Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Department's White Paper entitled A Fairer Private Rented Sector, published in March 2023, whether his Department plans to issue guidance to landlords on when they can reasonably withhold consent for pets.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Further to my answer to Question UIN 136842 on 9 February 2023, the Government will publish guidance for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector (PRS) on what would constitute an unreasonable refusal of a pet before the new rules come into effect.
The new legal 'right to request a pet' will apply to the PRS. Many social landlords set out their pet policies in their tenancy agreements and allow tenants to keep pets where it is appropriate to do so, provided they are well looked after and do not adversely affect the lives of neighbours and those living nearby.
In the Social Housing White Paper we encourage all social landlords to adopt similar policies.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with representatives of the social housing sector on pet-friendly tenancies.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Further to my answer to Question UIN 136842 on 9 February 2023, the Government will publish guidance for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector (PRS) on what would constitute an unreasonable refusal of a pet before the new rules come into effect.
The new legal 'right to request a pet' will apply to the PRS. Many social landlords set out their pet policies in their tenancy agreements and allow tenants to keep pets where it is appropriate to do so, provided they are well looked after and do not adversely affect the lives of neighbours and those living nearby.
In the Social Housing White Paper we encourage all social landlords to adopt similar policies.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the Renters Reform Bill will include a ban on no pet clauses.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Further to my answer to Question UIN 136842 on 9 February 2023, the Government will publish guidance for tenants and landlords in the private rented sector (PRS) on what would constitute an unreasonable refusal of a pet before the new rules come into effect.
The new legal 'right to request a pet' will apply to the PRS. Many social landlords set out their pet policies in their tenancy agreements and allow tenants to keep pets where it is appropriate to do so, provided they are well looked after and do not adversely affect the lives of neighbours and those living nearby.
In the Social Housing White Paper we encourage all social landlords to adopt similar policies.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to work with Southern Water and the Environment Agency on addressing sewage discharges into the River Medway.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In February 2023, the Secretary of State asked water and sewerage companies to set an action plan on every storm overflow in England.
The Environment Agency is working closely with Southern Water to identify improvement schemes required to improve the water quality of the Medway. These schemes will reduce excess nutrients in rivers and the frequency of storm overflow discharges. This work is ongoing and part of the WINEP Price Review 2024.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle inequalities in access to cancer treatment across (a) socio-economic, (b) regional and (c) ethnic groups.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Major Conditions Strategy will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer, covering the patient pathway. It will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
The strategy will support health and care services to diagnose individuals earlier and help them to manage their conditions better. The strategy will include a focus on multi-morbidity and improve the National Health Service’s co-ordination of the treatment and care of people with multiple major conditions.
We will look at the health of people at all stages of life, from prevention through to living well with one or more major conditions. We will also include a focus on geographical and other differences in health that contribute to variations in health outcomes.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include a strategy for increasing the rate of cancer diagnosis in the Major Conditions Strategy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Major Conditions Strategy will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer, covering the patient pathway. It will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
The strategy will support health and care services to diagnose individuals earlier and help them to manage their conditions better. The strategy will include a focus on multi-morbidity and improve the National Health Service’s co-ordination of the treatment and care of people with multiple major conditions.
We will look at the health of people at all stages of life, from prevention through to living well with one or more major conditions. We will also include a focus on geographical and other differences in health that contribute to variations in health outcomes.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Major Conditions Strategy will include preventative measures to decrease the number of cancer cases.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Major Conditions Strategy will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer, covering the patient pathway. It will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
The strategy will support health and care services to diagnose individuals earlier and help them to manage their conditions better. The strategy will include a focus on multi-morbidity and improve the National Health Service’s co-ordination of the treatment and care of people with multiple major conditions.
We will look at the health of people at all stages of life, from prevention through to living well with one or more major conditions. We will also include a focus on geographical and other differences in health that contribute to variations in health outcomes.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking steps to accelerate the adoption of innovative oncology treatments, including precision medicines.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates all new cancer medicines and aims to publish guidance on new medicines close to the point of licensing wherever possible. The NHS in England is legally required to fund all medicines NICE recommends, and cancer drugs are funded through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) immediately after NICE issues positive draft guidance. The CDF also supports early patient access to the most promising new cancer medicines where there is too much uncertainty for NICE to be able to recommend routine funding. Since 2016, the CDF has supported over 88,000 patients to benefit from cancer medicines that otherwise would not have been available.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) reduce shortages in the NHS workforce and (b) improve the capacity of NHS services.
Answered by Will Quince
We continue to grow the National Health Service workforce. As of December, there were over 4,900 (3.8%) more doctors and almost 11,100 (3.6%) more nurses than the same time last year. We are on track to deliver 50,000 more nurses across the NHS by 2024 and have over 38,000 more nurses in December 2022 compared with September 2019. The Government has funded 1,500 more medical school places each year for domestic students in England, a 25% increase, taking the total number to 7,500 each year.
We are also expanding routes into professional roles in the NHS, particularly apprenticeships. Apprenticeships allow people to earn as they learn, benefiting those for whom a full-time university course is not practical or preferred. There were around 20,900 new NHS apprenticeships starts in 2021/22, making NHS the largest employer of apprentices in the public sector by number of starts. There has also been funding confirmed as part of a pilot scheme for up to 200 Medical Doctor Degree Apprentices.
All eligible nursing, midwifery and allied health profession degree students have received a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year. Additional funding is also available for studying certain courses for example, Mental Health Nursing and Learning Disabilities Nursing with further financial support available to students for childcare, dual accommodation costs and travel.
We have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term workforce plan for the NHS workforce for the next 15 years. This Plan is due to be published shortly.
To boost capacity, on 30 January we published the delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services and committed to increase capacity, including with 5,000 new beds as part of the permanent bed base for next winter. This is backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, building on the £500 million used over this winter to support local areas to increase their overall capacity and support their staff.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on rolling out a network of Genomic Laboratory Hubs.
Answered by Will Quince
Genomic testing in the National Health Service in England is provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS), delivered by a national genomic testing network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs), each responsible for coordinating services for a particular part of the country. The NHS GLHs aim to provide a cutting-edge and comprehensive genomic testing service using the latest technology. The NHS GLHs work together with standardisation and quality at the core, driving rapid adoption of technology and delivering testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory, which outlines the full range of genomic testing offered by the NHS. The Test Directory currently covers testing for over 3,200 rare diseases and over 200 cancers.
NHS England have regular discussions with each NHS GLH, as part of quarterly assurance meetings, to discuss opportunities to improve service delivery.