Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is funding research on higher rates of (a) anxiety and (b) depression in people with Parkinson’s.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Parkinson’s disease and mental health. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Information on individual projects funded by the NIHR can be found at the following link:
https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/programmes/
NIHR support for research into Parkinson’s was nearly £15 million since 2015. This includes studies looking specifically at Parkinson’s and mental health such as the ‘Antidepressants Trial in Parkinson’s Disease (ADepT-PD)’ and the ‘Personalised Care for People with Parkinson’s Disease: PD Care’ study. NIHR infrastructure has supported 169 studies into Parkinson’s disease since 2015.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve local authority support for vulnerable children.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We are providing local authorities with more money to support vulnerable children, with an additional £410 million invested this year across adults’ and children’s social care. Separately, we are investing £84 million over 5 years to drive improvements in children’s services across local authorities, especially through early intervention.
In 2018, the department introduced a new, tougher Ofsted inspection framework to drive improvement in children’s services. The department intervenes robustly in every local authority judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, bringing in experts to assess which improvements will ensure better services. This might include removing service delivery from the council’s control by establishing a trust, giving children’s services a fresh start.
Since May 2010, 46 local authorities have been lifted out of intervention and have not returned, and the number of inadequate local authorities has reduced from 30 to 19 since July 2017. We aim to continue making these improvements at pace so that, by 2022, less than 10% of local authorities are rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, halving failure rates within 5 years and providing consistently better services for thousands of children and families across the country.
To get ahead of failure, we are investing an additional £20 million in our regional improvement strategy, working collaboratively with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Local Government Association, Solace and the rest of the sector to identify local authorities that need additional support. Our Regional Improvement Alliances and high-performing ‘Partners in Practice’ local authorities support those at risk of failure, embedding a system of sector-led improvement with more than 70 local authorities receiving support to date.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the Protection of Civilians strategy makes the protection of children a priority.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government is currently reviewing its strategy for the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, and is committed to ensuring that its approach benefits all civilians, including children and other vulnerable groups, and that it reflects the changing international landscape and the complexity of many conflicts. The Government welcomes recent research carried out by academics and Non-Governmental Organisations in this field and is taking their work into account as it undertakes its review. The Government aims to complete the review by the end of 2019.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the maintenance of animal welfare standards in relation to live animal exports when the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government’s manifesto made it clear that we would take early steps to control the export of live farm animals for slaughter once we leave the European Union. We are considering all of the options in the context of our exit from the EU as part of our broader commitment to further strengthen animal welfare.
Last year, we launched a Call for Evidence on controlling live exports for slaughter and improving the welfare of all animals during transport. We passed this evidence to the Farm Animal Welfare Committee (FAWC), who recently submitted their advice to Defra and the Devolved Administrations including in relation to live exports. We are considering FAWC’s report and aim to publish it, along with a Government response, in due course. We expect to come forward with proposals for public consultation to improve animal welfare in transport.
As we move towards a new relationship with Europe and the rest of the world, we have a unique opportunity to shape future animal welfare policy in the UK to ensure the highest standards in every area.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provisions exist under the one name for all policy for citizens with dual nationality to maintain legal recognition of previous or original names.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The intent behind the policy is to have one name for all official purposes. Specific exceptions exist under the one names policy where a dual national cannot meet the requirements of the policy for reasons beyond their control, for example where there are restrictions on their ability to change their name in travel documents of their other nationality.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average length of time between death and cremation by region in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18 and (c) 2018-19; and what steps he is taking to reduce that time.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information is not held centrally. This is a matter for individual cremation authorities.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether safeguards are in place to ensure that patients' rights to continuity of care with their named GP will be protected in the new Primary Care Network contract, published in March 2019.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The new Primary Care Network arrangements will not prevent patients seeing their preferred professional at their practice. The core general practice contract will still include a requirement for each contractor to ensure that for each of its registered patients, there is assigned an accountable general medical practitioner (an ‘accountable GP’).
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the document entitled, Bus Services Act 2017: accessible information, published by his Department in July 2018, when he plans to publish the steps his Department will take in response to the responses received to that consultation.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government understands the importance of accessible on-board information in helping bus passengers to travel with confidence, and in Summer 2018 published a public consultation on proposals to require its provision on local bus services throughout Great Britain.
We continue to analyse responses to the consultation and expect to announce our next steps regarding the making of Regulations and publication of guidance later in the year.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the risks of disposable barbecues to wildlife and the natural environment.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office works in close partnership with local fire and rescue authorities to promote a range of fire safety messages through the national Fire Kills campaign. Messages on outdoor fire safety, including the fire risks related to barbecues, are included within the educational materials made available to fire and rescue authorities to support local activity. In addition, the campaign works with the Gas Safe Register to support the promotion of carbon monoxide safety messages associated with barbecues.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans are in place to ensure (a) the protection of and (b) assistance to human rights defenders in overseas states.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK recognises the important work that human rights defenders (HRDs) do to protect and defend the full range of human rights. Our network of embassies and high commissions will continue to work with HRDs, using the recently updated UK Guidelines on Working with Human Rights Defenders. We support HRDs in a variety of ways: sometimes through financial support, but more often the value we provide is by getting to know prominent HRDs and supporting them either publicly or privately. There is no single template for doing this. It is for Heads of Mission to decide how to implement and use the guidelines, in a manner appropriate to the local context. The UK will continue to use the multilateral system to press for strong guidelines for the treatment of human rights defenders by states. At the high-level meeting on HRDs at the UN of 18 December, we called on governments to allow HRDs to fight for human rights; and enable civil society to engage and challenge governments without fear. In November, we co-sponsored a new UN General Assembly resolution on freedom of assembly and association, further strengthening support for civil society and human rights defenders.