Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy paper entitled Our plan for patients, published on 22 September 2022, what steps his Department is taking to require dentists to update their NHS website profiles more frequently.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care.
We have taken action to implement these changes, including through amendments to the National Health Service dental contract introduced on 25 November 2022. It became a contractual responsibility for NHS dentists to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. Practices are required to update their NHS.UK profiles at least once every 90 days, including information on whether they are accepting new patients.
Commissioners will have access to a report showing which practices are non-compliant, with monitoring due to come into effect from end of March 2023.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to release safeguarded land in (a) Elmet and Rothwell constituency and (b) the City of Leeds in the context of the cancellation of HS2 Phase 2b.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands set out the Government’s plans for HS2 East from the West Midlands to the East Midlands and committed to considering the optimal way for HS2 to serve Leeds. Terms of Reference for the study will be published soon.
As a result, the Government confirmed it would maintain existing safeguarding and property schemes along the route of HS2 Phase 2b until a decision following this study is taken.
In the meantime, retaining safeguarding provides continued access for affected property owners to the full range of statutory and non-statutory property schemes that are available on the rest of the HS2 route.
If decisions are taken that safeguarded land is no longer essential for future plans, then safeguarding would be lifted and any property acquired in those areas sold.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an online portal for Personal Independence Payment claims to help improve communication between his Department and claimants.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Health Transformation Programme is modernising health and disability benefit services. It will create a more efficient service and a vastly improved claimant experience, reducing journey times and improving communications with claimants to increase transparency and build trust in our services and decisions.
The programme is transforming the entire PIP service, including introducing a digital PIP service with the option to apply online. We are currently operating a small-scale test of this new apply service, taking a small number of claims to begin with, before we gradually and carefully increase the number of people who can use it.
We have already introduced a digital version of the PIP2 health questionnaire, which is now offered to the majority of those making a claim. The full online apply service will offer claimants the option to claim PIP online, including the ability to save and resume and to upload medical evidence.
The programme will be developing the new PIP service carefully and incrementally, designing it around the needs of claimants, making it quicker, simpler and more transparent.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with TransPennine Express on making a rest day working agreement with ASLEF.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State met the Managing Director of First Rail on 23 November to discuss the operator’s delivery issues. More generally, the Department through its Rail North Partnership with Transport for the North continues to have regular ongoing discussions with TPE, particularly on managing services in the face of prolonged national and local industrial action, including prospects for reinstating rest day working.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that developers (a) sign building repairs safety pledges and (b) commit to remediate fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Further to the answer given in response to Question UIN82386, 49 of the largest developers have signed a pledge to take responsibility for all necessary work to address life-critical fire-safety defects on buildings 11 metres and over that they had a role in developing or refurbishing, as of 15 November 2022. We have published the names of the developers who have signed the pledge on gov.uk.
We are also in ongoing discussions with several developers who have not yet signed the pledge, and we will invite them to sign the finalised contract. We have made clear that developers that fail to do the right thing face significant consequences. In August 2022, we made commencement regulations that are an important step towards giving Ministers powers to stop developers that fail to do the right thing from commencing developments for which they have planning permission, and from being granted building control sign-off. The Government expects all developers to do the right thing, irrespective of whether they have signed the building safety repairs pledge.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help end illegal puppy smuggling.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
HM Government published its Action Plan for Animal Welfare in May 2021, which is a wide-reaching plan that sets out our current and future work to build on our already high standards of animal welfare.
Now that we have left the EU, we are making some significant changes to domestic law through the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, bringing in legislation to meet our manifesto commitment to crack down on puppy smuggling. The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was re-introduced to the House of Commons in May and will progress to Report stage as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill allows us to protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation. In August 2021, HM Government launched a consultation on how these powers should be used. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the backlog of probate applications.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Despite the unprecedented challenges faced by the probate service during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the increased volume of applications that have been seen since, the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of the documents required has been maintained at between five and seven weeks.
HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand and is further increasing resourcing to reduce outstanding caseload back to pre-Covid levels and further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.
The improvement of the online probate system remains a priority for HMCTS, to ensure more applications can be issued first time and resources can be focused on reducing waiting times.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent estimate she has made of the number of pensioners in England who live in a property not connected to the internet; and what support will be made available to those pensioners when BT close down Public Switched Telephone Network phone lines and move to a digital network service only in 2025.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom’s Adult Media Use and Attitudes research published in 2021 found that 18% of those aged 65 and over did not have internet access at home.
Voice-only services will remain available to consumers in the UK following the migration meaning those who do not wish to purchase an internet connection will still be able to access telephone services.
Further, the PSTN migration does not affect the universal service obligations set in the Electronic Communications (Universal Service) Order 2003 which require the designated providers to offer telephony services throughout the UK. BT and KCOM are therefore still required to maintain access to a range of telephony services as well as provide a series of special measures designed for older or vulnerable users.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) liaising with the Azure and Barclays Action and Support Group on the loans issued outside of the April 2014 – April 2016 period and (b) investigating the allegations of regulatory failures associated with Barclays Partner Finance and Azure Services Ltd.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is aware of the campaign by the Azure and Barclays Action and Support Group for consumers to receive compensation for loans outside the April 2014 – April 2016 period.
However, the regulation of consumer credit is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which operates independently of Government. The Treasury has no general power of direction over the FCA and cannot intervene on specific matters.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has had discussions with representatives of the Professional Football Association on the support and care required by former footballers affected by Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
My Department has discussed a range of issues with the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), including around instances of concussion and brain injury within football.
On 10 December 2021 we published our report on Concussion in Sport. It outlines the steps the government will be taking to help reduce risks associated with head injuries by improving understanding, awareness, prevention and treatment of concussion in sport.
We are now working to develop a single set of shared protocols across the UK on concussion, and convening a new sports concussion research forum to identify the research questions that need answering in this important area.
On 14 March 2022, the Department for Health and Social Care launched a Call for Evidence to inform the development of the government’s Acquired Brain Injury Strategy. More information on the Call for Evidence can be found here.
The Government remains committed to working with sports stakeholders, including the PFA, to build on the positive work on concussion and brain injury that is already taking place to mitigate the causes and effects of concussion in sport.