Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 5 June (HL Deb, col 87), what statistics the Department of Health and Social care keep on the number of individuals who have been charged under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 for assaults against those employed by the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Department does not keep statistics on the number of individuals who have been charged under the Assaults in Emergency (Offences) Act 2018 for assaults against those employed by the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individuals have been charged with offences under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018; and how many of those incidents occurred in connection with the provision of services by the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office does not hold information on the number of individuals charged under The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act, which came into effect on 13 November 2018. However, police forces in England and Wales provide the Home Office with data on the number of offences recorded of Assault or assault by beating of a constable or emergency worker that resulted in a charge.
Between 13 November 2018 to 31 December 2018, there were 947 offences recorded under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 that resulted in a charge. However, this provides an incomplete count of all individuals charged under this Act because some offences will result in more than one offender being charged and more serious incidents may result in a higher charge such as Grievous Bodily Harm.
The Home Office does not hold data on whether or not the incident occurred in connection with the services provided by the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review sunbed regulations.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Sunbeds Regulation Act 2010 was implemented to prohibit under-18s from using sunbeds based on the recommendations by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment.
The Department, with expert advisers, is considering whether the current legislation and associated guidance, produced by the Department, the Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England to support the enforcement of the regulations by local authorities and the safe use of sunbeds, are effective for protecting sunbed users.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include skin cancers in the Be Clear on Cancer campaign resources.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Advice for adults and children on sunscreen and sun safety in the United Kingdom and abroad, to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer is available online at the NHS website. Advice includes: spend time in the shade when the sun is strongest, between 11am and 3pm; make sure you never burn; cover up with suitable clothing and sunglasses; take extra care with children; and use at least factor 15 sunscreen.
Public Health England (PHE) is refreshing its guidance to actual and prospective users of sunbeds on how to minimise exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer. PHE’s online guidance will be updated in spring 2019.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to raise awareness of the risks of skin cancer and methods of prevention
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Advice for adults and children on sunscreen and sun safety in the United Kingdom and abroad, to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer is available online at the NHS website. Advice includes: spend time in the shade when the sun is strongest, between 11am and 3pm; make sure you never burn; cover up with suitable clothing and sunglasses; take extra care with children; and use at least factor 15 sunscreen.
Public Health England (PHE) is refreshing its guidance to actual and prospective users of sunbeds on how to minimise exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer. PHE’s online guidance will be updated in spring 2019.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve GPs' diagnostic skills for skin conditions.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Royal College of General Practitioners’ curriculum includes a module on the care of people with skin problems. This sets out the knowledge and skills a general practitioner should have in the diagnosis and management of skin conditions relevant to their role as generalist, community-based doctors, including the diagnostic investigations, such as blood and immunological testing to needed to support a diagnosis.
Once fully qualified, clinicians are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE has published a clinical guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of number of common skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema. The guidance is routinely reviewed to ensure it reflects the latest available, including around diagnostic approaches.
The British Association of Dermatologists also continues to produce a range toolkits and guidance for health professionals.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Health Education England on increasing the number of training places for dermatology students.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The number of medical specialty training places that are available each year in England is set by Health Education England (HEE) and is based on their assessment of service gaps and predicted workforce needs.
There are programmes of work underway as part of the development of a workforce implementation plan, which the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding, Chair of NHS Improvement, working closely with Sir David Behan, Chair of Health Education England, to oversee. These programmes will consider detailed proposals to grow the workforce, including consideration of additional staff in speciality fields, build a supportive working culture in the NHS and ensure first rate leadership for National Health Service staff. Baroness Harding will present initial recommendations to the Department in spring 2019.
The Department has not held specific discussions with HEE on increasing the number of training places for dermatology students. There has been a 100% fill rate in dermatology training in England for the past six years.
Dermatologist education and training and recruitment in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland is a matter for the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is a legal limit on the ratio of nurses to patients on wards in NHS hospitals in England; and if so, what are those limits.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
The National Health Service does not have a legal ratio of nurses to patients.
Appropriate staffing levels are the responsibility of commissioners and trusts. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 include a requirement for the deployment of sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced persons at all times.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in reviewing Personal Independence Payment claims following the High Court judgment on 21 December 2017; whether they will automatically review the cases of all individuals assessed prior to that judgment; and if so, whether those individuals will be informed that their cases are being reviewed.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The High Court judgment on 21 December 2017 refers to the successful challenge by judicial review of the 2017 amending regulation which had reversed the effect of the MH Upper Tribunal (UT) decision. This decision, handed down on 28 November 2016 related to how overwhelming psychological distress should be considered when assessing a claimant’s ability to plan and follow a journey under PIP mobility activity 1.
As outlined in the Written Statement of 25 June 2018 (HLWS767) my Department is currently carrying out an administrative exercise to identify anyone who may be entitled to more support under Personal Independence Payment (PIP) as a result of the MH UT decision. At the same time, case managers will be considering the RJ decision, which concerns the way the Department assesses whether claimants can complete a PIP activity safely and if supervision is required.
As outlined in the written statement of 20 December 2018 (HCWS1224), as at 23 November 2018, 140,000 cases had been reviewed and cleared and around 1,000 claimants had received payments. Given the complexity of the exercise we have started at a relatively small scale to test our processes to ensure they are effective before ramping up.
Under this administrative exercise we are reviewing decisions made by the Department where the claimant was in receipt of PIP at the date of the Upper Tribunal decisions (MH, 28th November 2016 and RJ, 9th March 2017) and those who have had a decision made on their PIP claim since those dates. We will also be reviewing claims disallowed after these decisions.
All claimants will be notified if we have reviewed their case. Claimants do not need to contact the Department at this stage.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker why Members were not informed that OneDrive would no longer be available at the same time that those working in the Parliamentary Digital Service were informed.
Answered by Lord McFall of Alcluith
There are no plans to remove OneDrive from Members. A configuration change made to the OneDrive service designed to enhance parliamentary information security had an unintended impact on the ability of Members to use OneDrive. This change has now been reversed and we are grateful to the noble Lord and others for drawing this to our attention.