Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to end the funding of hospices through integrated care boards.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
I commend my Rt Hon. Friend’s tireless advocacy for high-quality end-of-life care, through his work on the APPG for Dying Well.
I understand his concerns about potential variation in provision. However, the Health and Care Act 2022 included a legal duty for integrated care boards to commission palliative and end of life care, in line with wider NHS devolution.
Integrated care boards are best positioned to understand and meet the needs of their local population, and commission appropriate end-of-life services, including from the NHS and voluntary sector organisations, such as hospices.
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to require every Integrated Care Board to develop a young onset dementia pathway to (a) standardise and (b) improve dementia (i) care and (ii) support for people of working age.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England would expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
The Dementia Well Pathway includes diagnosing well, living/ supporting well and dying well, and highlights that services need to be integrated, commissioned, monitored, and aligned with NICE standards for each component of the pathway. It makes it clear that the needs, wishes and preferences of each individual, including those of working age, should be taken into account in planning and providing their care.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support people with early onset dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to delivering high quality care and support for every person with dementia at every age, and central to this is the provision of personalised care. Provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England would expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs.
The Dementia Well Pathway includes diagnosing well, living well, supporting well, and dying well, and highlights that services need to be integrated, commissioned, monitored, and aligned with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) standards for each component of the pathway. It makes it clear that individual needs, wishes and preferences should be taken into account in planning and providing care.
In January 2023 the Government announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy early 2024. By bringing dementia and other conditions strategies together, we will be able to focus on where there are similarities in approach and ensure care is better centred around the patient.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve treatment and care for patients with Alzheimer's.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every person with dementia, their families and carers, receive high quality, compassionate care, from diagnosis through to end of life. To improve care for patients with dementia, including those with Alzheimer’s disease, NHS England's RightCare team is refreshing the RightCare Dementia Scenario. The scenario works through the dementia well pathway journey from diagnosing well through to dying well, detailing optimal and sub optimal approaches, with associated costings for each. The RightCare team is developing a dementia model pathway based on data for each component of the dementia well pathway to provide a high-level view of what dementia care activity looks like for local areas and will support targeted support where appropriate.
There are also several potential new disease modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease in development. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), NHS England and the Department are working closely to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and NICE recommended treatment for dementia as soon as possible.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what changes have been made to the provision of services for people with dementia in the period since the publication of the guidance by the NHS and the Alzheimer’s Society entitled The dementia guide: Living well after your diagnosis in November 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since the publication of the guidance by the National Health Service and the Alzheimer’s Society in November 2020, NHS England is funding an evidence-based improvement project for two trusts in each region, encompassing 14 sites in total, to pilot the Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate tool to improve diagnosis of dementia in care homes and to create an alternative pathway for diagnosing dementia. NHS England is also stepping up and accelerating preparation for the rollout of any potential new treatments, including the establishment of a dedicated programme team for early Alzheimer’s treatments.
NHS England's RightCare team is refreshing the RightCare Dementia Scenario which works through the dementia well pathway journey from diagnosing well through to dying well, detailing optimal and sub optimal approaches, with associated costings for each. The RightCare team is also developing a ‘dementia model pathway’.
Following publication of the Strategic Framework on 14 August 2023, we are continuing to develop the Major Conditions Strategy, informed by the Call for Evidence and ongoing engagement. This includes dementia as one of the six major conditions. Our intention is to publish the strategy in early 2024.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
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 help ensure that dementia patients in Solihull constituency receive (a) holistic and (b) person-centred care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2023-2028 Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board Dementia Strategy aims to support those affected by dementia by enabling support services to provide early intervention and preventative support with timely information, and advice throughout the journey with dementia. More information about the strategy is available at the following link:
The Strategy includes a focus on holistic and personalised care under the sections ‘Supporting well’ and ‘Dying well’. The Strategy’s priorities include improving the quality of personalised care and support planning for people with dementia, including planning for the end of life, and improving post-diagnostic support and support for carers.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions prisoners who were granted temporary release on compassionate grounds failed to return to prison on the date they were required to do so in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The table below shows the number of prisoners that failed to return to English and Welsh prisons from temporary release on compassionate grounds in each of the last five years.
