Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an estimate of the testing site capacity required to carry-out fire door tests for the new EN1634-1 classification within the proposed 12-month transition period; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department welcomes the views of industry on all the measures proposed in our December 2022 consultation, including on testing capacity and transition periods for the proposed changes. In this consultation we are proposing to remove the national classification from Approved Document B and utilise the more robust and up to date internationally recognised standard. During the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the use of the national classification system came under scrutiny, and flaws in its use were presented in the oral expert evidence. The BS 476 series standards have not been reviewed by the British Standards Institution in detail for some time (over 20 years on average). In addition, in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower and following an investigation by the Department several issues were highlighted with the consistency of fire resistance performance of some fire doors.
Upon completion of the public consultation, and subsequent analysis of the responses, the department will publish, alongside the government response, a full regulatory impact assessment which will include a detailed assessment of the impacts of the changes to the guidance. This assessment will be informed by the responses to the consultation and the evidence provided.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will publish the benefits to the timber fire door manufacturing sector of moving from the current national fire door testing standard BS476 to the proposed new standard EN1634-1; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Department welcomes the views of industry on all the measures proposed in our December 2022 consultation, including on testing capacity and transition periods for the proposed changes. In this consultation we are proposing to remove the national classification from Approved Document B and utilise the more robust and up to date internationally recognised standard. During the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the use of the national classification system came under scrutiny, and flaws in its use were presented in the oral expert evidence. The BS 476 series standards have not been reviewed by the British Standards Institution in detail for some time (over 20 years on average). In addition, in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower and following an investigation by the Department several issues were highlighted with the consistency of fire resistance performance of some fire doors.
Upon completion of the public consultation, and subsequent analysis of the responses, the department will publish, alongside the government response, a full regulatory impact assessment which will include a detailed assessment of the impacts of the changes to the guidance. This assessment will be informed by the responses to the consultation and the evidence provided.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has received the report of the Independent Review of the Construction Products Testing Regime Review Panel; when he plans to publish the (a) report and (b) Government Response; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Department commissioned an Independent Review of the system for testing construction products. This is a complex area and good progress has been made. We expect to publish the review shortly and will respond in due course. I will keep the Hon. Member’s committee updated on this work.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospitals in England currently have the capability to undertake CAR-T therapy; and what steps he plans to take to increase the availability of this therapy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently 13 National Health Service centres that are able to provide Chimeric Antigen Receptors Cell Therapy (CAR-T) for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia for children and young people up to the age of 25 years old or are able to provide CAR-T for adults with large B-cell lymphoma.
In October 2021, NHS England wrote to all allogeneic transplant centres in England who were not CAR-T providers to invite them to express an interest in becoming a commissioned provider of CAR-T services in adults.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to reintroduce the Private Parking Code of Practice; and on what date he plans to reissue that Code.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 54476 on 12 October 2022. I am happy to write to the Hon Member’s Committee to keep them updated.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 on establishing the Office for Local Government.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
We will share more details about our plans to set up the Office for Local Government, including the appointment of a Chair, in due course. Engagement and co-design with the local government sector and government departments is a priority.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 of countries that have approved CAR-T therapy for the treatment of multiple myeloma.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of countries which have currently approved CAR-T therapy, broken down by condition.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the forthcoming analysis by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence of the effectiveness of the use of CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma, which national tariffs NICE will use for that analysis; how those tariffs were calculated; which (a) people and (b) organisations were consulted on the calculation of the tariff; and which tariffs were used by NICE in analysis of the use of CAR-T therapy for other conditions.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently evaluating ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a type of CAR-T therapy, within its marketing authorisation for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. NICE has previously evaluated other CAR-T therapies such as axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta®) and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah®) through its technology appraisal programme.
NICE’s technology appraisal process requires the manufacturer or sponsor of the technology under evaluation to produce an evidence submission that is developed in line with NICE’s preferred methods for economic evaluation (the “reference case”) as set out in its published manual for health technology evaluation. The evidence submission is then considered by NICE’s appraisal committee alongside a critique from an independent academic group and evidence from other stakeholders such as patients, clinicians and NHS England. During the ongoing appraisal of axicabtagene ciloleucel for treating relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma, NHS England made the committee aware of a single tariff for the delivery of CAR T-cell therapies. NICE does not hold any information on who NHS England consulted on the calculation of the tariff.
NICE’s health technology evaluation manual states that the reference case “should include the full additional costs associated with introducing a technology”. The appraisal committee will consider in developing its recommendations whether the costs that are captured in the evidence submission appropriately reflect the costs to the National Health Service.
The committee papers for previous and ongoing appraisals of CAR-T therapies are available on the NICE website.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide funding to veterans charities to ensure continued support is made available to veterans who were in receipt of support under the Veterans Mobility Fund.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is committed to supporting all our veterans, and to ensuring that they continue to thrive after leaving the services.
Since 2014, the Government has committed £773m of LIBOR fines to support Armed Forces and Emergency Service charities.
As part of this package, the Chancellor awarded the Royal British Legion £3m to develop a Veterans Mobility Fund, designed to meet the wellbeing needs of veterans discharged with service-attributable serious physical injury. At the same time, the Chancellor also awarded £10m to develop a Veterans Hearing Fund, providing support to veterans who suffered hearing loss during service.
In 2019, at the Royal British Legion’s request, the Treasury authorised the transfer of almost £1.5m from the Veterans Mobility Fund to the Veterans Hearing Fund, following dramatic increases in the rate of applications for the Hearing Fund and a comparatively static application rate for the Mobility Fund. Both the Veterans Hearing and Veterans Mobility Funds have now closed.
Since 2020, we have announced a further £10m funding to support veterans’ mental health, £475k to support the development of a digital and data strategy for the sector, £5m to enable charities to address the impact of events in Afghanistan on veterans, a £5m Veterans’ Health Innovation Fund, and £8.55m in December last year to end veteran homelessness in 2023.
More than 100 service charities, including those who support veterans, also benefitted from £6m of the £750m to support the charity sector announced by the Chancellor in April 21 in support of COVID-19.
The Governments Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan sets out the steps we will take in the next two years towards our ambition of making the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran by 2028.
Decisions on additional funding on Veterans’ issue are routinely considered at fiscal events.