Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 7 October (HL8398), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what estimate they have made of spare capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and independent sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
To maximise total elective activity, NHS England and NHS Improvement worked with independent providers to identify best of use of capacity, based on local need. From the end of March to June 2020 both equipment and staffing from independent sector providers were deployed by NHS trusts in order to ensure delivery of services for NHS patients. Since June, the use of independent sector sites has been focused on assisting the NHS to restore services and increase elective capacity.
As part of preparing for winter, the Government has provided an additional £3 billion to the NHS. This includes additional funding to the NHS to allow them to continue to use additional hospital capacity from the independent sector, and to maintain the Nightingale hospitals, in their current state, until the end of March 2021.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 7 October (HL8399), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what procedures they put in place to ensure the maximum use of capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and independent sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
To maximise total elective activity, NHS England and NHS Improvement worked with independent providers to identify best of use of capacity, based on local need. From the end of March to June 2020 both equipment and staffing from independent sector providers were deployed by NHS trusts in order to ensure delivery of services for NHS patients. Since June, the use of independent sector sites has been focused on assisting the NHS to restore services and increase elective capacity.
As part of preparing for winter, the Government has provided an additional £3 billion to the NHS. This includes additional funding to the NHS to allow them to continue to use additional hospital capacity from the independent sector, and to maintain the Nightingale hospitals, in their current state, until the end of March 2021.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures they put in place to ensure the maximum use of capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and Independent Sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
The addition of around 6,500 additional beds has increased NHS capacity and ensured that facilities are available for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 whilst ensuring continuity of service for non-COVID patients requiring elective activity, including cancer and other urgent treatment. Latest collected information shows that over 215,000 patient contacts had taken place under the contract.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of spare capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and Independent Sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
The addition of around 6,500 additional beds has increased NHS capacity and ensured that facilities are available for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 whilst ensuring continuity of service for non-COVID patients requiring elective activity, including cancer and other urgent treatment. Latest collected information shows that over 215,000 patient contacts had taken place under the contract.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement on COVID-19 by the Prime Minister on 17 July, what plans they have for the return of staff of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to work in offices.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
HMRC follow Government guidelines on social distancing and safe workplaces. HMRC’s current estate capacity is therefore reduced. Use of that space is prioritised for the delivery of services that cannot be completed effectively at home, or for staff who are unable to work at home for personal reasons.
About 5,000 colleagues have been working in HMRC offices throughout the COVID-19 response. Within the limited capacity available, HMRC expect to increase the number of colleagues safely using their offices from August in order to deliver their full range of tax and customs functions and support a returning economy.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assurances, if any, they will give to whistleblowers who raise concerns that they are being forced to work while money is being claimed on their behalf under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme that their employers, and not the whistleblowers, will be liable for fraud and the recovery of any money obtained illegally.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In cases of fraudulent claims in respect of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, HMRC will seek to recover funds from the claimant employer.
Using powers that are before this House in the Finance Bill, where the employer is an insolvent company and an individual with management responsibility knowingly made an excessive claim, HMRC will be able to seek to recover funds from that individual.
Whistleblowers can be confident that HMRC will act to protect their confidentiality, and that they will not be liable for recovery. This does not include cases where the employer and employee conspire to defraud the scheme.
Employees can report their suspicions of fraud on HMRC’s tax evasion form, available through GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to enshrine protection for furlough fraud whistleblowers in law through the Finance Bill.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Employment Rights Act 1996, amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, already gives legal protection to those who speak up in the public interest. The legislation is intended to build openness and trust in workplaces by ensuring that workers who hold their employers to account are treated fairly, and to provide means of redress for a worker who suffers detriment at the hands of their employer after ‘blowing the whistle’. In many cases, employers respond appropriately when concerns are raised by their employees. Where they do not, employees can take their case to an Employment Tribunal, who can award compensation.
In order to qualify for the protections, a worker must make their disclosure either to their employer or other responsible person or a ‘prescribed person’ as set out in the Prescribed Persons Order. Prescribed persons are most often organisations with a regulatory responsibility for the sector in which the worker works, or for the type of wrongdoing that is being disclosed. Disclosures can also be made to a legal advisor or an MP.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to open a confidential telephone hotline to encourage whistleblowing on furlough fraud.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The HMRC fraud hotline service has already been updated explicitly to include the facility for the public to report fraud in relation to all relevant coronavirus relief schemes. The service has two main referral routes; the telephony service and the online reporting tool hosted on GOV.UK. HMRC took the decision to close the telephony arm of this service as a result of Government guidelines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; the online reporting service can be used until such time as the telephony service can resume.
The online service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and can be completed with the same level of complete confidentiality as the telephony service. HMRC are currently exploring options to safely reopen the hotline telephony service and will do so as soon as is practicable.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to remind NHS trusts of their responsibilities to whistle-blowers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Speaking up is vital for ensuring patient safety and improving the quality of services and should be a routine part of business in the National Health Service. The NHS should support and welcome all staff to raise concerns wherever they spot them.
The Government has proactively encouraged NHS staff to raise concerns over recent years and provided support by establishing an independent National Guardian to help drive positive cultural change across the NHS so that speaking up becomes business as usual.
On 23 April the Care Quality Commission and the National Guardian issued a joint statement to providers of health and social care reminding them of the importance of speaking up. This followed a letter that the National Guardian sent to NHS trust chairs in March, which also highlighted the importance of staff having the freedom to speak up and the need to support Local Freedom to Speak Up Guardians at this time.
We will continue to encourage and support the rights of staff to raise concerns.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to review the framework of protections offered to whistleblowers.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The Government recognises how valuable it is that whistleblowers are prepared to shine a light on wrongdoing, and believes that they should be able to do so without fear of recriminations.
The Government has continued to make reforms to the whistleblowing regime to enhance the role of prescribed persons. The most recent reform was a new legislative requirement for most prescribed persons to produce an annual report on whistleblowing disclosures made to them by workers and how they were taken forward. Relevant prescribed persons were required to publish the second of these reports by the end of September 2019. The duty increases confidence in the actions taken by prescribed persons through greater transparency about how disclosures are handled.
Alongside the new duty, the Government published guidance for prescribed persons to help them understand their role and provide advice on complying with legal requirements as well as practices beyond the whistleblowing legislation.
The Government has committed to reviewing the whistleblowing framework once the recent reforms have built the necessary evidence of their impact.