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 steps she is taking to ensure that every prison in England is (a) aware of the Dying Well in Custody Charter and (b) uses the Charter to improve the palliative and end of life care their prisoners receive.
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: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the number of Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) cases that were formerly ARAP cases; when the oldest ACRS application still in process was submitted; the number of staff appointed to deal with the ACRS cases; the number of ACRS applications that have been closed due to the applicant either being killed or dying; and the number of ACRS applicants on the Taliban Kill list.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Over 15,000 people were supported to come to the UK directly following the evacuation of Afghanistan, and more than 4,000 have since arrived.
Work is underway to ensure information relating to all the individuals relocated under all schemes are recorded on case working systems. Once this work concludes, statistics on ACRS and ARAP will be included in future editions of the Immigration Statistics. We will publish resettlement figures in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, allowing transparent progress-monitoring.
The ACRS is not application-based. Instead, eligible people will be prioritised for resettlement through three referral pathways.
Some of those brought to safety in the UK during and after the evacuation are eligible for the ACRS under Pathway 1. They include women’s rights activists, journalists, and prosecutors, as well as the Afghan families of British Nationals. We have now granted many of these ILR under the ACRS.
Under the newly-opened second pathway, we are now able to begin receiving referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of vulnerable refugees who have fled Afghanistan for resettlement to the UK.
The FCDO have also launched the third referral pathway, which will see eligible British Council and GardaWorld contractors and Chevening alumni considered for resettlement to the UK.
We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand, including from pressures relating to the situations in Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to implement the recommendations from the Care Quality Commission's report Protect, respect, connect – decisions about living and dying well during COVID-19 published in March 2021 to (a) establish a Ministerial Oversight Group to look into the issues of end of life care in more detail, (b) support people, their families and their representatives to understand good practice when reaching DNACPR decisions, and (c) work with health service and care partners, voluntary sector organisations and advocacy services to establish a unified approach to guidance that supports DNACPR decisions for service users.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department established a Ministerial Oversight Group responsible for the delivery of the recommendations of the Care Quality Commission’s report. The first meeting was held on 8 June and will meet quarterly to monitor progress.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have published patient-facing information on Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) to support people in understanding good practice around such decisions, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/do-not-attempt-cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-dnacpr-decisions/
The Ministerial Oversight Group is working closely with health and care partners, voluntary sector organisations and advocacy groups to ensure adherence to guidance on how DNACPR decisions are used.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Care Quality Commission's report Protect, respect, connect - decisions about living and dying well during covid-19, what estimate he has made of the number of patients who died as a result of a Do Not Resuscitate order at the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In October 2020, the Department asked the Care Quality Commission to review how Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions were made during the COVID 19 pandemic. The review focused on whether DNACPR decisions had been inappropriately applied. The Department does not hold data on the numbers or assessment of DNACPRs.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
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 implications for his policies of the findings of the CQC's report, entitled Protect, respect, connect: decisions about living and dying well during COVID-19, published on 18 March 2021.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department is committed to driving forward the recommendations set out in the Care Quality Commission’s report through the establishment of a Ministerial Oversight Group. This group will bring together partners across health and social care to implement improvements in Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions and ensure everyone receives the compassionate care they deserve.
The Department does not hold data on the numbers of DNACPR decisions. However, we remain clear that it is unacceptable for DNACPR decisions to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people and have taken continued action over the last year, alongside clinical leaders, to clarify best practice. The Adult Social Care Winter Plan reinforces that any advance care decision, including DNACPR decisions, should be fully discussed with the individual and their family where possible and appropriate, and signed by the clinician responsible for their care.
The 2020/21 General Medical Services contract Quality and Outcomes Framework includes a requirement for all DNACPR decisions for people with learning disabilities to be reviewed. We continue to monitor the situation and have invited charities to inform us where cases of inappropriate practice are identified so that action can be taken.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the CQC report, Protect, respect, connect – decisions about living and dying well during covid-19, published 18 March 2021, what steps she will take to address outstanding inappropriate or blanket do not attempt CPR decisions taken as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department is committed to driving forward the recommendations set out in the Care Quality Commission’s report through the establishment of a Ministerial Oversight Group. This group will bring together partners across health and social care to implement improvements in Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions and ensure everyone receives the compassionate care they deserve.
The Department does not hold data on the numbers of DNACPR decisions. However, we remain clear that it is unacceptable for DNACPR decisions to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people and have taken continued action over the last year, alongside clinical leaders, to clarify best practice. The Adult Social Care Winter Plan reinforces that any advance care decision, including DNACPR decisions, should be fully discussed with the individual and their family where possible and appropriate, and signed by the clinician responsible for their care.
The 2020/21 General Medical Services contract Quality and Outcomes Framework includes a requirement for all DNACPR decisions for people with learning disabilities to be reviewed. We continue to monitor the situation and have invited charities to inform us where cases of inappropriate practice are identified so that action can be taken.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the CQC report, Protect, respect, connect – decisions about living and dying well during covid-19, published 18 March 2021, what estimate he has made of the number of inappropriate or blanket Do Not Attempt CPR decisions taken during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department is committed to driving forward the recommendations set out in the Care Quality Commission’s report through the establishment of a Ministerial Oversight Group. This group will bring together partners across health and social care to implement improvements in Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions and ensure everyone receives the compassionate care they deserve.
