Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2024 to Question 22653 on Armed Forces: Housing, how many service personnel were living in grade (a) one, (b) two, (c) three and (d) below grade four single living accommodation in (i) each region of the UK and (ii) overseas as of 18 April 2024.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The attached supporting table shows a count of Service personnel who occupied grade one, two, three and below grade four Single Living Accommodation (SLA) in each region of the UK as at 18 April 2024. The table has been broken down by region as recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration System, and does not show the number of Service personnel in grade four SLA.
As at 18 April 2024, a total of 563 Service personnel were living in grade four service accommodation overseas.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 5 2023 to Question 3978 on Israel: Military Aid, to which Israeli authorities information from the RAF surveillance flights over Gaza announced on 2 December 2023 has been passed.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The unarmed UK surveillance aircraft are employed for the sole purpose of hostage rescue. Information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities which provide the best chance of locating hostages.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many service personnel are based at the Royal Citadel in Plymouth as of 1 May 2024.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The most recently recorded official statistics for personnel based at Royal Citadel in Plymouth is 1 January 2024. Therefore, I can confirm that as of 1 January 2024 there were 330 UK Service personnel based at Royal Citadel in Plymouth.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the purpose was of each RAF-operated flight to Israel since 7 October 2023.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The purpose of the RAF operated flights have included aircraft used to transport Ministers and senior officials conducting diplomatic engagements with Israel.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Royal Air Force surveillance flights have been flown over Gaza since 7 October 2023.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
We will not comment on detailed intelligence matters.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason non-specialist teachers who teach core subjects eligible for levelling up premium payments are excluded from the scheme; and what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of this exclusion on the morale of those teachers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Levelling Up Premium (LUP) is designed to incentivise the recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics. It is too early to evaluate its overall impact, but it is informed by previous pilots. An evaluation of Early Career Payments found they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.
The eligibility criteria for the LUP defines a subject specialist as a teacher who either holds a degree in the eligible subject or has completed an initial teacher training (ITT) course specialising in the eligible subject. Most hours of teaching in the eligible subjects are taught by a teacher with a relevant post A level qualification.
The quality of teaching is the single most important in-school factor for improving pupil outcomes. Although the department recognises that some teachers are not subject specialists, it is vital that we retain subject specialists in the LUP-eligible subjects in the early years of their career.
Last year the department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools received a pay award of 6.5%, which is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years. The 2023/24 award also delivered the manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 support patients with inflammatory skin conditions to manage the impact of their condition on their mental health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is committed to supporting everyone’s mental health and wellbeing, and ensuring that the right support is in place, including for those with long term physical health conditions such as inflammatory skin conditions. This is why, between 2018/19 and 2023/24, National Health Service spending on mental health has increased by £4.7 billion, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
The NHS continues to develop the NHS Talking Therapies Long Term Conditions services to ensure that people with a long-term physical health condition, such as an inflammatory skin condition, have access to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended psychological therapies.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will introduce a national register of people with silicosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans to introduce a national register of people with silicosis. Data on the diagnosis of, and deaths due to, silicosis is collected by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Office for National Statistics. The HSE’s report, Silicosis and Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis Statistics in Great Britain, contains the latest data of the estimated number of new cases and deaths.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of advertising on the mental health of children and young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department does not have plans to make such an assessment.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of high rates of childhood obesity on future diabetes rates; and what assessment they have made of the impact that this will have on the NHS's future spend on diabetes.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has data from national diabetes audits showing the increasing numbers of young people being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes over the past five years. NHS England knows that 93.5% of children with Type 2 diabetes that are under the care of paediatric diabetes units are overweight or obese, with a body mass index above the 85th centile after correction for age and gender.
Core20PLUS5 – Children and Young People includes diabetes as a key clinical area and has two key areas of clinical focus, namely to increase access to real time continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps for children and young people in the most deprived quintiles and from ethnic minority backgrounds, and increase the proportion of children and young people with Type 2 diabetes receiving all the care processes recommended in guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Key diabetes health metrics, such as blood glucose levels, are poorest in young adults aged between 19 and 25 years old. To address this age-related health inequality, 15 ‘Transition and Young Adult’ pilots were established by the NHS Diabetes Programme in 2022-2025 to test models of care for young adults with diabetes and those transitioning from paediatric to adult diabetes services. The pilots will be evaluated to inform the evidence base on how to best deliver care and improve outcomes for this group.