Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance his Department has issued to the (a) Valuation Office Agency and (b) District Valuer Service on assessing the market conditions for developing new GP practices in the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The District Valuer Service (DVS) is the specialist property arm of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), providing independent, impartial, valuation and professional property advice across the entire public sector, and where public money or public functions are involved.
HM Treasury has not issued any guidance to the VOA. The VOA uses recognised valuation approaches in line with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) guidance.
The VOA provides the current market rent to enable the NHS to assess the financial value for money of newly proposed developments. This then enables the NHS to determine access to reimbursements. The role of the DVS is set out in the NHS Premises Cost Directions 2013, which is publicly available online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6520111caea2d0000d219939/nhs-general-medical-services-premises-costs-directions-2013.pdf
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many approvals of open market rent for new GP surgeries have been issued by District Valuers in each of the last five years for which information is available.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We believe this question relates to ‘current market rent’ assessments of general practice (GP) properties undertaken by the District Valuer Service, which are provided to primary care organisations and integrated care boards under the Premises Cost Directions 2013. This helps to ensure agreed rent levels for these properties are in line with market conditions and provide value for money. It is then for integrated care boards, as part of their commissioning responsibilities for primary care, to consider applications for any new general practice surgeries, taking account of current market rent assessments.
While the Department does not hold this information on how many current market rent assessments for new GP surgeries the District Valuer Service has completed centrally, the Department does engage with NHS England and the District Valuer Service to ensure policy around rent reimbursements for GP surgeries is fit for purpose.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many employment tribunal cases have been held involving HMRC staff in each of the last five years; and if he will provide a breakdown by type of dispute heard for each of those years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC's Raising and Resolving Concerns and Upholding our Standards of Conduct guidance aligns to the ACAS codes of practice. However, there will always be occasions where employees and ex-employees are dissatisfied with the outcome of the process.
Individuals have the right to submit a claim to an Employment Tribunal where the merits of the case will be considered.
HMRC will consider whether to defend the claim. However, if based on legal advice our chances of successfully defending a claim appear to be limited then HMRC will negotiate with the individuals’ legal representatives and aim to reach a settlement that provides value for money and protects the public purse. In all cases any settlement is in line with HMT’s Managing Public Money guidance.
If HMRC is unable to reach a settlement, then the case will proceed to a full hearing before the Tribunal.A hearing is held in a public forum and the outcome is freely available to members of the public and media via the Gov.uk site.
In the last 5 financial years HMRC has received an average of 149 Employment Tribunal cases per year.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the efficiency of the Respect at Work programme in HMRC.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC published an independent review about what it’s like to work at HMRC, Respect at Work Review in 2019. The review made a series of recommendations that HMRC implemented including significant changes to departmental policy, processes and practice.The programme closed at the end of March 2023 and ongoing work was absorbed into business as usual. As reported (on page 50) of HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts HMRC’s activities in 2022-23 included ‘delivering the remaining aspects of the Respect at Work Programme’.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of employees in each regional centre of the Criminal Investigations Unit of HMRC have declared their ethnic origin as Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC requests that staff voluntarily and confidentially record their ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender identity and carer details.
The recording of diversity information is not mandatory, but we ask all HMRC employees to consider the reasons why diversity information is important for individuals and the Organisation.
As a responsible employer, HMRC need to make sure that their policies and procedures do not discriminate against any particular group.
HMRC do not publish the information in the form requested. The ethnicity data that HMRC do publish is available in the Public Sector Equality Duty annual compliance report HMRC: Public Sector Equality Duty compliance 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and in the Annual Report & Accounts HMRC annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase equality of access to medical technologies for people with type one diabetes.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England have achieved their Long-Term Plan objective of 20% of all Type 1 diabetes patients in receipt of Flash Glucose Monitoring by April 21. Performance was 50% at June 2021 with an even distribution of access across all deprivation quintiles.
The ratio of prescribing Flash glucose monitoring between the most and least affluent areas has been reviewed and has reduced in every English region. When the programme started Flash was twice more likely to be prescribed to patients living in the most affluent areas, but current ratios show virtual parity between the most and least deprived patient groups across England.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with Greater Manchester Health and Care Partnership on the release of the NICE technology appraisal on Hybrid closed loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Greater Manchester is currently considering the adoption of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance in relation to access to glucose monitoring technology. Working with the Greater Manchester Medicines Management Group and provider trusts, NHS Greater Manchester is seeking to review commissioning procedures and bring forward plans for adoption of NICE guidance
NHS Greater Manchester is currently reviewing NICE guidance on making available Technology Appraisals on Hybrid closed loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes available.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve access to technology to treat type 1 diabetes for local diabetes services in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Greater Manchester is currently considering the adoption of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance in relation to access to glucose monitoring technology. Working with the Greater Manchester Medicines Management Group and provider trusts, NHS Greater Manchester is seeking to review commissioning procedures and bring forward plans for adoption of NICE guidance
NHS Greater Manchester is currently reviewing NICE guidance on making available Technology Appraisals on Hybrid closed loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes available.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with (a) the Greater Manchester Health and Care Partnership, (b) Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System and (c) Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership on plans to collaboratively support people with type one diabetes to access timely and localised care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has held no discussions with the Greater Manchester Health and Care Partnership, Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System or Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership on plans to collaboratively support people with type one diabetes to access timely and localised care
The NHS Long Term plan sets out how NHS will enhance its support offer for those people living with type one diabetes, including further expanding the provision of structured education and digital self-management support tools.
The Major Conditions Strategy will set out how we intend to tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England which includes diabetes.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a price stability mechanism, such as a contracts-for-difference scheme similar to that used in wind power generation, to encourage the production of sustainable aviation fuel production in the UK.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The government is committed to supporting the uptake of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). The UK’s SAF programme is one of the most comprehensive in the world, that includes the £180 million Advanced Fuels Fund and an ambitious SAF mandate which other low carbon technologies do not have.
On 17 April, we published a government response to an independent report on a UK SAF industry. It sets out how we are already taking action to address many of the report’s recommendations. We have committed to continue working with industry to consider the case for broader support alongside the AFF and the SAF mandate from 2025 (that will provide a long-term investment signal and price support), with a focus on industry funded intervention, to increase revenue certainty for UK SAF plants. If required following that work, we will launch a formal consultation this summer.