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1700999

	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course. Bowel mesh, also known as rectopexy mesh, did not fall within the definition of pelvic organ prolapse that the PSC investigated for her report.</p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1701000

	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course. Bowel mesh, also known as rectopexy mesh, did not fall within the definition of pelvic organ prolapse that the PSC investigated for her report.</p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1700370

	answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>Ministerial colleagues and I, as well as officials in the Cabinet Office and relevant other Government Departments, are working closely to ensure effective design and implementation of the Government response to Inquiry, with regular meetings and engagement across Whitehall.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government is committed to responding to the recommendations made by Sir Brian Langstaff in full, after the publication of the final report. The Government has appointed an expert group to provide advice on recommendations regarding compensation, and we are bringing forward amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill at Report Stage in the Other Place to speed up the Government response to the Inquiry.</p><p> </p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1700371

	answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>Ministerial colleagues and I, as well as officials in the Cabinet Office and relevant other Government Departments, are working closely to ensure effective design and implementation of the Government response to Inquiry, with regular meetings and engagement across Whitehall.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government is committed to responding to the recommendations made by Sir Brian Langstaff in full, after the publication of the final report. The Government has appointed an expert group to provide advice on recommendations regarding compensation, and we are bringing forward amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill at Report Stage in the Other Place to speed up the Government response to the Inquiry.</p><p> </p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1684212

	answering dept short name	Business and Trade
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>My Department has offered to meet the reasonable legal costs of postmasters applying to the GLO scheme in line with a tariff agreed with claimants’ legal representatives. I wrote to all GLO postmasters in December 2022 advising them not to engage any lawyer who asks them for payment, as this might mean their compensation would be reduced by legal costs which they could not recover. My Department’s understanding is that only one lawyer has been engaged on that basis, representing one or two out of 492 claimants in the GLO scheme.</p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1683049

	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The UK plays an active role to support and implement the conservation and wise use of wetlands through the Ramsar Convention. In England we are not currently planning to publish a separate National Wetland Strategy but have set out our plan to recover nature and restore our habitats and wetlands in the revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23), as well as our England Peat Action Plan. We are also meeting our commitments under the Ramsar Convention, as laid out in our Environmental Improvement Plan and the National Adaptation Plan, through establishing a UK Wetland Inventory - mapping our wetlands for the first time and supporting future action to protect these vital habitats.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that wetland restoration will be critical to protect the vast number of wetland species as well as providing critical nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaption. By 2030 we have domestically committed to halt the decline in species abundance and by 2042 we aim to reverse species decline; to reduce the risk of species extinction; and to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats outside protected sites. Many wetlands are also Protected Sites, of which we have committed to restore 75% to favourable condition by 2042.</p><p> </p><p>Alongside setting targets in other areas including water and air quality, we are taking targeted action to recover our wetlands. Our recently announced and government-supported Lost Wetlands Nature Recovery Project will reclaim, restore and rewet a mosaic of wetland habitats over 5,000ha in South Greater Manchester and North Cheshire, previously lost to industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural intensification. Defra has also launched a 60,000-hectare Nature Recovery Project focusing on the Somerset Wetlands, with the 6,140-hectare super National Nature Reserve at its heart. These projects will enhance connectivity, species recovery and resilience to climate change.</p><p> </p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1682117

	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>NHS England is currently considering the methodology for undertaking a proper assessment of the impact of the various supply routes into the midwifery workforce.</p><p> </p><p>The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in 2023 sets out the need to grow midwifery education and training, in line with the conclusions of the Ockenden Review. We will increase midwifery training placements from a baseline of 3,778 places to 4,269 places, and that by 2028 we envisage that about 5% will be through apprenticeships. We envisage that trusts will meet establishment levels set by midwifery staffing tools and achieve fill rates by 2027/28. Recent investment in midwifery of 650 training places in 2019 and 1,000 in each of the following three years means we expect to see solid growth in midwives of between 1.8 and 1.9% per year over the course of the plan. These increases are being measured against the 2018/19 baseline of 2,715 starters on midwifery programmes. And in early 2022, a funding offer was agreed to support 300 places for adult nurses on the shortened midwifery programme.</p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1682118

	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>‘We work flexibly’ is one of the elements contained in the NHS People Promise with a commitment to deliver for staff, including midwives by 2024/25.</p><p>NHS England has created and shared flexible working arrangement resources and delivered bespoke webinars and workshops on the issue. They have also brought together midwifery leaders from across the system to share good practice, foster collaboration and support the implementation of flexible working across maternity services.</p><p>In September 2021, contractual changes took effect for employees covered by the NHS Terms &amp; Conditions of Service Handbook which includes the right to request flexible working from day one without the need to provide a justification.</p><p>However, no assessment of the adequacy of the availability of flexible working arrangements specifically for midwives has been made.</p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1679774

	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>Government has a goal of stimulating at least £500m per year of private investment into nature recovery in England by 2027, rising to at least £1bn per year by 2030. Defra is putting in place interventions to set the conditions for this to happen, including publishing a nature markets framework, partnering with the British Standards Institute on nature investment standards, stimulating a pipeline of investable nature projects (including multiple projects in wetland areas), and enabling public funding for nature to crowd-in private investment.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is also supporting eight blue finance projects with around £750,000 of grants through the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund. This funding is being used to develop a pipeline of projects that can demonstrate viable private-sector investment models, ultimately working to restore important coastal and marine habitats such as saltmarsh. Four of the five Protected Site Strategy Research and Development Pilots involve pressures affecting wetlands, including long-term management and financing, while Natural England is additionally progressing two projects on peatland National Nature Reserves on selling carbon using the Peatland Code.</p><p> </p><p>Defra already supports a range of research projects relating to wetlands, including a recent collaboration with the British Trust for Ornithology modelling the impacts of different land use change scenarios on a range of wetland species. We also fund the Wetlands Bird Survey through grant in aid via JNCC. Through the UK Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership, UK Administrations are working with DESNZ and Defra to address key research questions relating to blue carbon habitats.</p><p> </p><p>Internationally, we provide regular financial and in-kind support to the Ramsar Wetlands Convention to promote the protection and wise use of wetlands.</p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie

1679775

	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	legislature	25259
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>Yes, my Department will be marking World Wetlands Day, including through a variety of communications and engagement activities. Wetlands play a crucial role in sustaining life globally - they benefit water, food, livelihoods, climate, cultural pursuits, and biodiversity – and this day marks an opportunity to promote these benefits.</p><p> </p><p>This year’s World Wetlands Day theme is ‘Wetland and human wellbeing’, reflecting that Wetlands positively impact mental wellbeing by promoting mindfulness and emotional balance through the connection to nature they provide and offer recreational opportunities, contributing to stress management and relaxation.</p>
	tabling member	4847 label Biography information for Siobhan Baillie