Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
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 include Chronic UTIs in the (a) 10-year Health Strategy and (b) next iteration of the Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a work allowance within Universal Credit for unpaid carers looking after (a) disabled and (b) ill (i) relatives and (ii) friends; if she will make an estimate of the (A) number of unpaid carers who would be affected by and (B) the cost to the public purse of implementing this.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No recent assessment has been made.
The carers element in Universal Credit is an additional amount of benefit paid to support carers who provide care of 35 hours or more each week for a severely disabled person and as such these particular claimants have no work-related requirements. The carer’s element is paid in recognition of the support provided by carers for relatives, partners and friends who may be ill, frail or disabled.
Work allowances in Universal Credit are currently focussed on those with work requirements who may face additional barriers to finding and keeping work. These are for people with children and people who have limited capability for work because of a health condition or disability.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unpaid carers have entitlement to (a) Carer's Allowance and Universal Credit, (b) Carer Element and Universal Credit and (c) a combination of Carer's Allowance, Carer Element and Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
(a) As of November 2024, there were 652,752 individuals entitled to both Carer’s Allowance and Universal Credit in England and Wales.
(b) As of November 2024, there were 978,159 households with Carers Entitlement to Universal Credit in Great Britain, with 893,258 of these in England and Wales.
(c) The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to extend military hearing loss compensation to veterans who were discharged before 1987.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
It is already the case that Veterans discharged before 6 April 2005 (including before 1987), who consider that damage to their hearing was caused or made worse by their Service, may be eligible to claim compensation under the terms of the War Pension Scheme (WPS). There is no time limit for making a claim under the WPS. Information about how to make an application can be found at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-armed-forces-compensation-or-a-war-pension
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to commission an independent inquiry into the (a) scientific validity, (b) cost and (c) potential misuse of hair strand testing for methamphetamine in family court proceedings.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice has no plans to commission an independent inquiry into the (a) scientific validity, (b) cost and (c) potential misuse of hair strand testing for methamphetamine in family court proceedings.
The President of the Family Division has set up a working group of the Family Justice Council on the use of hair strand testing in the family courts. We await the group’s findings with interest.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's green paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March 2025, which measures will require primary legislation.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out our plans and proposals for reform to health and disability benefits and employment support. Some urgent reforms outlined in the Green Paper, such as changes to PIP eligibility and UC rates, will be introduced shortly in a Bill. Other changes will be introduced through separate primary and secondary legislation. Additionally, several improvements that do not require legislative change will focus on getting the basics right and enhancing the overall experience for individuals who rely on the health and disability benefits system
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether UK Health Security Agency microbiology laboratories have the capability to carry out group B Streptococcus-specific enriched culture medium testing in accordance with the Public Health England guidance on Standards for Microbial Investigations B 58.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The provision of group B streptococcal microbiological laboratory testing is under review with clinical stakeholders. At present, this service, with respect to enriched culture medium testing, in accordance with Public Health England’s guidance on Standards for Microbial Investigations B 58, is not offered within regional UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) microbiology laboratories. The Bacteria Reference Department in UKHSA Colindale had specific accreditation under the United Kingdom Accreditation Service for group B Streptococci testing, which provides confirmation of group B Streptococci status and typing, based on the identification of 10 polysaccharide antigens.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that patients receiving (a) stem cell transplants and (b) other cell therapies have access to specialist psychological support (i) before, (ii) during and (iii) after treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As stipulated by NHS England in the blood and marrow transplantation (BMT) service specification, BMT services, which include stem cell transplants, should ensure that a full range of support staff is available, including social workers, and psychological, physiotherapy, pharmacy, and radiology support, for stem cell transplant recipients. BMT service providers are also expected to be accredited by the Joint Accreditation Committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy and the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (JACIE), and the requirement for psychology support staff is also reflected in the eighth edition of the JACIE standards. For wider cell therapies, psychological support has been a requirement as part of any CAR-T core multidisciplinary team since 2018. It is also an important component for any commissioned advanced therapy medicinal product.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on regional variations in access to group B Streptococcus testing; and what steps are being taken to reduce those variations.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National External Quality Assessment Service’s (NEQAS) microbiology service, hosted by The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), has introduced a group B Streptococcus Screening External Quality Assessment scheme as of April 2025.
The UKHSA does not currently collect regional variations in the provision of group B testing services.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
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 help tackle disparities in the incidence of group B Streptococcal infections among different (a) ethnic and (b) socioeconomic groups.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has co-ordinated periods of enhanced surveillance of invasive group B Streptococcal (GBS) in infants younger than 90 days, allowing for a greater understanding of the risk factors and outcomes of infection, which is vital in identifying opportunities for prevention. For example, a population-wide data analysis on race and ethnicity in neonatal GBS in England between 2016 and 2020 revealed marked differences in invasive GBS rates among black and minority ethnic infants. Further details of this study are available at the following link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35979728/
The UKHSA is working to identify target groups for future GBS vaccination through epidemiological analysis of invasive and non-invasive disease phenotypes in adults and children, and to identify ethnic disparities in rates of infant and maternal GBS. The UKHSA has also been progressing the development of maternal carriage studies to investigate differential rates of carriage according to ethnicity and other characteristics, including socioeconomic factors.