Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of creating a national naloxone programme.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Naloxone is highly effective in reducing opioid overdose-related deaths, and the Government is working to widen access to, and increase the uptake of, this life saving drug. A prescription only medicine that is available across the United Kingdom, naloxone can be prescribed by a doctor or non-medical prescriber or provided, under a Patient Group Direction. It can also be supplied without prescription by drug services, which include specialist National Health Service and voluntary sector treatment services, as well as community pharmacies providing other substance misuse services across the UK.
Naloxone has been available for anyone to use in an emergency since 2005. There is good awareness of it, supported by earlier guidance by the Department and its agencies in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023. Drug treatment services and their suppliers also provide independent awareness-raising materials, targeting people who use opioids.
The Government launched a UK-wide public consultation to seek views on our proposal to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 so that more professionals, services, and family members can give out take-home naloxone supplies. The consultation closed on 6 March 2024, and the responses are currently being analysed. The Government will publish its official response shortly.
The Government is working to increase naloxone carriage, and has provided additional investment in drug treatment services to support this work. In England, local authorities and their partners have been increasing naloxone supply in recent years. There are now three naloxone products available, and supply has been meeting demand. To enable the Government to respond to any future change in demand for naloxone, the Department is working with the Home Office to model scenarios where demand for naloxone may increase, and has conducted a commercial engagement exercise to better understand the naloxone market, and the market’s capacity to respond to changes in demand.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her planned timetable is for publishing a response to her Department's consultation on Expanding access to naloxone.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Naloxone is highly effective in reducing opioid overdose-related deaths, and the Government is working to widen access to, and increase the uptake of, this life saving drug. A prescription only medicine that is available across the United Kingdom, naloxone can be prescribed by a doctor or non-medical prescriber or provided, under a Patient Group Direction. It can also be supplied without prescription by drug services, which include specialist National Health Service and voluntary sector treatment services, as well as community pharmacies providing other substance misuse services across the UK.
Naloxone has been available for anyone to use in an emergency since 2005. There is good awareness of it, supported by earlier guidance by the Department and its agencies in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023. Drug treatment services and their suppliers also provide independent awareness-raising materials, targeting people who use opioids.
The Government launched a UK-wide public consultation to seek views on our proposal to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 so that more professionals, services, and family members can give out take-home naloxone supplies. The consultation closed on 6 March 2024, and the responses are currently being analysed. The Government will publish its official response shortly.
The Government is working to increase naloxone carriage, and has provided additional investment in drug treatment services to support this work. In England, local authorities and their partners have been increasing naloxone supply in recent years. There are now three naloxone products available, and supply has been meeting demand. To enable the Government to respond to any future change in demand for naloxone, the Department is working with the Home Office to model scenarios where demand for naloxone may increase, and has conducted a commercial engagement exercise to better understand the naloxone market, and the market’s capacity to respond to changes in demand.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the availability of naloxone across England.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Naloxone is highly effective in reducing opioid overdose-related deaths, and the Government is working to widen access to, and increase the uptake of, this life saving drug. A prescription only medicine that is available across the United Kingdom, naloxone can be prescribed by a doctor or non-medical prescriber or provided, under a Patient Group Direction. It can also be supplied without prescription by drug services, which include specialist National Health Service and voluntary sector treatment services, as well as community pharmacies providing other substance misuse services across the UK.
Naloxone has been available for anyone to use in an emergency since 2005. There is good awareness of it, supported by earlier guidance by the Department and its agencies in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023. Drug treatment services and their suppliers also provide independent awareness-raising materials, targeting people who use opioids.
The Government launched a UK-wide public consultation to seek views on our proposal to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 so that more professionals, services, and family members can give out take-home naloxone supplies. The consultation closed on 6 March 2024, and the responses are currently being analysed. The Government will publish its official response shortly.
The Government is working to increase naloxone carriage, and has provided additional investment in drug treatment services to support this work. In England, local authorities and their partners have been increasing naloxone supply in recent years. There are now three naloxone products available, and supply has been meeting demand. To enable the Government to respond to any future change in demand for naloxone, the Department is working with the Home Office to model scenarios where demand for naloxone may increase, and has conducted a commercial engagement exercise to better understand the naloxone market, and the market’s capacity to respond to changes in demand.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to increase awareness of naloxone.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Naloxone is highly effective in reducing opioid overdose-related deaths, and the Government is working to widen access to, and increase the uptake of, this life saving drug. A prescription only medicine that is available across the United Kingdom, naloxone can be prescribed by a doctor or non-medical prescriber or provided, under a Patient Group Direction. It can also be supplied without prescription by drug services, which include specialist National Health Service and voluntary sector treatment services, as well as community pharmacies providing other substance misuse services across the UK.
