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1702319

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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: Waste
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of high levels of pollutants in food produced near waste incinerators in Europe; and whether they have any plans to conduct similar assessments in the UK.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3930
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2024 answer text <p>The Environment Agency (EA) has not made any assessment of reports on this subject and does not plan to conduct any such assessments in England.</p><p> </p><p>The impact on food produced in proximity to waste incinerators is considered as part of environmental permitting regulations. The EA is responsible for deciding whether new incinerators in England should get a permit to operate. For each permit application it receives, the EA uses the results of air quality modelling and a human health risk assessment (HHRA) to determine the impact of the proposed incinerator.</p><p> </p><p>The HHRA assesses impacts on the food chain. Impact assessments are very conservative and permit decisions are based on worst-case scenario impacts.</p><p> </p><p>The EA also consults the UK Health Security Agency and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on every permit application it receives and will not issue a permit if the proposed plant could cause significant pollution or harm to human health, including via the food chain.</p><p> </p><p>The FSA is responsible for the management of public health risks in relation to food. In general, the FSA considers that if incinerator facilities are correctly operated and monitored, with the appropriate level of emissions abatement, there should be no impact on the local area in terms of elevated levels of contaminants in soil and locally produced food. Measures are in place to manage the risk from chemical contaminants and keep levels as low as reasonably achievable through good practices and regulatory controls.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 26/04/2024 11:06:48 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1702316

	registered interest
	date	18/04/2024
	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	Magnetic Resonance Imagers: Helium
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure minimal usage of helium in MRI scanners in NHS facilities in the light of the global shortage of helium; and what steps they are taking to ensure all helium in scanners being replaced is reused appropriately.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3927
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2024 answer text <p>Suppliers of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners are moving to a sealed helium solution, whereby the helium required to cool the magnet is approximately 0.5% of the current levels. These sealed systems will also ensure MRI scanners do not require further helium to be added during years of operational use.</p><p>Furthermore, suppliers are now replacing MRI scanners without requiring the magnet to be replaced, though this is only available for the first replacement cycle, whereby the scanner is fully replaced, but the existing magnet and helium are retained.</p><p>With regards to the Department, as set out in the recent Medical Technology Strategy: One Year On publication, the Design for Life Programme has been stood up to work with industry, the health and care sector, and academic partners to develop medical technology systems that support reuse, remanufacture, and material recovery becoming the default. This includes developing regulatory, commercial, digital, and policy environments that support this aim. The Department’s intention is to publish a roadmap later this year to articulate our relevant findings and plans moving forward.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 25/04/2024 14:24:02 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1699321

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2024
	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	Darfur: Gender Based Violence
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing to assist women and girls subjected to sexual violence in Darfur in Sudan.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3657
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2024 answer text <p>Since the outbreak of conflict in April 2023, there has been a significant escalation of gender-based violence (GBV) in Sudan. The UK has pivoted our programme delivery to focus on GBV prevention, and protection and care for rape survivors. We have also integrated consideration of conflict-related sexual violence into the humanitarian system, making use of Women's Centres, mobile clinics and internally displaced persons' gathering points, for community engagement and service provision. In 2023, UK support provided for the delivery of 83,399 consultations offering sexual and reproductive health services, and delivered mental health and psychological support to over 104,225 people.</p> answering member printed Lord Benyon question first answered 15/04/2024 10:58:35 answering member 1547 label Biography information for Lord Benyon
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1699319

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2024
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Interparliamentary Finance Committee Forum
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government why no Minister attended the meeting on 21 March of the Interparliamentary Finance Committee Forum with members of the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3655
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government recognises the importance of the devolved legislature finance committees’ roles in providing rigorous scrutiny to devolved administration budgets and holding devolved administration ministers to account for their policy and budgetary decisions. As the previous Chief Secretary to the Treasury set out in his letters to the Senedd Finance Committee and the Finance and Public Administration Committee last year, we are mindful of parliamentary accountabilities where UK Government is accountable to the UK Parliament for its tax and spending decisions.</p> answering member printed Lord Roborough question first answered 12/04/2024 13:10:02 answering member 4953 label Biography information for Lord Roborough
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1699317

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2024
	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	Fertilisers
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the regulation, or other oversight, of the sale of plant biostimulants, including consideration of their efficacy, safety and ecological impacts.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3653
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/04/2024 answer text <p>The existing UK regulatory regime for the manufacture and placing of fertilisers on the market in the UK is fragmented and in need of modernisation. There are currently no specific requirements for plant biostimulants in domestic fertilisers legislation. However, Defra intends to improve on this by consolidating and streamlining the statute book and putting in place a conformity assessment framework for fertilisers. The framework will smooth the route to market for new and innovative products which are less polluting to the environment or are less resource intensive in their creation.</p><p>To support reform of fertilisers legislation Defra has funded a review of the evidence for the safe and effective use of plant biostimulants and a review of methods for evaluating methods for verifying the efficacy of plant biostimulants.</p><p>The potential impact of a chemical on plant health, including soil microbiomes is already considered, as appropriate, as part of HSE’s robust risk assessment process for pesticides and for biocides. In our regulatory programmes we do not assess the impacts of chemicals specifically on human and animal microbiomes and are not currently considering the introduction of such measures.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 12/04/2024 10:10:43 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1695947

