Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2024 to Question 13013 on NHS 111: Dental Health, how many calls NHS 111 received relating to the categories of (a) Toothache without Dental Injury, (b) Dental Problems, (c) Other Dental Problems- Fillings, Crowns Bridges, Appliances etc, (d) Dental Module, (e) Dental Bleeding, (f) Toothache After Dental Injury, (g) Dental Injury and (h) Total volume of Triages with a Dental Symptom in each financial year since 2010-11.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 7 February 2024, we published Faster, simpler and fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, which is backed by £200 million and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. The plan sets out our actions to improve dental access for patients across the country, and to address the challenges facing National Health Service dentistry.
The following table shows how many NHS 111 calls were received, broken down into the mentioned categories, each year since 2018, the earliest year this data is available:
Symptom Group | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Toothache | 625, 582 | 629, 306 | 928,000 | 794,024 | 868, 527 |
Dental Problems | 2,270 | 16, 533 | 34, 377 | 54,738 | 58, 512 |
Other Dental Problems, such as fillings, crowns, bridges, appliances, etc. | 84,095 | 67, 876 | 101,822 | 72,474 | 70,380 |
Dental Module | 67 | 30 | 738 | 955 | 139 |
Dental Bleeding | 14, 166 | 13, 362 | 17, 962 | 13, 916 | 16, 736 |
Toothache after Dental Injury | 12,047 | 11,621 | 12, 584 | 13, 863 | 15, 154 |
Dental Injury | 184 | 205 | 558 | 484 | 118 |
Total Triages with a dental symptom | 738, 611 | 738, 933 | 1,096,041 | 950, 454 | 1,029,566 |
The above table provides the same information as for PQ13013, with one error to be corrected shortly on Hansard.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vaping products were registered with the Environment Agency; how much was received by Government in UK WEEE Regulations Compliance Fees for vaping products; and if he will make an estimate of how many vaping products were (a) recycled and (b) incorrectly disposed of in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Vape producers need to register with the Environment Agency under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations and report the tonnage of vapes that they place on the market each year. Prior to 2022, vapes were not reported at a product specific level; they were reported as Category 7 EEE, which encompasses all Toys, Leisure, and Sports Equipment. Therefore, within the data the Environment Agency received from registered producers, it is not possible to identify the types of products that a company handles and thus it is not possible to determine how many vaping products were reported as being placed on the market.
For 2022 and 2023, the Environment Agency requested Compliance Schemes in England to submit data on the tonnage of vapes that their producer members placed on the market. For 2022, the total is 1,637 tonnes. The 2023 data is pending. Producers that register directly with the Environment Agency rather than with Compliance Schemes still include vapes within their Category 7 data, meaning the Environment Agency does not collect or hold vape specific data for direct registrants.
The Government does not hold detailed data on compliance fee payments under the UK WEEE Regulations, as this is managed independently of government. Compliance fee payments are broken down by categories, laid down in the WEEE Regulations and not by individual product level.
Treatment sites that recycle WEEE submit recycling data to the Environment Agency. This data is also not product specific and thus it is not possible to determine how many vaping products have been recycled. The Environment Agency does not collect or hold data on incorrect disposal of vapes.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many extra (a) appointments and (b) treatments will be delivered through each element of the dentistry recovery plan.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want to make sure that everyone needing a National Health Service dentist can access one. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment.
The methodology underpinning this modelling has been shared with the Health and Social Care Select Committee and has also been placed in the libraries for both Houses. This includes information on the estimated number of treatments and appointments delivered by each of the interventions in our dentistry recovery plan.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January 2024 to Question 11162 on Telecommunications: Infrastructure, how many notices her Department has received from Ofcom of instances of operators not complying with their statutory duties in the last 12 months.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ofcom is an independent regulator and, as such, does not discuss open cases with the Department. Where there are issues of non-compliance with statutory duties, Ofcom will deal with these cases directly with the operator. If Ofcom were to find, following an investigation, that any operator had failed to comply with its regulatory obligations it would publish that information on its Enforcement Bulletin.
I would, however, reiterate that I am aware of ongoing concerns about operator compliance with their duties under the Electronic Communications Code (Conditions and Restrictions) Regulations 2003 (“the 2003 Regulations”) and particularly about new pole installations.
I recently met Melanie Dawes, CEO of Ofcom, to discuss this, and to explore ways DSIT and Ofcom can work together to raise awareness of statutory roles and responsibilities and ensure better compliance. This work is being taken forward by officials and I will be monitoring progress.
I also wrote to all fixed line operators on 14 March, setting out the government’s concerns and emphasising the importance of infrastructure sharing. Specifically, I have asked them to do everything possible to share existing telegraph poles before installing new ones. You can find a copy of the letter here.
The government has already taken steps to support this through measures in the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 making it easier for operators to upgrade and share the use of existing infrastructure.
Separately, DSIT will be meeting with operators in the near future to discuss revisions to the Cabinet Siting and Pole Siting Code of Practice and how these can be delivered to promote better working practices.
I also met with interested MPs on Monday 25 March 2024. I remain keen to hear and understand the concerns shared by MPs and their constituents, to inform our ongoing work, as well as to keep you informed of the progress that is being made and the next steps we have planned.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
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 prevent patients (a) experiencing and (b) at risk of homelessness from being discharged from hospital to no fixed abode.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to promoting safe and timely discharge for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, to appropriate accommodation. Between 2020 and 2022, the Department delivered £16 million to 17 local sites, to pilot Out of Hospital Care Models to people experiencing homelessness following a hospital stay. These models provide interim accommodation, care, and support while full assessments of individual needs are carried out. There are positive preliminary findings, and a final evaluation is due next month. From this we will share learning to encourage local areas to adopt similar models.
Improving how discharges are arranged for people experiencing, or at risk of homelessness, is also supported by our wider work to improve discharge processes. We have ensured every acute hospital has access to a care transfer hub to manage discharge for people with more complex needs, who need extra support. Furthermore, in January 2024 the Department published guidance on discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness to support staff involved in planning safe and supportive discharge of these patients from hospital. This guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanism she plans to use to ringfence NHS dentistry budgets in financial year 2024-25.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We currently invest more than £3 billion in National Health Service dental services each year. We are committed to protecting this funding for dentistry purposes and we will ringfence this funding in 2024 to 2025. We will issue guidance to integrated care boards (ICBs) shortly through NHS England’s 2024 to 2025 revenue finance and contracting guidance. To ensure compliance against this requirement, and to strengthen oversight of funding that is used to deliver access to NHS dental care, NHS England will meet with and collect monthly returns from all ICBs to establish current and planned spend against the ringfenced dental allocations budget.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much additional funding will be provided to integrated care boards through the dentistry recovery plan by area.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We currently invest more than £3 billion in National Health Service dental services each year. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry is backed with £200 million, delivering new initiatives to address the challenges facing NHS dentistry.
The amount spent by each integrated care board (ICB) will depend on a number of factors, including how many new patients are seen in each ICB, whether any practices in the ICB will benefit from the increase to the minimum Unit of Dental Activity value, and where Golden Hello payments are offered.