As part of the exhaust emissions approval process vehicle manufacturers are obliged to undertake in-use emissions testing. They are required to submit a report of their results at regular intervals or when requested to do so by the approval authority. In accordance with EU regulation 715/2007, the authority will review the information and accept or reject the report. The UK type approval authority is the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) and they ensure manufacturers follow this process where they are the issuing approval authority.

We continue to press Volkswagen on the issue of compensation for UK consumers. The Secretary of State summoned the Managing Director of VW UK to a further meeting this week to discuss the issue.

We undertook the Vehicle Emissions Testing Programme to check for further test cycle manipulation strategies as used by the Volkswagen Group. To ensure the independence of this important programme neither the vehicles nor the testing facilities were provided by the vehicle industry, and the department funded the testing.

Our initial testing programme, launched in the wake of the VW emissions scandal, is now complete and the results were published on 21 April. The Department for Transport will be establishing a new unit focused on checking that vehicles meet type approval requirements. The unit will have a budget of £1 million a year and will involve the department’s agencies, the Vehicle Certification Agency and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. It will initially focus on emissions testing and enforcement. The unit will be operational later this year.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency is reducing vocational waiting times by recruiting more examiners, improving its forecasting model to better match resource with demand and redeploying examiners from lower wait centres to those with higher waiting times.

Our air quality plan is based on the best available data and our modelling uses the latest COPERT (Computer Programme to Calculate Emissions from Road Transport) factors to calculate emissions from diesel cars. These derive from a mixture of laboratory and on-road tests and are used by many other Member States across Europe. The ERMES (European Research Group on Mobile Emission Sources) network collates the emission measurement data which are used to update the emissions factors in the COPERT model.

Tackling air quality is a priority for this Government, which is why in May we will share the results of the testing programme with ERMES. This research will be used to inform their next update, due at the end of the year, ensuring EU-wide emission factors continue to focus on the latest data updated on the basis of real world testing.

Efforts to try and identify recovered remains, first concentrate on forensic analysis and examination of personal and regimental artefacts found alongside them. If the Regiment is identified, war diaries are reviewed. In addition, liaisons with archivists, historians and individual Service records are examined to aid investigations. If a small group of fallen soldiers with no known graves are identified for comparison, DNA testing may then take place, if required.

I anticipate this consultation will be published in the summer and will run for 12 weeks.

I raised this issue with US colleagues in Washington last week. The UK condemns the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea's (DPRK) continued development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. We have regular contact with key partners on this issue, including the US and Japan. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) discussed the issue with his counterparts at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Hiroshima on 11 April. The G7 issued a joint communiqué [http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000147440.pdf] which strongly condemned the DPRK’s nuclear tests and called upon the international community to enforce the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions to respond to the clear and continuing threat to international peace and security that is posed by the DPRK’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The Vehicle Certification Agency’s (VCA) emissions testing is conducted to the requirements set out in the relevant type approval legislation. The Government has been pressing for action at an EU-level to improve emissions tests and we have already secured a tough new Real Driving Emissions test. From next year, vehicles will have to meet emissions limits in real driving conditions across a wide range of typical operating conditions.

The Secretary of State has met with the Chief Executive of Volkswagen UK to press that the technical fixes are completed as quickly as possible for UK consumers. The VCA is working closely with the VW group and other approval authorities to evaluate the proposed technical solutions. They are carrying out tests to ensure that after the fix is applied the vehicles meet all the legal requirements including emissions, and that other vehicle characteristics are unchanged, including fuel consumption and engine noise.

The planning of the process to select test sites, including timing and criteria for selection, will continue alongside NHS England’s review of its position on the commissioning of pre-exposure prophyaxis (PrEP).

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) collects sampling data from local authorities on an annual basis. Food standards sampling is the responsibility of county councils, unitary authorities, the London Boroughs and some but not all metropolitan borough councils. Sampling for food standards covers analyses for chemical (other) contamination, composition, and labelling and presentation.

Sampling data, including for food standards, and total numbers of samples taken for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15, as reported by local authorities, are published on the FSA’s website at the links below. All of the food standards samples reported would have been submitted for analysis to the public analyst appointed by the individual local authorities. The data at the links covers food standards samples paid for by FSA and those paid for by the local authorities.

2014/15 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/laems-uk-sampling-data-2014-15.xlsx

2013/14 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/laems-sampling-data-2013-14.xls

2012/13 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/multimedia/spreadsheets/laems-sampling_2012-13.xls

Local authorities with responsibility for food standards that did not report sampling in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 are shown below.

2014/15 - Isles of Scilly

2013/14 - Isles of Scilly, Sutton, Blackpool, Rutland

2012/13 - Isles of Scilly, Birmingham, Rochdale, Blackburn, Rutland, Leicester City, Swindon, South Lanarkshire and Armagh

Where the FSA pays for a local authority to take a sample, and its analysis, FSA requires that the data on the sample is reported on the UK Food Surveillance System. Total figures for each period are shown in the table below.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) collects sampling data from local authorities on an annual basis. Food standards sampling is the responsibility of county councils, unitary authorities, the London Boroughs and some but not all metropolitan borough councils. Sampling for food standards covers analyses for chemical (other) contamination, composition, and labelling and presentation.

Sampling data, including for food standards, and total numbers of samples taken for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15, as reported by local authorities, are published on the FSA’s website at the links below. All of the food standards samples reported would have been submitted for analysis to the public analyst appointed by the individual local authorities. The data at the links covers food standards samples paid for by FSA and those paid for by the local authorities.

2014/15 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/laems-uk-sampling-data-2014-15.xlsx

2013/14 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/laems-sampling-data-2013-14.xls

2012/13 - www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/multimedia/spreadsheets/laems-sampling_2012-13.xls

Local authorities with responsibility for food standards that did not report sampling in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 are shown below.

2014/15 - Isles of Scilly

2013/14 - Isles of Scilly, Sutton, Blackpool, Rutland

2012/13 - Isles of Scilly, Birmingham, Rochdale, Blackburn, Rutland, Leicester City, Swindon, South Lanarkshire and Armagh

Where the FSA pays for a local authority to take a sample, and its analysis, FSA requires that the data on the sample is reported on the UK Food Surveillance System. Total figures for each period are shown in the table below.

When remains thought to be of a British Serviceman are located, DNA samples may be taken if there is a realistic chance of a positive match to living descendants.

With over 300,000 British and Commonwealth personnel who died in World War One still having no known grave, the chances of one individual being linked to recovered remains alone are extremely remote.

Whilst extensive efforts are made to positively identify any recovered remains, these must first concentrate on forensic analysis of the remains, artefacts and clothing recovered, along with examination of documentary records such as Regimental War Diaries. Only once this work has identified a relatively small group cohort of likely names would DNA testing prove practical.