Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that the budget for the Special Schools Eye Care Service is not reduced so that (a) children with Special Educational Needs can receive free eye care in schools and (b) optometrists can afford to continue providing the service.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of trends in the special schools eye care service budget on service delivery.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 ensure that the Special Schools Eye Care service is fully funded.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of cutting the special schools eye care budget on children with special educational needs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to invest up to £12.7 million annually for the provision of sight tests and associated optical vouchers in special educational settings. This represents an approximate 87% increase compared to the current budget. This additional investment has the potential to increase coverage from 4% of special educational settings to 100%. This is a new additional budget for providing sight tests and vouchers in these settings, and so represents a recurrent increased investment in sight testing and the sight testing sector. Service delivery will continue within the proof-of-concept settings, to ensure continuity of service, whilst the required regulatory changes are laid in Parliament to underpin wider rollout during 2024/25.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps his Department is taking with its international partners to help ensure that people living with tuberculosis have access to healthcare.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is a leading donor to the fight against tuberculosis. Our £1 billion replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will provide TB treatment and care to more than one million people between 2023 and 2025. We are a leading funder of TB research, including through the TB Alliance and also invest in improving access and affordability for key TB products and testing innovative approaches to providing TB services. These investments contribute to achieving the commitments made in the TB High Level 2023 political declaration, including supporting people to have access to appropriate healthcare.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps his Department is taking to help achieve the commitments made in the 2023 TB High-Level Meeting Political Declaration by 2028.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is a leading donor to the fight against tuberculosis. Our £1 billion replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will provide TB treatment and care to more than one million people between 2023 and 2025. We are a leading funder of TB research, including through the TB Alliance and also invest in improving access and affordability for key TB products and testing innovative approaches to providing TB services. These investments contribute to achieving the commitments made in the TB High Level 2023 political declaration, including supporting people to have access to appropriate healthcare.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of devolving employment support services to (a) London boroughs and (b) the Mayor of London.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of the English Devolution Trailblazer deeper devolution deals, the Department of Work and Pensions have agreed with Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities to test a new approach to design of future Contracted Employment Programmes including co-design and a delegated delivery model, aligned with the Combined Authorities geographical footprint.
We will evaluate the impacts and outcomes of this new approach to further understand the opportunities and risks involved, before considering the Department’s approach to future contracted employment programmes.
Full details of the ‘Trailblazer’ deals can be found here:
Greater Manchester Combined Authority Trailblazer deeper devolution deal - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
West Midlands Combined Authority: “Trailblazer” deeper devolution deal - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time is between pre-action correspondence relating to his Department being (a) received by the Treasury Solicitor and (b) responded to in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department responds to a range of correspondence badged by the sender as “pre-action”, sent into a variety of offices across DWP. These are handled on a case-by-case basis. It does not currently collect data that can answer the question asked, and nor is there a requirement for it to do so.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pieces of pre-action correspondence relating to his Department have been (a) received by the Treasury Solicitor and (b) responded to since 1 January 2024.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department responds to a range of correspondence badged by the sender as “pre-action”, sent into a variety of offices across DWP. These are handled on a case-by-case basis. It does not currently collect data that can answer the question asked, and nor is there a requirement for it to do so.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the address to which to submit pre-action correspondence to his Department changed from DWP Legal Advisers to the Treasury Solicitor in January 2024.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The relevant pre-action protocol continues to require, as it did before 1st January 2024, that pre-action correspondence be sent to the place where the decision was made, i.e. to the address on the letter notifying the decision. Once a claim is issued, service should be on the Treasury Solicitor.