding for machines capable of increasing treatment with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information. However, a proportion of the machines will be capable of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the £70 million funding for new radiotherapy machines is in addition to the prevailing budgets for radiotherapy machines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £70 million investment into 28 radiotherapy machines that was announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget is part of the overall financial settlement for the 2025/26 financial year.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which chemicals will be used in the Advanced Research and Invention Agency's geoengineering program.
Answered by Feryal Clark
ARIA is an independent research body and they are conducting cautious, controlled research aimed at improving understanding of its Climate Cooling Programme’s risks and impacts. This will produce important information for decisions on climate cooling approaches around the world.
The government supports ARIA’s mission to fund transformational research programmes with long-term benefits. A select number of controlled, small-scale projects will explore spraying seawater as a potential way to enhance cloud reflectivity. Another project involves a study on how milligram quantities of mineral dusts age in the stratosphere. The project has specified that none of these materials will be released into the atmosphere in this experiment, and all the materials will be returned to the ground for recovery and analysis by scientists.
Details of all of ARIA’s funded projects within its ‘Climate Cooling Programme’ can be found on their website