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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Asked by: Kate Osborne (Labour - Jarrow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Report on an unannounced inspection of Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 8–25 August 2022, published on 6 December 2022, when she expects a plan to resolve the concerns identified in the report to be published.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government has fully considered the recommendations made by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons following his inspection report of Derwentside immigration removal centre. The Government’s response to the recommendations made, including the actions being taken forward, will be published on the Inspectorate’s website in due course.
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 proportion of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System’s 2022-23 diagnostic funding was spent on diagnostic endoscopy procedures in South Tyneside.
Answered by Will Quince
£2.3 billion was awarded at the 2021 Spending Review to transform diagnostic services over the next three years to increase diagnostic capacity, including for endoscopy services. This funding will also increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, including a number delivering endoscopy services.
In 2022/23, North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System spent a total of £245,092,935 on all diagnostic services. Of this, £1,565,858 (0.64%), was spent on diagnostic endoscopy procedures in South Tyneside.
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 the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System plans to take to increase the availability of endoscopy procedures for patients in Jarrow constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
£2.3 billion was awarded at the 2021 Spending Review to transform diagnostic services over the next three years to increase diagnostic capacity, including for endoscopy services. This funding will also increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, including a number delivering endoscopy services.
Cutting National Health Service waiting lists, including for endoscopy services, is one of the Government’s top priorities. This is a shared ambition amongst integrated care systems (ICSs), including the North East and North Cumbria ICS. Priorities are set locally through joint strategic needs assessments as part of joint forward plans across the ICS and partnering NHS trusts.
NHS North-East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board is working closely with partner organisations to produce a Joint Forward Plan for 2023/24 to 2028/29, which is due to be published soon. The plan will include a significant focus on improving pathways, capacity and ultimately patient experience across diagnostic pathways, including endoscopy.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, the main provider of diagnostics for South Tyneside and Jarrow, plan to deliver a 4% increase in elective activity from their 2019/2020 levels. This includes endoscopy services.