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Written Question
Offenders: Electronic Tagging
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of his Department's contract with Serco for electronic monitoring on the (a) physical and (b) mental wellbeing of people who will be monitored; and what estimate he has made of the number of people monitored under that contract.

Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The priority when it comes to electronic monitoring is public protection, hence why they can be accompanied by tough curfews and exclusion zones. However, Serco’s health and safety policy ensures that the physical and mental wellbeing of those subject to electronic monitoring is also regarded. Serco will conduct wellbeing visits, direct those with an electronic monitoring requirement to organisations offering advice and support where necessary and pay due regard to an individual’s health considerations during the installation of equipment and subsequent monitoring of requirements. Serco’s approach was assessed in their tender response and their performance of this will be assessed and reviewed as part of overall contract management.

We have made sufficient funds available to increase the number of defendants and offenders subject to electronic monitoring at any one time to 25,000 by March 2025. This includes doubling the number of GPS tags available to courts for community orders and suspended sentences to support robust community sentences and supervision.


Written Question
Dentistry: Training
Friday 2nd February 2024

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of equalising dentistry training requirements between the private sector and NHS on (a) NHS budgets and (b) the NHS dentistry workforce.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government’s priority is to ensure that all dentists practising in the United Kingdom are suitably qualified. The General Dental Council (GDC) is responsible for regulating dentistry qualifications and dental professionals within the UK dental register. Only dentists and dental care professionals registered with the GDC can legally practise dentistry in the UK, which applies to both National Health Service and private dentists.

In order to deliver NHS dentistry services, dentists must also be included on the Dental Performers List (DPL) managed by NHS England. To be included on the DPL, dentists must complete post-registration dental foundation training, or undertake a structured induction process managed by NHS England.

We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure that NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver NHS care.


Written Question
Dental Services
Friday 2nd February 2024

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of offering incentives to dentists to deliver NHS dentistry.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We invest more than £3 billion each year to deliver National Health Service dentistry, and we have already introduced reforms designed to incentivise practices to deliver more dental care. These include increasing the amount of money that practices receive for high-need patients and allowing dentists to carry out more than their usual contracted NHS work. This has had the effect of more patients being seen, and a 23% increase in NHS activity in the past year.

We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will be published shortly and will address how we will continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we will make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver NHS care.


Written Question
Paula Vennells
Wednesday 17th January 2024

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who recommended Paula Vennells for an award in the 2019 New Year Honours list.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Honours nominations are made in confidence, and there is an expectation that they remain confidential in order to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the honours system.


Written Question
Genetics: Screening
Thursday 14th December 2023

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential implications for management of donor information of commercial direct-to-consumer genetic testing.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Government asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in 2021 to undertake a review and public engagement about priorities for modernising the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. HFEA published its report on 14 November 2023, which is available at the following link:

https://www.hfea.gov.uk/about-us/modernising-the-regulation-of-fertility-treatment-and-research-involving-human-embryos/

HFEA’s report notes the rapidly developing field of genetic testing, including direct to consumer testing, and includes proposals about access to donor information. The Government is considering the issues raised in the report and will respond in due course.


Written Question
Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with (a) Ofcom and (b) Royal Mail on the potential implications for her Department's policies of Royal Mail's failure to meet the universal service obligation.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government’s objective continues to be ensuring the provision of a sustainable, accessible, and affordable universal postal service.

It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to set and monitor Royal Mail’s service standards and decide how to use its powers to investigate and take enforcement action where there are reasonable grounds for Royal Mail failing to achieve its obligations.

Following its investigation into quality of service performance for 2022-23, Ofcom imposed a £5.6 million fine on Royal Mail for contravening its service conditions. Ofcom has committed to closely monitoring Royal Mail’s performance and the steps it is taking to return delivery offices to pre-pandemic practices.


Written Question
HIV Infection: Ethnic Groups
Thursday 16th November 2023

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to partner with (a) media outlets and (b) influencers to promote information on HIV and safe sex practices within the black community.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

HIV Prevention England (HPE) is the national HIV prevention programme for England and is funded at £3.5 million over three years by the Department, as part of the Government’s HIV Action Plan.

The programme aims to support communities who are disproportionately affected by HIV, in particular gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men and Black African heterosexual men and women. The Department has appointed Terrence Higgins Trust, a national charity that provides services related to sexual heath and HIV, to deliver the programme from 2021 to 2024. HPE delivers a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work, including public campaigns such as National HIV Testing Week, that is designed to complement locally commissioned prevention activities in areas of high HIV prevalence. HPE also aims to improve knowledge and understating of HIV transmission and reduce stigma within affected communities.

HPE works with a wide range of models and their network of influencers and develops its strategies based on comprehensive data, audience insight and knowledge from local partners within England, which ensure a wide range of patient’s voices and experiences are represented including those within the black community. Campaigns are promoted using a multi-channel approach including specialist channels relevant to the audiences and targeting via digital platforms and social media.


Written Question
HIV Infection: Ethnic Groups
Thursday 16th November 2023

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the comparative effectiveness of different strategies to empower women for the purposes of tackling gender-based disparities within the Black community that may contribute to HIV transmission.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

No formal assessment has been made but it is a key principle of our approach, as set out in the HIV Action Plan, to ensure that all populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including women in black communities. This includes scaling up HIV testing in targeted, high-risk populations and increasing equitable access to and use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

HIV Prevention England delivers a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work designed to complement locally commissioned HIV prevention in areas with high HIV prevalence and for communities at risk of HIV transmission, with a particular focus on Black African women.


Written Question
HIV Infection: Ethnic Groups
Thursday 16th November 2023

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to provide healthcare providers with cultural competency training for black individuals seeking HIV-related services.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has no current plans to provide healthcare providers with cultural competency training. Individual employers providing HIV care are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role.

The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of respective independent statutory regulatory bodies who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses. It is the responsibility of Higher Education institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators’ outcome standards.


Written Question
HIV Infection: Ethnic Groups
Thursday 16th November 2023

Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)

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 encourage (a) research and (b) targeted interventions into factors driving HIV transmission within the black community.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. A key principle of our approach is to ensure that all populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including black communities.

The UK Health Security Agency publishes a yearly monitoring and evaluation report, which sets out key indicators to track progress towards our ambitions in the HIV Action Plan, including by ethnicity, and these data help us to understand where services can be improved and made more accessible to key populations. The next report will be published on 1 December 2023.

The Department commissions HIV prevention interventions through our national HIV prevention programme, including targeted work with black African communities, and commission research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, which welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health.