Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have applied for the £500 Test and Trace Support Payment since it was introduced, broken down by the smallest available geographical unit for which data is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working closely with all 314 local authorities in England to collate information on the number of applications and successful applications for the Test and Trace Support Payment. We will publish this information in due course.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have received the £500 Test and Trace Support Payment since it was introduced, broken down by the smallest available geographical unit for which data are available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working closely with all 314 lower tier and unitary local authorities to collate information on how the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme is progressing and will release information on the number of applications, number of successful applications and amounts paid out in due course.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications for covid-19 self-isolation support payments have been turned down since that scheme was introduced in (a) Leeds East constituency, (b) Leeds (c) Yorkshire and the Humber and (d) the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working closely with all 314 lower tier and unitary local authorities to collate information on how the Test and Trace Support Payment scheme is progressing, and will release information on the number of applications, number of successful applications and amounts paid out in due course.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many contracts his Department has with Serco; and what the lifetime value is of those contracts.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has two contracts with Serco. The first is for the provision of facilities management services to support the operation of COVID-19 testing sites around the United Kingdom. The contract was let in March 2020 for an initial term of six months to September for the sum of £57 million - this was the estimated maximum value approved by the Department for the facilities management services to be provided. A letter of intent has been agreed to continue providing the service whilst formal legal agreement on an extension term and its value is currently being discussed.
The second contract is for non-National Health Service call handling services to support the Test and Trace initiative. This contract was let for an initial period of three months for the sum of £108 million. The total contract has a maximum value of £410 million to cover the initial period and any and all extension periods undertaken up to a period of 12 months.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information he holds on the number of new covid-19 infections recorded each day since 1 May 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England publishes the daily number of laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in England from 6 February to present, at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of healthcare provision in custodial institutions that hold children.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not made a formal assessment. Children and young people in secure settings should have access to the same range and quality of health services as their peers in the wider community receive from the National Health Service.
Since April 2013, NHS England (now NHS England and NHS Improvement) has commissioned health services for all children and young people in Young Offender Institutions and Secure Children’s Homes (youth justice) in England. Commissioning responsibility for health services in Secure Training Centres (excluding Oakhill Secure Training Centre), transferred in 2014, and for Secure Children’s Homes (welfare only) in 2015.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have a number of systems in place to enable it to assess the adequacy of healthcare provision. These include quarterly contract management meetings, Children and Young People Indicators of Performance returns, quality assurance visits, a quality surveillance process, and intelligence arising from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, Ofsted and Care Quality Commission reports. In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement work in partnership with the relevant colleagues from Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service Youth Custody Service, Ministry of Justice, Department for Education and Public Health England in responding to any concerns.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the provision of healthcare services to prisoners in private prisons.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
No such formal assessment has been made.
For the eight private prisons in England where NHS England commissions healthcare services, the same contract and performance management structures are in place that are employed across the public sector prison estate to ensure adequate service provision. These arrangements are managed regionally through quarterly contract and performance management meetings. A local partnership board structure and a local partnership agreement underpin these arrangements.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will introduce a pilot to trial screening for traumatic brain injuries on entry into prison.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England has commissioned liaison and diversion services in custody suites and courts aimed at identifying those who are vulnerable. It is anticipated that by 2020-21, that service will cover the whole of England.
All children and young people within the secure estate are screened for brain injury through the comprehensive health assessment tool.
The NHS England prison health care national standards service specification requires providers to screen individuals where it is suspected that they may have an acquired brain injury. If an adult prisoner presents with a significant brain injury, a specialist neurological referral is made.
There are specific diagnostics for those whose presentations suggest a cause for concern. Where individuals so assessed are then sentenced to custody, this information will be passed to the escorts for prison reception.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the highest hourly rate was that (a) his Department and (b) each of his Department's arms-length bodies paid for legal advice in 2018.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government Legal Department (GLD) provides almost all of the Department’s legal services. The largest components are for general advisory and commercial advisory work. The Department pays for both of these on a fixed fee basis, and therefore hourly rates are not applicable for these areas of legal work.
Hourly rates do apply where employment advisory and litigation work is provided by the GLD. In 2018, the highest hourly rate paid for such legal services was £180 for a Queen’s Counsel.
It is only where specific legal advice is required that specialist firms of solicitors provide services for the Department, and these are engaged with the guidance of the GLD.
The Department’s arm’s length bodies (ALBs) each have their own arrangements for securing legal services. The following table sets out the highest hourly rates for legal services in 2018 that ALBs paid.
Name | Amount |
Care Quality Commission | £280 |
Health Education England | £250 |
Health Research Authority | £200 |
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority | £350 |
Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency | £180 |
NHS Blood and Transplant | £200 |
NHS Business Services Authority | £145 |
NHS Counter Fraud Authority | £228 |
NHS Digital | £280 |
NHS Improvement | £250 |
NHS Resolution | £250 |
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence | £200 |
Public Health England | £222 |
The Department and two of its bodies, NHS England and the Human Tissue Authority, have engaged legal services from organisations other than the GLD. It has not been possible in these instances to provide the information requested as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of healthcare provision in HMYOI Deerbolt.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Since April 2013, NHS England has commissioned health services for all children and young people in Youth Offenders Institutions (YOIs) in England.
Neither the Department nor NHS England have made a formal published assessment. However, NHS England has systems in place to enable them to assess the adequacy of healthcare provision in HMYOIs Deerbolt, Werrington and Wetherby.
In all three youth offender institutes these include quarterly contract management meetings, Health and Justice Indicators of Performance returns, quality assurance visits, a quality surveillance process, and intelligence arising from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons and Care Quality Commission reports. In addition NHS England works closely with colleagues from Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service to ensure awareness of their concerns. A national prison pressures reporting process is now in place and monitored via the national Health and Justice Oversight Group.
NHS England does not report any significant issues around the provision of healthcare at HMYOIs Wetherby, Deerbolt or Werrington.