Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants have conditions of employment which impose (a) no and (b) a four day limit on the number of days each week that they can work from home; and whether he has made a comparative assessment of the productivity of those who work from home for four days or more each week and those who do not.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There is no information available centrally on how many civil servants have conditions of employment that impose no, and a four day limit on the number of days each week they can work from home. Decisions on terms and conditions of employment are made by the employing department, depending on their specific business requirements and nature of the role. Where business requirements allow for it, departments will operate flexible working arrangements.
Civil servants are expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office with decisions on implementing and evaluating this expectation made by departments. A small number of home working contracts are in place but these are not routinely approved other than for a very small number of roles, or where a workplace adjustment is agreed for conditions recognised under the Equality Act. Equally, there are also employees who work only from the workplace, due to the nature of their roles, or through personal choice.
There have been no specific central comparative assessments within the civil service of productivity of those who work from home for four days or more each week. It is recognised within departments that there are clear benefits of face-to-face working, including productivity, with complex tasks and problem solving undertaken more efficiently.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the Government response to the consultation on commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into Great Britain, launched in August 2021.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In August 2021 we launched a consultation on the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain. It was a wide-ranging consultation with excellent engagement and some complex issues to work through. The consultation response will be published soon.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Coroner’s report entitled Oli Hoque: Prevention of future deaths report, published on 13 October 2022, what steps NHS England is taking to allow the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority to compel the timely production of clinical data when conducting investigations into harms arising from regulated medicines.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS England National Patient Safety Team and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) routinely work closely on both system development, and a number of safety issues. The NHS England National Patient Safety Team have a data sharing agreement with the MHRA, and provide regular sharing of patient safety incidents reported to NHS England, that are classified as medication incidents or medical device incidents. In addition, the MHRA are able to request focussed searches of reported incidents if they are working on a specific issue.
However, the MHRA does not have the legal powers to compel healthcare professionals to provide additional information after an initial report of a suspected adverse reaction. The MHRA has been working with the National Health Service to explore approaches to facilitate digital linkage of Yellow Card information to clinical records, and potentially to enable faster access to information, where considered necessary for an assessment. This work remains ongoing.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Yellow Cards for covid-19 vaccinations were (a) identified by the MHRA as being of special interest and (b) followed up by the MHRA in (i) 2021, (ii) 2022 and (iii) 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Adverse events of special interest (AESI) are medical events or conditions that have been identified as possible vaccine safety concerns, based mainly on previous experience with other vaccines and immune-mediated events which theoretically may occur, as vaccines stimulate an immune response. AESIs for COVID-19 vaccines were subject to enhanced surveillance by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and many other regulators from the start of the United Kingdom’s immunisation programme.
Specifically in relation to AESIs, the MHRA has received 22880 UK spontaneous suspected adverse reaction (ADR) reports across all COVID-19 vaccines. Over 157 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been given in the UK. It is important to note that Yellow Card reports are not proof of a side effect occurring, and the incidence of a reaction occurring cannot be determined by these reports. The MHRA considers that the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines continue to outweigh the risks for the majority of people.
The MHRA acknowledges receipt of every Yellow Card report received, and a team of safety experts follow up for additional information as necessary, including consideration of reports with a fatal outcome, based on the completeness, severity, and clinical details provided in the report. Responses to follow-up requests for ADR reports are recorded and stored with the original report on our ADR database. The information is then passed downstream for use in signal detection and the identification of safety concerns.
The data is available for its core purpose of assessment and signal detection, however, the systems were not designed to quantify follow-up metrics requested in this parliamentary question. As such it is not possible to automatically generate metrics on the proportion of follow-up requests sent. The MHRA has provided information on follow up rates under Freedom of Information, within the 20 day statutory timeframes based on manual review of reports, and is committed to publishing high level data on its website.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of electricity supply disruption on households with fibre broadband.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DSIT engages regularly with Communication Providers and Ofcom regulate how telecoms companies should fulfil their regulatory obligations in the event of a power cut. Communication Providers are required to meet standards and specifications set out in the General Conditions of Entitlement, under obligations imposed by the Communications Act 2003, to ensure continuity of service. Ofcom guidance states that communications providers should have at least one solution that enables access to emergency organisations, for a minimum of one hour in the event of a power outage.
