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Written Question
Public Libraries: Finance
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to help support libraries that have had a reduction in funding from local authorities.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Local authorities in England have a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service which meets local needs. It is for each local authority to consider how best to deliver this.

His Majesty’s Government has provided an additional £600 million on top of the £64 billion Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 — an increase of 7.5% in cash terms. This uplift will help to reduce pressure on councils’ budgets, and protect services including public libraries.

In addition, DCMS announced on 25 March that 43 library services in England would benefit from Round 3 of the Libraries Improvement Fund which is allocating £10.5 million across this financial year and next. The Fund has allocated £20.5 million since 2021 to public library services across England to support them to upgrade their buildings and improve digital infrastructure so that they are better placed to respond to the changing ways people want to use them.


Written Question
Public Libraries: Finance
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that libraries are receiving adequate funding from local authorities.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Local authorities in England have a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service which meets local needs. It is for each local authority to consider how best to deliver this.

His Majesty’s Government has provided an additional £600 million on top of the £64 billion Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024-25 — an increase of 7.5% in cash terms. This uplift will help to reduce pressure on councils’ budgets, and protect services including public libraries.

In addition, DCMS announced on 25 March that 43 library services in England would benefit from Round 3 of the Libraries Improvement Fund which is allocating £10.5 million across this financial year and next. The Fund has allocated £20.5 million since 2021 to public library services across England to support them to upgrade their buildings and improve digital infrastructure so that they are better placed to respond to the changing ways people want to use them.


Written Question
Cultural Heritage: Fees and Charges
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to ensure that cost is not a barrier to people accessing heritage visitor attractions in their area.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Many heritage visitor attractions are free to visit or offer schemes to support access, and DCMS-sponsored museums are free to enter for people of any age. The vast majority of the 400 sites in the National Heritage Collection, which is managed by English Heritage Trust on behalf of HM Government, are also free to enter. Where the charity does need to charge visitors an entry fee to support its work, it works to increase engagement with under-represented groups, so that everyone has the opportunity to connect with our shared heritage. English Heritage is also one of the largest providers of free school visits in the UK.

The National Lottery also runs ‘National Lottery Open Week’ which provides free admission for holders of a lottery ticket or scratch card at venues across the UK, including English Heritage Trust, Historic Royal Palaces, and National Trust properties.


Written Question
Museums and Galleries
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that important items from national collections are shared with museums and galleries around the country.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Museums with national collections have a long history of loaning objects from their collection and touring exhibitions across the country. The 15 museums and museum groups directly sponsored by DCMS report annually on their UK loans and regional engagement, encouraging strategic dialogue between national collections to lend and foster collaborations, with data from 2022/23 showing that over 1,100 UK venues received loans. Non-national museums are also supported to borrow, through public funding, via Arts Council England, to organisations like the Touring Exhibition Group.


Written Question
Members: Correspondence
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Clarke (Conservative - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of 4 December 2023 from the Rt hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland relating to a constituent, reference SC3361 and SC6612.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

DSIT attaches great importance to providing timely responses to Members’ correspondence so we apologise for the delay in these cases. We replied to case reference SC3361 on 27 March and will ensure a response is issued to SC6612 as a matter of urgency.


Written Question
Methane: Pollution Control
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)

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 (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to help reduce methane emissions from (a) anthropogenic sources, (b) landfills and (c) fossil fuel production.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the UK, overall greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector have decreased by 74% since 1990. This is mostly due to the implementation of methane recovery systems at UK landfill sites, increasing landfill methane capture rates, and reductions in the amount of biodegradable waste disposed of at landfill sites. In 2022, the waste sector accounted for 4.6% of total UK territorial greenhouse gas emissions, with landfill methane emissions responsible for 80% of the sector’s emissions.

We are committed to tackling these remaining emissions and are exploring options for the near elimination of municipal biodegradable waste being sent to landfill in England from 2028, in line with the commitment in the Net Zero Strategy. Under the Government’s Simpler Recycling reforms, set out within new s45 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended by the Environment Act 2021), all households, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises will be required to arrange for the collection of food waste for recycling or composting. Recycling via anaerobic digestion will produce biogas and significant carbon savings over sending food waste to landfill. To explore further measures to achieve our commitment we issued a call for evidence on 26 May 2023 to support detailed policy development. A summary of responses to this call for evidence and further information will be published in due course.

We are undertaking research to quantify site-specific methane emissions from landfill and update our understanding of residual (non-recyclable) waste composition. Both of these projects will support efforts to further reduce methane emissions from landfill sites and report our emissions in line with UNFCCC guidelines.

Defra considers that Methane Suppressing Feed Products (MSFPs) are an essential tool to decarbonise the agriculture sector. In England, our objective is to establish a mature market for these products, encourage uptake and mandate the use of MSFPs in appropriate cattle systems as soon as feasibly possible and no later than 2030. We are committed to working with farmers and industry to achieve this goal, and in early March convened the inaugural meeting of a Ministerial-led industry taskforce on MSFPs.

