Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support individuals with limb loss to use the healthcare system by innovation in assistive technologies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appointments for prosthetics services are offered over a range of media, including via video and telephone. All patients, including individuals with limb loss, can access environmental controls if they meet the criteria as set out within the service specifications Environmental Control Equipment for Patients with Complex Disability (All Ages) and Complex Disability Equipment – Prosthetic Specialised Services For People Of All Ages With Limb Loss, copies of which are attached.
NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory Group has approved a new service specification titled Prosthetic Specialised Services For People Of All Ages With Limb Loss, due for publication in May 2025. This will be implemented by all 35 specialist centres providing prosthetics care. It will improve outcomes for those with limb loss by offering personalised care and enabling patient choice. It also includes metrics which can be used to monitor access times and the quality of care.
NHS England is also reviewing the Clinical Commissioning Policy relating to multi-grip hand and upper limb prosthesis. To inform this review, an audit exploring data relating to the uptake and the latest clinical outcomes is underway, with results expected in Summer 2025. Alongside this, NHS England is commissioning a horizon scan of the latest prosthesis innovations.
The Department will continue to encourage greater innovation in the health sector to help support the three big shifts in healthcare, from hospitals to communities, from analogue to digital, and from treatment to prevention, which are set out as part of the Government’s Health Mission.
The upcoming Life Sciences Sector Plan, as part of the United Kingdom’s industrial strategy, and the 10-Year Health Plan present significant opportunities to enable patients to benefit from the strengthening of the UK’s life sciences sector, ensuring that innovation is embedded across the healthcare system. This will build on the Department’s Medical Technology Strategy, published in February 2023, and the subsequent One Year On Report in April 2024, outlining our priorities for improving the adoption and spread of safe, effective, and innovative medical technologies across the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement an entry/exit border control system to aid the identification and removal of individuals who have overstayed across all visa types.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK has introduced Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) to enhance our ability to screen travellers upstream, and improve the customer experience. The introduction of the ETA scheme is in line with the approach many of the UK’s international partners have already taken to border security, including the European Union’s forthcoming ETIAS and EES. The UK’s scheme was extended to eligible European nationals on 5 March 2025, and will be a requirement for this cohort for travel from 2 April 2025.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of VAT relief on new build properties on increasing house building, and what plans they have to extend VAT relief to the refurbishment of listed buildings.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
To support the construction of new homes, the Government maintains a zero rate of VAT on new-build residential buildings and a reduced rate of VAT of five per cent for residential renovations that meet certain conditions.
To preserve heritage, restorative work carried out on listed buildings previously benefited from a zero rate of VAT. However, this relief was abolished in 2012, as it was primarily used to carry out extension work unnecessary for heritage purposes. The Government has no current plans to reduce the VAT charged on work to maintain and repair listed properties, but keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (HC37979), whether the decision to plug and abandon Preston New Road shale gas well was a matter for (1) the company, (2) the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, or (3) the North Sea Transition Authority.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
As stated in the previous answer, decisions on whether to abandon wells are ultimately a matter for the company.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 24 February (HC30997), what measures they have agreed with Historic England to ensure that the necessary workforce is in place in the UK heritage skills sector.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Historic England are working across government and with sector partners to develop the infrastructure needed for heritage building skills.
For example, Historic England is engaging with the Department for Education via the Construction Skills Delivery Board, as well as on changes to vocational education, such as the introduction of Skills England. Historic England is also involved in regional pilot programmes aiming to tackle traditional building skills needs locally, and collaborating with Cadw and Historic Environment Scotland to improve the standard of retrofit training, to care for our historic buildings, while also making them more energy efficient.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 13 February (HL4762), what routes are available to owner-occupiers of listed buildings that are exempt from requiring an energy performance certificate to access the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Answered by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
A property must have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) to be eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) as they support property owners to understand how energy efficient their building is, enabling them to make an informed choice on whether to proceed with an installation.
While completing an EPC is generally not a requirement for listed buildings, they can still be obtained from an accredited EPC assessor, to meet BUS eligibility requirements. The Government will continue to review scheme eligibility criteria, and consider changes to drive further demand, making low carbon heating accessible to a wider range of households.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed ban on issuing new licences to explore oil and gas fields on investment, jobs, tax revenue and the balance of payments.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Forecasts for oil and gas tax revenues are published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which take into account many factors including the sector’s expectations and the Government’s policy at the time. The most recent forecast was published at Autumn Budget 2024 in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook October 2024 [1] . This also includes other economic projections, including in relation to future investment in the oil and gas sector and the UK’s balance of payments.
Future OBR forecasts will consider any changes to policy that may have an impact on investment in the oil and gas sector, oil and gas production or tax revenues from the sector.
1. https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in respect of the Student Loan Company’s loan book of pre-Brexit qualifying loans to EU, EEA and EFTA students, of those loans, how many and to what total value (1) have been permanently written off; and (2) are currently deemed non-performing.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
EU students are required to repay their UK government student loans on the same terms as UK citizens, whether resident in the UK or overseas.
In respect of EU, European Economic Area (EEA) and European Free Trade Association students with pre-Brexit qualifying loans that have been permanently written off, the total count of students is 21,914. The vast majority of the 21,914 total count of write-offs can be attributed to automated trivial balance write-offs. Trivial balance write-offs occur if there is a positive or negative balance on an account of £25 or less and no contact can be established with the borrower. The total amount written off is £3,929,619.45. As repayments are income contingent, neither the department nor the Office of National Statistics have a recognised definition for a 'non-performing’ student loan.
This data has been supplied by the Student Loans Company. The data is for EU and EEA domiciled borrowers eligible for tuition fee support only. The data includes student loan accounts for the 2020/21 academic year and earlier. EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals stopped being eligible for UK student loans for courses starting in the 2021/22 academic year.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to reducing the costs of improving the energy efficiency of listed properties with respect to (1) planning fees, (2) professional support, (3) materials, and (4) labour.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is committed to supporting all homeowners in installing energy efficiency measures to drive down bills and reduce our overall energy consumption. Many of these measures will support listed buildings. In November 2024, the Government announced the Warm Homes Plan which has committed £3.2 billion of investment for energy efficiency across 2025 to 2026, including an increased budget for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
Historic England is Government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment. It has resources available online to support owners of listed buildings in installing appropriate energy efficiency measures. Last summer, Historic England updated their advice note on Adapting Historic Buildings for Energy and Carbon Efficiency to provide clarity and support consistent decision-making to reduce carbon emissions and improve the energy efficiency of historic buildings.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to require acute trusts to report on numbers of sepsis cases and outcomes.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is a lack of reliable estimates of the incidence and prevalence of sepsis cases due to inconsistency in the definitions used to describe sepsis, and differences in the coding between professionals and organisations in the United Kingdom. The Department continues to work with NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to improve our understanding of sepsis data and to monitor trends in infection incidence and deaths from sepsis, which are complex and multifactorial.
Although it is not the main purpose of NHS England’s dataset, the data NHS England currently collects provides information on the number of admissions and discharges for sepsis, as well as the number of deaths. At this time, there are no plans to require trusts to report on the number of sepsis cases and outcomes.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes data on the number of death registrations where sepsis was the underlying cause of death, and where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, in England and Wales between 2001 and 2023. The copy of the published ONS data for deaths involving sepsis in England and Wales between 2001 and 2023 is attached.