Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are awaiting decisions on applications to the Home Office as a result of technical issues in each month since January 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The exact number of people awaiting decisions on applications to the Home Office as a result of technical issues in each month since January 2023 is not information currently held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in each quarter since the Windrush Compensation scheme was launched, how many people who received an award applied (a) fewer than three months, (b) three to six months, (c) six to 12 months and (d) more than a year before the award.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Windrush Compensation Scheme’s priority is to ensure people receive the maximum compensation as quickly as possible.
The time taken to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration has been reduced from 18 months to under 4 months. The 4-month period includes all essential eligibility checks, together with a Preliminary Assessment to make an initial payment of £10,000 wherever possible.
Information on the time taken from a claim being received to a compensation payment is not published.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his Department's policy is on informing applicants if the time taken to process their application is longer than the published service standard as a result of technical issues.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Where there is a technical issue which prevents caseworkers from taking action on a case, the department will seek to address these as quickly as possible and resolve these so the case can be completed within its service standard. Where the technical issue may cause the case to go out of service standard, caseworking teams will write to the customer to inform them of the delay and keep them informed of progress.
The latest published statistics which includes data on performance against Service Level Agreement for Standard, Priority and Super Priority visas up to the end of Q3 2023 can be found in this link (Data tab VSI_02): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q3-2023.
Q4 2023 stats are due to be published shortly.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many excess winter deaths there were in each month from November 2023 to February 2024.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 19th February is attached.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for biometric residence permits were delayed as a result of technical issues in each month since January 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
At the point a decision is made to grant permission to remain, a BRP is automatically requested by the caseworking system and data is sent to the DVLA for the BRP to be produced. Any automatic requests that become “stuck” when sent to DVLA are targeted and proactive reporting is being developed to identify such cases earlier.
During 2023, DVLA produced 99.6% of BRPs within 24 hours of this automatic request process and 100% within 48 hours.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason Master of Pharmacy courses are not included in the NHS Learning Support Fund.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Learning Support Fund (LSF) is available broadly to those courses which were eligible for the NHS Bursary prior to the 2017 reforms, and therefore, subjects such as pharmacy are outside of the scope of the LSF arrangements. There are no immediate plans to make changes to the LSF scheme design.
The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review. At all times the Government must strike a balance between the level of support students receive, and the need to make best use of public funds to deliver value for money.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will include Masters of Pharmacy courses in the NHS Learning Support Fund.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Learning Support Fund (LSF) is available broadly to those courses which were eligible for the NHS Bursary prior to the 2017 reforms, and therefore, subjects such as pharmacy are outside of the scope of the LSF arrangements. There are no immediate plans to make changes to the LSF scheme design.
The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review. At all times the Government must strike a balance between the level of support students receive, and the need to make best use of public funds to deliver value for money.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to FibroScan testing for liver fibrosis through Community Diagnostic Centres.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently plans for 12 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) to offer FibroScan testing, of which six are operational. A further six CDCs plan to offer this service by the end of March 2024.
The CDC core diagnostic tests offer is based on the recommendations in the Sir Mike Richards Review, and decisions on what tests are offered outside of the core requirements of CDCs is taken at a local level based on need.
The Government is working with the National Health Service to support earlier diagnosis of liver disease and identifying patients at risk. This includes plans for upgrading laboratory digital capabilities as part of the £2.3 billion diagnostics transformation programme, to ensure that labs across the country have the capability to offer Intelligent Liver Function Tests, that can effectively and quickly identify patients at high risk of advanced fibrosis.
The Government is also working with the NHS to deliver and consider the result from the pilot of the community liver health check programme, which is due to deliver 22,000 FibroScans per year to communities at particular risk of liver disease. From June 2022 to September 2023, over 26,500 FibroScans were delivered through the pilots, and 8% of people scanned have already been enrolled into liver surveillance programmes. The programme is being delivered across 19 areas by Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Networks to FibroScan patients at high risk of cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis, utilising 40 FibroScan machines.
NHS England is reviewing existing liver diagnosis pathways as part of its wider diagnostic transformation work, to determine what the best approach should be to identify patients at an earlier stage of liver disease, through a liver pathway starting in primary care and involving pathology labs and CDCs. This will include a combination of blood tests and FibroScans.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the diagnosis of liver disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently plans for 12 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) to offer FibroScan testing, of which six are operational. A further six CDCs plan to offer this service by the end of March 2024.
The CDC core diagnostic tests offer is based on the recommendations in the Sir Mike Richards Review, and decisions on what tests are offered outside of the core requirements of CDCs is taken at a local level based on need.
The Government is working with the National Health Service to support earlier diagnosis of liver disease and identifying patients at risk. This includes plans for upgrading laboratory digital capabilities as part of the £2.3 billion diagnostics transformation programme, to ensure that labs across the country have the capability to offer Intelligent Liver Function Tests, that can effectively and quickly identify patients at high risk of advanced fibrosis.
The Government is also working with the NHS to deliver and consider the result from the pilot of the community liver health check programme, which is due to deliver 22,000 FibroScans per year to communities at particular risk of liver disease. From June 2022 to September 2023, over 26,500 FibroScans were delivered through the pilots, and 8% of people scanned have already been enrolled into liver surveillance programmes. The programme is being delivered across 19 areas by Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Networks to FibroScan patients at high risk of cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis, utilising 40 FibroScan machines.
NHS England is reviewing existing liver diagnosis pathways as part of its wider diagnostic transformation work, to determine what the best approach should be to identify patients at an earlier stage of liver disease, through a liver pathway starting in primary care and involving pathology labs and CDCs. This will include a combination of blood tests and FibroScans.