Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on contracts with NEC Software Solutions for centralising existing clinical registries.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The current contract with NEC Software Solutions for centralising the Medical Device Outcome Registry, National Joint Registry, and National Vascular Registry is £969,544. Further information is available at the GOV.UK contracts finder, at the following link:

https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/bb2b90d1-c52c-4388-9159-7e8b8dce3c32

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the Medical Devices Outcome Registry Programme has made on centralising NHS England clinical registries.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medical Device Outcome Registry, National Joint Registry, and National Vascular Registry have been incorporated into a central software platform. Registries for ongoing migration are the legacy NHS Digital Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry, and the Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence Registries. The National Registry of Hearing Implants (Cochlear) and National Major Trauma Registry are new registries in development. As of 26 March 2024, 69 providers have been onboarded to the Medical Device Outcome Registry.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which of the 37 established NHS clinical registries have been incorporated onto a central software platform.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medical Device Outcome Registry, National Joint Registry, and National Vascular Registry have been incorporated into a central software platform. Registries for ongoing migration are the legacy NHS Digital Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry, and the Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence Registries. The National Registry of Hearing Implants (Cochlear) and National Major Trauma Registry are new registries in development. As of 26 March 2024, 69 providers have been onboarded to the Medical Device Outcome Registry.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what data his Department holds on (a) expected future rail passenger demand and (b) the potential factors affecting future rail passenger demand.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

In line with our published guidance, the Department has developed a range of rail demand forecasts in both the medium and long term. The Department considers a wide range of evidence for our project appraisals and policy decisions.

There are many economic and socio-demographic factors which potentially affect future rail passenger demand. These are detailed within the Department’s Transport Analysis Guidance, published online.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2024 to Question 14383 on Avanti West Coast: Catering, whether his Department holds information on the amount of cash taken by Avanti for its on-board catering services in the last two years.

Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

The Department does not hold information on the amount of cash taken on-board Avanti services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of performance against the 62-day referral to treatment cancer standard in England.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

In February 2024, 63.9% of patients, against the standard of 85%, received treatment within 62 days of an urgent suspected cancer or breast symptomatic referral or consultant upgrade, to a first definitive treatment for cancer. This is 1.6% higher than performance in January 2024, and 1.4% higher than the same time last year.

The pandemic and recent industrial action placed significant pressure on elective services, including cancer care. We are seeing record levels of referrals, with over 12,000 urgent referrals seen for suspected cancer per working day in February 2024.

As outlined in the 2024/25 NHS England Planning Guidance, NHS England is providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer, which includes increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity. The Government remains committed to continuing its recovery from the pandemic, and specifically, to reduce local and national waiting times for cancer treatment.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to provide mental health support for the dental workforce.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commits the National Health Service to supporting staff health and wellbeing, and asks integrated care systems to develop plans to support NHS staff in maintaining their mental health.

The NHS dental workforce is also able to access the NHS Practitioner Health Service. NHS England is in the process of reviewing the service as part of a wider review into its mental health and wellbeing offer to all staff, including the dental workforce.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the (a) compensation and (b) care and assistance expenses that passengers are entitled to claim for in cases of significant flight delays.

Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government remains committed to protecting the rights of passengers when travelling by air.

Regulation (EC) 261/2004 as retained in UK law establishes common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of long delays, cancellations or denied boarding. In June 2023, the Department published its response to the Aviation Consumer Policy Reform Consultation. This set out a commitment to further consultation on the compensation and payment framework across all forms of disruption including cancellations, delays and denied boarding. Furthermore, a Statutory Instrument came into force in the UK on 14 December 2023 to re-state certain EU case law principles in respect of Regulation (EC) 261/2004, to ensure passengers continued to be protected through additional clarity of their rights in the event of flight disruptions.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of NHS patients who dental students can treat as part of their degree.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The number of National Health Service patients being treated by dental students will depend in large part on the capacity of each dental school or its placement providers. Undergraduate dental students currently treat NHS patients as part of their training under the correct supervision, and in alignment with the curriculum. Patients do not pay NHS charges for this treatment.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the level of support available to dental students who have transitioned from a (a) student loan to (b) NHS bursary.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Bursary funding arrangements are reviewed annually, ahead of the start of each academic year. For the 2023/24 academic year, the Government uplifted travel and dual accommodation expense rates for the NHS Bursary by 50%, with the exception of travel by public transport which continues to be reimbursed at cost. We also uplifted disabled students’ allowance, childcare rates, and the means-testing threshold, increasing the amount of funding available to support dental students.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment services for bowel cancer at Stepping Hill hospital.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

