Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support Sri Lankan authorities to manage local water supplies near the Chunnakam power plant.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of the challenges Sri Lanka faces around water management and quality, particularly by communities in the Northern Province. A number of public bodies in Sri Lanka, including the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, have conducted tests into water quality in Chunnakam, after concerns were raised by local communities. The British High Commission Colombo regularly meets a range of stakeholders in the Northern Province to hear from them on their concerns and experiences. The UK supports the International Water Management Institute to improve water management and quality in Sri Lanka. We will continue to engage with the authorities in support of clean water provision.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent steps his Department has taken to help support the Sri Lankan authorities to meet UN sustainable development goal six on clean water and sanitation.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government supports programmes to improve water management and quality in Sri Lanka in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal six and the International Development White Paper's commitment to water, sanitation and hygiene services that are reliable, resilient, and inclusive. Through our work with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), an international water management research organisation, the UK funds programmes to provide solutions to increasing water scarcity in Puttalam and Kilinochchi as well as implement community wetlands management systems that improve water management and quality across Sri Lanka.
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 general dental practice contracts were handed back having been terminated by the contractor in each integrated care board in the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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 new general dental practice contracts were commissioned in each integrated care board in the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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 the total value was of general dental practice contracts that were handed back in the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 financial year; and what proportion this was of the total commissioned activity in those financial years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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 courses of treatment were delivered by NHS general dental practitioners in each month between January 2019 to May 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Dentistry Recovery Plan 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. We will further support dentists by raising the minimum Units of Dental Activity (UDA) rate to £28 this year, making National Health Service work more attractive and sustainable. NHS dental activity, as measured by Courses of Treatments delivered, has increased by 23% between 2021/22 and 2022/23. The number of UDAs commissioned and delivered is published each month on the NHS Business Services Authority Open Data Portal, which currently holds data from April 2016 to January 2024. Further information is available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/english-contractor-monthly-general-dental-activity
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, which NHS dental practices were listed as accepting new NHS adult patients on 1 (a) March and (b) May 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Dentistry Recovery Plan, backed by £200 million, will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for National Health Service dental patients. It will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. A New Patient Premium is supporting dentists to take on new patients, and as of 8 April, nearly 500 more practices have said they are open to new patients, compared to the end of January 2024. The Find a Dentist website allows people to see which practices have said they are accepting new patients, and is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist
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 27 February 2024 to Question 381 on Liver Diseases: Screening, where the 12 Community Diagnostic Centres planned to have fibroscans are located; and what further plans she has to roll out fibroscans by March 2025.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently eight community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offering FibroScan testing, which are:
- Andover CDC in Andover, Hampshire;
- Bexhill CDC in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex;
- Ely CDC in Ely, Cambridgeshire;
- Gloucestershire Quayside CDC in Gloucester, Gloucestershire;
- New QEII Hospital CDC in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire;
- Poole Dorset Health Village CDC in Poole, Dorset;
- St Helens CDC in St Helen’s, Merseyside; and
- Woking Community Hospital CDC in Woking, Surrey.
There are six additional CDCs planning to offer Fibroscan testing in 2024/25, which are:
- Bolton CDC in Bolton, Lancashire;
- Bradford District and Craven CDC in Bradford, West Yorkshire;
- Northern Care Alliance Oldham CDC in Oldham, Greater Manchester;
- Peterborough CDC in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire;
- Wisbech CDC in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire; and
- Wood Green CDC in Haringey, London.
In total, NHS England plans to have rolled out FibroScan testing to 14 CDCs by 2024/25, and continues to explore further rollout of Fibroscans by March 2025.
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 and what proportion of patients who smoke have received very brief advice on smoking cessation in NHS hospitals.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment that all people admitted to hospital who smoke, will be offered National Health Service-funded tobacco treatment services. However, the requested information on the numbers of patients receiving Very Brief Advice is not captured or reported.
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, when she plans to publish a response to her Department's consultation on Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs, which closed on 10 October 2023.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Alongside creating the first smokefree generation in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, we are also scaling up our efforts to support existing smokers in quitting. We have provided an additional £70 million per year to local authority led stop smoking services, and we are investing in a new incentives programme to support pregnant women to quit. We are also providing £15 million a year to fund anti-smoking campaigns.
The Government ran a consultation on mandating informative messages about quitting smoking inside tobacco packs, which was open from 14 August 2023 to 10 October 2023. This included proposed inserts on a number of themes related to stopping smoking, such as benefits to physical and mental health, financial benefits, and how to access stop-smoking aids. We will aim to publish the response to this consultation in this parliamentary session.