Asked by: Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much income from car parking for staff was generated in Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Will Quince
Data from the NHS Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC) shows that in 2021/22, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s total income from car parking was £2,094,729. Income from patients and visitors was £1,336,317 and income from staff was £758,412.
The income criteria in ERIC includes Service Level Agreements with other National Health Service organisations, parking fines and parking permits.
The Government has committed that all trusts that charge for car parking now provide free parking to in-need groups, which include NHS staff working overnight, frequent outpatient attenders and parents of children staying overnight in hospital.
Asked by: Danny Kruger (Conservative - Devizes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to (a) support and (b) require landowners to (i) undertake repairs to (A) footpaths, (B) stiles, (C) gates and (D) other rights of way and (ii) improve public access to the countryside under Environmental Land Management schemes.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government supports the health and wellbeing benefits that access to the countryside can bring, including improving physical and mental health and supporting local communities and economies.
Landowners have a statutory duty to keep public rights of way in good working order and therefore this is not covered by Environmental Land Management Schemes, unless they choose to upgrade to provide additional access, e.g. from a stile to a gate via under Countryside Stewardship (option AC1).
Under Countryside Stewardship, we currently pay for the following actions to help improve public access to the countryside:
Public access is also supported by our Landscape Recovery scheme, with projects being assessed for the benefits they will deliver for a wide range of objectives. Under the England Woodland Creation Offer, higher payments are available if woodland is located close to settlements within the 40% most deprived areas in England, or if it will provide new long-term permissive access for recreation.
Additionally, through our Farming in Protected Landscapes programme, we provide funding to support and improve Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Parks. We pay for projects providing opportunities for people to discover, enjoy and understand the landscape and its cultural heritage, including permissive access.
We do want to offer further support for access to our countryside, and so under our Environmental Land Management Schemes we are also now exploring how we can pay for:
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with campaign groups on visiting in care settings.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Department officials and I have met with campaign group representatives several times to hear their concerns and discuss the range of options to strengthen visiting requirements and reduce instances where individuals in care settings are unable to receive visitors. The Department will continue working with campaign groups and other stakeholders to ensure that visiting in care settings remains a priority.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to consult on legislative proposals on visiting requirements for care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government guidance states that every care home resident should be able to have at least one visitor in all circumstances. We are working at pace to review a range of options to strengthen visiting requirements and avoid instances where residents are unable to receive visitors.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker, further to his Written Answer on 9 March (HL5913), what legislation gives the Clerk of Parliaments and the Clerk of the House the legal responsibility for safety on the Parliamentary Estate.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Under the powers conferred on the Clerk of the Parliaments by the Clerk of the Parliaments Act 1824 and the Parliamentary Corporate Bodies Act 1992, the Clerk of the Parliaments is the Corporate Officer of the House of Lords and acts as the employer of the great majority of staff in the House of Lords Administration. As such he meets the various health and safety duties imposed on employers under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and regulations made under it (including the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012). The Clerk of the Parliaments also has safety-related duties under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and, in relation to visitors, the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.
The Clerk of the House of Commons, who is the Corporate Officer of that House by virtue of the Parliamentary Corporate Bodies Act 1992, has very similar powers, although he is not the employer of House of Commons staff. He shares the responsibility for the physical premises under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 with the Clerk of the Parliaments.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many health visitors were employed by NHS England in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England does not employ staff in health visiting roles. Local Authorities have been responsible for commissioning health visiting services since 2015. These services may be commissioned from National Health Service trusts as well as other providers. Services are led by health visitors as Specialist Community Public Health Nurses within a skill mix team including community staff nurses and nursery nurses.
For health visitors who are employed by the NHS, NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England which can be accessed at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/
This includes staff employed by hospital trusts and commissioning bodies, but excludes staff directly employed by primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers such as community interest companies and private providers.
Asked by: Ben Everitt (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to create public access available to all through Environmental Land Management.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting our environment is at the heart of the Government manifesto and we will always back British farmers and our rural communities. Environmental land manage-ment is the foundation of our new approach.
We want to support access to our countryside, farmland or woodland so the public can understand and become engaged with farming and the environment. It can also provide recreation opportunities and health benefits. Under Countryside Stewardship we already pay for a number of actions focusing on increasing public access:
• farmers hosting tours of their farms for school pupils and care farming visi-tors (ED1)
• providing access maps and signage, and preparing sites for access by providing toilet facilities, shelters, new footpaths, bridges and gates, with the objective of greater public accessibility of the countryside (AC1)
• accreditation for staff carrying out countryside educational access visits (AC2)
• a supplement to enable permissive access across woodland, where access is currently limited (WS4)
Through our Farming in Protected Landscapes programme we also pay for projects that provide opportunities for people to discover, enjoy and understand the landscape and its cultural heritage, including permissive access.
As we continue to expand and improve our schemes, building on the successful adoption of Countryside Stewardship, we are exploring how we can update and pay for actions covering permissive access; managing existing access pressures on land and water, and; expanding education access beyond groups of school pupils and care farming visitors.
Public access is also supported by our Landscape Recovery scheme. Projects are assessed for the benefits they will deliver for a wide range of objectives including social outcomes, and are required to complete a site access plan as part of the project development phase.
Asked by: Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses were employed by the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent doctors and nurses and health visitors for October 2020 to October 2022, working at the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.
| October 2020 | October 2021 | October 2022 |
Doctors | 691 | 728 | 745 |
Nurses and Health Visitors | 1,963 | 2,141 | 2,248 |
Source: NHS England Workforce Statistics 2022
Due to the merger of Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust earlier in 2020 consistent data can only be given from that point onwards.
Asked by: Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses were recruited by the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The information is not available in the format requested. The following table shows the headcount of doctors and nurses and health visitors that joined active service at the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust for the last two years.
| October 2020 to 2021 | October 2021 to 2022 |
Doctors (excluding junior doctors) | 65 | 48 |
Nurses and health visitors | 420 | 326 |
Source: NHS England Workforce Statistics 2022
This data includes people returning to active service, such as those returning from maternity leave or career breaks. It is the count of staff who were active in the trust at the end of the period who were not active at the start of the period. Due to the merger of Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in 2020 data can only be given for the last two annual periods. Junior doctors are excluded from the table above as it is common for junior doctors to move between NHS bodies on placements/rotations as part of their training and development. The figures will not include staff joining doctor or nursing grades from other positions within the organisation.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish data on (a) staff and (b) patient satisfaction with hospital food; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
Hospital food will be included as part of the assessment by local people of service quality through the Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) from late 2023.
We have no plans to publish data on staff satisfaction with hospital food. Through the updated NHS Food and Drink Standards we are improving the quality and availability of healthy, nutritious food for National Health Service staff, patients and visitors. This includes suitable food and drink options for staff over a 24 hours a day, seven days a week service period.