Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of police body-worn cameras in (a) capturing evidence leading to successful prosecution and (b) preventing unwarranted charges being brought against police officers.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Whilst the Home Office fully supports the police exploiting technology to help cut crime wherever possible, the assessment of the effectiveness of body-worn cameras in a) capturing evidence leading to successful prosecution and (b) preventing unwarranted charges being brought against police officers is an operational consideration for policing.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on the number of cases of possession of legal highs by prisoners of an increase in the number of prison staff.
Answered by Phillip Lee
We take a zero tolerance approach to drugs in prisons and have implemented a range of initiatives in response to the use of dangerous psychoactive substances. These initiatives include: mandatory drug testing across the prison estate, introducing legislation so that anyone found in possession of psychoactive substances in prisons can face up to two years in prison, and training over 300 drug detection dogs to specifically detect psychoactive substances. We are also working with the Department of Health and other partners to improve our understanding of the risks NPS present for offenders and to provide appropriate information, guidance and support to offenders and those working with them in prison.
The Justice Secretary has been clear that levels of violence in prisons are unacceptable and has announced a major overhaul of the prison system including 2,500 extra frontline prison officers. These extra officers and new safety measures will help us crack down on the toxic cocktail of drugs, drones and mobile phones that are in our prisons. Our measures will create prisons that are places of safety and reform, giving prisoners the education and skills they need to turn their back on crime for good.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will estimate the potential effect on the number of flights to be taken from Birmingham Airport as a result of High Speed 2.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department does not currently have plans to estimate the number of flights to be taken from Birmingham Airport as a result of High Speed 2 and has no existing forecasts of the effect of HS2 at specific airports. HS2 is included in all the Department’s existing capacity constrained airport forecasts as a baseline scheme and this assumption was also adopted by the Airports Commission in their forecasting.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the capacity of Birmingham International Airport when examining the question of London airport capacity.
Answered by John Hayes
The capacity of Birmingham Airport is taken into account in the Airports Commission’s demand forecasts. The capacities for all modelled airports can be found in Table 3.2 of the Airport Commission’s Strategic Fit: Updated Forecasts report.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage employers to ensure that internship places provide experience of value to participant (a) interns and (b) companies.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government continues to promote and encourage the creation of high-quality internships. Our Graduate Talent Pool (www.gov.uk/find-internship), a service aimed at employers and recent graduates, is playing a valuable role. Online guidance, workshops and the quality assurance of all vacancies ensures all internships advertised are providing a valuable and worthwhile opportunity for both parties. However, the key responsibility rests with businesses and education providers, which must work together to help students acquire the skills and knowledge that employers need.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many LGBTQ prisoners have been (a) diagnosed and (b) received treatment for mental health issues in the last 12 months.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The department does not hold this information, which relates to confidential medical records of patients.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that care at elderly care homes (a) is of high quality and (b) ensures that families and friends are able to maintain strong relationships with the recipient of care through visitations.
Answered by David Mowat
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, all providers of regulated activities must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and meet a set of Fundamental Standards of safety and quality, below which care provision should never fall.
The Fundamental Standards were introduced on 1 April 2015. They set out the basic requirements that providers should always meet and outline the outcomes that services users should always expect. The CQC monitors, inspects and regulates services against the Standards and publishes its findings.
Following inspection, the CQC rates providers on a four point scale - outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate. The ratings give patients and the public a fair, balanced and easy to understand assessment of performance and quality. Services rated inadequate receive help to improve, but any that are unable or unwilling to do so face closure.
Since 2014, the CQC has employed a tougher inspection regime, which makes use of a higher-skilled inspection resource in order to get to the heart of peoples’ experiences of care. Inspections are structured around five key questions that matter most – are services safe, caring, effective, well-led and responsive to peoples’ needs?
As at 3 October 2016, the CQC had rated 18,156, out of more than 25,000 adult social care services, of which 199 were judged to be outstanding, 13,182 good, 4,401 requires improvement and 374 inadequate. The CQC expects to have rated all services by the end of March 2017.
The Fundamental Standards include requirements that “People’s relationships with their visitors, carer, friends, family or relevant other persons should be respected and privacy maintained as far as reasonably practicable during visits” and that “Any complaint received must be investigated and necessary and proportionate action must be taken in response to any failure identified by the complaint or investigation”.
