Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will respond to the Improving the energy performance of privately rented homes consultation, which ran from 30 September 2020 to 8 January 2021.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has carefully analysed the responses received and is considering how best to ensure the cost relating to energy efficiency improvement are fair and proportionate to landlords and tenants. The Government will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the business and financial challenges, and (2) the barriers to entry to the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme, faced by tenant farmers; and what steps they intend to take in response.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra are aware of the challenges some tenant farmers face when seeking to enter our schemes, such as not having sufficient duration of management control to enter long scheme agreements, being limited by the terms of their tenancy agreement as to what actions they can carry out on the land and struggling to obtain their landlord's consent to enter such schemes.
We are aiming to remove barriers to tenants entering these schemes where possible and have already done so in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). Tenants can enter SFI without their landlord's explicit consent and tenants with annually renewing tenancy agreements can enter if they expect to have management control for the duration of their 3-year agreement. Furthermore, if a tenant unexpectedly loses management control of the land, such as when the landlord serves them a notice to quit, we do not require the tenant to pay a penalty to Defra for ending their SFI agreement early.
The recently published Rock Review led by Baroness Rock acknowledges that our policy on agreement length and no penalty exits when there is an unexpected loss of management control have made the scheme more open to tenant farmers. We are currently considering the Rock Review's recommendation that Defra must continue to design the future SFI standards so that they are open to tenant farmers and will formally respond to this recommendation in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult on a new NHS dental contract to provide access to general dentistry; and what steps they will take to ensure that local commissioners work with providers to make existing contracts sustainable.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is holding discussions and consulting with the British Dental Association (BDA) and the wider dental sector for additional reforms of the National Health Service (NHS) Dental System, planned for 2023. NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population, with many of these functions transferring to integrated care boards (ICBs) from April 2023. They will work with commissioners and providers, supported by NHS England’s Assurance Framework.
‘Our plan for patients’, announced in September 2022 and available in an online-only format, outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to NHS dental care. This includes improving the 2006 contract to ensure fairer remuneration for practices providing complex treatment as well as enabling dentists to make better use of dental teams to deliver NHS treatment. These changes were discussed with stakeholders and implemented through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022, improving access to general dentistry and making the NHS contract more attractive and sustainable to dentists and their teams.
The Department also worked with NHS England and the BDA to introduce a minimum Unit of Dental Activity value in October 2022, the implementation of which will support commissioners to work closely with providers in ensuring NHS dental contracts are sustainable.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to collect data regarding a dental workforce to improve the (1) recruitment, and (2) retention, of dentists.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to publishing a workforce plan next year, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals, including dental professionals, required in future years. This will take into account improvements in retention and productivity and will make use of available data sources.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed closures of railway ticket offices on people who are (1) elderly, (2) deaf, or (3) blind or partially sighted; and what steps they will take in response to any such assessment.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
If a train operating company (TOC) proposes the closure of ticket offices, they must follow the process set out in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA). This sets out how TOCs must consider the needs of all passengers when proposing alternative arrangements.
Together with industry we want to improve and modernise the experience for all passengers, giving staff more flexible roles allows them to better support the overall needs of elderly, deaf, blind or partially sighted passengers.
If called upon to make a determination on a specific ticket office proposal, the Secretary of State will follow the TSA process and comply with his own Public Sector Equality Duty by taking equality implications into account.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 28 October (HCWS347), whether the delay to the publication of environmental targets related to clean water and biodiversity as required by the Environment Act 2021 will place them in breach of the Act.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer to the Written Statement HLWS449 made on 16 December 2022 and Written Statement HCWS456 made on 19 December 2022.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Office for Product Safety and Standards is sufficiently staffed and skilled to enforce the new regulations on mandatory recycling labelling.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has agreed, in principle, to act as a National Regulator for the new regulations on mandatory recycling labelling, which form part of proposed Producer Responsibility Obligations under the Environment Act 2021. No final decision has been made that OPSS shall adopt this enforcement role, but should OPSS become the regulator it will be funded to ensure the necessary resources, including suitably qualified staff, are available.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to speed up referrals for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, given the pace at which the disease progresses and the need for treatment to begin quickly.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is implementing non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients presenting with vague and non-site specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type, such as pancreatic cancer. As of November 2022, there were 98 NSS pathways and approximately 60,000 referrals have been made. By March 2024, we expect these NSS pathways to be available throughout England. This will also support the NHS to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard for all patients referred for the investigation of suspected cancer to receive an outcome within 28 days.
NHS England’s ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign addresses the barriers to patients seeking advice for symptoms for all cancer types. The current campaign focuses on abdominal and urological symptoms, which can be related to pancreatic cancer.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide students under the age of 17 with a wider choice of subjects to study, in order to bring an end to the division in employability between academic and technical education.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Up to the age of 16, young people are introduced to a broad and balanced curriculum, which provides music, sport, citizenship, and cultural opportunities.
The department reformed GCSEs from 2013 to ensure that they rigorously assess the knowledge pupils have acquired and are in line with expected standards in countries with high performing education systems.
The computing curriculum supports pupils to become active creators of digital technology. Programming, algorithms, and the use of information technology are taught to pupils at key stage 3 to provide the foundation for pupils to acquire further knowledge about artificial intelligence, data science, cyber security, and other fields. In November 2018, the department launched the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), backed by £84 million of government funding. The NCCE provides high-quality, continuing professional development and resources to teachers of all key stages and engages with schools and colleges across England to improve their computing provision.
To ensure a strong pipeline of qualified students into higher education and careers in STEM areas, the department has committed substantial spending on subjects, including science with the aim of increasing take up. This includes funding of programmes such as the Stimulating Physics Network and the Isaac Physics programme which both aim to increase rates of progression to physics A level, a subject which could lead a student into a technical career.
Post-16 students are able to specialise, with a range of high quality academic and technical qualifications options. This includes a rigorous suite of A levels, T Levels, and apprenticeships. The content of T Levels is designed in collaboration with employers. Each course includes a 45-day industry placement, so students are equipped with industry related skills. The department is also streamlining and improving the quality of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the ambition in the NHS Long Term Plan which states that "by 2028, the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 will rise from around half now to three-quarters of cancer patients", when they will commence Phase 2 to include a wider range of tests that will involve dialogues with (1) GPs, (2) Integrated Care Boards, and (3) key stakeholders.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While there are no plans to add a specific second phase, we are committed to the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambition of diagnosing 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028.
Patients will benefit from earlier diagnostic tests closer to home, with 91 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) already up and running. Investment in up to 160 CDCs will deliver up to 17 million tests by March 2025. As of November 2022, existing CDCs have delivered more than 2.4 million additional checks.
In addition, the NHS-Galleri trial is currently evaluating a test for blood to identify cancer risk, which can detect signs of more than 50 different cancers, including those where no screening programmes currently exist. The trial has recruited the target of 140,000 participants and interim results are expected in late 2023. If successful, the NHS has committed to deploying one million Galleri tests in 2024 and 2025. The clinical trial is currently planned to conclude in 2025.