Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of dredging on water levels in the Broads water system.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The majority of the Broadland rivers are tidal and are dredged for navigational purposes by the Broads Authority. For flood management purposes, any silt removed by dredging would be replaced by sea water on the next tidal cycle. This is unlikely to have significant impact on draining freshwater through the system and there would therefore only be a negligible impact on overall water levels.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will undertake a review of the adequacy of the level of financial support it makes available to people who have lost properties due to coastal erosion.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Coastal erosion is a longstanding process which is the natural way in which coasts evolve over time. There is no right to compensation for damage from flooding or coastal erosion since these are natural processes. The Coastal Erosion Assistance Grant (CEAG) provides £6,000 per property to assist local authorities with the demolition and removal costs associated with homes at imminent risk from coastal erosion. The Environment Agency administer the CEAG on behalf of Defra.
Our £5.2 billion programme includes £1.3bn in defences for the coast between April 2021 and March 2027. This is subject to ongoing discussions between Ministers and the EA regarding the revised programme.
It is not always sustainable or affordable to defend every part of our coastline in the face of a changing climate which is enhancing the coastal erosion process. This is why we have allocated £36m over 6 years, for the ‘Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme’ (CTAP) to support communities in coastal areas at significant risk of coastal erosion. This will explore approaches to enabling transition and adaptation in our changing climate. North Norfolk is part of this programme as they have proportionally the highest number of properties at risk from coastal erosion in England. Learning from this programme will help inform and prepare other coastal communities and risk management authorities for flooding and coastal change in the future.
As part of CTAP, local areas will be exploring the availability and role of financial products or services that can help people or businesses in communities most at risk of coastal erosion.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of failures by the Horizon software on sub-postmasters who (a) found unexplained accounting losses that were not investigated by Post Office Limited (b) made up those losses from their own funds.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to providing full compensation to all those affected by the Horizon scandal.
Postmasters who paid shortfalls which were recorded in Horizon to the Post Office are paid those amounts back in their compensation claims, as well as any other financial and personal damage which they have suffered as a consequence of the IT system.
The full 2,417 postmasters who claimed through the original Horizon Shortfall Scheme have now all had offers of compensation. Offers have totalled over £107m and over £93 million has been paid out in this scheme, with Post Office now dealing with late applications and with those cases where the initial offer was not accepted.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to support community heat networks.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Heat networks are a key technology for meeting our net zero target. The Government is developing the following through the Heat Network Transformation Programme:
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help secure the supply of Creon 25000 for patients ordinarily prescribed that pharmaceutical.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department was made aware of a short-term supply issue with Creon 25000 gastro-resistant capsules, in September and November 2023. The supplier has since confirmed that it is back in stock, and we are not aware of any further issues with supply of Creon.
The Department has well-established processes for managing and mitigating medicine supply issues, which involve working with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments, and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent progress he has made on a devolution deal for Norfolk.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Government is committed to delivering a devolution deal to every area which wants one by 2030 – because we know how transformative empowered local leadership can be.
We have been working closely with leaders in Norfolk since the signing of the £600 million Norfolk County Deal. I would like to take this opportunity to commend Council Leader Kay Mason Billig for her continued efforts to secure the best possible deal for Norfolk and its residents.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of proposed closures of station ticket offices in (a) Great Yarmouth and (b) other coastal towns on the tourism sector in those areas.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Train operators are responsible for deciding how to ensure sufficient access to ticketing services at their stations, including at those in coastal towns or other popular tourist areas. Train operators have chosen to do this in different ways, or example, some operators have proposed to retain ticket offices at the largest stations, whereas others have proposed to provide new mobile equipment to station staff so that they can sell tickets as required.
Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station will be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and train operators will ensure staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
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 ensure that all children can (a) be registered with an NHS dentist and (b) receive regular check-ups at a dental practice.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many of these practices do tend to see patients regularly. NHS dental practices are contracted to deliver activity and to deliver a course of treatment to an individual irrelevant of where they live, rather than to provide ongoing regular care. This means that there is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend, allowing patients the choice of where they would like to receive a course of treatment.
The Department announced a package of improvements to the NHS dental system in July 2022 and detailed in ‘Our plan for patients’. These changes make it a legal requirement for dentists to update their information on the NHS website to improve information available to patients. The regulations came into effect in November 2022.
The latest NHS Dental Statistics for England show that 6.4 million children were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months up to 30 June 2023, an increase of 800,000 or 14% when compared to the previous year.
Dental practices are also being supported to adhere more closely to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on recall intervals which indicate that a healthy adult with good oral health need only see a dentist every two years and a child every year.
In circumstances where parents are unable to access an urgent dental appointment for their child directly through a NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111 for assistance.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of dental treatment provided to patients requiring treatment within a (a) care home and (b) similar care setting.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment in several settings including care homes. The frequency of dental checks will be determined by dentists on an individual basis.
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dental services, including domiciliary care. Many of the dentistry commissioning functions undertaken by NHS England transferred to integrated care boards (ICBs) in April 2023. ICBs are responsible for meeting the needs of their local population by working with patient groups. Domiciliary care may be delivered by any dentist holding a contract to deliver general dental services or it may be specifically commissioned locally as an additional service. NHS England is working very closely with stakeholders, inclusive of the Care Quality Commission and Healthwatch England, to ensure that patients receive the appropriate care within the appropriate setting.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number and proportion of individuals contacting the NHS 111 helpline (a) for medical advice on dental health and (b) to request dental treatment.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England publishes the Integrated Urgent Care Aggregate Data Collection monthly which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/iucadc-new-from-april-2021/
This includes data on the number of callers to NHS 111 who were recommended to contact or speak to a dental practitioner. In June 2023, the latest data available, 85,593 callers to 111, 6.6% of all callers, were recommended to contact or speak to a dental practitioner.