There is no financial help available for upgrading or replacing small sewage discharges, regulated under General Binding Rules (GBRs), including for septic tanks if required. However, where the Environment Agency identifies that improvements are required they will agree a reasonable timescale for the improvements to be made with the owner.

All operators of septic tanks are responsible for maintaining them and making sure they don’t cause pollution. Untreated sewage harms rivers and wildlife. Discharges from septic tanks have been regulated under UK law for many years and discharges from a septic tank to a watercourse without a permit have not been lawful.

Alongside the GBRs coming into effect in January 2015, a policy target date of 1 January 2020 was set to phase out the remaining discharges directly from septic tanks to watercourses.

There was a regulatory impact assessment which considered the financial impact of the 2014 regulation changes of the regulatory system for controlling small sewage discharges from sceptic tanks which can be found here http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2852/contents

The outcome of this was a beneficial saving to home owners and businesses as operators of small sewage discharges.

The aim of the changes is to protect water quality and were a means of reducing regulatory burden on primarily home owners and households. They removed the need to register a discharge whilst aiming to ensure maintenance of environmental protection and to prevent discharges causing pollution.

Under polluter pays principle it is an owners responsibility to comply with legislative requirements and to prevent pollution. There are no grants available for homeowners to improve or upgrade their discharges.

The Resources and Waste Strategy set out our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste, including from fast food outlets. We will do this by making producers more responsible for the products they put on the market, starting with reforming the packaging waste regulations. We recently consulted on proposals to reform the packaging producer responsibility system to ensure that packaging producers fund the full net cost of managing the packaging they place on the market once it becomes waste. This will provide a strong financial incentive for packaging producers to make more sustainable decisions at the design stage and during manufacture, and to take greater responsibility for the environmental impacts of their products.

In general, we prefer to help people and companies make the right choice, rather than banning items outright. There may, however, be times when a ban is appropriate as part of a wider strategic approach. Which is why we are introducing measures to restrict the supply of plastic drink stirrers, plastic-stemmed cotton buds and plastic straws, which are commonly provided in fast food outlets, in April 2020. We will continue to review the latest evidence on problematic single-use plastic products to take a systematic approach to reducing their use.

In April last year, the Waste and Resources Action Programme and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched their world-leading UK Plastics Pact, with support from the Government, and some major fast food corporations such as McDonalds have signed up to it. The Pact brings these organisations together with four key targets for 2025 that aim to reduce the amount of plastic waste generated, including action to eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use plastic packaging items. Our proposed reforms will support the Pact in achieving those targets.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The previous Secretary of State wrote to the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) on 26 November 2018 and 1 April 2019 to encourage them to undertake work into mis-selling in the leasehold housing market.

The government welcomed the CMA announcement on 11 June to open an investigation in this area. The CMA is concerned about potential leasehold mis-selling, and whether leasehold contract terms are onerous and unfair in relation to ground rent, permission and other charges. If the CMA thinks that a company’s practices are misleading – or that its contracts contain unfair clauses – it could take enforcement action to require the company to change how they operate. We look forward to hearing progress on the CMA’s work later this year.

The government has also worked with National Trading Standards who have published guidance to help clarify the rights and responsibilities around owning a leasehold property, and practical steps for individuals to take in the event things go wrong.

The UK abstained on the UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for a Commission of Inquiry on the basis that the substance of a resolution must be impartial and balanced. We could not support an international investigation that refused to explicitly call for an investigation into the action of non-state actors such as Hamas. It is clear that Hamas hold significant responsibility for encouraging violent protest in Gaza, which is totally unacceptable. However, our vote does not mean that we will hold back from voicing or raising concern about Israel’s actions when warranted. The UN and its member states have every right to address these grave matters in a measured, balanced and proportionate way. In future, the UK will continue to support scrutiny of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the Human Rights Council, so long as this scrutiny is justified and proportionate. We have repeatedly made clear to Israel our longstanding concerns about the manner in which the Israel Defense Forces police non-violent protests and the border areas, including the use of live ammunition. We call on Israel to adhere to the principles of necessity and proportionality when defending its legitimate security interest.

Public Health England (PHE) provides a variety of resources to support local authorities in managing the increase in mental ill health.

PHE also provides local government with data on mental health to local authority level via our National Mental Health Intelligence Service. This can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mental-health-data-and-analysis-a-guide-for-health-professionals

A dedicated profiling tool on our PHE fingertips platform is available at the following link:

http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/

PHE published a suite of evidence for local areas and local government in August 2017 at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevention-concordat-for-better-mental-health-consensus-statement

This includes work on Commissioning Cost Effective Interventions at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-services-cost-effective-commissioning

These resources give local authorities the evidence they need to take action for mental health promotion and prevention.

PHE provides support to local areas through its Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health and through the work of the nine PHE local centres who support local authorities in their local areas. To date, over 70 national organisations and 70 local authorities have signed up to the Prevention Concordat programme. The target is to achieve full sign up of all local areas by the end of 2020/21. This work helps support local government in their strategic planning and delivery of mental health work as part of their overall work on improving the health and wellbeing of their local population.