No specific assessment has been made of the adequacy of diagnosis and treatment services for bowel cancer at Stepping Hill Hospital. However, data held at the provider level can give us insight into lower gastrointestinal (GI) cancer for Stockport NHS Foundation Trust. Of those patients referred to Stockport NHS Foundation Trust for suspected lower GI cancer in February 2024, 86.1% received a diagnosis or ruling out of cancer within 28 days. This is above the 75.0% standard, and shows an increase of 4.2% since January. Furthermore, of those patients referred to Stockport NHS Foundation Trust for lower GI cancer in February 2024, 95.2% received a first or subsequent treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat. This is above national performance of 91.1%, against the standard of 96.0%. For lower GI cancer in the same period, 67.4% of patients received treatment within 62 days of an urgent suspected cancer or screening referral, or consultant upgrade, to a first definitive treatment for cancer. This is above national performance of 63.9% against the standard of 85.0%.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of increases in the cost of living on the accessibility of higher education for students in Greater Manchester.

Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)

The government publishes an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is each year to analyse the impact of changes to higher education (HE) student support in England on students with protected characteristics and those from low-income families. The EIA for the 2024/25 academic year was published on GOV.UK on 26 January 2024 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-student-finance-2024-to-2025-equality-analysis.

The department has continued to increase maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for undergraduate and postgraduate students each year with a 2.8% increase for the current academic year, 2023/24, and a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25.

In addition, the department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years. The department believes that the current fee freeze achieves the best balance between ensuring that the system remains financially sustainable, offering good value for the taxpayer, and reducing debt levels for students in real terms.

The government understands the pressures people have been facing with the cost of living and has taken action to help. The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students including disadvantaged students.

The department has also made a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding for 2023/24. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. For this financial year, 2024/25, the department has increased the Student Premium (full-time, part-time, and disabled premium) by £5 million to reflect high demand for hardship support. Further details of this allocation for the academic year 2024/25 will be announced by the Office for Students (OfS) in the summer.

Overall, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £108 billion over 2022/23 to 2024/25, an average of £3,800 per UK household. The government believes this will have eased the pressure on family budgets and so will in turn enable many families to provide additional support to their children in HE to help them meet increased living costs.

English domiciled 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged areas are now 74% more likely to enter HE than they were in 2010, and the department is working to close the disadvantage gap with our access and participation reforms.

The department has tasked the OfS to include support for disadvantaged students before entry to HE in new access and participation plans. Providers should be working meaningfully with schools to ensure that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are encouraged and supported to achieve the highest possible grades and follow the path that is best for them, whether that be an apprenticeship or higher technical qualification, or a course at another university.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applicants refused asylum did not appeal that decision in the last 12 months.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The requested information cannot be accurately extracted from our internal systems. To provide this information would require a manual trawl of asylum refusal decisions and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.

