Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will meet Ebenezer Akore Yeboah of Coventry University to discuss single-use plastics, sorting waste and reducing power consumption.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In December 2018, the UK Government published its Resources and Waste Strategy. This sets out how we will achieve a circular economy for plastic and achieve our ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. Our goal is to maximise resource efficiency and minimise waste (including plastic) - by following the principles of the waste hierarchy: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. To help us achieve this goal, in October 2023, Defra banned the supply of single-use plastic plates, bowls, and trays to the end-user and banned the supply of single-use plastic cutlery and expanded and foamed extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, including cups. We will continue to review the latest evidence on problematic products and/ or materials to take a systematic approach to reducing the use of unnecessary single-use plastic products.
We are preparing for the fourth round of negotiations in April, to develop a new legally binding UN treaty to end plastic pollution. As a founding member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, the UK is pushing for an ambitious and effective UN Treaty to address the problem of plastic waste globally.
I will ask my officials to write to Mr Akore Yeboah to discuss this matter further.
Asked by: Lord Haselhurst (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the Very Light Rail prototype under development by Coventry City Council and the University of Warwick.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Very Light Rail in Coventry is an emerging technology being researched and developed by Coventry City Council (CCC) and West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Local proposals to develop this technology include building a demonstrator route in Coventry City Centre.
WMCA has included the development of Very Light Rail within its £1.05 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) programme agreed with Government. Investment decisions on the Very Light Rail programme are subject to approval by the Department for Transport.
The Department’s officials have reviewed the Strategic Outline Business Case for the VLRRP, which is now being progressed through bespoke governance as a Research and Development project to reflect the novel nature of the Very Light Rail prototype.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had on trial of Galen technology by Imperial College Healthcare, University College London, University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and University Hospitals Southampton; and whether he plans to roll out that technology.
Answered by Will Quince
The Galen Platform, which has been developed by Ibex Medical Analytics, has received funding from the AI in Health and Care Award to test whether the Galen Platform can assist clinicians in diagnosing prostate cancer faster. This funding is supporting the first real-world tests of the Galen Platform in a hospital setting to accelerate generating evidence of its effectiveness, which could lead to the technology's rapid adoption.
There are currently no plans to roll out the Galen Platform wider as the AI in Health and Care Award trial continues.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of NHS workforce vacancies in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps he is taking to fill such vacancies in those areas.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England publishes vacancy statistics for England on a quarterly basis. These present the difference between funded establishment posts and those filled by substantive staff. They do not indicate where vacancies are currently filled with temporary staffing and therefore do not equate to unfilled shifts.
The statistics are published at a national and a regional level. The data does not allow a differentiation between West and East Midlands. Data is also not available by city; however, NHS England has published trust level vacancy rates for March 2023.
The latest statistics show that as of June 2023, there are 125,572 full time equivalent (FTE) vacancies across National Health Service trusts in England, representing a rate of 8.9%. For NHS trusts in the Midlands, there are 23,639 FTE vacancies, also representing a rate of 8.9%. As of March 2023, the vacancy rate for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, was 6.3%.
The NHS published the Long Term Workforce Plan in June this year, backed by over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. The Long Term Workforce Plan will double medical school training places to 15,000 by 2031, increase the number of general practitioner training places by 50% to 6,000 by 2031 and almost double the number of adult nurse training places by 2031, with around 58,000 nurse and midwife training places a year by 2031/32.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
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 trends in the level of (a) verbal abuse and (b) physical attacks experienced by NHS staff in (i) Coventry, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) England in each of the last three years; and what steps his Department is taking to protect NHS staff in those areas from such abuse.
Answered by Will Quince
We do not currently have a national mechanism to capture and report incidents of violence and aggression in the National Health Service, as data is held at a local level.
The NHS Staff Survey does ask questions relating to incidences of violence, harassment, and abuse. The 2022 NHS Staff Survey indicated that 14.7% of NHS staff have self-reported that they had experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, relatives, or other members of the public in the last 12 months. In addition, 27.8% of NHS staff who completed the survey experience at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients/service users, their relatives, or members of the public. This figure is broadly consistent across previous years. Data extracted from the Staff Survey is provided below for England, Coventry and the West Midlands.
The following table shows the extracted data from the Staff Survey for England, Coventry and the West Midlands relating to Question 13a (‘In the last 12 months how many times have you personally experienced physical violence at work from: Patients / service users, their relatives or other members of the public?):
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
England | 14.8% | 14.4% | 14.7% |
|
|
|
|
Coventry |
|
|
|
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust | 13.9% | 15.3% | 15.0% |
|
|
|
|
West Midlands |
|
|
|
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust | 21.6% | 18.6% | 20.3% |
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 9.2% | 9.7% | 11.1% |
Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust | 8.4% | 6.4% | 7.8% |
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 16.2% | 14.1% | 14.3% |
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust | 15.0% | 14.3% | 14.5% |
Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust | 14.8% | 14.2% | 12.7% |
Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust | - | 0.0% | 2.7% |
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust | 15.2% | 13.6% | 15.0% |
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust | 13.4% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust | 10.5% | 9.9% | 9.5% |
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust | 17.3% | 19.0% | 20.0% |
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 5.8% | 4.6% | 6.0% |
Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 3.4% | 4.8% | 7.4% |
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust | 11.6% | 12.4% | 10.9% |
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust | 12.0% | 12.9% | 13.8% |
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust | 13.0% | 14.1% | 14.1% |
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust | 7.8% | 6.8% | 8.4% |
South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust | 10.1% | 11.3% | 12.2% |
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust | 14.3% | 13.8% | 12.9% |
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust | 13.9% | 15.3% | 15.0% |
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust | 16.9% | 14.3% | 16.4% |
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust | 12.2% | 14.3% | 14.6% |
West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust | 36.3% | 37.4% | 35.1% |
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 12.6% | 13.4% | 12.3% |
Wye Valley NHS Trust | 13.4% | 14.4% | 11.9% |
The following table shows the extracted data from the Staff Survey for England, Coventry and the West Midlands relating to Question 14a (‘In the last 12 months how many times have you personally experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work from patients/service users, their relatives or other members of the public?’):
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
England | 27.0% | 27.7% | 27.8% |
|
|
|
|
Coventry |
|
|
|
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust | 27.4% | 29.8% | 29.4% |
|
|
|
|
West Midlands |
|
|
|
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust | 20.0% | 15.5% | 17.3% |
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 22.7% | 23.9% | 25.7% |
Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust | 24.0% | 24.7% | 23.6% |
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | 27.0% | 26.1% | 26.3% |
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust | 22.9% | 26.0% | 23.8% |
Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust | 26.1% | 25.6% | 24.8% |
Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust | - | 20.0% | 23.9% |
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust | 26.6% | 26.7% | 28.1% |
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust | 26.6% | 26.2% | 27.6% |
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust | 23.5% | 21.9% | 21.1% |
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust | 26.5% | 28.6% | 25.7% |
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 14.9% | 18.0% | 16.4% |
Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | 15.0% | 18.8% | 19.5% |
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust | 26.7% | 25.9% | 25.9% |
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust | 28.7% | 29.6% | 29.8% |
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust | 26.2% | 29.5% | 27.6% |
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust | 19.1% | 19.8% | 21.1% |
South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust | 25.1% | 28.1% | 25.5% |
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust | 25.2% | 25.0% | 26.2% |
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust | 27.4% | 29.8% | 29.4% |
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust | 24.6% | 25.8% | 29.4% |
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust | 30.0% | 29.7% | 27.3% |
West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust | 48.2% | 50.6% | 49.0% |
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 25.6% | 28.0% | 25.2% |
Wye Valley NHS Trust | 29.1% | 28.3% | 31.0% |
NHS England has commissioned several data insight workstreams to better understand the current landscape of statistics, data reporting and associated challenges. This includes a national review of all available data and intelligence sources and an analysis of the costs of violence to the health care system in England and a review of the impact on the safety and wellbeing of NHS staff.
