Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2022 on Asylum, how many decision makers were in post as of 13 December 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
There were 1280 decision makers in post as of 13 December 2022. This equates to 1246.76 full time equivalent (FTE) decision makers. This is double the FTE decision makers in 2021/2022 and we are continuing to recruit more decision makers to help clear the asylum backlog by the end of 2023.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Prime Minister's Answer to the hon. Member for Halton during his oral statement on Illegal Immigration on 13 December 2022, Official Report, column 902, what the evidential basis was for saying that the initial asylum backlog is approximately 117,000.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office records information relating to asylum applications on case working systems. Information derived from these systems – including data on the number of asylum cases awaiting an initial decision – are published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics. The latest data show that there were 117,400 applications awaiting an initial decision at the end of September 2022.
The underlying data can be found in table Asy_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. Please note, the data show a snapshot as at the last day of each quarter, rather than the number of asylum applications awaiting a decision over the entire quarter. Additional information can be found in the User Guide to: Immigration Statistics.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for patients attending the Accident and Emergency unit at St Helens and Knowsley Hospital NHS Trust in each month since October 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the median total time in minutes in accident and emergency (A&E) at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust in each month since October 2021.
Month | St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust |
October 2021 | 175 | 216 |
November 2021 | 164 | 183 |
December 2021 | 157 | 184 |
January 2022 | 228 | 178 |
February 2022 | 169 | 202 |
March 2022 | 182 | 197 |
April 2022 | 236 | 210 |
May 2022 | 168 | 214 |
June 2022 | 168 | 193 |
July 2022 | 177 | 212 |
August 2022 | 172 | 201 |
September 2022 | 195 | 211 |
October 2022 | 198 | 210 |
Source: Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England, NHS Digital
The following table shows the median time to treatment in minutes in A&E at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust in each month since October 2021.
Month | St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust |
October 2021 | 105 | 123 |
November 2021 | 91 | 94 |
December 2021 | 78 | 94 |
January 2022 | 114 | 91 |
February 2022 | 94 | 113 |
March 2022 | 117 | 126 |
April 2022 | 119 | 105 |
May 2022 | 100 | 113 |
June 2022 | 105 | 98 |
July 2022 | 104 | 111 |
August 2022 | 100 | 104 |
September 2022 | 115 | 107 |
October 2022 | 119 | 103 |
Source: Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England, NHS Digital
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for patients attending the Accident and Emergency unit at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust in each month since October 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the median total time in minutes in accident and emergency (A&E) at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust in each month since October 2021.
Month | St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust |
October 2021 | 175 | 216 |
November 2021 | 164 | 183 |
December 2021 | 157 | 184 |
January 2022 | 228 | 178 |
February 2022 | 169 | 202 |
March 2022 | 182 | 197 |
April 2022 | 236 | 210 |
May 2022 | 168 | 214 |
June 2022 | 168 | 193 |
July 2022 | 177 | 212 |
August 2022 | 172 | 201 |
September 2022 | 195 | 211 |
October 2022 | 198 | 210 |
Source: Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England, NHS Digital
The following table shows the median time to treatment in minutes in A&E at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust in each month since October 2021.
Month | St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust |
October 2021 | 105 | 123 |
November 2021 | 91 | 94 |
December 2021 | 78 | 94 |
January 2022 | 114 | 91 |
February 2022 | 94 | 113 |
March 2022 | 117 | 126 |
April 2022 | 119 | 105 |
May 2022 | 100 | 113 |
June 2022 | 105 | 98 |
July 2022 | 104 | 111 |
August 2022 | 100 | 104 |
September 2022 | 115 | 107 |
October 2022 | 119 | 103 |
Source: Provisional Accident and Emergency Quality Indicators for England, NHS Digital
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime Minister's Answer to the hon. Member for Halton during his oral statement of 13 December 2022 on Illegal Immigration, Official Report, column 902, for what reason she has not set a target for the removal from the UK of asylum seekers whose application have been rejected.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government wants to maximise the number of people returned from the United Kingdom through both voluntary and enforced routes.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral statement of 13 December 2022 on Illegal Immigration, Official Report, column 885, what estimate she has made of when the number of asylum caseworkers will be doubled.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We will recruit further staff and expect to have 2,500 decision makers in post by September 2023.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the waiting time is for cancer patients to see a cancer specialist in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICS area after referral by a GP.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not collected in the format requested. However, in October 2022, 10,064 of the 13,459 patients had their first consultant appointment within 14 days following an urgent general practitioner referral in the Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care board.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff employed by Halton clinical commissioning group have (a) still to find permanent jobs and (b) left NHS employment since it was abolished in July.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the take up is of the flu vaccine for over 50s in the Halton local authority area compared to the same period in 2021.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the uptake for the flu vaccination in Halton local authority in the 50 to 64 years old age group and all those aged 65 years old in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 season, as of 31 October 2022.
| 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
50 to 64 years old in a clinical risk group | 43.9% | 43.8% |
50 to 64 years old not in a clinical risk group | 24.3% | 23.2% |
Aged 65 years old and over | 62.2% | 68.9% |
Sources:
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Avanti trains between Runcorn and London have been cancelled each month since November 2021.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Generally, Runcorn is served by one Avanti West Coast train per hour to and from London Euston.
Period | Number of Avanti West Coast services cancelled between Runcorn and London Euston (Avanti West Coast caused, both directions) | Number of Avanti West Coast services cancelled between Runcorn and London Euston (All causes, both directions) |
14 November – 11 December 2021 | 19.5 | 23.5 |
12 December – 8 January 2022 | 46 | 49 |
9 January – 5 February 2022 | 12 | 13.5 |
6 February – 5 March 2022 | 20 | 27.5 |
6 March – 31 March 2022 | 28.5 | 29 |
1 April – 30 April 2022 | 46 | 53 |
1 May – 28 May 2022 | 31 | 41 |
29 May – 25 June 2022 | 44.5 | 56 |
26 June – 23 July 2022 | 115 | 138 |
24 July – 20 August 2022 | 80.5 | 88 |
21 August – 17 September | 42.5 | 51 |
18 September – 15 October 2022 | 42.5 | 43 |
16 October – 12 November 2022 | 36.5 | 48.5 |
Cancellation data by rail period was provided by the operator.
1 = A train ran less than half its planned mileage
0.5 = A train was cancelled but ran more than half its planned mileage
‘All causes’ includes cancellations resulting from infrastructure failure as well as any other external cause such as trespass or other train/freight operator failure. In the same period there were seven instances of services failing to call at Runcorn on route, as these services ran more than half their booked mileage they are counted as part cancellations in the table. None were Avanti West Coast caused.