Anyone who is not satisfied with the response to a complaint about an adult social care service is entitled to ask the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the charitable and third sectors on ensuring that the expertise from those sectors informs the planning of the end of life care undertaken by professionals.
Answered by David Mowat
In 2014, the Government commissioned the Choice in End of Life Care Programme Board to provide advice on improving the quality and experience of adults at the end of life. The Board included representatives from leading charities concerned with end of life care including Hospice UK, the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) and Marie Curie.
On 5 July, the Government set out their plans to improve end of life care in England in their response to their recommendations after extensive engagement with the third sector. The plan set out the Government’s commitment to everyone at the end of life, and the actions the Department, NHS England and other arm’s length bodies will take to fulfil the commitment.
Implementation of the response is being led by the National End of Life Care Programme Board, chaired by Bruce Keogh. NCPC and two members of the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership are included on the Board to scrutinise implementation and provide their expertise on end of life care.
Going forward the Government, NHS England and other arm’s length bodies continue to extensively engage and collaborate with the third sector. Currently Health Education England is consulting with the end of life care community, including charities and the third sector, on the development of a refreshed core competency framework to standardise end of life care training.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage at risk patients to consider advanced planning of end of life care.
Answered by David Mowat
Our ambition is for everyone approaching the end of life to receive high quality care that reflects their individual needs, choices and preferences.
On 5 July, we set out our plans to improve end of life care in the Government response to the independent Review of Choice in End of Life Care, including a commitment to develop and document a personalised care plan, based on what matters to you and your needs and preferences, including any advance decisions and your views about where you want to be cared for and where you want to die, and to review and revise this plan throughout the duration of your illness.
To support delivery, NHS England is working with two New Care Model sites of Airedale and Southend to test an innovative approach to ‘serious illness conversations’ in which clinicians are trained to support people with serious illnesses to discuss what is important to them, treating these discussions as a clinical intervention which delivers patient-centred care. NHS England has also commissioned the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) to develop an educational film to prepare people with advanced diseases and long term conditions for consultations with clinicians, which will be released in November.
The Department and NHS England are working with voluntary sector partners to raise general public awareness of issues around death and dying and the importance of Advance Care Planning. The Department and NHS England support the Dying Matters Coalition, which promotes a national conversation around death and dying. NHS England will also lead a public facing campaign to promote choice and personalisation in end of life care which will be supported by voluntary sector partners, in particular the NCPC, who have been commissioned to lead a piece of work promoting the benefits of Advance Care Planning and the sharing of these records with relevant professionals.
Asked by: Karen Lumley (Conservative - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the amount of face time between GPs and patients.
Answered by David Mowat
The Government is committed to improving access to general practitioner (GP) services. Additional funding of over £500 million by 2020/21 will provide extra capacity across England, meaning that by 2020, everyone will have access to GP appointments, including sufficient routine GP appointments, at evenings and weekends to meet locally determined demand, alongside effective access to other primary care and GP services such as urgent care services.
On 21 April 2016, NHS England published the General Practice Forward View, a package of support to help get general practice back on its feet, improve patient care and access, and invest in new ways of providing primary care. The General Practice Forward View sets out that we are investing a minimum extra £2.4 billion a year for general practice services by 2020/21 – this represents a 14% increase in real terms. The overall investment for general practice includes a one off sustainability and transformation package of £500 million national 'turnaround' package to support GP practices over five years.
As part of the General Practice Forward View, there are plans to grow the medical workforce to create an extra 5,000 additional doctors working in general practice by 2020/21. This will include increasing general practitioner training recruitment, a major national and international recruitment campaign, bursaries and post-certificate of completion of training fellowships in hard to recruit areas, and encouraging GPs back into general practice.
There is also a commitment to a minimum of 5,000 other staff working in general practice by 2020/21. This will include investment in an extra 3,000 mental health therapists for long-term physical conditions and investment to pilot and then extend clinical pharmacists in NHS111 hubs. There will be £15 million investment in a general practice nurse development strategy and to support the training of reception and clerical staff, practice manager development and multi-disciplinary training hubs. In addition there will be introduction of a new Pharmacy Integration Fund, pilots of new medical assistant roles to support doctors and investment by Health Education England in the training of 1,000 physician associates to support general practice.
There will also be a major £30 million ‘Releasing Time for Patients’ development programme to help release capacity within general practice.