Tackling violence against NHS staff is largely an employer led issue, with NHS organisations responsible for putting in place their own policies and procedures to support staff, giving them access to appropriate training and making appropriate arrangements for security.
NHS England established a NHS Violence Reduction Programme in 2019, which aims to prevent and reduce violence and aggression from patients, their families and the public, and mitigate the effects of violence and abuse on NHS staff.
In 2022, the Government legislated through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act to double the sentence for assaults on emergency workers to a maximum of two years.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that apprenticeship degrees are provided in Coventry.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Employers have designed over 155 high-quality degree level apprenticeship standards to support them in developing the skilled workforces they need. There were over 43,000 starts at levels 6 and 7 in the 2021/22 academic year, which is an increase of 10.3% on the previous year. Of those, 240 apprenticeship starts at levels 6 and 7 in the 2021/22 academic year were by learners living in the Coventry local authority area. The department is working to expand these opportunities further, so that they are accessible to more people across England, including in Coventry.
The department has made £8 million available in the 2022/23 financial year to higher education (HE) institutions through the Strategic Priorities Grant, to enable them to grow degree level apprenticeship provision and form new employer partnerships. As part of this, Coventry University has been awarded over £200,000 this year to develop degree apprenticeship provision, and a further £62,000 for Level 4 and 5 provision.
All university Vice-Chancellors have been contacted with details on how the HE sector can drive forward the government’s ambitious skills agenda through the expansion of degree level apprenticeships.
The department has worked with employers across the country to help them showcase higher and degree level apprenticeship vacancies. During National Apprenticeship Week, we published a listing featuring hundreds of vacancies that are available for people to apply for now, including in the West Midlands. This listing is available at: https://amazingapprenticeships.com/app/uploads/2022/11/Higher-Degree-Listing-FEB-2023.pdf.
In addition, the department continues to work on a programme of ‘simplification’, exploring ways we can remove unnecessary bureaucracy, complexity, and barriers to engagement for apprentices, employers, and providers. We recognise that universities are already subject to significant regulation, and are working with the University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) and HE institutions to identify and remove barriers to universities offering more degree apprenticeship programmes.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Community Diagnostic Centres are (a) operational in England and (b) provide endoscopy treatments; and if he will list the Diagnostic Centres that (i) currently provide and (ii) plan to provide endoscopy treatments.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
92 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) are operational in England. The following provided endoscopy treatments in 2022/23:
- Barking Community Hospital CDC
- Basildon Community Diagnostics CDC
- Bishop Auckland CDC
- Cannock Chase CDC
- CDC Poole at Dorset Health Village
- Clacton CDC
- Clatterbridge Diagnostics CDC
- Coventry City Community
- Darlington Memorial CDC
- East Norfolk CDC
- East Surrey CDC
- Humber Coast and Vale CDC
- Kidderminster Treatment Centre CDC
- Kings Mill CDC
- Lymington New Forest Hospital CDC
- Manchester and Trafford CDC
- Mile End Hospital CDC
- Norfolk and Waveney CDC
- Northern Care Alliance CDC – multi-site
- Northern Care Alliance – Salford
- Penrith CDC
- Portsmouth CDC
- Preston Fatima CDC
- Preston Healthport CDC
- Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton CDC
- Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton CDC (Kingston)
- Rossendale CDC (Burnley General Hospital)
- Slough CDC
- South Warwickshire CDC
- St Helen’s CDC
- St Mary’s Community Hospital CDC
- Stoke on Trent CDC
- University Hospital of North Durham CDC
- Warwickshire North CDC
- West Berkshire Community Hospital CDC
- West Norfolk CDC
The following approved CDCs including expansions to existing CDCs are planning to provide endoscopy treatments:
- Andover CDC
- Bradford District and Craven CDC
- Cannock Chase CDC
- CDC Poole @ Dorset Health Village Club
- Clacton CDC
- East Surrey CDC
- Hinckley CDC
- Island CDC
- Kidderminster CDC
- Lymington New Forest Hospital CDC
- Manchester and Trafford CDC
- Mansfield CDC
- Northern Care Alliance CDC – Oldham
- Queen Mary’s Roehampton CDC
- Rossendale CDC
- St Helens CDC
- Westmorland CDC
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support students in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England with the rising cost of living.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government reviews the support provided to cover students’ living costs on an annual basis.
The government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year which have impacted students.
On 11 January 2023, the department announced a one-off reallocation of funding to add £15 million to this year's student premium to support additional hardship requests. There is now £276 million of student premium funding available this academic year to support disadvantaged students. This extra funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes. The department works with the Office for Students (OfS) to ensure universities support students using both hardship funds and drawing on the student premium.
Many universities in the West Midlands area, including but not limited to, Coventry University, the University of Wolverhampton, the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University have allocated money to hardship, scholarship and bursary funds to support students, and have detail available about these funds on their websites.
We have continued to increase maximum loans and grants each year with a 2.3% increase for the current 2022/23 academic year and a further 2.8% increase for 2023/24.
Loans that support with students’ living costs are a contribution towards their living costs while attending university, with the highest levels of support targeted at students who need it the most, such as students from low-income families. Students who have been awarded a loan for living costs for the 2022/23 academic year that is lower than the maximum, and whose household income for the tax year 2022-23 has dropped by at least 15% compared to the income provided for their original assessment, can apply for their entitlement to be reassessed.
All households will save on their energy bills through the Energy Price Guarantee and the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme discount. Students who buy their energy from a domestic supplier are eligible for the energy bills discount. The Energy Prices Act passed on 25 October 2022 includes the provision which requires landlords to pass any benefits they receive from energy price support onto end users, as appropriate. Further details of the requirements under this Act are set out in the legislation.
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a price reduction to ensure that all businesses and other non-domestic customers are protected from high energy bills this winter, including universities and private purpose-built student accommodation providers.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which (a) early years and childcare settings, (b) primary schools, (c) secondary schools, (d) sixth form colleges, (e) further education colleges, and (e) universities she has visited outside her constituency since 25 October 2022.
Answered by Nick Gibb
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has made a number of visits to early year settings, schools and colleges outside of her constituency since 25 October 2022.
These include Chesterton Primary School in Wandsworth, Churchend Primary School in Reading, Tillingbourne Junior School in Guildford, which is also a location for a Holiday Activities and Food Programme, Coundon Court School in Coventry, Solihull College and Aston University. Since the 25 October the Secretary of State has not yet visited a sixth form college but has planned visits in her diary.
In addition to the Secretary of State’s visits, her fellow Ministers in the Department have also visited a variety of providers. These include Thomas Jones Primary School in Notting Hill, Simpson’s Lane Primary Academy in Wakefield, Norton Hill School in Somerset, Thomas Becket Catholic School in Northampton, Lycée Camille-Sée in Paris, Guiseley School in Leeds, Michaela Community School in Wembley, Royal Docks Academy in Newham, Harefield Infant School in Hertfordshire, Sir Bobby Robson School in Ipswich, Priory School in Bury St Edmunds, Pear Tree Mead Academy in Harlow, William Morris Sixth Form in Hammersmith, UCU Westminster Kingsway College, Barking and Dagenham College, USP College in Essex and South Essex College.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the financial allocations were to organisations in the West Midlands as part of her Department's Strategic Development Fund.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The West Midlands area has been allocated £2,535,717 in Strategic Development Funding for the financial year 2022/23.
The funding has been awarded to a collaboration of the following further education providers to help them respond to local skills needs: BMET, City of Wolverhampton College, Coventry College, Fircroft College, GBS Institute of Technology, Halesowen College, North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, Sandwell College, Solihull College, South & City College Birmingham, Walsall College, Warwickshire College Group, and University College Birmingham.
Details on financial allocations of the Strategic Development Fund across all regions in England are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strategic-development-fund-awards-2022-to-2023.