The Department does not hold data on the numbers of DNACPR decisions. However, we remain clear that it is unacceptable for DNACPR decisions to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people and have taken continued action over the last year, alongside clinical leaders, to clarify best practice. The Adult Social Care Winter Plan reinforces that any advance care decision, including DNACPR decisions, should be fully discussed with the individual and their family where possible and appropriate, and signed by the clinician responsible for their care.
The 2020/21 General Medical Services contract Quality and Outcomes Framework includes a requirement for all DNACPR decisions for people with learning disabilities to be reviewed. We continue to monitor the situation and have invited charities to inform us where cases of inappropriate practice are identified so that action can be taken.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to implement the recommendations of the Care Quality Commission report, Protect, respect, connect – decisions about living and dying well during COVID-19, published 18 March 2021.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department is committed to driving forward the recommendations set out in the Care Quality Commission’s report through the establishment of a Ministerial Oversight Group. This group will bring together partners across health and social care to implement improvements in Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions and ensure everyone receives the compassionate care they deserve.
The Department does not hold data on the numbers of DNACPR decisions. However, we remain clear that it is unacceptable for DNACPR decisions to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people and have taken continued action over the last year, alongside clinical leaders, to clarify best practice. The Adult Social Care Winter Plan reinforces that any advance care decision, including DNACPR decisions, should be fully discussed with the individual and their family where possible and appropriate, and signed by the clinician responsible for their care.
The 2020/21 General Medical Services contract Quality and Outcomes Framework includes a requirement for all DNACPR decisions for people with learning disabilities to be reviewed. We continue to monitor the situation and have invited charities to inform us where cases of inappropriate practice are identified so that action can be taken.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to 130 horses dying on course in 2020, what steps he plans to take to ensure that horses are not killed as the result of racing.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Ensuring the welfare needs of racehorses are well met, both during their racing lives and afterwards is a priority. The British Horseracing Authority (BHA), British racing’s governing and regulatory body, is responsible for the safety of racehorses at British racecourses. The BHA works alongside the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare to make horseracing as safe as possible.
The Government welcomed the creation of the racing industry’s Horse Welfare Board (HWB), which was formed in March 2019. The Board is chaired by Barry Johnson, former President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (who is independent of the BHA) and includes members from across the racing industry, veterinarians and animal health and welfare experts. The Board has assured Defra that it is committed to doing all it can to make the sport safer and improve welfare outcomes. The HWB published its five-year horse welfare strategy “A life well lived” last year:
http://media.britishhorseracing.com/bha/Welfare/HWB/WELFARE_STRATEGY.pdf.
The strategy contains 20 recommendations for the industry aimed at ensuring the best possible safety and quality of life for racehorses.
One of the plan’s five identified outcomes (outcome 3 - 'Best possible safety') aims to reduce and minimise, as far as reasonably possible, avoidable injuries and fatalities to racehorses. This targets a reduction in injuries and fatalities on racecourses but also those that occur in, or as a result of, training or pre-training methods, or which are linked to breeding. The HWB has underlined the importance of data to better understand the causes of injuries and fatalities to help achieve this outcome.
Defra does not hold any information related to racehorse fatalities including those that have occurred during training. However, as well as collating and publishing data on racing fatalities, the BHA, following the recommendations contained within the HWB’s strategy, is working to improve data gathering in relation to thoroughbred racehorse fatalities in training. This includes analysis of data and reporting mechanisms which already exist regarding horses in training, and how these can be improved to provide additional data on fatal injuries.
The Secretary of State has not met representatives of either the BHA or the HWB between 2019 and now. I can confirm that the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at that time met with the BHA’s Director of Equine Health and the HWB’s Independent Chair in May 2019 where both sides agreed that further action was required to make the sport safer and to improve animal welfare standards across the industry. My officials plan to meet with the BHA in due course and will continue to engage with the sector to ensure that the welfare of racehorses, and reducing the fatalities and injuries that result from racing, remain at the forefront of the BHA’s priorities in delivering the plan’s outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk posed to the health of (1) individuals, and (2) the general public, of extending restrictions to address the COVID-19 pandemic for specific groups including (a) all over 60s regardless of health, (b) all over 70s regardless of health, (c) all BAME citizens, (d) all male citizens, and (e) all those with a body mass index over 30; how many people in each such group have been admitted to intensive care due to COVID-19; and what proportion of the total population of each group such numbers represent. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
On 2 June Public Health England published Disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19. This report was subsequently updated in August 2020. The report finds that among people already diagnosed with COVID-19, people who were 80 years or older were seventy times more likely to die than those under 40. It also sets out that the risk of dying among those diagnosed with COVID-19 was also higher in males than females; higher in those living in the more deprived areas than those living in the least deprived; and higher in those in black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups than in white ethnic groups. The report notes that these inequalities largely replicate existing inequalities in mortality rates in previous years, except for BAME groups, as mortality was previously higher in white ethnic groups. The report’s analyses take into account age, sex, deprivation, region and ethnicity, but it does not take into account the existence of co-morbidities, which are strongly associated with the risk of death from COVID-19 and are likely to explain some of the differences. A copy of the report is attached.
On 22 October the Minister for Equalities, (Kemi Badenoch MP) published the first Quarterly report on progress to address COVID-19 health inequalities report to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on progress to tackle COVID-19 disparities experienced by individuals from an ethnic minority background, making 13 recommendations. This includes reviewing the effectiveness and impact of current actions being undertaken by relevant Government departments to directly lessen disparities in infection and death rates of COVID-19. As well as taking action to modify existing policy and policy in development to address these disparities, all of which the Prime Minister has accepted. A copy of this quarterly report is attached.