Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many hospital beds there were in NHS England in 2013.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest published data shows a total of 131,862 available beds under the care of a consultant in England, in quarter one of 2024/25. This compares to a total of 136,459 available beds in quarter one of 2013/14. Data on National Health Service bed numbers is published on the NHS England website.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many hospital beds there are in NHS England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest published data shows a total of 131,862 available beds under the care of a consultant in England, in quarter one of 2024/25. This compares to a total of 136,459 available beds in quarter one of 2013/14. Data on National Health Service bed numbers is published on the NHS England website.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage, through organised career structures, more people to enter roles in the care sector.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are developing a Care Workforce Pathway, which will set out the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to work in adult social care, as well as a clear career structure for the workforce. We intend to publish the first part of the pathway, focused on staff in direct care roles, in autumn 2023.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people are working in social care roles in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
According to Skills for Care, there were 1.5 million people working in adult social care roles in England in 2021/22.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people residing in care homes.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department collects data on the number of people residing in care homes on a monthly basis.
The Data reported in Capacity Tracker (CT) shows that in the week ending 14/05/2023 the number of people in younger and older adult care homes was 363,972. This figure is made up of both private and local authority funded clients. Data is from adult social care in England, monthly statistics, COVID-19 Vaccination statistics June 2023, Table 10.
The Short- and Long-Term collection (SALT) shows that at year end 2021/22 the number of people in care homes (residential and nursing) accessing long term support was 175,680. This figure only includes clients whose care is commissioned or funded by local authorities. Those who privately finance and organise their care are not included. Data is found in SALT Table 38.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many registered care homes there are in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
There are 14,858 registered care homes in England.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take, if any, to increase funding for social care.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has already provided a historic increase in funding for social care. The Government announced at the Autumn Statement that up to £7.5 billion of additional funding would be available for Adult Social Care and discharge over the next two years. This historic funding boost should put the adult social care system on a stronger financial footing and help local authorities address waiting lists, low fee rates, and workforce pressures in the sector. We will keep working closely with local authorities and the adult social care sector to understand current pressures on service delivery and budgets.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government (1) how much they have spent to date, and (2) how much they plan to spend, on the improvements to the Crewe–Holyhead rail line.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The North Wales Mainline has benefitted from investment as part of recent record funding settlements for Network Rail’s Wales Route. £50m has been spent on improving the signalling system and track layout, together with improvements to Abergele and Pensarn station. The cases for further improvements to journey times on the line, and for improvements at Chester and Shotton stations are currently being developed and will be considered for funding based on their merits.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Atlas C.1 (A400M) aircraft are operational in the UK; and whether they have ordered more to be built.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The RAF has a fleet of 21 Atlas C.1 (A400M) aircraft with another due for delivery in the summer of 2023. Currently, no additional aircraft have been ordered.
Asked by: Lord Jones (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for the development of the Wylfa (Ynys Môn) and Trawsfynydd (Gwynedd) nuclear power stations.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government intends to make an announcement on the launch of Great British Nuclear (GBN) soon. GBN will be tasked with helping projects through every stage of the development process and developing a resilient pipeline of new build projects.
The Government will also develop a new nuclear National Policy Statement, which will cover the siting and policy framework for nuclear electricity generating infrastructure beyond 2025, and will consult on this new NPS in due course.
In the meantime, the Government continues to discuss new projects with viable companies and investors wishing to develop sites, including in North Wales.