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR) provide wide-ranging powers to control emissions to air, water and land from regulated installations through permits. Methane is a pollutant under the EPR and, where relevant, industrial installations must comply with EPR permit conditions to control and monitor methane.

In the 2020 Energy White Paper, the Government committed to the World Bank’s ‘Zero Routine Flaring by 2030’ initiative which aims to eliminate routine flaring from oil production globally.

Through the North Sea Transition Deal and the industry’s subsequent Methane Action Plan, UK industry has committed further to accelerate compliance with the World Bank's initiative where possible, set a 50% methane reduction target by 2030 (against a 2018 baseline) and have adopted the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s methane intensity target of 0.2% by 2025.

Emissions associated with methane venting and flaring are accounted for in our binding domestic carbon budgets.

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) already expects methane emissions to be as low as possible, and for all new developments to be developed on the basis of zero routine flaring and venting, (and to be either electrified or electrification-ready).

All platforms are expected to have zero routine flaring and venting from or before 2030.

The consenting process for flaring and venting is administered by the NSTA, which is working with industry to keep non-routine flaring and venting to a minimum.

The NSTA recently consulted on its draft OGA Plan, which included a section on flaring and venting. It is due to publish its response and the final OGA plan soon.


Written Question
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish the Regulatory Policy Committee's original opinion on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill submitted to her Department on 12 February 2024; if she will outline the changes she has made to that Bill since receiving that opinion; and what discussions she has had with the Regulatory Policy Committee on the expected timetable for their submission of the revised opinion.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. That is why we have introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to create the first smokefree generation, and enable us to further crack down on youth vaping. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is available at the following link:

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3703

On 12 February 2024 the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) gave opinion on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill impact assessment and rated it green (fit for purpose). However, on 19 March 2024, ahead of the introduction of the bill, a revised version was sent to the RPC for comment. This included changes to reflect the inclusion of Northern Ireland in the bill, following the formation of a Northern Ireland Executive, and a power in the bill to enable the current notification system for nicotine vapes to also cover non-nicotine vapes and other consumer nicotine products, for instance nicotine pouches. The RPC have publicly stated that they welcome the resubmission of the revised impact assessment, and we expect a revised opinion to be issued shortly. The statement from the RPC is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-tobacco-and-vapes-bill-statement-from-the-rpc


Written Question
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the Regulatory Policy Committee's revised opinion on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is published by 16 April 2024.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. That is why we have introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to create the first smokefree generation, and enable us to further crack down on youth vaping. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is available at the following link:

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3703

On 12 February 2024 the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) gave opinion on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill impact assessment and rated it green (fit for purpose). However, on 19 March 2024, ahead of the introduction of the bill, a revised version was sent to the RPC for comment. This included changes to reflect the inclusion of Northern Ireland in the bill, following the formation of a Northern Ireland Executive, and a power in the bill to enable the current notification system for nicotine vapes to also cover non-nicotine vapes and other consumer nicotine products, for instance nicotine pouches. The RPC have publicly stated that they welcome the resubmission of the revised impact assessment, and we expect a revised opinion to be issued shortly. The statement from the RPC is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-tobacco-and-vapes-bill-statement-from-the-rpc


Written Question
Audiobooks: VAT
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of charging VAT on (a) academic and (b) other educational audiobooks on access to education for people with (i) dyslexia, (ii) sight loss and (iii) impairment who cannot hold books.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to supporting those with disabilities who may struggle to access physical books and therefore rely more heavily on audiobooks. In line with its statutory obligations under the Equality Act, the Government carefully considers the impact of VAT policy on those with disabilities.

However, there is never any guarantee that any VAT cut is passed onto consumers. It is therefore not clear that cutting the VAT on audiobooks would actually benefit consumers, including those with disabilities.

Given this, the government does not currently have any plans to change the VAT treatment of audiobooks.


Written Question
Pakistan: Ahmadiyya
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the government of Pakistan regarding attacks on Ahmadiyya Muslim mosques.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK condemns the continued persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan and this is regularly raised in our meetings with the Pakistani authorities. On 22 March I met with Pakistan's newly-appointed Foreign Secretary Ishaq Dar to discuss the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan. I raised attacks on Ahmadiyya Muslim mosques with Pakistan's caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on 13 September and in a letter of 5 October in 2023. On 7 March, the UK formally registered concerns with the Pakistan High Commission, condemning all incidents of hate speech directed towards Ahmadi Muslims, the desecration of Ahmadi mosques, and violence against Ahmadi individuals. In my letter to the newly-appointed Human Rights Minister in March, I underlined the UK's commitment to protecting religious minorities and urged the government of Pakistan to condemn any instances of hate directed towards Ahmadi Muslims and other marginalised religious communities.