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2024
	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	TPP: Contracts
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what contracts NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have with The Phoenix Partnership and for what services; and what assessment they have made of the appropriateness of it providing such services.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3232
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/04/2024 answer text <p>The Department is the contracting authority for two consecutive framework agreements on which The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) has been appointed as a supplier, and awarded call-off contracts. These frameworks are the <em>GP Systems of Choice</em> (GPSoC), from 2014, and the <em>GP IT Futures framework agreement</em> (GPITF FA), which succeeded the GPSoC in 2020. The GPITF FA is the main contractual framework to supply IT systems and services to general practices (GPs) and associated organisations in England. The GPITF FA is operationally managed by NHS England, and the relevant contracting authorities under the call-off contracts are the individual integrated care boards, who contract on behalf of GPs.</p><p>In addition to managing the GPITF FA on behalf of the Department, NHS England is the contracting authority on three active contracts with TPP for: GP IT development and compliance; provision of Point of Care services to the NHS England Vaccination Programme; and provision of IT services to residential places of detention under the Health and Justice Information Systems contract.</p><p>The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has a statutory requirement to report on the performance of the national immunisation programmes, and in June 2022, TPP was awarded a contract to extract this data directly from GPs' systems for the UKHSA, with a successor contract being awarded for the same work in October 2023. All Government contracts are awarded fairly and transparently, in line with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. All decisions on contracts are rigorously scrutinised to assess a company’s ability to perform and deliver the best value for money for the taxpayer.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 09/04/2024 15:52:06 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1699318

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2024
	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	Chemicals: Regulation
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for incorporating into pharmaceutical, pesticide and other chemical regulation consideration of impacts on human, animal, plant and soil microbiomes.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3654
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/04/2024 answer text <p>The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) operates a robust programme of regulating and monitoring medicines to ensure patients have access to safe and effective medicines. While the microbiome is still an evolving field, the MHRA is working to further our understanding on the impact of pharmaceuticals on the microbiome. Experts in MHRA are leading on international efforts to improve understanding of this area, for example through the development of World Health Organisation reference reagents for the microbiome.</p><p> </p><p>The potential impact of a chemical on plant health, including soil microbiomes is already considered, as appropriate, as part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)’s robust risk assessment process for pesticides and for biocides.</p><p> </p><p>The legislation around veterinary medicines makes it clear that when considering the authorisation of antimicrobial substances for use in animals, there should be consideration of the impacts on the human, target animal, and environmental microbiomes, including plants and soils.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 09/04/2024 11:12:25 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1699320

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2024
	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	Natural Gas and Oil: Azerbaijan
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Global Witness on 8 November 2023 that BP and its project partners had transferred $35 billion-worth of oil and gas production to the government of Azerbaijan since 2020, the year that war broke out in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and whether they plan to take any action in response.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3656
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2024 answer text <p>The Government has made no such assessment.</p> answering member printed Lord Callanan question first answered 08/04/2024 09:31:41 answering member 4336 label Biography information for Lord Callanan
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1699274

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2024
	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	Physician Associates
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 25 March (HL2978), why they have specified how physician associates (PAs) are to be used, specifically with undifferentiated patients, rather than allowing GP practices to make their own decisions about the use of PAs.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3652
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/04/2024 answer text <p>Physician Associates (PAs) work within a defined scope of practice and limits of competence. NHS England has provided recent guidance on the use of PAs in general practice (GP) teams. As set out in the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service, PAs should be adequately supervised by a GP when providing care for undifferentiated patients.</p><p>In terms of employment choices, GPs are self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, and it is largely up to employers to determine how best to staff their primary care network or GP, to best meet the needs of their population.</p> answering member printed Lord Markham question first answered 05/04/2024 13:32:33 answering member 4948 label Biography information for Lord Markham
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1696557

	registered interest
	date	18/03/2024
	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	Gun Sports: Lead
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the SHOT-SWITCH research project, published in Conservation Evidence, about the voluntary transition from hunting with lead to non-lead ammunition in Great Britain; and what plans they have to ban the use of lead shot in hunting in England.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
	uin	HL3314
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/04/2024 answer text <p>The use of lead shot in England and Wales is already prohibited in specific circumstances by existing legislation – including on all foreshores, and in or over specified sites of special scientific interest, predominantly wetlands.</p><p> </p><p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is currently preparing recommendations on further action to restrict the use of lead in ammunition. This work has included looking at information submitted to them with regard to possible options to control the use of lead ammunition. The previous SHOT-SWITCH study has been considered and is referenced in the background document of evidence (attached to this answer) which was put out with the public consultation last year.</p><p> </p><p>HSE expects to issue its final restriction opinions later this year. The decision to apply any UK REACH restrictions as a further regulatory measure, or not to do so, will subsequently be made by the Defra Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish and Welsh Ministers.</p> answering member printed Lord Douglas-Miller question first answered 03/04/2024 12:54:52 answering member 5006 label Biography information for Lord Douglas-Miller attachment 1 file name HL3314 attachment.pdf title HL3314 Attachment
	tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle