Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much investment has been made to improve Bournemouth hospital in the last 10 years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally. University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Bournemouth Hospital, receives funding from national programmes and operational capital. From our national programmes, the trust received the following amounts since 2020:
The trust has also been allocated £147.3 million of NHS Upgrades Programme funding for the reconfiguration of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Poole Hospital, to a major planned site and major emergency site, with the project currently underway and construction ongoing.
In addition to the above funding, the Dorset Integrated Care Board (ICB), of which the trust is a partner member, has been allocated £61 million in operational capital funding in 2023/24, totalling over £200 million during this spending review period, 2022/23 to 2024/25. This amount is prioritised by the ICB according to local needs.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) she and (b) other Ministers plan to visit Bournemouth in the next six months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers regularly consider visits to health and care settings across the country. Any plans to visit specific locations will be notified to hon. Members in advance.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the breakdown is of armed forces capabilities deployed to Poland as part of NATO exercise Steadfast Defender 24.
Answered by James Heappey
STEADFAST DEFENDER 24 will see the British Army deploy two brigade combat teams and a 3* corps headquarters to Poland, as part of Exercises BRILLANT JUMP, POLISH DRAGON, and IMMEDIATE RESPONSE. This equates to around 4,000 personnel and 2,000 pieces of equipment across the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team as the core of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Land), and 12th Armoured Brigade Combat Team. Across Europe, an additional 3,500 theatre enablement personnel will deploy to enable port operations, cross continent force flow, and sustainment of UK forces for the duration of the exercises. There are no maritime or air capabilities deployed to Poland as part of STEADFAST DEFENDER 24.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
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 adequacy of number of NHS dentists in Bournemouth East constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2022/23, 349 dentists in the Dorset Integrated Care Board performed National Health Service work. This is equivalent to 44.9 dentists per 100,000 population. The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler and fairer for patients and will fund around 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment.
The plan sets out a number of actions which will improve access for patients, by helping the sector to recover activity more quickly, including the introduction of a New Patient Payment Premium of up to £50 for each new patient. This is on top of the funding dental practices already receive for delivering that care. We will further incentivise dentists to do more NHS work by raising the minimum Units of Dental Activity rate to £28. As part of the Dentistry Recovery Plan, we will launch a new Golden Hello scheme for dentists who want to move to those areas which persistently struggle to attract dentists into NHS work.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce reoffending rates in (a) Bournemouth East constituency and (b) the South West.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Prison and Probation service in the South West published their joint Reducing Reoffending Plan for 2022–25 on 9 August 2021, which sets out our priorities to reduce reoffending, prevent victims and keep communities safe. Both the Plan and the Annual Update for 2023 update can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regional-reducing-reoffending-plans.
Alongside taking forward the priorities in the regional Reducing Reoffending Plan, Dorset Probation, which includes Bournemouth East, is engaged with the local Community Safety Partnership which brings together key partners in the area to work together to reduce crime and offending.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to help provide humanitarian support at the Rafah crossing.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
There is a desperate need for increased humanitarian support to Gaza. Our focus must be on practical solutions that save lives. We trebled our aid commitment this financial year and we are doing everything we can to get more aid in and open more crossings. Israel must take steps, working with other partners including the UN and Egypt, to significantly increase the flow of aid into Gaza including allowing prolonged humanitarian pauses, opening more routes into Gaza and restoring and sustaining water, fuel and electricity.
The Foreign Secretary discussed the urgency of getting significantly more aid into Gaza to alleviate the desperate situation with Prime Minister Netanyahu last week. We have reiterated the need for Israel to open more crossing points into Gaza, for Nitzana and Kerem Shalom to be open for longer, and for Israel to support the UN to distribute aid effectively across the whole of Gaza. The Foreign Secretary has also appointed a Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who is based in the region and is working intensively to address the blockages preventing more aid reaching Gaza.
We are calling for an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire, without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department plans to take to respond to the death of Alexei Navalny in Russian custody.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK Government has publicly expressed our outrage and made clear that we hold the Russian state fully responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny. Russia must release Mr Navalny's body to his family and hold a full and transparent investigation into his death. On Friday 16 February, the day of Mr Navalny's death, we summoned the Russian Embassy to demand answers. The UK has now sanctioned six heads of the penal colony where Mr Navalny died following years of mistreatment at the hands of the Russian state. The UK is the first country to impose sanctions in response to Mr Navalny's death.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the use of hotels to house asylum seekers in Bournemouth.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As a result of the range of measures put in place to stop the boats, reform the management of the asylum accommodation estate and deliver alternative forms of accommodation sites, we have successfully met our ministerial commitment of closing over 50 hotels across the UK by the end of January 2024.
We continue to work with our providers on closing further hotels across the estate and will write to local authorities and MPs when a decision to close a site has been made.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has conducted (a) trials and (b) research into the feasibility of mounting (i) the Multiple Launch Rocket System and (ii) other similar systems on Royal Navy destroyers.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Navy continually assesses and reviews the available technology and the possibility of integrating different weapons systems into our ships.
Asked by: Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has plans to introduce (a) the Kongsberg missile system or (b) a similar variant to the Royal Navy surface fleet.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Navy currently has one ship, HMS Somerset, fitted with the Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile system. The Royal Navy intend to install this Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare capability to further platforms.