On 7 October 2019, PHE also launched a new national resource for the public to help them look after their own mental health and support others, Every Mind Matters. This can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/

We are supporting the recruitment of mental health social workers in local authorities and the NHS through the Think Ahead initiative. In addition, the New Roles in mental health social work group, led by Health Education England and Skills for Care, is working to develop the future social work and social care workforce with local authorities.

NHS England has developed community mental health services framework which aims to deliver greater integration with other services that impact on mental health and wellbeing outcomes - including primary care, general practitioners, social care, education, housing and third sector services. This can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/the-community-mental-health-framework-for-adults-and-older-adults/

There are no plans to reopen the Payment Scheme or review the £1.5 billion funding allocation previously made to it. The Equitable Life Payment Scheme closed to claims in 2015 and further guidance on the status of the Payment Scheme after closure is available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equitable-life-payment-scheme#closure-of-the-scheme.

Over recent months, the UK has raised Freedom of Religion or Belief concerns, including the worldwide persecution of Christians, bilaterally and through multilateral institutions such as the UN, EU and OSCE. At the G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting in April, we discussed our concerns on the resurgent forms of racism, and discrimination that includes the targeting of Christian minorities. We reaffirmed our dedication to uphold the rights of all to hold and manifest their religion or belief, both privately and in public. We will consider whether to raise our concerns in subsequent G7 and G20 Foreign Ministers' meetings.

A count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) with a primary diagnosis or all diagnoses of labour and delivery complicated by vasa praevia, for 2018/19 - activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector can be found in the following table.

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee in 2017 considered an evidence review of screening for Vasa Praevia (VP). The review did not find sufficient evidence to support a change in the overall recommendation for VP screening. The 2017 review can be seen at the following link:

https://legacyscreening.phe.org.uk/vasapraevia

The humanitarian situation in Idlib is extremely serious. DFID continues to closely monitor the situation in Northwest Syria, and we are concerned about the impact of recent escalations of violence on civilians. So far this financial year we have allocated £40 million in support for the region, and are keeping this under active review as the situation on the ground develops.

Our support in this region continues to provide Syrians with shelter, clean water and sanitation, mental health services, as well as aiding health workers and facilities that have been affected by escalating violence. DFID partners are working tirelessly to meet the growing needs among displaced people.

In 2018 alone, DFID support in Idlib provided approximately 836,000 people with access to clean drinking water, 873,000 medical consultations, 69,000 food rations and access to formal education for 110,000 children.

The Government has no current plans to introduce a national landlord register, which could place an additional regulatory burden on landlords. The case would need to be made that such a register would drive up standards in the private rented sector. The Government is instead committed to improving the private rented sector by driving out criminal landlords and landlords who consistently neglect their responsibilities to provide safe and decent accommodation.

Local authorities already have a wide range of powers available to them including banning orders for the very worst offenders, civil penalties of up to £30,000 and a database of rogue landlords and property agents targeted at persistent and criminal offenders. To support the powers that local authorities already have we have provided £2.3 million in grant funding for local authorities to develop self-sustaining enforcement, released refreshed guidance for landlords, tenants and local authorities on their rights and responsibilities and carried out a review of selective licensing.

No discussion has occurred with Ministers. However, following a similar question from Grahame Morris, MP (and the response provided), officials have since raised this issue with East Midlands Railway.

There will always be some variation across clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility (NHS CHC), due to a wide variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the age dispersion within the local population and variations between geographical areas in terms of their level of health need.

In 2017 NHS England launched an NHS CHC Strategic Improvement Programme and is helping CCGs to improve their application of the NHS CHC National Framework. The Programme aims are to provide fair access to CHC in a way which ensures better outcomes, better experience, and better use of resources.

As part of this programme NHS England is working with NHS CCGs to address variation in performance and NHS CHC eligibility rates. To better understand the nature of variation in eligibility, NHS England has developed a clustering methodology, which groups together NHS CCGs with similar demographics. Additionally, the national CHC e-learning offer has been extended and enhanced, and a national competency framework developed to support CHC staff to deliver the National Framework consistently.

On 4 September as part of the Spending Review, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rt. hon. Sajid Javid MP) announced a £210 million package of support for the National Health Service workforce. Funding includes personal development budgets to support nurses’ learning and development needs over the next three years, and a funding boost to wider education and training budgets to support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan.

The latest Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data as of 30 August, shows there were 20,190 students accepted onto nursing and midwifery courses, an increase of 4.3% compared to the same point in August 2018. We expect more students will be accepted onto courses before the UCAS clearing period closes on 23 October 2019.

NHS Improvement is currently delivering a rapid clinical placement expansion programme working with trust directors of nursing, the higher education sector and healthcare sector to provide targeted support and resource to increase placement capacity for the September 2019 intake.