Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the environmental impact of (a) meat and (b) dairy cows.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra recognises the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution made by the livestock and dairy sectors. However, while food choices can have an impact on pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, well managed livestock also provide environmental benefits such as supporting biodiversity, protecting the character of the countryside and generating important income for rural communities. British farming helps provide for the nutritional needs of a growing population, and grazing livestock can produce food on land that would not be suitable for cropping.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to regulate the rehoming of dogs.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Action Plan for Animal Welfare sets out our reform programme, including proposals for the licensing of animal sanctuaries and rescue and rehoming centres for cats, dogs and horses. Defra has been engaging with rescue and rehoming organisations to understand their views and the possible impacts of regulating the sector. Any proposals to bring forward licensing regulations will be subject to a consultation.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of instances of in-patient sickness owing to food poisoning.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on the number of private members clubs.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) publish data within its official statistics.
You can view the data on row 198 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64674a0f62837100123a88ac/NDR_Stock_SCat_2023.xlsx
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are in hybrid learning arrangements due to the presence of RAAC in their (a) school and (b) college building as of 5 December 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
An updated list of schools and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC was published on 6 December 2023, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-management-information.
As of 27 November 2023, there are 231 education settings with confirmed RAAC in some of their buildings. Thanks to the hard work of school and college leaders, 228 settings (99%) are providing full time face-to-face education for all pupils. Three settings have hybrid arrangements in place. This may involve some remote learning on some days as not all pupils can currently receive full-time face-to-face education. There are no education settings with confirmed RAAC where all pupils are in full-time remote learning.
The department will allocate whatever resources are necessary to support schools and colleges to manage and remove RAAC from their buildings. Every school or college with confirmed RAAC is assigned dedicated support from our team of caseworkers who will support them as required. Project delivery teams are on site to support schools and colleges to implement mitigation plans. They will work with them to put in place a bespoke plan that supports face-to-face education for all pupils as soon as possible based on their circumstances. The department does not hold data on the number of hours worked by caseworkers virtually and on-site.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many hours the caseworkers assigned to schools affected by RAAC have worked; and how many of those were (a) virtual and (b) on site.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
An updated list of schools and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC was published on 6 December 2023, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-management-information.
As of 27 November 2023, there are 231 education settings with confirmed RAAC in some of their buildings. Thanks to the hard work of school and college leaders, 228 settings (99%) are providing full time face-to-face education for all pupils. Three settings have hybrid arrangements in place. This may involve some remote learning on some days as not all pupils can currently receive full-time face-to-face education. There are no education settings with confirmed RAAC where all pupils are in full-time remote learning.
The department will allocate whatever resources are necessary to support schools and colleges to manage and remove RAAC from their buildings. Every school or college with confirmed RAAC is assigned dedicated support from our team of caseworkers who will support them as required. Project delivery teams are on site to support schools and colleges to implement mitigation plans. They will work with them to put in place a bespoke plan that supports face-to-face education for all pupils as soon as possible based on their circumstances. The department does not hold data on the number of hours worked by caseworkers virtually and on-site.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
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 estimate of the number of FTE working days lost due to stress-related absences across the NHS in the year to June 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes monthly data on sickness absence of National Health Service staff drawn from the NHS Electronic Staff Record system. This includes high level categories of reason for absence. It is not possible from this data to identify days lost due to stress, but data is collected and reported for the broader category of ‘stress, anxiety, depression or other psychiatric illnesses’. The data shows that between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023, there were 6,110,681 full time equivalent (FTE) days lost to sickness absence which fall in that broader category.
FTE days lost may include non-working days as sickness absence is recorded from the day someone first reports sick until they return to work. Information on the days people were scheduled to work is not held centrally, and so periods may include non-working days. It should also be noted that some trusts provide very few reasons for sickness absence, so figures will be incomplete but the best available.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many FTE working days were lost in each nursing band, broken down by reason for absence, in the year to June 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes monthly data on sickness absence of National Health Service staff draw from the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system. This includes high level categories of reason for absence. However, this is not detailed enough to see reasons for absence by pay bands. NHS England has therefore created a bespoke report including pay band information, which is consistent with the published data, for the response to this question.
A table is attached which shows how many full-time equivalent working days were available and lost for nurses and health visitors by Agenda for Change pay band and by reason in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England for the period between July 2022 to June 2023. Due to the way they are recorded on ESR, days lost may include non-working days as the system does not record planned or scheduled working days. It should also be noted that some trusts provide very few reasons for sickness absence, so figures will be incomplete but the best available. In a small number of cases, some registered nurses are coded below the recognised Band 5 entry level. This could be due to different factors such as data quality errors often observed within administrative datasets; for example, some health care assistants may be coded as nurses
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Sentencing Council's overarching guideline on domestic abuse.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Sentencing Council’s Overarching Principles: Domestic Abuse guideline, which came into force in May 2018, identifies the principles relevant to the sentencing of cases involving domestic abuse.
The Sentencing Council is independent of Parliament and Government. It is responsible for the production and revision of sentencing guidelines, which the courts must follow, unless it would be contrary to the interest of justice. The Council regularly monitors and evaluates all definitive guidelines, and its assessment covers their operation and effect. The Council is planning to review this guideline in 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS GP appointments in each region were (a) same-day and (b) virtual in 2023.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows, for the period January to October 2023, the percentage of appointments delivered on the same day as booking, as well as the percentage of appointments delivered online:
Region | % of all appointments delivered on the same day as booking | % of appointments delivered online |
London | 45.0% | 1.5% |
South East | 42.6% | 1.3% |
South West | 39.7% | 1.5% |
East of England | 41.9% | 1.1% |
North West | 43.9% | 1.1% |
Midlands | 44.4% | 1.4% |
North East and Yorkshire | 41.3% | 1.5% |
Source: General Practice Appointment Data, NHS England
Notes: