Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on funding for state pensions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on pensioners' finances.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on determining eligibility criteria for the state pension.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse of the Pensions Dashboards programme has been as of 29 January 2024.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pensions Dashboard Programme is principally funded by levy payers, through the Financial Services Levy, which is collected by the FCA from the financial services industry and the General Pensions Levy, which is a levy collected from pension schemes.
PDP has spent £52 million between 2019/20 and the end of November 2023 (with spend relating to 2023/24 subject to final audit).
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had recent discussions with the UN World Food Programme on the decision to pause food distribution in northern Yemen; and whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure the adequate supply of food to that region.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
After months of negotiations, in November, the World Food Programme (WFP) made the difficult decision to pause food distributions in the north of Yemen due to Houthi unwillingness to target food aid at the families who need it most. The UK has worked closely with WFP as it made this decision. We support WFP's efforts to ensure aid reaches those most in need and will further support WFP to resume food distributions once an agreement with the Houthi authorities is reached.
Ensuring food security for vulnerable populations in Yemen remains a UK priority. The FCDO's Food Security Safety Net programme will spend up to £250 million over 5 years, aiming to tackle food insecurity by providing cash transfers to up to 1.5 million of Yemen's most food insecure households through funding partners such as WFP, Social Fund for Development, and a consortium of NGOs.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November to Question 881 on Bowel Cancer: Screening, what her planned timetable is for publishing a decision on lowering the screening age for bowel cancer from 60 to 50 years old.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England started the lowering of age for bowel cancer screening in April 2021. The following table shows the rollout plan for the bowel screening:
Cohort age at first invitation | Year invitations start |
Age 56 | 2021/22 |
Age 58 | 2022/23 |
Age 54 | 2023/24 |
Age 50 and 52 | 2024/25 |
Note: The timeline may differ slightly from region to region
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November to Question 881 on Bowel Cancer: Screening, when the last review of the national bowel cancer screening programme was completed; and what her planned timetable is for completing the next review.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) last looked at the evidence to optimise the population screening of bowel cancer in 2018. The Committee recommended screening every two years with the FIT test at 50 to 74 years old, rather than starting at 60 years old.
Since then, work has been underway to lower the bowel cancer screening age from 60 years old in a phased manner, so that by 2025, people aged 50 years old will receive a FIT test.
With these changes still being implemented, a date for the next review of bowel cancer screening has not yet been set. In the meantime, if any member of the public or stakeholder feels there should be further changes to the programme, these can be submitted via the UK NSC’s next annual call, which opens in summer 2024.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure women who use wheelchairs have access to mammograms.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to improving the accessibility of the screening programmes it commissions under the Public Health Services (S7a) agreement, particularly for under-served groups in society.
Contractually, providers of screening services in the National Health Service are required to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that their services are accessible for people with disabilities. For example, the NHS breast screening service offers longer appointments at accessible sites to support women with physical disabilities.
Services make reasonable adjustments within the constraints of equipment, to ensure that disabled people are offered the opportunity to have breast screening, however there may be situations where this is not possible. Providers will deal with these on a case by case basis and offer an alternative approach as necessary.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 rates of breast screening participation in Yorkshire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on screening participation in Yorkshire is collected and assessed yearly by NHS England. Data is collected on screening coverage, the percentage of women adequately screened in the last three and a half years, and uptake which shows the percentage of women invited who attended screening within six months of their invitation. The latest data, which is from 2020/21 for Yorkshire, shows that uptake was 61.4%, with coverage being 64.4%.
The national targets for uptake are as follows:
- Acceptable level: greater than or equal to 70.0%
- Achievable level: greater than or equal to 80.0%
The national targets for coverage are as follows:
- Acceptable level: greater than or equal to 70.0%
- Achievable level: greater than or equal to 80.0%
Data is published by NHS England and available at the following link:
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the national bowel screening programme, when he plans to next review that programme; and whether he has plans to raise the acceptable and achievable bowel screening target thresholds in line with breast screening targets.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national bowel cancer screening programme in England is currently revising all standards and as a part of this process current thresholds will be reviewed. This review will consider the lowering of the screening age for bowel cancer from 60 to 50 years old.
The process for setting standards involves the meeting of experts as well as meeting with stakeholders and interested parties to ensure the standards are evidence based, acceptable and realistic. Full details on how these standards are set is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/principles-of-population-screening/screening-standards