Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase (1) the number of opportunities for children to be active outdoors during the school day, and (2) the range of activities available to them when outdoors; and whether such plans include the introduction of active mile schemes.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Through the primary PE and sport premium, over £600 million of ring-fenced funding has been invested in primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013. The government doubled the premium to £320 million per year from September 2017, using revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. The premium should be used to develop or add to the PE and sport activities that a school already offers to provide more opportunities for their pupils to be active throughout the school day.
We know that schools across the country have signed up to an active mile programme. The Daily Mile’s website reports that over 900 schools in England are signed up to The Daily Mile. Active Miles can help pupils to achieve the 60 active minutes each day recommended by the UK chief medical officers. They are simple, inclusive and can successfully engage the least active children in physical activity. In December 2017, the department brought together active mile providers to discuss opportunities to engage more schools to take part in active mile initiatives
Sport England supports children and young people in England by ensuring there is a good sports and activity offer before and after the school day. This includes investing £28 million into Satellite Clubs between 2017-2021. Satellite Clubs provide opportunities to take part regularly in sport and activity through the creation of enjoyable, appealing and convenient opportunities for young people that are based around their needs.
The government also continues to invest around £17.5 million per annum in the School Games, an Olympic/Paralympic style competition, so that all children and young people, particularly those who are currently least active or from under-represented groups, have the best opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity. Inclusive sports formats are included to provide opportunities for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs to participate.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what involvement the Department for Work and Pensions has had with disabled people and their families to inform their thinking on the forthcoming white paper on improving support for disabled people and people with health conditions.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
The department regularly engages with disability charities and organisations, as well as disabled people and their families and carers, at both Ministerial and official level. We proactively seek stakeholder views on current health, care and employment services to understand what works and where improvements can be made through roundtables, focus groups and face-to-face meetings. These discussions inform and provide the opportunity to test our thinking as we being to develop proposals for the forthcoming White Paper, and we will continue to engage at all levels over the coming months.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much NHS England spent on the purchase of wheelchairs in England in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Information on the cost of operating wheelchair services in England is not available centrally. Such information as is available is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services to patients. The total cost of operating wheelchair services reported in 2014-15 reference costs was £143.4 million.
NHS England advises that as clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services, it does not collect data on how much is spent on the purchase of wheelchairs. NHS England is however supporting improvement in wheelchair services and has just established a new national data collection. This will enable tracking at local and national levels of issues such as the number of wheelchair users, the costs of services and the length of time people have to wait.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the cost of operating wheelchair services in England in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Information on the cost of operating wheelchair services in England is not available centrally. Such information as is available is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services to patients. The total cost of operating wheelchair services reported in 2014-15 reference costs was £143.4 million.
NHS England advises that as clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services, it does not collect data on how much is spent on the purchase of wheelchairs. NHS England is however supporting improvement in wheelchair services and has just established a new national data collection. This will enable tracking at local and national levels of issues such as the number of wheelchair users, the costs of services and the length of time people have to wait.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the responses received on the NHS mandate consultation asked for an improvement in wheelchair services.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
At least 170 responses were received that called for improvements to National Health Service wheelchair services. It should be noted that due to limitations in the analysis of large volumes of unstructured e-mail data received during the consultation it is possible that this is an under-estimate.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that the terms and conditions required by governing bodies of sport as the promoters of major events should be adhered to and take priority over secondary market interests.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The terms and conditions on an event ticket are a matter of civil law. We do, however, expect there to be a reasonable balance between the terms and conditions which apply when purchasing goods and enabling consumers with unwanted tickets to dispose of them fairly and openly.