Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
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 support the detection of liver disease in Washington and Sunderland West constituency.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Northern Cancer Alliance (NCA) is supporting services to enable the early detection of liver disease across the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Integrated Care Board (ICB), including in the Washington and Sunderland West Constituency. The focus of work has been to support liver services across NENC to invite more than 80% of patients with cirrhosis, a type of liver disease, to monthly ultrasound surveillance. For 2024/25, the NCA has invested just over £200,000 into trusts across NENC to help improve their monitoring systems for cirrhosis patients.
The NENC ICB is also enrolled in a Community Liver Health Check pilot in Newcastle, being delivered by the system’s Hepatitis C Operational Delivery Networks. This will provide FibroScans in one stop community clinics where patients have relevant blood testing, liver ultrasound, and other investigations, as required. The pilot has expanded into North Tyneside and when resources allow, they intend to develop additional clinics across the area.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of non-decent homes in the (a) private rented and (b) social rented sector.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Everyone deserves to live in a safe and decent home. This is why we are introducing a Decent Homes Standard in the private rented sector for the first time through the Renters (Reform) Bill.
We are also reviewing the Decent Homes Standard, which sets out the minimum requirements for all social housing.
Data on housing decency is published regularly via the English Housing Survey at local authority level.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to support owner-occupiers to fix safety issues in their homes.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Government has made multiple statements and policy announcements on this issue. The Building Safety Act 2022 can be found here: Building Safety Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).
We continue to update the House on our progress including in Written Ministerial Statements in November 2023 and April 2024.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of school building conditions.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government has compiled one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys of school building condition in Europe. The Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme is the first of its kind to help us understand the condition of the school estate, and target funding to where it is most needed. This programme ran from 2017 to 2019 and visited over 22,000 schools. The key findings from the first CDC programme is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.
A follow up programme, known as Condition Data Collection 2, is underway and has already visited over half of the government funded school and college estate in England. The programme is due to be completed by 2026.
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – such as academy trusts and local authorities – who work with their schools day to day to manage maintenance and to alert the department if there is a serious concern with a building that cannot be managed independently. The department supports them by providing capital funding, delivering major rebuilding programmes and offering guidance and support.
The department has allocated over £17 billion since 2015 for improving the condition of schools, including £1.8 billion announced for 2024/25. In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme is transforming buildings at over 500 schools across England.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
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 the findings of the Cass Review, published on 10 April 2024, on the adequacy of levels of funding for child mental health and specialist paediatric services.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
I would once again like to thank Dr Cass for her excellent report which provides much needed clarity for services and patients. We are working with NHS England to take forward its recommendations.
NHS England has committed £17.1 million to the two new regional hubs for Children and Young People gender services in 2024/25.
We are providing record levels of investment to transform NHS mental health services in England. Since 2019 spending has increased by £4.7 billion in cash terms.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how often he has discussions with the Infected Blood Inquiry on the implementation of compensation recommendations.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I, and my predecessors in this role, have not had formal discussions with members of the Infected Blood Inquiry team, to protect the Inquiry’s independence from Government. The Government has committed to update Parliament through an oral statement on next steps within 25 sitting days following the publication of the Inquiry’s final report on 20 May, and it is our intention to make this statement as soon as possible.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department issues guidance on the issuing of compensation to victims of institutional failures.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government has been steadfast in its commitment to providing diverse compensation schemes that cater to varying needs and circumstances and remains committed to upholding the rule of law, ensuring that all citizens have access to effective mechanisms for resolving grievances, and holding institutions accountable. Each Department responsible for a compensation scheme issues guidance to claimants for engaging with their respective scheme.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England spent on agency nurses in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The amount spent on agency nurses by year for each of the last five years is set out in the table below.
Financial Year | Agency (nursing) spend |
2018-19 | £843 million |
2019-20 | £879 million |
2020-21 | £838 million |
2021-22 | £1.1 billion |
2022-23 | £1.37 billion |
The Long Term Workforce Plan sets out a path to reduce the National Health Service’s reliance on agency. We estimate that the reliance on temporary staffing in FTE terms will reduce from 9% in 2021/22 to around 5% from 2032/33 onwards, with mostly bank staff fulfilling the requirement for temporary staffing.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's publication entitled HMT ministers’ overseas travel, published on 21 March 2024, how much of the £15,991 spent on his visit to the USA from 20 to 22 October 2023 was spent on air travel.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government publishes details of Ministerial travel on GOV.UK. As has been the case under successive administrations, the Government does not publish granular detail on Ministers' travel either at home or abroad.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 165185 on Free School Meals, what the complex data, systems, financial and legal implications are of a government-led rollout of automatic enrolment for all eligible children.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As previously communicated, the department has looked at auto-enrolment and considers there to be merit in local authorities exploring initiatives to maximise take up and to better understand the barriers that prevent such take up, whilst also ensuring adherence to legal and data protection constraints, which still remain an important consideration. These include constraints around data-sharing, as well as the need for families to make a claim for free school meals to be eligible under the current process.
The department continues to engage with key stakeholders in this area, noting the methods currently being trialled across a number of local authorities to increase and maximise take up.