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1658542

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
answering body	Department for Transport
answering dept id	27
answering dept short name	Transport
answering dept sort name	Transport
hansard heading	Aircraft: Exhaust Emissions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to regulate emissions produced by private planes.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	198040
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>The Department is taking active measures to reduce emissions from aviation whilst retaining ability to fly. The aviation sector, including business aviation, is important for the whole of the UK economy, making an important contribution in terms of connectivity, direct economic activity, trade, investment and jobs.</p><p> </p><p>The Department's Jet Zero Strategy shows how the sector can achieve net zero aviation by 2050 without Government intervention to limit aviation growth. The Department will achieve its targets by focusing on new fuels and technology, which have economic and social benefits, without limiting demand.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 15/09/2023 10:38:08 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1658543

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
answering body	Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
answering dept id	215
answering dept short name	Energy Security and Net Zero
answering dept sort name	Energy Security and Net Zero
hansard heading	Heat Pumps: Housing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress his Department has made on incentivising the installation of heat pumps in homes.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	198041
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>By the end of July 2023 over £69m worth of grants have been paid out through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Earlier this year government announced the scheme has been extended to 2028.</p><p> </p><p>We have introduced 0% VAT on heat pump installations and made a commitment on rebalancing of gas and electricity prices, ensuring that stronger incentives for consumers to switch to low-carbon technologies are in place.</p><p> </p><p>From April 2024, we will be introducing the Clean Heat Market Mechanism to provide industry with the confidence and incentive to invest in evolving and expanding the consumer proposition for heat pumps in the UK, finding ways to stimulate demand by making it easier and more attractive to make the decision to install a heat pump.</p> answering member constituency Beverley and Holderness answering member printed Graham Stuart question first answered 15/09/2023 09:24:56 answering member 1482 label Biography information for Graham Stuart
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1658544

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Internet: Offences against Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department are taking to tackle Artificial Intelligence generating child sexual abuse material online.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	198042
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2023 answer text <p>The Government remains firmly committed to tackling all forms of child sexual abuse online and in our communities across the UK and internationally. Our approach is underpinned by the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy which sets out firm commitments to drive action across the whole system.</p><p>The law in the UK is very clear with regards to production of child sexual abuse material. It is an offence to produce, store, share or search for any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse, regardless of whether the material depicts a ‘real’ child or not. This prohibition also includes pseudo-imagery that may have been computer-generated.</p><p>Home Office investment supports the National Crime Agency to use its unique capabilities to disrupt the highest harm offenders, safeguard children and remove the most horrific child sexual abuse material from the internet, including on the dark web.</p><p>The Government not only works closely with law enforcement but also child protection agencies to develop a robust assessment of the threat posed by child sexual offenders and therefore create technological and legislative solutions to target offenders and safeguard children.</p><p>It is not only the duty of the government to take this threat seriously, but also that of the technology companies that utilise Artificial Intelligence. They must incorporate safety measures to ensure their technology cannot be exploited by child sexual offenders.</p><p>That is why this Government is currently driving forward the Online Safety Bill which seeks to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Online Safety Bill will, for the first time, place clear legal duties on technology companies to take proactive steps to identify, remove and prevent users encountering illegal content, including child sexual abuse content from platforms/services. This includes AI-generated child sexual abuse content. Companies who fail to fulfil their legal duties will be held to account by an independent regulator, Ofcom, who will have strong enforcement powers.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines question first answered 13/09/2023 11:28:09 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1658545

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
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	Dental Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to improve access to NHS dental care.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	198043
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2023 answer text <p>In July 2022 we announced a package of reforms to improve access to dentistry in the National Health Service. This included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value.</p><p>The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32. To support this ambition, we will expand places by 24% by 2028/29, taking the overall number that year to 1,000 places.</p><p>There have been improvements in access to NHS dental care over the past year. Figures from the dental annual statistics, published on 24 August 2023, show that the numbers of children and adults seen by an NHS dentist have increased compared to the previous year, and the number of courses of treatment increased by 23.2% when compared to the previous year.</p><p>But we acknowledge that there are some areas where access is particularly problematic. We are working on our Dental Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.</p> answering member constituency Harborough answering member printed Neil O'Brien question first answered 11/09/2023 16:15:10 answering member 4679 label Biography information for Neil O'Brien
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1658546

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
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	MMR Vaccine
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase measles vaccination rates.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	198044
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2023 answer text <p>The Department, alongside the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England, is committed to the UK Measles and Rubella elimination strategy, and together we work to improve immunisation coverage through a range of initiatives including data-improvement, increasing vaccine access, and information campaigns around eligibility and the benefits of vaccines.</p><p>The Department has also supported NHS England to develop programmes focused on improving coverage, including a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) catch-up campaign throughout winter 2022/23, and more recently, a National Health Service London catch-up campaign for both polio and MMR for children aged between one and 11 years old.</p><p>It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled; for themselves, their families, and wider society. Anyone unsure about their eligibility or vaccination status should contact their general practitioner for advice.</p> answering member constituency Lewes answering member printed Maria Caulfield question first answered 12/09/2023 11:52:41 answering member 4492 label Biography information for Maria Caulfield
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1658547

