Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the shortage of NHS staff in rural and understaffed areas.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the importance of expanding the National Health Service workforce, particularly in parts of the country which are understaffed, including rural areas. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) commits to doubling the number of medical school places, with new medical schools and additional places in geographical areas with the greatest staff shortfalls. Further medical expansion will build on the impact of five new medical schools that have already opened in historically hard-to-recruit rural and coastal locations in Tyne and Wear, West Lancashire, Essex, Lincolnshire, and Kent.
The LTWP also sets out an aim to further adjust the distribution of postgraduate specialty training places, so that more medical students carry out their postgraduate training in parts of the country with the greatest shortages. Doctors are more likely to settle and practice in the areas they train. Therefore, expansion of places will help to address the need for more staff in these areas.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve mental health services and reduce waiting times for those seeking treatment.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services, to expand access and reduce waiting times. Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, NHS spending on mental health has increased by £4.6 billion in cash terms, as compared to the target of £3.4 billion in cash terms set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan. The plan committed to grow the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff between 2019/20 and 2023/24. We are making positive progress, delivering two-thirds of this, approximately 17,000, by September 2023, with further significant growth expected by the end of this financial year.
The NHS is also working towards implementing five new waiting time measures for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community, for both adults, and children and young people. This includes working towards improving the quality of data that we have on waiting times for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community. NHS England began publishing this new data in 2023 to improve transparency and drive local accountability.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to enhance UK border security and immigration enforcement.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office’s priority is to deliver a safe and secure border and we will never compromise on this. Border Force maintain 100% checks for all scheduled arriving passengers into the UK and this will be continued during any period.
Border Force deploys to risk using tested, but continually assessed, intelligence and targeting techniques. Border Force does not publish information on operational activities. Doing so would publicise operational practices which would be used to assist in the evasion of customs controls and compromise border security.
Immigration Enforcement is taking robust action to tackle illegal migration through:
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum seekers who have claimed to be victims of torture have been detained at immigration centres.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are unable to provide the information requested, as it can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many offenders were transferred from prisons in (1) England, and (2) Wales, to prisons in Northern Ireland in (a) 2021, and (b) 2022.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There were no transfers from prisons in England or Wales to Northern Ireland in 2021. In 2022, three prisoners were transferred from prisons in England and four from prisons in Wales.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure equitable access to cancer treatment and care across different regions of the UK; and what steps they are taking to improve cancer survival rates.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing inequalities and variation in cancer treatment is a priority for this Government as is increasing early cancer diagnosis, as this is a key contributor to reducing cancer health inequalities. People in deprived areas are at greater risk of contracting cancer, more likely to have a cancer diagnosed at a later stage and suffer from higher cancer death rates and poorer survival. Survival rates have been improving for almost all cancers and across all demographics, with 74.6% people surviving a year after diagnosis, up from 65.6% in 2005, and 55.7% surviving five years, up from 47.9% in 2005.
The National Health Service has rolled out Targeted Lung Health Checks, prioritising more deprived areas, so that people in the most deprived quintile are now more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer at an early stage, namely stage one or two, than those in the least deprived quintile, giving them a much greater chance of survival.
On 14 August 2023, the Government published a strategic framework for the Major Conditions Strategy to consider the six conditions, including cancer, that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including cancer. The Major Conditions Strategy will apply a geographical lens to each condition to address regional disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve treatment and care for patients with Alzheimer's.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every person with dementia, their families and carers, receive high quality, compassionate care, from diagnosis through to end of life. To improve care for patients with dementia, including those with Alzheimer’s disease, NHS England's RightCare team is refreshing the RightCare Dementia Scenario. The scenario works through the dementia well pathway journey from diagnosing well through to dying well, detailing optimal and sub optimal approaches, with associated costings for each. The RightCare team is developing a dementia model pathway based on data for each component of the dementia well pathway to provide a high-level view of what dementia care activity looks like for local areas and will support targeted support where appropriate.
There are also several potential new disease modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease in development. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), NHS England and the Department are working closely to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and NICE recommended treatment for dementia as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK is actively enforcing its fishing rights.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As an independent coastal state, the UK has full responsibility over how it ensures compliance in its fisheries. All fishing vessels in UK waters are required to fish in accordance with UK laws and the conditions of their licences. As control and enforcement is a devolved matter, Defra, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive work together to share information and ensure a coordinated approach to monitoring, compliance and enforcement across UK waters.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent steps have been taken to (1) raise awareness of the risks, and (2) promote responsible practices, in relation to online gambling, particularly among vulnerable groups such as young people and individuals with mental health challenges.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government recognises that, while millions of people gamble online without experiencing problems, for some it becomes an addiction with serious consequences. It is particularly important to take steps to protect vulnerable groups, including young people, from risks associated with online gambling.
In April the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published a White Paper following our review of the Gambling Act 2005. The White Paper outlined a series of measures to tackle practices and products which can drive harm and to ensure that people who are at risk of gambling harm and addiction are protected. These include new, frictionless financial risk checks, a stake limit for online slots games, improvements to customer-led tools, and tougher restrictions on bonuses and direct marketing. These measures will be complemented by strengthened informational messaging about the risks associated with gambling. The White Paper also contained a commitment to introduce a new statutory levy paid by operators to fund research, prevention, and treatment. In July the Gambling Commission also published a vulnerability statement, outlining its approach to identifying, supporting, and protecting consumers who are in vulnerable situations.
We are working with the Gambling Commission and others to bring the measures from the White Paper into force as quickly as possible, and have already published consultations on a number of important proposals so that we can finalise details ahead of their implementation.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people who have entered the UK illegally via Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic of Ireland during the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication.
Information about illegal entry to the UK is not currently available in our published data.
Our published data is available at the following link: Immigration system statistics, year ending September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)