Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with Homes England of the use of funding from the Brownfield Land Release Fund for the Lodge Hill Junction scheme.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made made of the potential impact of pharmacy closures in (a) England and (b) Oxford West and Abingdon constituency on practising pharmacy services.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department closely monitors the market to ensure people in England have good access to National Health Service pharmaceutical services. Despite the increase in pharmacy closures seen in recent years, there are a similar number of pharmacies to ten years ago and 80% of the population live within 20 minutes’ walking distance of a pharmacy.
Every three years local authorities in England undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. The number of pharmacist training places annually is uncapped. In England, each year around 2,500 pharmacists enter training and the net increase in pharmacists practicing across all sectors is around 1,400 per year since 2016. NHS England are also investing £15.9 million to increase the number of pharmacy staff in primary and community care and develop skills in the existing workforce.
We have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term workforce plan for the next 15 years. This plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills, to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to recruit and retain (a) pharmacists and (b) pharmacy prescription checkers.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department closely monitors the market to ensure people in England have good access to National Health Service pharmaceutical services. Despite the increase in pharmacy closures seen in recent years, there are a similar number of pharmacies to ten years ago and 80% of the population live within 20 minutes’ walking distance of a pharmacy.
Every three years local authorities in England undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. The number of pharmacist training places annually is uncapped. In England, each year around 2,500 pharmacists enter training and the net increase in pharmacists practicing across all sectors is around 1,400 per year since 2016. NHS England are also investing £15.9 million to increase the number of pharmacy staff in primary and community care and develop skills in the existing workforce.
We have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term workforce plan for the next 15 years. This plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills, to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to (a) retain and (b) train and recruit dentists.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In July 2022, we announced a package of dental system improvements to increase access for National Health Service dental patients and make NHS dentistry more attractive to practices, including steps to support the dental workforce.
NHS England negotiated amendments to the NHS dental contract to ensure dentists are remunerated more fairly for providing complex treatment within current Band 2 treatments, and enabling better use of skill mix in NHS dental practices.
We have recently simplified the General Dental Council's (GDC) legislative framework for the registration of international dentists and dental care professionals to increase the dental workforce. The legislative changes came into force on 8 March 2023.
Training programmes for healthcare professionals must meet the standards set by the regulatory body for their profession. The standard of training for dentists is the responsibility of the GDC who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses and Higher Education Institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators outcome standards
We will announce our plan for further reform of the NHS dental system shortly. To support the workforce as a whole, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan for the NHS workforce for the next 15 years to ensure that we have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental practices in Oxford West and Abingdon constituency are not accepting new NHS patients.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
On 25 November 2022 we introduced a contractual responsibility for National Health Service dentists to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. Practices are required to update their NHS.UK profiles at least once every 90 days, including information on whether they are accepting new patients. Information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many leave-to-remain applications cannot be progressed because of a technical issue.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not hold this information in a reportable format.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the draft resolution on Human Fraternity which the UK plans to co-table with the United Arab Emirates at the United Nations Security Council complies with established practice on terminology regarding violent extremism.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK co-penned the landmark UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution with the UAE on 'Tolerance and International Peace and Security'. The resolution addresses discrimination and incitement, including that faced by members of marginalised groups, in conflict settings. We have worked carefully to ensure that all uses of "extremism" are appropriately caveated; by describing acts of extremism that contribute to conflict, or requiring that actions to address that extremism be compliant with international law. This resolution highlights the risks of incitement, hate speech and extremism in causing and exacerbating conflict - a context in which the UNSC has previously used the term "extremism" or "extremist".
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to include active monitoring in cancer care planning.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years to support the delivery of priorities in cancer, including working to ensure that every person receives personalised care and support from cancer diagnosis onwards.
The Government and the National Health Service are committed to ensuring that all cancer patients get access to a Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care Interventions. These will ensure care focuses on what matters most to each person, whilst empowering them to self-manage where appropriate and providing a route back into the system if they notice any worrying changes or need to seek help.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on pursuing alternatives to immigration detention.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In response to Stephen Shaw’s 2016 review of detention and follow-up report of 2018, the Home Office worked closely with UNHCR to deliver the Community Engagement Pilots.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Illegal Migration Bill on the number of individuals in immigration detention.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We will publish an economic impact assessment in respect of the Bill in due course.