Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to reduce the number of EHCP applications going to appeal; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Most Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan needs assessments and reviews are concluded without parents/carers appealing to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Tribunal. Nationally, in 2022, only 2.3% of all appealable decisions subsequently resulted in an appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
However, the department knows that the system needs to work better for parents. In the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the department set out ambitious plans to establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND and in AP so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
The department will give families greater confidence that their child will be able to fulfil their potential through improved mainstream provision in their local school through setting national standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will include clarifying the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and who is responsible for securing the support.
For those children and young people who require an EHC plan, the department will improve the quality of plans. We will also improve the experience of getting a plan by creating a standard national EHC plan template, backed by standardising the use of local multi-agency panels to provide local authorities with holistic advice from education, health and care partners on whether to proceed to full EHC Plan assessment. The department also plans to digitise EHC plans, to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy in the system. In combination, this will deliver a more nationally consistent EHC plan system, and help restore parental confidence.
Where there are disputes, the department has committed to explore, test, and evaluate approaches for strengthening mediation between parents/carers and local authorities to help resolve disputes earlier before cases go to Tribunal.
The department continues to provide support and challenge to individual local authorities, through our team of professional SEND advisers, and are looking to include data on appeals as part of national and local inclusion dashboards to support the monitoring of performance across areas and drive improvements.
Taken together, our proposals should help meet the needs of children and young people sooner and reduce the number of EHC Plan applications going to appeal.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the local authority decision-making process when deciding specialist placement for SEND children; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities are responsible for deciding on the educational placement of a child or young person with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, following the statutory process set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.
In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, the department sets out the proposal to support parents and carers, or young people from the age of 16, to express an informed preference for a suitable placement, by requiring local authorities to provide a tailored list of settings that are appropriate to meet a child or young person’s needs. This would allow local authorities to give clear choices to families and better meet the needs of children and young people, while supporting the management of placements in a sustainable way.
The department is testing an advisory tailored list in participating local authorities through the Change Programme, to gain feedback on the best way to support families as they chose a placement. During the Change Programme, participating families will receive clear information about which settings are able to meet the needs of their child, but there will be no change to the existing statutory framework and their existing rights will be unaffected.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress he has made in removing the requirement for local authorities to maintain a five-year housing land supply; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We consulted on changes to NPPF and are currently carefully considering the responses. We will set out further details later this year.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance the Planning Inspectorate has issued to planning inspectors on taking the mental health of the wider community into consideration for housing application appeals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Planning Inspectorate does not issue guidance on this matter.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help increase the availability of labour for the defence manufacturing industry.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
With over 100 apprenticeship schemes and 20,000 apprentices under training, defence is offering exciting opportunities to grow the skills we need, including in priority areas like the nuclear enterprise. We are working to improve this further, for example through the National Shipbuilding Office collaboration with the Department for Education to grow the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people who have contracted Pseudomonas whilst staying in hospital in each of the last 10 years for which data is available.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advises in preventing outbreak of infections such as pseudomonas in hospitals to the Department, National Health Service national, regional, and local teams, including commissioners and providers. This is done through collecting and publishing data and supporting in development and updating of Infection Prevention Control (IPC) guidance, as well as providing independent IPC, decontamination, and epidemiology expertise. This also includes provision of subject matter and health protection experts such as Consultants in Public Health Medicine who can assist healthcare providers in the control of protracted and difficult outbreaks and can offer peer support visits, and specialist and reference microbiology services accessible to all healthcare providers in the United Kingdom.
UKHSA runs surveillance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bloodstream infections and publishes case numbers by trust and onset setting, monthly, quarterly, and annually. UKHSA also produces a quarterly epidemiological commentary which presents trends in Gram-negative bacteraemia (including P. aeruginosa) over time.
UKHSA publishes data on Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemia on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. This includes epidemiological commentaries, which explain the data and put the results in context. Further information is available at the following link:
The following table shows the number of hospital onset cases of P. aeruginosa since mandatory surveillance began in 2017/18.
Financial year | All reported cases | Hospital onset cases |
2017/2018 | 4,308 | 1,626 |
2018/2019 | 4,186 | 1,518 |
2019/2020 | 4,345 | 1,581 |
2020/2021 | 4,291 | 1,670 |
2021/2022 | 4,334 | 1,626 |
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
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 prevent outbreaks of pseudomonas in hospitals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advises in preventing outbreak of infections such as pseudomonas in hospitals to the Department, National Health Service national, regional, and local teams, including commissioners and providers. This is done through collecting and publishing data and supporting in development and updating of Infection Prevention Control (IPC) guidance, as well as providing independent IPC, decontamination, and epidemiology expertise. This also includes provision of subject matter and health protection experts such as Consultants in Public Health Medicine who can assist healthcare providers in the control of protracted and difficult outbreaks and can offer peer support visits, and specialist and reference microbiology services accessible to all healthcare providers in the United Kingdom.
UKHSA runs surveillance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bloodstream infections and publishes case numbers by trust and onset setting, monthly, quarterly, and annually. UKHSA also produces a quarterly epidemiological commentary which presents trends in Gram-negative bacteraemia (including P. aeruginosa) over time.
UKHSA publishes data on Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemia on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. This includes epidemiological commentaries, which explain the data and put the results in context. Further information is available at the following link:
The following table shows the number of hospital onset cases of P. aeruginosa since mandatory surveillance began in 2017/18.
Financial year | All reported cases | Hospital onset cases |
2017/2018 | 4,308 | 1,626 |
2018/2019 | 4,186 | 1,518 |
2019/2020 | 4,345 | 1,581 |
2020/2021 | 4,291 | 1,670 |
2021/2022 | 4,334 | 1,626 |
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of the Overseas Development Assistance budget was spent on accommodating asylum seekers in the UK in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data available was published on GOV.UK on 5 April 2023 as part of the provisional Statistics for International Development (SID). In this publication, Home Office In-donor costs for 2022 were £2,382m and total HMG ODA was £12,774m, in line with international spending rules. Here is a link to published statistics The Statistics on International Development: Provisional UK Aid Spent 2022 – GOV.UK
That is why we are shifting to cheaper and basic accommodation and delivering on out plan to stop the boats – which is the enduring way to alleviate unfair pressure on communities and the British taxpayer.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost of accommodating asylum seekers in the UK was in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government has been clear that the use of expensive hotels to house the unprecedented number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel is unacceptable and must end. It is costing the UK taxpayer over £6 million a day. That is why we are shifting to cheaper and basic accommodation and delivering on out plan to stop the boats – which is the enduring way to alleviate unfair pressure on communities and the British taxpayer.
A link to the most recent published figures:
https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/04/03/accommodation-sites-factsheet-april-2023/
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people who have died as a result of asthma in (a) England and (b) Gloucestershire, in each of the last ten years for which figures are available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities publishes the Interactive Health Atlas of Lung conditions in England profile that includes asthma metrics and compares local areas within England. The profile includes the mortality rate from asthma.
The following table shows the number of deaths for the last 10 years.
Year | Gloucestershire CCG | England |
2011 | 8 | 982 |
2012 | 8 | 1,054 |
2013 | 8 | 1,037 |
2014 | 8 | 1,045 |
2015 | 12 | 1,221 |
2016 | 13 | 1,169 |
2017 | 9 | 1,236 |
2018 | 12 | 1,333 |
2019 | 13 | 1,202 |
2020 | 10 | 1,261 |