DSIT works closely on a range of resilience issues in partnership with industry, through the Electronic Communications Resilience & Response Group (EC-RRG), who engage in regular dialogue with the Energy Networks Association across a range of issues to help strengthen resilience between the two sectors. Ofcom recently closed a consultation on proposing a set of revised resilience guidance for communications providers with a statement on the resilience guidance expected in summer 2024.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport during the Second Reading of the Pedicabs (London) Bill [Lords] of 28 February 2024, Official Report, column 398, if he will publish the outline of a potential licencing framework for pedicabs provided by Transport for London in January 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Subject to its parliamentary passage, the Pedicabs (London) Bill will confer powers onto Transport for London (TfL) to regulate London’s pedicab industry.
It will be the responsibility of TfL to design and implement a regulatory regime. However, TfL will be required to conduct a consultation prior to bringing regulations forward, and Government expects this consultation would include details of the proposed licensing framework.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate he has made of the number of serious child abuse offences committed in the last 12 months.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The term child abuse covers a broad range of offences including, but not limited to, sexual offences, violence against the person and cruelty and neglect. It is not possible to identify all child abuse offences recorded in official data.
In January 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published experimental analysis which looked at a range of indicators from different data sources to enable understanding of child abuse. This report can be found here:
Child abuse in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
As the Home Secretary stated in his written statement of 10 January 2024, we are working with the ONS to explore whether a new survey could more effectively measure the current scale and nature of child abuse and neglect, including child sexual abuse. The ONS is currently developing the questionnaire and safeguarding procedures for the proposed survey, which will then be piloted.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when work on the Christchurch Hospital Macmillan Unit building project included in the New Hospital programme will begin.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Trust's Full Business Case, it has been agreed that works at Christchurch Hospital, including those to enable the MacMillan palliative unit, are being funded and taken forward by the trust directly, in collaboration with the Macmillan Caring Locally Charity.
The New Hospital Programme will be building a new hospital for Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust at Alumhurst Road as supported by the local and regional health system.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many beds were occupied by patients ready to be discharged in NHS hospitals in Dorset; and how many of these patients had been awaiting discharge for more than (a) three days, (b) seven days and (c) a month on the most recent date for which data is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 31 January 2024, there were 308 patients with No Criteria To Reside (NCTR) in acute hospitals in Dorset, 77 patients in Dorset County Hospital Foundation Trust and 231 patients in University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.
NHS England publishes data on the proportion of patients discharged on their discharge-ready date and the lengths of delay for those discharged after this date, up to a delay of 21 days or more. The latest published figures are for December 2023.
For Dorset County Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 91% of patients were discharged on their discharge-ready date. Of the 9% of patients who were discharged after this date, 47.6% were delayed four or more days, 32% were delayed seven or more days, and 10.7% were delayed 21 or more days.
For University Hospitals Dorset Foundation Trust, 84.2% of patients were discharged on their discharge-ready date. Of the 15.8% of patients discharged after this date, 50.4% were delayed four or more days, 33.5% were delayed seven or more days, and 9% were delayed 21 or more days.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2024 to Question 12498 on Public Sector: Redundancy Pay, and having regard to the fact that the Whole of Government accounts for the financial years ending 2022 and 2023 will not be published until July 2024 and July 2025, if he will provide the information requested for those years.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Whole of Government Accounts provide the most complete overview of exit payments in any given year. In advance of them, reference can be made to individual departments’ Annual Report and Accounts, where information on the usage of exit payments for the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23 is available. These can be found online using the following link:
Annual Report and Accounts for Central Government Departments
Data on exit payments made by Local Authorities between 2014 and 2023 is available under the heading ‘exit payments’ using the following link: Statistical Data Sets Local Government Finance