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Teachers: Sick Leave and Vacancies
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce (a) permanent vacancies and (b) sickness absences among teachers.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	198045
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>Education is a devolved matter, and this response outlines relevant information for England only.</p><p> </p><p>Recent data shows that there are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest number of FTE teachers on record since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is taking action to increase teacher recruitment and retention and reduce vacancies. The Department accepted, in full, the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and head teachers, resulting in a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years. The Department has put in place tax free bursaries worth £27,000 and tax free scholarships worth £29,000 , to encourage talented trainees in key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing to apply to teacher training.</p><p> </p><p>Additionally, the Department supports schools and trusts with their recruitment through Teaching Vacancies. The Department’s free vacancy listing service for state funded schools in England can be found here: <a href="https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/" target="_blank">https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Staff wellbeing is a crucial element of our commitment to recruit and retain more teachers. The Department has published a range of resources to help schools address teacher workload issues, prioritise staff wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has worked in partnership with the education sector and mental health experts to develop the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter which can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter</a>. Building on a successful pilot, the Department is also funding the charity, Education Support, to provide professional supervision and counselling to school and college head teachers . Over 1000 head teachers have benefitted from this support so far and the Department recently announced the expansion of the programme, by doubling places for this year. School and college leaders can find support by visiting Education Support's website, which is available at: <a href="https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/get-help/help-for-your-staff/wellbeing-services/school-and-fe-leaders-service/" target="_blank">https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/get-help/help-for-your-staff/wellbeing-services/school-and-fe-leaders-service/</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The Department does not provide guidance on teachers’ sick leave. For most teachers, sick leave entitlements are set out in the Burgundy Book national agreement. This is an agreement on conditions of service between Unions and Local Authorities, facilitated by the Local Government Association, which the Department has no jurisdiction or input into. The vast majority of Local Authorities follow the terms of the Burgundy Book scheme, which is incorporated into their teachers’ contracts of employment.</p><p> </p><p>All schools must ensure that they oversee the health and welfare of their staff and should have a clear sickness absence management policy. Governing bodies may find it helpful to refer to Acas’s Managing Absence guidance, available at: <a href="https://www.acas.org.uk/creating-absence-policies" target="_blank">https://www.acas.org.uk/creating-absence-policies</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The Health and Safety Executive also provides extensive advice on managing sickness absence and returning to work, which includes a toolkit to help with absence management, which can be found here: <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/sicknessabsence/" target="_blank">https://www.hse.gov.uk/sicknessabsence/</a>.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 15/09/2023 13:14:49 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1658548

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Office for Budget Responsibility: Standards
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of forecasts made by the Office for Budget Responsibility since 2018.
tabling member constituency	East Londonderry
tabling member printed	Mr Gregory Campbell
uin	198008
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2023 answer text <p>HMT supports the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as the UK Government’s independent official forecaster. The OBR is required by law to provide an assessment of the accuracy of previous fiscal and economic forecasts at least once each financial year. The most recent OBR Forecast Evaluation Report (FER) was published in January 2023. It examined how the OBR’s March 2021 forecast for 2021-22 compared to subsequent outturn data and identified lessons for future forecasts. The OBR also published a report called “The OBR’s forecast performance” in August 2023 which reviewed its forecast performance since its establishment in 2010.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 11/09/2023 09:26:52 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	1409 label Biography information for Mr Gregory Campbell

1658549

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
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	MMR Vaccine
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will undertake a review of the effectiveness of the UK Measles and Rubella elimination strategy 2019.
tabling member constituency	East Londonderry
tabling member printed	Mr Gregory Campbell
uin	198009
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2023 answer text <p>The Department remains committed to the UK Measles and Rubella elimination strategy and is supporting the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to refresh an implementation plan that includes short-, medium- and long-term actions related to key areas in the Strategy for England. The effectiveness of this strategy is continuously reviewed, including through regular publications of uptake data and attitudinal surveys.</p> answering member constituency Lewes answering member printed Maria Caulfield question first answered 11/09/2023 13:47:12 answering member 4492 label Biography information for Maria Caulfield
tabling member	1409 label Biography information for Mr Gregory Campbell

1658550

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that representatives from the Executive Office in Northern Ireland who attend meetings of the Joint Consultative Working Group are briefed on the House of Lords European Affairs Committee report entitled The Windsor Framework, published on 25 July 2023.
tabling member constituency	East Londonderry
tabling member printed	Mr Gregory Campbell
uin	198010
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2023 answer text <p>The UK Government regularly engages with Northern Ireland officials on a range of issues, including with those who are part of the UK delegation at the Joint Consultative Working Group. While it is not for the UK Government to determine what reports or other materials Northern Ireland officials should consider, I [Minister Docherty] am of course happy to ensure that UK Government officials offer to brief their counterparts on the Committee's report of 25 July. Of course, were Northern Ireland power sharing arrangements operating as they should be, Executive ministers would be able to instruct their officials to request such briefings.</p> answering member constituency Aldershot answering member printed Leo Docherty question first answered 11/09/2023 16:36:58 answering member 4600 label Biography information for Leo Docherty
tabling member	1409 label Biography information for Mr Gregory Campbell

1658551

registered interest
date	06/09/2023
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	Homes for Ukraine Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many UK citizens have taken part in the Homes for Ukraine guest since its establishment.
tabling member constituency	East Londonderry
tabling member printed	Mr Gregory Campbell
uin	198011
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2023 answer text <p>The information requested is not held centrally.</p> answering member constituency Kensington answering member printed Felicity Buchan question first answered 11/09/2023 15:53:45 answering member 4821 label Biography information for Felicity Buchan
tabling member	1409 label Biography information for Mr Gregory Campbell