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1677962

registered interest
date	13/12/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Dementia: Drugs
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the call from Alzheimer's UK for any drugs “deemed safe and effective” to treat dementia to be made available on the NHS as soon as possible, what plans they have to do so.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL1158
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/12/2023 answer text <p>To be made routinely available to National Health Service patients in England, new medicines must receive a marketing authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and a positive recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to demonstrate clinical and cost effectiveness.</p><p>Several potential new disease modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are in development and MHRA, NICE, NHS England and the Department are working closely to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and NICE recommended treatment for Alzheimer’s disease as soon as possible.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 19/12/2023 16:53:43 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1673791

registered interest
date	28/11/2023
answering body	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept id	211
answering dept short name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept sort name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
hansard heading	Freeports: Northern Ireland
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government why Northern Ireland was omitted from the Chancellor’s plan to create more freeports or ‘investment zones’ within the UK.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL668
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2023 answer text <p>We continue discussions about how best to deliver the benefits associated with Freeports and Investment Zones in Northern Ireland. Any decision will be subject to the restoration of an Executive.</p> answering member printed Baroness Penn question first answered 12/12/2023 16:48:12 answering member 4726 label Biography information for Baroness Penn
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1673792

registered interest
date	28/11/2023
answering body	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
answering dept id	208
answering dept short name	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
hansard heading	Windsor Framework
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the European Commission about changing the Windsor Framework and removing aspects of EU law from Northern Ireland.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL669
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2023 answer text <p>The Government is focused on operating the Windsor Framework so it can safeguard Northern Ireland's place in our Union. The new arrangements which came into force on 1 October already disapply swathes of EU law and support the smooth flow of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We welcome that thousands of new businesses have signed up to use these arrangements.</p><p>The Framework also provides a powerful new role for the Northern Ireland institutions, not least with the Stormont Brake. However, we need to see power-sharing back up and running to make use of this significant new safeguard, to further support the effective operation of the Framework.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 12/12/2023 17:25:09 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1673793

registered interest
date	28/11/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to stop dangerous and illegal Channel crossings and to ensure criminal gangs can no longer assist illegal immigration into the UK, and when they expect such crossings to end.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL670
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2023 answer text <p>The Government continues to work closely with domestic and international partners to reduce the incidence of these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary crossings, and to prosecute those who profit from them.</p><p> </p><p>Crossing attempts have decreased by a third this year, and large numbers of suspected facilitators have been arrested. Violence is now being increasingly employed by migrants and facilitators when crossing attempts are disrupted by French law enforcement, suggesting that these efforts are having an impact on criminals.</p><p> </p><p>The Illegal Migration Act, enacted in July this year, marks a vital step forward in ending these crossings by removing the incentives for using these dangerous, illegal, and unnecessary routes.</p><p> </p><p>A timescale for the ending of these crossings cannot currently be given, but in 2023 for the first time we have seen a reduction in arrivals.</p> answering member printed Lord Sharpe of Epsom question first answered 12/12/2023 17:15:59 answering member 4888 label Biography information for Lord Sharpe of Epsom
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1673794

registered interest
date	28/11/2023
answering body	Department for Business and Trade
answering dept id	214
answering dept short name	Business and Trade
answering dept sort name	Business and Trade
hansard heading	UK Internal Trade: Northern Ireland
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to deliver unfettered access for goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and to remove the Irish Sea border, custom, and sanitary and phytosanitary checks, under the Windsor Framework.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL671
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2023 answer text <p>Following the agreement of the Windsor Framework, the Border Target Operating Model sets out that we will begin phasing in checks and controls for Irish goods and non-qualifying goods moving from the island of Ireland to Great Britian from 31 January 2024.</p><p>With this approach, the Government fully preserves its longstanding commitments to ensure Northern Ireland’s businesses have full unconditional and unfettered access to their most important market in Great Britain.</p> answering member printed Lord Johnson of Lainston question first answered 12/12/2023 11:53:42 answering member 4949 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Lainston
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1673795

registered interest
date	28/11/2023
answering body	Northern Ireland Office
answering dept id	21
answering dept short name	Northern Ireland
answering dept sort name	Northern Ireland
hansard heading	Northern Ireland
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what active steps they have taken to promote Northern Ireland’s position within the UK.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL672
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/12/2023 answer text <p>As the Government’s Northern Ireland manifesto at the last elections stated clearly: “As Conservatives and Unionists, the preservation of a secure and prosperous United Kingdom is our overriding goal. That is why we will never be neutral in expressing our support for the Union and Northern Ireland’s place within it”. Northern Ireland benefits immensely from being part of the United Kingdom while the United Kingdom as a whole is stronger and better together.</p><p> </p><p>This Government firmly believes the Union is strongest when all its people can see and feel its benefits in their everyday lives. Northern Ireland benefits hugely from being an integral part of the world’s sixth largest economy.</p><p> </p><p>The financial advantages of being in the Union can be clearly seen in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, for example through the range of tax measures announced such as full expensing, that will help support local businesses. The National Insurance cut, combined with the increase in the National Living Wage, will mean a pay boost for nearly one million people in Northern Ireland. From January, 800,000 workers in Northern Ireland will benefit from £311 back into their pocket due to the National Insurance cut. The Belfast area has recently secured £3.8 million UK Government funding to become one of the UK’s 10 5G Innovation Regions which will benefit local creative industries, advanced manufacturing, and transport and logistics.</p><p> </p><p>The UK Government was also proud to host the Northern Ireland Investment Summit, showcasing the opportunities across Northern Ireland for global investment, and highlighting the benefits of the Windsor Framework. This Government governs for the whole of the country, ensuring that the Union delivers for all citizens across every part of the UK.</p> answering member printed Lord Caine question first answered 06/12/2023 15:24:06 answering member 4581 label Biography information for Lord Caine
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1654126

registered interest
date	18/07/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	al Qaeda and Islamic State
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what new counter-terrorist measures are being proposed to deal with the threat from IS and al-Qaeda against the UK.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL9458
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/07/2023 answer text <p>On Tuesday 18 July, the Home Office published an updated version of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST.</p><p>This strategy identifies the persistent and evolving threat from Islamist terrorist groups overseas, and sets out our response to it working closely with international allies and partners. The document is available at gov.uk</p> answering member printed Lord Sharpe of Epsom question first answered 26/07/2023 13:31:28 answering member 4888 label Biography information for Lord Sharpe of Epsom
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1654127

registered interest
date	18/07/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Vocational Education
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what further measures they will take to ensure practical, vocational training is available in each region of England.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL9459
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/08/2023 answer text <p>Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.</p><p>The government’s skills reforms in England provide a ladder of opportunity that enables young people and adults to get good jobs and progress in their careers wherever they live in England. We are building a skills system that is employer focused, high-quality and fit for the future. It is also flexible enough to lead to more people completing high-quality courses that meet employers’ needs.</p><p>£3.8 billion has been invested in the skills agenda over this Parliament. The department is using this to expand and strengthen higher and further education, ensuring skills training is aligned to the needs of employers to enable communities to thrive. With this investment, we are putting employers at the heart of our skills system. This is why we are working with industry to shape our training offers, creating more routes into skilled employment in key economic sectors.</p><p>Apprenticeships provide people of all backgrounds across the country with the opportunity to earn and learn the skills needed to start, or progress in, an exciting career. We are increasing investment in apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024/25, and employers have developed over 670 high-quality apprenticeships, to support all sectors to develop the skilled workforces they need. To support small and medium enterprises across the country, we continue to pay 95% of their apprenticeship training costs and have recently removed the limit on the number of apprentices they can recruit, making it easier for them to grow their businesses with the skilled apprentices they need.</p><p>First introduced in 2020, T Levels are boosting access to high-quality technical education for young people after their GCSEs. Developed with employers so that the content meets the needs of industry, T Levels offer students a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of at least 45 days. T Levels are being introduced in a phased approach, with 16 T Levels currently available and over 160 providers across the country delivering.</p><p>The Free Courses for Jobs offer, which was launched in April 2021, allows eligible adults to access over 400 level 3 qualifications, A level equivalent, for free. Eligible adults include adults without a full level 3, adults earning under the National Living Wage annually (£20,319 from April 2023) or unemployed adults, regardless of their prior qualification level.</p><p>Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. Skills Bootcamps are available in a variety of skill areas including digital, technical, construction, logistics (HGV driving), and skills that support the green economy. We are scaling up Skills Bootcamps delivery to 64,000 starts by the 2024/25 financial year through national procurement and grant funding to 25 Mayoral Combined Authorities and local areas.</p><p>High-quality careers information, advice and guidance is key to helping people to make informed decisions about their future, including being able to find out about and consider the different options available to them for employment in all sectors. The Careers &amp; Enterprise Company (CEC) is supporting schools and colleges to embed best practice in the delivery of careers information, advice and guidance. This allows young people to be aware of the full range of training and careers available to them and to have access to a broad range of employers and workplaces.</p><p>We plan to invest £300 million of capital funding to establish 21 Institutes of Technology (IoTs) across the country providing access to industry standard facilities which focus on the needs of employers and learners in their specific geographical areas. IoTs are employer-led provider organisations working in collaboration with colleges and universities, which deliver higher technical training, with the focus on level 4-5 skills.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 01/08/2023 15:31:38 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1654128