Number of prisoners that failed to return from temporary release1,2,3 on compassionate release4 in England and Wales, 2018-19 to 2022-23 | |
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Year | Number of failures to return5 |
2018-19 | 2 |
2019-20 | 5 |
2020-21 | 4 |
2021-22 | 4 |
2022-23 | 3 |
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(1) Figures can include incidents within the youth estate, but exclude incidents at Medway STC | |
(2) A temporary release failure after a release on temporary licence (ROTL) occurs when a prisoner fails to adhere to any condition written into the licence that permits their temporary release. Such conditions include the date and time by which the prisoner is required to return to the prison and may also place restrictions on where the prisoner may go and whom they may visit during the period of release, etc. | |
(3) Failure to return after release on temporary licence is the subset of the above where an offender has not returned to the establishment by midnight on the date of return given in the licence. | |
(4) Figures for compassionate release include where the type of temporary release was either 'funeral/visiting dying relative', 'medical treatment' (special purpose medical only) or 'other compassionate release' | |
(5) The figures include all failures to return, not only those where failure to return is the most serious type of failure | |
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Data Sources and Quality | |
These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level. | |
The Prison Rules in England and Wales provide that a prisoner may be allowed to leave prison for short periods on temporary licence (ROTL). ROTL under special purpose licence (SPL) is permitted for compelling compassionate reasons not directly linked to resettlement; for example, to allow the prisoner to attend medical appointments.
Public protection is our priority. All offenders must meet strict criteria and pass a full risk assessment, involving all relevant agencies, before being considered for release on temporary licence (ROTL).
By providing opportunities to work, learn and build family ties, temporary release from prison helps ensure offenders don't return to crime when they leave prison. Evidence shows the vast majority abide by their temporary release conditions, with the compliance rate standing at well over 99%. In 2022-23, for example, there were 7,165 temporary releases for compassionate reasons and only 3 failures to return. Non-compliance is, and will continue to be, dealt with robustly.
Justice matters in Northern Ireland are devolved.
Asked by: Lord Shipley (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have to suggest that the cause of mass marine deaths between the River Tees and the River Esk was the result of a new pathogen, given the presence of high levels of pyridine in dead crustaceans.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Crustacean Mortality Expert Panel were unable to identify a clear and convincing single cause for the unusual crustacean mortality but considered a novel pathogen or disease to be, as likely as not (33 to 66% probability), the cause of the mass mortalities reported in the north-east of England in autumn 2021. This likelihood is based on key observations including mortality over a sustained period and along 70 km of coastline, the unusual twitching of dying crabs and the deaths being predominantly crabs rather than other species.
The panel concluded it was very unlikely that pyridine or another toxic pollutant caused the crab deaths, given there could not be sources of any significant volume of pyridine during the period of the crab deaths. Seawater measurements (by the Environment Agency and by York University) could not detect levels of pyridine sufficient to cause mortality during this period. Environment Agency tests for pyridine in crab tissue in the affected north-east coastal region as well from Penzance, Cornwall, and the Norfolk Wash indicated that pyridine can be found in crab tissue in most samples regardless of location. Sediment levels of pyridine from dredged material and other toxic chemicals found in sediments were significantly lower than the levels which would cause crab mortality.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 consistency of provision of palliative and end of life care across the prison estate.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No specific assessments have been made.
However, the ‘National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England 2018 – 2021’ has supported the implementation of the Dying Well in Custody Charter in the English estate. The National Partnership Agreement's workplan sets out how NHS England and HM Prison and Probation Service can continue improvements to health and social care outcomes for older people and those with serious illnesses, including palliative and end of life care. A revised workplan for 2022 to 2025 is currently being developed.
NHS England is convening a joint working group with HM Prison and Probation Service to conduct a review of current progress in delivering the Dying Well in Custody Charter workplan. This group will also consider opportunities to develop networks and forums for sharing good practice. The Ministry of Justice will publish the Aging Prison Population Strategy in due course and how the Dying Well in Custody Charter will be embedded within prisons.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment she has made of the (a) access to and (b) quality of palliative and end of life care in (i) prisons and (ii) the community.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No specific assessments have been made.
However, the ‘National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England 2018 – 2021’ has supported the implementation of the Dying Well in Custody Charter in the English estate. The National Partnership Agreement's workplan sets out how NHS England and HM Prison and Probation Service can continue improvements to health and social care outcomes for older people and those with serious illnesses, including palliative and end of life care. A revised workplan for 2022 to 2025 is currently being developed.
NHS England is convening a joint working group with HM Prison and Probation Service to conduct a review of current progress in delivering the Dying Well in Custody Charter workplan. This group will also consider opportunities to develop networks and forums for sharing good practice. The Ministry of Justice will publish the Aging Prison Population Strategy in due course and how the Dying Well in Custody Charter will be embedded within prisons.