Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the occupancy rate as a percentage of the nursing and care homes in England was for each month in 2019.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on care home occupancy has not been systematically collected from care homes, whose residents are a mix of publicly and self-funded clients.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Office for National Statistics removed the upper age limit from the Crime Survey for England and Wales; and when the statistics from this survey relating to those aged 75 and older will be published.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
20 January 2021
Dear Baroness Greengross,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) removed the upper age limit from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW); and when the statistics from this survey relating to those aged 75 and older will be published (HL12104).
The CSEW is a face-to-face victimisation survey which asks people aged 16 and over resident in households in England and Wales about their experiences of a range of crimes. Self-completion modules are included on the survey to collect information on topic areas that respondents could feel uncomfortable talking to an interviewer about. The upper age limit for respondents eligible for the self-completion modules of the CSEW was increased from 59 years to 74 years in April 2017. This is different to the main face-to-face part of the survey which has no upper age limit.
In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it was necessary to move the CSEW from a face-to-face survey to a telephone-only survey (by which it may be referred to differently as the TCSEW, or “Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales”, in publications). As a result, we are currently not asking questions around any sensitive topics, including domestic abuse and sexual assault, because of ethical and safeguarding concerns with this new mode of delivery.
Once it is possible to return to the face-to-face mode of delivery, we will immediately remove the upper age limit for respondents to the self-completion modules, in the interests of inclusivity. It will then take at least 12 months of data collection to enable us to produce accurate victimisation estimates for adults aged 75 and over.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, and if so, why there is a shortage of (1) widely used contraceptive preparations, and (2) hormone replacement therapy products; why (a) Brevinor, (b) Eloine, (c) Norimin, (d) Synphase, (e) Tisnell, and (f) Zoely, oral contraceptive tablets are currently unavailable; when they estimate that those tablets will be resupplied; and what steps they are taking to ensure the continued availability of all contraceptive preparations and HRT products.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The overall supply position of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products has been improving since the end of February 2020 and will continue to improve in the coming months.
We have been advised that supplies of Brevinor, Norimin and Synphase tablets will be available from late January/early February 2021, with supplies of Yiznell available from early January 2021. Supplies of Eloine and Zoely tablets remain available via the usual routes.
Issues such as regulatory or manufacturing problems, problems accessing supplies of pharmaceutical raw ingredients and commercial decisions to divest certain products can affect the supply of medicines, including HRT and oral contraceptives.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support older veterans who are facing social isolation and loneliness; and how they plan to ensure that such veterans are treated equitably with those of working age.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
In the Strategy for our Veterans Consultation Response published in January 2020, we committed to exploring how veterans could benefit from initiatives developed and invested in through the cross-Government Tackling Loneliness agenda. The Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) is working with colleagues across Government to develop new initiatives to support veterans of all ages who are facing social isolation.
The Government recognises the important role that the charity sector plays in supporting and connecting with vulnerable and isolated veterans on the ground. In light of COVID-19, the Government awarded £6 million in emergency COVID-19 funding to 100 Service charities, to ensure that they could continue to provide vital services to the Armed Forces community throughout the pandemic. This is in addition to £10 million awarded yearly through the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, which provides specific funding to organisations through grants programmes. This includes a current grant programme to identify and support charities working to tackle loneliness in the Armed Forces community. Previous recipients of grant funding include Veterans Breakfast Clubs, Age UK and a number of other organisations who support older and socially isolated veterans.
The OVA has also commissioned new research looking at the specific impact of COVID-19 on the veteran community, including in terms of isolation and loneliness. This will allow policy makers to understand how the pandemic has affected the veteran community and respond with evidence-based and targeted interventions.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the suspension of all casework by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman between 26 March and 29 June due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what steps they have taken to ensure that complaints made during that period were handled in line with the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009; and what steps they are now taking to ensure that complaints about adult social care are handled appropriately.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) took the decision to suspend new complaints in order to protect frontline services. It has now fully reopened and is working through complaints received during the pause. Members of the public will not lose their access to justice because of the pandemic, and complaints regarding the COVID-19 outbreak period are now being considered as are all other complaints. The LGSCO has taken steps to ensure complainants are not penalised on time grounds for not being able to come to the LGSCO during the pause. The LGSCO has also carefully tracked legislation and guidance in operation since the outbreak and developed expertise to consistently investigate complaints made about council and social care provider actions during that period.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with police forces in England and Wales about ensuring that all police officers undertake unconscious bias training.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The public rightly expect police officers to meet high standards of professional conduct. In this country, the power of the police to fulfil their duties is wholly dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain this public respect.