It might be helpful to explain that data on asylum outcomes is published as part of the Immigration Statistics at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Tab Asy_D02 of the Asylum and Resettlement tables contains data on asylum refusal decisions. Data on appeal volumes is published by HM Courts and Tribunals Service on a quarterly basis. The latest publication can be found at Tribunals statistics quarterly: October to December 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Table FIA_1 of the Main Tables section shows asylum and protection appeal volumes data to 31 December 2023.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is to receive results from a colonoscopy in (a) Stepping Hill Hospital and (b) Greater Manchester.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The data requested is not currently collected by either Stockport NHS Foundation Trust Stepping Hill Hospital, or by the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the total amount of revenue raised by local authorities via the use of debt recovery agencies in the last 12 months.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government does not collect data on the different collection methods used by councils, or the revenues collected by them. The Government does however publish data on the overall amounts of council tax and business rates collected and the total arrears for each financial year. This data is available here.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will meet charities representing people affected by alcohol harm to inform her Department’s work on health prevention.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department meets regularly with alcohol charity representatives, at a ministerial and official level, and is content to continue to do so, to support and inform our work in tackling alcohol related health harms.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of developing a cross-departmental strategy to tackle alcohol harm.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government takes a wide-ranging approach to addressing alcohol-related harms, including through taking forward the commitments set out in Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s, to increase the availability of no- and low-alcohol alternatives, establish alcohol care teams in the 25% of acute hospitals in England with the greatest need as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, and improve the alcohol and drug treatment system through the 10-year Drug Strategy.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been (a) arrested, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted using facial recognition software.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Facial recognition is used by police as an identification tool to search an image of an unknown suspect against the images of people taken on arrest (‘custody images’), or to locate people in an intelligence-led way, by scanning live crowds and comparing them with the images of wanted people on a specific watchlist instantaneously, with very high levels of accuracy.

An arrest may result from a match made by facial recognition software, but not without the match being carefully reviewed by a trained officer and consideration being made of the wider context and other available information. Investigating officers will consider all of the evidence available and follow up all reasonable enquiries as in any normal investigation. Moreover, a prosecution and/or conviction would never be based solely on a match made by facial recognition software.

There are no centrally held figures on the number of arrests that result from police forces using facial recognition technology. South Wales Police and the Metropolitan Police Service publish information on their use of facial recognition, including arrests figures and other positive outcomes from deploying live facial recognition. These can be found at the following links:

https://www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/fr/facial-recognition-technology/

https://www.south-wales.police.uk/police-forces/south-wales-police/areas/about-us/about-us/facial-recognition-technology/

Given that a facial match using facial recognition software would be one of many factors under consideration in reaching the decision to prosecute and/or resulting in a person being convicted of an offence it is not possible to attribute exact numbers of prosecutions and convictions. However, we are undertaking evaluation work to enhance our understanding of the impact of facial recognition in this regard.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21862 on Cost of Living Payments: Disability, what estimate he has made of the average financial impact per claimant of the discontinuation of Disability Cost of Living Payments.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No estimate has been made about the discontinuation of Disability Cost of Living Payments.

As of April 2024, the rate of inflation has slowed, and the Government has also implemented uprating to benefits to reflect increased costs. We also increased extra costs disability benefits by 10.1 per cent from April 2023 and by 6.7% from April 2024 in line with the Consumer Price Index.

For 2023/24 we estimate that nearly 60 per cent of individuals who received an extra costs disability benefit would have received the means-tested benefit Cost of Living Payments, worth up to £900. Over 85 per cent would have received either or both of the means-tested and the £300 Pensioner Cost of Living Payment.

An evaluation of the Cost of Living Payments is underway. This will seek to understand their effectiveness as a means of support for low-income and vulnerable household.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how many staff in his Department were based in the Republic of India as of 15 April 2024.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The FCDO currently has between 40-49 staff, as at the end of March 2024, working in India.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2024 to Question 23065 on NHS: Databases, if he will hold discussions with the Federation of Clinical Registries on the (a) procurement and (b) centralising of clinical registries by the Medical Devices Outcome Registry programme.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England’s Patient Outcomes and Registries Programme is not centralising all clinical registries. The programme is: providing a new, improved national approach to NHS England funded clinical registries that optimises the security and use of patient data to improve patient safety vigilance and to improve patient outcomes, innovation, and value; and expanding the coverage of NHS England’s clinical registries and patient reported outcome measurement into new areas, to meet the independent Cumberlege and Paterson enquiry requirements to improve patient outcomes. The programme is undertaking extensive engagement, and we propose that any meetings with specific stakeholder groups about the programme are organised via the Medical Devices Outcome Registry Programme Director.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the United Kingdom and India collaborate on space programmes.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