Naloxone has been available for anyone to use in an emergency since 2005. There is good awareness of it, supported by earlier guidance by the Department and its agencies in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2023. Drug treatment services and their suppliers also provide independent awareness-raising materials, targeting people who use opioids.
The Government launched a UK-wide public consultation to seek views on our proposal to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 so that more professionals, services, and family members can give out take-home naloxone supplies. The consultation closed on 6 March 2024, and the responses are currently being analysed. The Government will publish its official response shortly.
The Government is working to increase naloxone carriage, and has provided additional investment in drug treatment services to support this work. In England, local authorities and their partners have been increasing naloxone supply in recent years. There are now three naloxone products available, and supply has been meeting demand. To enable the Government to respond to any future change in demand for naloxone, the Department is working with the Home Office to model scenarios where demand for naloxone may increase, and has conducted a commercial engagement exercise to better understand the naloxone market, and the market’s capacity to respond to changes in demand.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) educational and (b) vocational training opportunities are not reduced in prisons; and whether he plans to use those training opportunities to help reduce prison overcrowding.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Education is key for reducing reoffending and research indicates that prison education reduces reoffending by 9 percentage points. In September 2023, we set out our plans to deliver an improved Prison Education Service that will support more prisoners to improve their literacy and numeracy and increase the number of prison leavers employed on release.
Over the past 12 months we have seen a sustained delivery in the number vocational courses undertaken by prisoners following increases to 95,000. To ensure the right education and vocational training opportunities are available across prisons we have:
I am pleased to say that we have seen positive outcomes in employment in support of our work to make best use of prison capacity. The proportion of prison leavers in employment six months after release has more than doubled in the two years to March 2023, from 14% to over 30%and between 2011/12 and 2021/22, the overall proven reoffending rate has decreased from 31.3% to 25.2%.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church is taking to support churches in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Church Commissioners and National Church Institutions provide support for the mission and ministry of all dioceses in the Church of England.
The Church Commissioners have made £340 million available to support a Diocesan Investment Programme overseen by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Board, which includes additional funding and resources for lowest-income communities. The Diocese of Lincoln benefits from the Lowest Income Communities Fund, which is directly supporting the stipendiary ministry of clergy in many areas such as Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Lincoln and Boston.
The Diocese of Lincoln has recently launched ‘Time to Change Together’, which is its shared vision for the future of the diocese and its presence in Greater Lincolnshire. You can find out more about the project here: https://www.lincoln.anglican.org/parish-support/a-time-to-change-together/ The Diocese bid for and received a grant from the Strategic Development Fund for a project called 'Resourcing the Urban Church' designed to revitalise churches of all traditions across the urban centres in the diocese.
Lincolnshire has one of the highest ratios of churches per head of the population in England, and the Diocese is committed to the stewardship of its historic churches and to supporting new worshipping communities. A new giving scheme has been developed to encourage congregations to support the flourishing of mission and ministry in the Diocese, and plans are being developed for an ‘Open Churches Trust’ to support smaller churches with maintenance and insurance advice.
The Diocese is developing new strategies to support clergy well-being. Preventing long-term vacancies and illness is a priority alongside finding sustainable solutions for parishes.
For further information about the work underway in Lincolnshire, please contact the area bishop The Rt Revd Dr Nicholas Chamberlain, Bishop of Grantham, whose details are here: https://www.lincoln.anglican.org/contact/directory/
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the Church plans to publicly acknowledge historic links with the chattel slave trade.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been unequivocal on the theology of this issue, noting on his visit to Cape Coast Castle in Ghana in February 2023:
“It was a reminder that the abomination of African chattel enslavement was blasphemy: those who imprisoned men and women in those dungeons saw them as less than human. It is to the Church of England’s eternal shame that it did not always follow Christ’s teaching to give life. It is a stain on the wider church that some Christians did not see their brothers and sisters as created in the image of God, but as objects to be exploited.”
The Church Commissioners has been investigating its historic links to the chattel slave trade since 2019 and published a full, transparent report of the findings in January 2023. More information about the whole project is available here:
Church Commissioners Links to Historic Transatlantic Slavery | The Church of England
The Church Commissioners seek, through the research it has done and its response, to acknowledge the truth of the past, apologise for the wrongs that this research has highlighted, and to address these wrongs through repentance, remembrance, reconciliation, and renewal. The Church Commissioners believe that by addressing its past transparently, particularly this part of our past, the Church and its teachings will be more relevant to more people. The response is an important missional activity that will support the work and ministry of the Church of England in England.
The Church Commissioners are committed to setting up an Impact Investment Fund as part of its response to invest in a better and fairer future for all, particularly for communities affected by historic enslavement. It is hoped this fund will grow over time, reinvesting returns to enable it to have a positive and lasting legacy that will exist in perpetuity and with the potential for other institutions to participate, further enabling growth in the size and impact of the fund. This Fund will be seeded with a £100 million commitment from the Church Commissioners.