The College of Policing, which sets and maintains training standards for policing, published the Code of Ethics in 2014. This includes a set of principles for policing, including that all officers and staff should take active steps to oppose discrimination and make their decisions free from prejudice. This is a cornerstone of police training and development.
The College of Policing’s foundation training for all those entering the service includes substantial coverage of police ethics and self-understanding, including the effects of personal conscious and unconscious bias. Initial training covers hate crimes, ethics and equalities, and policing without bias.
Forces also provide local training and development at several different levels ranging from initial entry, leadership and ongoing development to reflect and reinforce organisational values.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that financial pressures on local authorities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic do not lead to cuts to local police force funding.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government has been clear that the police will get the financial support they need to keep our communities safe through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government took immediate steps to increase the availability of funding for forces to meet cashflow pressures caused by the pandemic. We flexed half of the £168 million Police Uplift ringfenced grant to include expenditure on COVID-19 related pressures for the first six months of the financial year. We also brought forward payment of the £142.6 million police pensions grant, which forces received in April this year.
The Government also recently announced that council tax and business rates collection fund deficits accumulated 2020-21 can be phased over three years rather than paid off in 2021-22. This will give police and other local authorities in England a breathing space when setting their budgets for next year.
The Home Office continues to gather evidence of forces’ additional Covid-19 related expenditures since the introduction of social distancing measures, de-veloped in close consultation with policing sector finance leads. We will use this evidence base to inform cross-Government decisions on the police’s fu-ture funding needs.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that public toilets reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The government has published guidance (attached) on safer public spaces. It includes advice, information and examples of the potential interventions that can be used in public places to facilitate social distancing in areas of higher footfall such as in parks (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/safer-public-places-urban-centres-and-green-spaces-covid-19). Owners and operators are advised to implement cleaning protocols to limit coronavirus transmission in public places. It is advised that touch points (e.g. handrails and gates) should be particular areas of focus for increased cleaning.
To help everyone maintain good hygiene, consideration should be given to: configuration of toilet facilities to ensure they are kept clean, with social distancing achieved as far as possible and with best practice handwashing followed; where possible, providing hand towels as an alternative to hand dryers in handwashing facilities; signs at public toilets for queuing, social distancing and automatic sanitising; using signs and messages to build awareness of good handwashing technique and other respiratory hygiene behaviours, e.g. around coughing and sneezing in public places; where possible, providing hand towels as an alternative to hand dryers in handwashing facilities; and queue marking indicators at main entrance, popular park destinations and toilets.
We have now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an unringfenced grant so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The package recognises the additional costs and pressures on finances councils are facing as a result of the current crisis. It demonstrates the Government’s commitment to making sure councils, including upper and lower tier authorities, have the resources they need to support their communities through this challenging time.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that all workers in community retirement settings are provided with adequate personal protection equipment and have access to COVID-19 testing.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have made arrangements to help ensure that settings providing adult social care services can access personal protection equipment (PPE) where they have a clinical need, in line with published guidance. This includes community retirement settings that have care provision.
We have released millions of items of PPE to wholesalers for onward sale to the adult social care sector for providers to access if they cannot obtain PPE through their business as usual routes. We have also released of millions of items of PPE to Local Resilience Forums to help them respond to urgent local spikes in need across the adult social care sector and some other front-line services, where they are unable to access PPE through their business as usual and designated wholesaler routes. We have also mobilised a National Supply Disruption Response system to respond to emergency PPE requests, including for the adult social care sector if they cannot obtain PPE through other routes.
On access to COVID-19 testing, staff that are experiencing symptoms can be referred for testing by their employer, use the self-referral portal to order a home test kit or visit a regional testing site.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Department for International Development prioritises non-communicable diseases through its Universal Health Coverage programs.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
DFID’s approach to non-communicable diseases is focused on improving the provision of basic health services for the poorest by supporting health systems strengthening such as improving health worker capacity and access to essential medicines. This helps to increase coverage, equity, access and quality of health services to address all health problems including non-communicable diseases.
As part of these efforts the UK Government continues to champion universal health coverage (UHC) to ensure access to quality essential services for all. UHC includes ensuring that no one is impoverished through paying for health services and reducing financial barriers for essential services, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable.