Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential health benefits of bringing forward the end to the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars and vans from 2040 to 2035.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health, with long-term exposure to man-made pollution in the United Kingdom estimated to contribute towards 28,000 to 36,000 deaths each year. In May 2018, Public Health England estimated that there would be over 2.4 million new cases of disease attributable to air pollution by 2035. Further information on this is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-a-tool-to-estimate-healthcare-costs
The Government’s Clean Air Strategy aims to reduce emissions from transport. The phase out of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans, will make an important contribution to reducing the levels of particulate matter and consequently the numbers of new disease cases such as asthma, coronary heart disease and lung cancer caused by air pollution.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of staff employed by his Department are apprentices.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department started offering apprenticeships in 2015 (pre-Levy and the introduction of Government targets). We have taken a proactive approach to apprenticeships and are working to embed apprenticeships so that they are a core part of our learning and development offer. We continue to increase the take up of apprenticeships year on year and apprentices currently make up 3.8% of the Department’s 1,743 workforce.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the staff employed by his Department are apprentices.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department currently employees 1,585 Civil Servants and has 48 employees who are undertaking an apprenticeship qualification, which equates to 3.03% of current employees.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to collect data on the regional primary-care respiratory workforce in the NHS to address the long-term respiratory workforce challenge identified in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Steve Brine
Following the publication of the NHS Long Term Plan, the National Implementation Framework, to be published in the spring, will provide further information on how the Long Term Plan will be implemented. Additional details, based on local health system five year plans, will be brought together in a detailed national implementation plan in the autumn.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to devolve funding for hepatitis C services to Greater Manchester under the devolution agreement.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is working closely with Greater Manchester to maximise the opportunities of devolution in respect of access to, and outcomes of, hepatitis C services. NHS England will continue to work in support of Greater Manchester’s ambition to be the first city to eliminate hepatitis C in the context of NHS England’s own plan to secure a long term industry deal for the early elimination of hepatitis C as a public health threat. Dedicated funds for hepatitis C services were not delegated to Greater Manchester under the 2016 Health and Social Care Devolution Agreement.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of the staff employed by his Department are apprentices.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As of 28 February 2018 there are 27 apprentices in the Department. This makes up 1.78% of the current workforce.