Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of risk to human health of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs originating from industrial farms.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Resistant bacteria and/or resistance genes can transfer between people and animals in both directions. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate conducts two surveillance schemes for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animals, including regular monitoring of AMR in major food-producing species such as pigs and poultry. The results of these surveillance schemes are published annually in the ‘UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales and Surveillance Report’ which can be found at the following link:
Since 2014, the United Kingdom has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55%, and over this same period the UK has seen an overall trend of decreasing AMR in bacteria from animals. The UK has a cross-Government contingency plan to mitigate the risk to public health of resistant bacteria found in animals, a copy of which can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of reports that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is involved in the trafficking of Captagon across the Middle East.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The production and smuggling of captagon is a multi-billion dollar trade, essentially emanating from Assad-regime control within Syria. This trade is destabilising the region and provides illicit revenue to multiple malign actors, notably the Assad regime and its co-conspirators, including Hizballah and other Iranian-backed militias. The UK has drawn international attention to this (through an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) and increased our cooperation with regional states to combat this. We have made clear our concerns about the malign activity of Hizballah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both organisations we have sanctioned in their entirety.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of reports of increased attempts by Syrian and Iranian-linked groups to traffic Captagon into Europe.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK recognises that the production and smuggling of captagon is a lucrative trade, which provides illicit revenue streams to multiple actors, notably the malign Syrian Asad regime and its co-conspirators, principally Hezbollah and other Iranian militias.
The UK is stepping up its efforts to work with likeminded partners and regional states to combat this and is drawing international attention to the issue (for example in an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) to ensure accountability.
HMG regularly assess the threat posed to the UK by the trafficking of illicit drugs, and currently assess that there is little/no direct UK facing threat. To date, no instances of Captagon being seized at a UK border have been recorded.
In December 2021, the Government launched its ten-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives. As part of this, £300 million has been allocated to fund activity to break drug supply chains from end-to-end. This includes restricting upstream flow, securing the UK border, and ensuring we remain agile in the face of changing threats.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the impact of the closure of schools during the covid-19 outbreak on the regularity of Ofsted inspections.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Ofsted’s routine school inspections were paused in March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The suspension of routine school inspections was lifted on 28 April 2021. Whilst some graded inspections took place during the 2021 summer term, Ofsted returned to its full programme of routine school inspections in September 2021.
In November 2021, Ofsted announced its aim to inspect every state funded school by the end of summer 2025, so that every school will have at least one inspection between May 2021 and July 2025. Ofsted is confident it can meet this target.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage of schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted were inspected again within four years as recommended by Department for Education guidance in (a) Gedling, (b) Nottinghamshire, (c) the East Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member for Gedling directly and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of appointments published by NHS Digital as part of its Appointments in General Practice data, how many recorded GP appointments are in-person appointments following up on triage appointments.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
This data is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Appointments in General Practice report published in December 2022, how many of the GP appointments recorded were first contact triage appointments.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In NHS Digital’s December 2022 Appointments in General Practice data publication, the number of general practice appointments recorded with the category “clinical triage” was 3.50 million, in November 2022. New data was published on the 26 January 2023 showing that 3.23 million appointments were recorded with the category “clinical triage” in December 2022. This will include first contact triage appointments, but data is not available for exclusively first contact triage appointments.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the progress made in carrying out the October 2021 Plan for Improving Access to GP appointments.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The plan announced by the Government and NHS England in October 2021 set out a package of measures to support general practice (GP) over the winter period and in the longer term. This included making £250 million available for a Winter Access Fund to increase capacity, a short term telephony solution for GP practices, expanding the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service and NHS England’s Access Improvement Programme and a £5 million fund to facilitate essential upgrades to practice security measures.
Examples of how the Winter Access Fund was used include the creation of additional hubs and helplines, expanding home visiting capacity, funding additional sessions from staff.
NHS England’s short term telephony solution is already helping practices to free up lines for incoming calls and from this month, January 2023, NHS England is accelerating work to support all GP practices to procure cloud-based telephony systems.
In the 12 months up to December 2022, there were on average 1.32 million GP appointments per working day, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Compared to the 12 months up to December 2021, which was 1.23 million, this is an increase of 7%.
We recognise that some people are still struggling to access general practice services in a timely way. We will soon be publishing our Recovery Plan for primary care.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the affordability of bus fares.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government recognises the importance of affordable public transport. While decisions on the level of fares are for commercial operators, the Government recognised in the National Bus Strategy the need to make bus services cheaper.
We are providing over £1 billion to Local Transport Authorities to help make bus services cheaper. We are also providing £60 million to cap single bus fares across England at £2 from 1 January to 31 March.
The £2 bus fare cap is not only an innovative way of helping people save money on their transport costs, but it helps to take 2 million car journeys off our roads. There are 4,600 routes across England in the scheme, including the 44 bus from Nottingham and the 53 and 39 buses.
I would be delighted to visit you on your constituency soon.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent reports he has received on Hezbollah's reported acquisition of precision-guided missiles from Iran.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
It is the longstanding policy of successive British Governments that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Iran's political, financial and military support to a number of militant groups, including Hizballah in Lebanon is unacceptable. We work closely with our partners to deter destabilising Iranian activity in the region, including through a range of sanctions designations.