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, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2018 to Question 184407 on Patients: Personal Property, if the NHS will put in place additional procedures to ensure the protection of the personal effects of (a) vulnerable inpatients and (b) patients with dementia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Guidance has been provided to National Health Service organisations in England on the secure management of all patients' property. This includes the process for documenting patients’ property, transferring patients and discharging patients.
Patients should be advised of their rights and responsibilities with respect to property taken onto the NHS organisations premises.
In addition to the information provided in the previous answer, NHS England is actively engaged with the Department and other key stakeholders in drafting the user guidance stemming from the Mental Capacity Act (Amendment) Bill. This is likely to contain information on the handling of personal effects for those patients without mental capacity and will be cascaded to all NHS Standard Contract holders once finalised. Further information is available on NHS England’s website at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/safeguarding/our-work/adult-network/
NHS England together with the Department have also published guidance to support implementation of the ‘red bag’ scheme which supports an efficient and safe transfer process from care home to hospital, while also ensuring greater protection for residents’ personal items. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/quick-guide-redbag-hospital-transfer-v1.pdf
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 his Department is taking to ensure the (a) enforcement of the current legal limitations and (b) prosecution of abuses relating to the tethering of horses as set out in section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme, Paul Farrelly, on 7 February 2019, PQ 216147.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase the production of energy from low-carbon renewable sources.
Answered by Claire Perry
In 2017, 10.2 per cent of total energy consumption came from renewable sources; up from 9.2 per cent in 2016 (source: DUKES 2018) and 3.8% in 2010 (source: DUKES 6.7 – 2018). In our most recent Contracts for Difference auction we secured over 3GW of renewable electricity from as little as £57.50/MWh. The Government has made available up to £557m for future Contracts for Difference, with the next auction planned for May this year.
The Government is also supporting the decarbonisation of heat and is supporting renewable and low-carbon heating technologies through the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (RHI), which encourages the uptake of renewable heat technologies amongst householders, communities and businesses through financial incentives, with £4.5bn allocated for renewable and low carbon heating between 2016 and 2021.
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 are being taken to develop and enforce clear standards in the humane slaughter of animals in UK abattoirs.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government cares highly about the welfare of animals and this includes their welfare at the point of slaughter. The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK) implements and enforces Council Regulation 1099/2009 (EU Regulation) on the protection of animals at time of killing as well as maintaining our stricter national rules that provide greater welfare protection than the EU Regulation.
These requirements are monitored and enforced in slaughterhouses in England by Official Veterinarians (OVs) of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, suffering or distress. The FSA operates a zero tolerance policy towards animal cruelty and OVs take a prompt and proportionate approach to enforcement action where breaches are identified.
The Government has delivered on the manifesto commitment to make CCTV recording in slaughterhouses mandatory. This legislation came into force last year and requires slaughterhouse operators to install and operate a CCTV system in their premises that provides a clear and complete view of all areas where live animals are present. This legislation followed several well publicised cases of animal abuse in slaughterhouses. As an important complement to existing physical observation, CCTV should help maintain and improve animal welfare standards in all slaughterhouses and provide assurance to consumers that this is the case.
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, what steps his Department is taking to support families with members who have fibromyalgia syndrome.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department is committed to making sure people with long term conditions receive the personalised care and support they need. Where suitable, loved ones and carers should be involved in tailoring care options.
Last summer the Department published a Carers Action Plan, setting out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support carers over the next two years and will also ensure a clear focus on carers in the forthcoming Adult Social Care Green Paper. The Department is clear that planning for people with long term conditions should involve loved ones and carers. The aim is supporting carers to provide care as they would wish, and to do so in a way that supports their own health and wellbeing.
As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019, NHS England is taking action in range of areas to improve the care treatment and support provided to people with neurological conditions including rolling out the NHS Comprehensive Model of Personalised Care across the country, reaching 2.5 million people by 2023/24.
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, what provisions have been included in the forthcoming green paper on social care reform to enable access to quality care for people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The upcoming Green Paper will bring forward proposals to ensure we have a social care system where people including those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia know that the care they receive will be to a high standard and help them to maintain their independence and well-being.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to restrict TV advertising relating to the gambling industry.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are strict controls on the content of all gambling advertisements, including broadcast adverts and online. Gambling operators who advertise in the UK must comply with the advertising codes, which aim to ensure gambling advertising does not target or appeal particularly to children or young people, or exploit vulnerable people. TV adverts must be pre-cleared by Clearcast and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) acts on complaints and proactively checks the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements.
Our Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures set out a package of measures to strengthen protections further. These include tougher guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting vulnerable people, with further guidance on children and young people due soon, tougher sanctions for operators who breach advertising codes and a multi-million pound safer gambling advertising campaign.
The Industry Group for Responsible Gambling has announced that it will extend its commitment not to advertise on TV before 9pm to include advertising during sporting events. It has announced that the changes are expected to come into effect in summer. Its industry-wide code for socially responsible advertising also requires all TV adverts to feature a responsible gambling message for the duration of the advert. Separately, Sky will offer customers the option to opt out of TV gambling adverts from 2020. These are welcome steps by industry to respond to public concerns, and it is important that all those who benefit from gambling advertising think about how they can be socially responsible. We will continue to monitor issues around advertising and consider any new evidence carefully.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2018 to Question 196811, what assessment he has made against policy, economic and fiscal considerations of the possibility of extending the zero rate of VAT to digital publications.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government keeps all taxes under review, including VAT on e-publications.
Any amendments to the VAT regime as it applies to physical publications and e-publications must be carefully assessed against policy, economic and fiscal considerations.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the high income child benefit tax charge on single-parent families.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The Government introduced the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) from January 2013 to ensure that support is targeted at those who need it most. It applies to anyone with an individual income over £50,000, who claims Child Benefit or whose partner claims it, regardless of the make-up of their household.
The impacts on individuals and households were published in the Tax Information and Impact Note at Budget 2012 when HICBC was announced:
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department plans to publish the results of the consultation on draft guidance for elective home education; and how many submissions were received for that consultation.
Answered by Anne Milton
The government response document resulted from the consultation on elective home education, which ended on 2 July 2018. This document along with the finalised guidance documents will be published soon.
The number of responses received to the consultation were as follows:
Type of response | Number of responses |
Online | 2987 |
274 | |
Hard Copy | 180 |