Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support Ukrainian refugee children into education in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department is supporting all local authorities, including Hertfordshire, to create sufficient school places for Ukrainian refugee children. As of 1 September, a total of 382 Ukrainian children had applied for school places in Hertfordshire, including 232 primary and 150 secondary applications. 221 Ukrainian children have been offered a place in a primary school and 138 children in a secondary school, a total of 359 places. Further information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-placements-for-children-from-outside-of-the-uk#dataBlock-0d7ea979-5308-4894-dbfb-08da76d991a7-tables.
Moreover, the department will provide additional funding on a per pupil basis for Ukrainian children for the three phases of education at the following annual rates:
In August 2022, the department made initial payments to all local authorities that have children who arrived between March and May 2022 via the Homes for Ukraine visa route. Further payments will be made on a quarterly basis. Hertfordshire received £2,158,450 in August. The funding is for local authorities to spend on providing early years education and primary and secondary school places for children from overseas. It can be used to provide a wide range of support, including funding teachers and other school staff, school transport, uniform, English language tuition and emotional/mental health support.
Ukrainian parents can apply for a school place through the in-year admissions process. We have set out this process in the Ukrainian welcome pack. For younger children, all local authorities, including Hertfordshire, will work with families to enable all children access to early years provision in their local area as soon as possible, even if these places are not in the immediate vicinity of their accommodation.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
NHS England has allocated an £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements. The National Health Service is also investing £20 million in the ambulance fleet in each year to 2024/25. This will increase ambulance capacity by reducing the age profile of the fleet, increasing productivity and capacity while decreasing emissions through 30 zero emission ambulances.
The number of NHS ambulance staff and support staff has increased by almost 40% since April 2010. Health Education England has a mandated target to train 3,000 paramedic graduates nationally per annum from 2021 to 2024. St John Ambulance has been contracted to deliver auxiliary ambulance services, providing national surge capacity of at least 5,000 hours per month as needed to support the ambulance response during periods of increased pressure, allowing NHS ambulance crews to respond to emergency calls.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the construction of new (a) children’s and (b) specialist cancer hospitals at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were allocated Wave 4 Sustainability and Transformation Partnership funding of £100 million in 2018 for Cambridge Children’s Hospital. The Department and NHS England are working with the Trust on the plans for the scheme.
A cancer research hospital at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge forms part of the Government’s commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. The New Hospital Programme is working with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the development of the plans for the specialist cancer hospital and progressing enabling works ahead of the main scheme development. The Trust has received £2.6 million for the scheme and it is on schedule to commence construction before 2024.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timescale is for delivery of a new hospital in West Hertfordshire.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A new hospital for West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust forms part of the Government’s commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. The programme to deliver the new hospitals involves schemes being grouped into ‘cohorts’. This is based on an assessment of existing readiness to progress and the extent to which new hospitals can benefit from advantages of delivery through a national programme.
The new hospital for West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is in the third cohort of ‘Pathfinder’ schemes. The Pathfinder cohort is the first group of larger and more complex schemes within the programme being progressed. The timing of the larger and more complex cohorts is still to be finalised, with delivery by 2030.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to support people in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency with the price of (a) heating oil and (b) gas for private homes.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government recognises that heating oil prices have risen steeply over the past year and sympathises with consumers who rely on this fuel for everyday use.
The Government has announced a new energy price guarantee to reduce bills for households on gas and electricity by an average of £1,000 for the typical household. For households who do not use gas for domestic heating, the Government has committed to provide an additional payment of £100 to compensate for the rising costs of other fuels such as heating oil.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data his Department holds on the number of trees planted in Hitchin and Harpenden constituency since 2010.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Forestry Commission publishes statistics on new planting of woodland, and trees outside woodland, in England. For most Government supported new planting of woodland there are accompanying related geospatial data on its location. From these datasets our best estimate is that there were at least 400,000 newly planted trees with government support in woodland in the 12 years 3 months, from 1 April 2010 to 30 June 2022, in the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the future sustainability of the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre.
Answered by Will Quince
An independent clinical review of services at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre was conducted in 2019. A programme board, including local partners, NHS England and local integrated care systems, has been developing, reviewing and testing options for a sustainable future service. Further actions will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the number of NHS staff in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The 2020 NHS People Plan focuses on improving the retention of National Health Service staff through a programme to support return to practice, invest in and diversify the training pipeline and ethically recruit internationally. There are currently over 9,600 more nurses and almost 4,100 additional doctors working in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups since last year. We are on schedule to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 50,000 nurses.
Local National Health Service trusts are responsible for managing own staffing levels and for recruiting the appropriate number of health professionals required to meet local service need. In the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust the number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff has increased by 1,065 or 23.1% since May 2010. This is due to an increase of approximately 200 staff at the Trust following changes in the hosting of pathology laboratory services in the East of England in July 2017. In the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, the number of FTE staff has increased by 1,410 or 42.9% since May 2010.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services for new patients in Hertfordshire.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England asked dental and orthodontic practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Hertfordshire. Many contractors are already delivering at 100% of contracted activity.
National Health Service commissioners in the East of England will shortly publish an expression of interest exercise to understand the current capacity of providers in the region, including Hertfordshire. Where there is capacity, NHS England plans to offer additional non-recurrent activity to support patients to access NHS dental services.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that any development which requires land to be taken out of greenbelt proposed in local plans (a) is necessary to meet local housing need and (b) has the support of local communities.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government attaches great importance to Green Belts. Once established, Green Belt boundaries should only be altered where exceptional circumstances are fully evidenced and justified, through the preparation or updating of plans. Before concluding that exceptional circumstances exist to justify changes to Green Belt boundaries, the relevant authority should be able to demonstrate that it has examined fully all other reasonable options for meeting its identified need for development. Local plans should be shaped by early, proportionate and effective engagement between plan makers and communities.