India is a hugely important partner for the UK, not least because of its size, scale of ambition in science and technology. The UK and India collaborate on space programmes, for example the UK Space Agency is funding the development of an X-Ray imaging instrument, AXIS, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 3.64 of the NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, what steps she is taking to ensure that every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to (a) personalised care, (b) a needs assessment, (c) a care plan and (d) health and wellbeing information and support.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Ensuring every person diagnosed with cancer has access to personalised care and support is a key priority for the Government. The NHS Long Term Plan for cancer states that where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan, and health and wellbeing information and support. NHS England is committed to ensuring that all cancer patients have access to a Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care and Support Planning, ensuring care is focused on what matters most to each person. Additionally, End of Treatment Summaries are being introduced, which aims to empower people to manage the impact of their cancer after treatment. Health and wellbeing information and support is provided from diagnosis onwards, and includes access to NHS Talking Therapy services for anxiety and depression. This is alongside wider work to improve psychosocial support for people affected by cancer, such as through local partnerships with cancer support charities.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning and ensuring that the healthcare needs of local communities in England are met, including for cancer patients. NHS England provides access to a personal health budget, which is an amount of National Health Service money that is allocated to support the health and wellbeing needs of a patient, if eligible. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/help-with-health-costs/what-is-a-personal-health-budget/

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21490 on Prosthetics, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of updating the stock of prosthetic limbs available.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Supply Chain framework for prosthetic componentry will be subject to its next routine procurement exercise in the autumn of 2024, with contracts awarded to commence on 1 April 2025. This does not preclude devices currently not on the framework from being prescribed by prosthetic centres as they are able to order directly from the manufacturer, and report via the exceptions log managed by NHS Supply Chain.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what the average time taken by his Department to respond to a freedom of information (FOI) request was in each of the last five years; how many and what proportion of FOI requests his Department did not answer within the target time in each of the last five years; and how many FOI requests to his Department have not been answered within the target time as of 24 April 2024.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The FCDO takes its responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously and will continue to strive to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within the required timescales.

1. Number of cases received and answered on time 2019 - 2023

2. Number of cases received and answered on time 2024 - to date

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2024 to Question 23061 on Cancer: Health Services, what steps she is taking to ensure that NHS trusts have sufficient cancer treatment capacity to adequately support the number of people that are being diagnosed.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has allocated an additional £8 billion across this Spending Review period, to increase capacity and support elective recovery. Cancer treatment levels are at a record high, with approximately 345,000 people having received their first cancer treatment in the twelve months to February 2024.

As outlined in the 2024/25 NHS England Planning Guidance, NHS England is providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances, to support the delivery of the operational priorities for cancer.

We are expanding capacity through our community diagnostic centres (CDCs), supported by £2.3 billion of capital funding, with 160 CDCs currently operational and having delivered almost 8 million additional tests, checks, and scans, including vital cancer checks.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2024 to Question 17965 on Stepping Hill Hospital: Repairs and Maintenance, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the state of repair of buildings at Stepping Hill hospital on capacity in (a) Stockport and (b) Greater Manchester.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not currently collect information on the impact of the condition of the National Health Service estate on capacity. However, we recognise the importance of modern healthcare estates in tackling hospital waiting lists. We are investing significant sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings, so staff have the facilities needed to provide world-class care for patients, including £4.2 billion this financial year for trusts to spend on necessary maintenance and repairs. This is on top of expected investment of over £20 billion in the New Hospital Programme, as well as £1.7 billion for over 70 hospital upgrades across England.

Found: Marion Fellows Colleen Fletcher Sir Greg Knight Mrs Pauline Latham Dame Maria Miller Navendu

Found: Room 6 [ND 40] Members pres ent: Sir Charles Walker (in the Chair) Sir Michael Fabricant Navendu

Found: Room 6 [ND 39] Members pre sent: Sir Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Dame Maria Miller Navendu

Found: present: Sir Charles Walker (in the Chair) John Cryer Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Navendu

Found: Sir Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Colleen Fletcher Mrs Pauline Latham Dame Maria Miller Navendu

Found: in the Chair) Sir Michael Fabricant Marion Fellows Sir Greg Knight Mrs Pauline Latham Navendu