registered interest
date	18/07/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Health Services: Waiting Lists
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what effective measures they propose to take to cut the waiting time of patients waiting for NHS treatment, and in particular to address the number of patients waiting more than a year.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL9460
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/07/2023 answer text <p>Cutting waiting lists is one of the Government’s priorities. The Government has committed more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity. This is supported further by £5.9 billion investment in capital for new beds, equipment and technology.</p><p> </p><p>New and expanded surgical hubs are being rolled out to increase capacity and activity, focusing on providing high volume low complexity surgery, which is backed by £1.5 billion capital funding. There are currently 93 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England.</p><p>From October 2023, all patients waiting over 40 weeks where a decision to treat a patient has been made but the patient has not received a date for their treatment will be able to initiate a request to transfer to another provider and receive treatment more rapidly via the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System.</p><p>We have met our target to virtually eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures in July 2022, and significantly reduced the number of patients waiting 18 months or more by April 2023 by over 91% from the peak in September 2021. We have now moved our focus to cutting waits of 65 weeks or more to as near zero as possible, by March 2024.</p><p>Capacity is being sought across the National Health Service and the independent sector locally, regionally and across the country to support efforts in hitting this target.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 25/07/2023 15:06:53 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

1654129

registered interest
date	18/07/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food Supply and Prices
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what additional measures they are taking to protect consumers from inflated supermarket food prices; and what further assistance they will give to farmers to ensure food security.
tabling member printed	Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
uin	HL9461
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/07/2023 answer text <p>Tackling inflation is this Government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year, and we are monitoring all key agricultural commodities so that we can work with the food industry to address the challenges they face.</p><p> </p><p>Defra is taking action to maintain an efficient food supply chain by mitigating against any potential burdens or frictions which could otherwise drive up consumer food prices. We continue to use regular engagement to work with retailers and producers to explore the range of measures they can take to ensure the availability of affordable food, for example, by maintaining value ranges, price matching and price freezing measures.</p><p> </p><p>Furthermore, on 16 May 2023, the Prime Minister and Defra Secretary met representatives from across the whole UK supply chain, from farm to fork, for a Summit on how the Government and industry can work together to support a thriving UK food industry.</p><p> </p><p>With regard to support for farmers, we are backing British farmers with £2.4 billion of investment per year. We recently updated our new schemes based on farmer feedback to make them easier to apply for, and to support tenant and upland farmers in particular. We recently increased payment rates for upland farmers.</p><p> </p><p>We are committed to ensuring payment rates mean as many farmers as possible can benefit from our offers. The Sustainable Farming Incentive focuses on supporting farmers to undertake activities to grow food while improving the environment and animal health and welfare. The Landscape Recovery scheme allows landowners and managers to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land. We have expanded and enhanced the existing Countryside Stewardship scheme. This has been simplified and improved this year to include wildlife, upland wood pasture and lowland peat offers, more efficient administration and fairer controls. Through Countryside Stewardship Plus we will pay farmers extra for taking coordinated action, working with neighbouring farms and landowners to support climate and nature aims.</p><p> </p><p>We are providing tailored business advice to all farmers, we have cut red tape and brought in a fairer enforcement regime. We have helped the sector access the seasonal labour they need, and we are looking closely at the Shropshire Review we commissioned to go further. We are reviewing supply chain fairness sector by sector and unlocking the opportunities of genetic technologies.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 24/07/2023 15:29:06 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
tabling member	655 label Biography information for Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown