Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will introduce legislation to mandate information sharing between (a) payment service providers, (b) technology companies and (c) telecommunications companies.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Under current regulations, victims of unauthorised bank fraud are automatically entitled to reimbursement in virtually all cases. This is not the case with victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud – currently ten of the UK’s largest banks are signed up to the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code.
The government have legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to require the Payments System Regulator (PSR) to introduce mandatory reimbursement for APP scams within the Faster Payment System, where 98% of APP fraud takes place.
The PSR have confirmed that mandatory reimbursement will come into force in October 2024.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of a fair and proportional reimbursement framework for bank fraud.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Under current regulations, victims of unauthorised bank fraud are automatically entitled to reimbursement in virtually all cases. This is not the case with victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud – currently ten of the UK’s largest banks are signed up to the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code.
The government have legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to require the Payments System Regulator (PSR) to introduce mandatory reimbursement for APP scams within the Faster Payment System, where 98% of APP fraud takes place.
The PSR have confirmed that mandatory reimbursement will come into force in October 2024.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department plans to take to help increase accessibility of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all electric vehicle drivers can easily find public chargepoints that they can use. The Government and industry have supported the installation of over 53,600 publicly available charging devices.
The Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 1899 provides specifications on designing and installing accessible chargepoints. It also considers chargepoints in the context of their wider built environment, to ensure that the needs of other road and pavement users are reflected.
The Government will continue to monitor progress to assess whether further intervention is required, including through a 24-month review into implementation of PAS 1899.
The Government is actively encouraging local authorities, and other relevant parties, to incorporate accessibility into their procurement models, including through the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund. This £381 million fund will support local authorities to work with industry to ensure that the transition to EVs takes place in every part of the country.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Mental Health Bill will have provisions to help tackle loneliness.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government published a draft Mental Health Bill on 23 June 2023 and it remains our intention to bring forward a Mental Health Bill when Parliamentary time allows. The Bill is designed to reform the Mental Health Act 1983, which exists to be able to compel people to stay in hospital and be treated for a severe mental illness. The legislative reforms contained in the Bill aim to provide greater autonomy to individuals to inform their care and treatment, including children and young people. They also aim to ensure that inpatients, including those detained under the Mental Health Act, have improved support to access their rights under the Act. The Bill therefore does not include provisions to tackle loneliness.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport launched the world’s first government strategy on loneliness in October 2018. It set out a clear vision for this country to be a place where we can all have strong social relationships. The Government’s work to tackle loneliness focuses on reducing the stigma associated with loneliness; supporting organisations across society to take action; and improving the evidence base on loneliness.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on tackling loneliness.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Many people experience loneliness and social isolation, and the Government is committed to reducing the stigma associated with loneliness, and building a more connected society. Government, local councils, health systems and voluntary and community sector organisations all have an important role to play in achieving this.
Since publishing the first ever government Strategy for Tackling Loneliness and appointing the world’s first Minister for Loneliness in 2018, we have invested almost £80 million in tackling loneliness. These interventions include a national communications campaign that aims to reduce the stigma of loneliness, which has reached at least 25 million people across the country. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is also delivering the ‘Know Your Neighbourhood Fund’ to boost volunteering and reduce loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England. We have also brought together over 750 people from across the public, private and charity sectors through our Tackling Loneliness Hub, where members can learn from events and workshops, share the latest research and collaborate on new initiatives.
Last March, we published the fourth annual report of our Tackling Loneliness Strategy. It contains over 60 new and ongoing commitments from 11 government departments. So far, we have made progress against at least 46 of these commitments and at least 7 have been completed. Due to the nature of the commitments many have now been incorporated into business as usual. The fifth annual report will provide a full update on commitments, and is due to be published in March.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to tackle youth homelessness.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 9917 on 24 January 2024.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress he has made on meeting his environmental targets.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our 13 Environment Act 2021 targets were set in law by January 2023 and are included in our revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23). Interim targets were also set at this point and will help tackle some of the biggest environmental pressures and make tangible progress over the next five years of EIP23.
We have been making progress in delivery of our new environmental targets and are due to report on them, and other EIP commitments, in our EIP Annual Progress Report in the summer.
We will continue to monitor and adjust our delivery to reach the long-term environmental goals outlined in the EIP23, including on our wider statutory targets.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress she has made on meeting the 2015 net zero targets.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The UK has met all its carbon budgets to date. The Government is committed to its carbon budgets and Nationally Determined Contribution, which keep the UK on track to meet net zero in 2050.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve PE training for trainee primary school teachers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government does not prescribe the curriculum of initial teacher training (ITT) courses. The ITT Core Content Framework (CCF) sets out a minimum entitlement to training that accredited ITT providers must incorporate into their primary and/or secondary ITT courses. The ITT Core Content Framework does not set out the full ITT curriculum for trainee teachers. It remains for individual providers to design curricula appropriate for the subject, phase and age range that the trainees will be teaching. Providers should ensure their curricula encompass the full entitlement described in the ITT Core Content Framework, as well as integrating additional analysis and critique of theory, research and expert practice as they deem appropriate. The ITT CCF is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-core-content-framework.
The department is continually exploring opportunities to further improve teacher training and professional development, including reviewing the content of the CCF alongside the Early Career Framework. The review is due to be published in early 2024.
Primary schools can use the PE and sport premium to provide staff with professional development, mentoring, training and resources to help them improve the quality of their PE, sport and physical activity provision to all pupils, and to embed physical activity across the school day.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he plans to hold discussions with his Spanish counterpart on changes to the 90 day short stay rule for British citizens with holiday homes.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK's Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU confirms that both the UK and EU currently provide for visa-free travel for short-term visits for each other's nationals in accordance with their respective laws. British citizens in Spain are treated as third country nationals under the Schengen Borders Code. As such, they are able to travel visa-free for short stays for up to 90 days in a rolling 180-day period. This is the standard length of stay that the EU offers to other third countries, in line with existing EU legislation.
I [Minister Docherty] engage regularly with my EU counterparts to discuss a range of issues, including on mobility. The Government is focused on the smooth, robust and effective implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.