Despite recent press speculation, the Church Commissioners has no plans to increase its contribution to the Fund over the planned funding period. It is hoped that growth in the impact fund will also enable grant funding for projects focused on improving opportunities for communities impacted by historic African chattel enslavement.
The Church Commissioners have also committed to undertake further research, including into the Church Commissioners' history, supporting dioceses and parishes to research and address their historic links with African chattel enslavement, and sharing best practices with other organisations researching their enslavement legacies.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will extend member and trade union representation to the board of the Pension Protection Fund.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is no legal requirement for the Board of the Pension Protection Fund to include member or trade union representation, and there are no plans to extend representation to these groups.
The Pension Protection Fund does, however, have Member Panels – which Board members are invited to attend – to enable members to feed in views on the service offered and thoughts about changes that could be made in the future.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve access to artificial intelligence training.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to creating a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality and fit for the future.
The department will continue its work to ensure that the education system is able to adapt to deliver upskilling and to provide the skills that learners need for the workplaces of the future, including jobs that will be impacted by, or require the use of, artificial intelligence (AI).
World class T Levels are boosting access to high-quality technical education for thousands of young people and creating a skilled workforce for the future. 18 T Levels are available in a range of in-demand subject areas, including T Levels in digital subjects, which have been designed by employers and will help to equip students with the skills and knowledge required for great careers in the digital industry.
Employers have designed over 30 high-quality apprenticeships in digital occupations, including Level 7 Artificial Intelligence Data Specialist, which will provide cutting edge skills in AI. Since it was introduced in May 2020, starts in this standard have grown from 100 in the 2020/21 academic year to 350 in the 2022/23 academic year.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) are revising the Level 7 Artificial Intelligence Data Specialist standard this year to ensure it meets employers’ needs. They have also developed Level 5 in Data Engineering and are currently developing Level 6 Machine Learning Engineer. These standards include high levels of content regarding the application and use of AI.
IfATE are also hosting workshops with a range of stakeholders to discuss the impact of AI on skills requirement across the economy and will be updating the Digital Skills and Characteristics Framework with AI-related content when it is revised next year. This will ensure all employers are thinking about the use and impact of AI when developing or revising occupational standards.
Skills Bootcamps are delivering skills training for the digital sector in 2024/25 in each English region. There are also online Skills Bootcamps in AI Marketing and Content Creation and AI and Machine Learning.
Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) provide the skills needed for a range of specialist digital occupations, such as cyber security technologist and software developer. There are 56 digital HTQs currently approved for teaching and a further ten approved for teaching from September 2024. HTQs provide a range of opportunities and pathways to build up the skills needed for AI-related roles.
In higher education, the department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to deliver new postgraduate AI and data science conversion courses to boost skills and diversity in AI jobs. The government is also investing £117 million in doctoral training for AI researchers.
In 2023, the department’s Unit for Future Skills (UFS) developed a Science and Technology Jobs and Skills Dashboard to understand the supply and demand of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills to develop critical technologies like AI and quantum. This data will support improved access to relevant training.
The UFS has also undertaken analysis which attempts to quantify the impact of AI on the UK job market. It shows the occupations, sectors and geographic areas expected to be most affected by AI and large language models, as well as the training routes that typically lead to these highly affected jobs.
Digital and computing skills will play an important role for individuals developing and using AI in the future workforce. The department is harnessing government and external expertise through the Digital and Computing Skills Education Taskforce to increase the number of people taking digital and computing qualifications and attract a diverse range of individuals into digital jobs.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost to the public purse was of supporting the (a) Youth Parliament, (b) Youth Select Committee and (c) Make Your Mark Programme since their inception.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I was sorry to learn about the closure of the British Youth Council and want to express gratitude for its work over the years. Government is committed to the delivery of the UK Youth Parliament and intends to use funding allocated to BYC in 2024/25 to support the programme. We are working alongside previous UKYP delivery partners from English regions and the devolved administrations, to understand the implications of BYCs closure for programme delivery. We have been working at pace to identify a suitable organisation which can hold overall grant management responsibility for the UKYP 24/25 and I will update the house as soon as next steps have been formalised. In parallel, we will be leading engagement with young people and key stakeholders to plan for the longer-term future of the UKYP.
An evaluation of the impact of the Youth Parliament was conducted between October 2022 and March 2023 and found that all stakeholders, participants, delivery staff and policy officials, agreed that the programmes were important vehicles to engage young people in the UK political processes and support youth-informed policy development. A new evaluation of the UK Youth Parliament programme was started in 23/24 and is due to conclude in 24/25.
Since 2017, Government has provided a total amount of c.£2.4m to the British Youth Council to deliver youth voice activities including the UK Youth Parliament, Youth Select Committees and Make Your Mark.