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: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of the population have access to (a) green space and (b) water within 15 minutes walk from home.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The data we currently use on the number and proportion of people with access to greenspace is taken from Natural England’s Green Infrastructure (GI) Framework analysis. Natural England’s G3 Indicator report shows that as of October 2021, the proportions of the total population in England living within Accessible Greenspace Standards ‘criteria’ (straight line distances from the boundary of the greenspaces) are:
• 1 in 3 people live within 200 metres of a doorstep greenspace of at least 0.5 hectares
• 1 in 4 people live within 300 metres of a local natural greenspace of at least 2 hectares
• 1 in 2 people live within 1 km of a neighbourhood natural greenspace of at least 10 hectares.
We are currently working to establish a robust baseline of walkability to green and blue space, including working with NE and with the Rivers Trust to create data on blue space access points. In August we will publish an official statistic in development on walkability within England to the nearest green space. This will use network analysis to calculate travel time/distance rather than straight-line distances, and enhanced use of data on the rights-of-way network. For full details see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/access-to-green-space-in-england.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that family hubs have adequate funding to help support all children that require their services.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing around £300 million in 75 local authorities to transform their family support services to family hubs. Funding has been targeted to the most deprived local authorities to ensure that families get the support they need. This will fund a network of family hubs and specific support within those hubs for parent–infant mental health, infant feeding services, parenting support, home learning environment, and to establish parent-carer panels. In addition, all 75 local authorities will publish their Start for Life offer and the department is providing funding for trials of innovative workforce models to a smaller number of local authorities.
Family hubs provide services for children of all ages, and from 0 to 19 for families who have children with SEND, with a great Start for Life offer at their core.
In allocating funding to each local authority, the department has balanced the variable costs that local authorities face due to different population sizes, such as greater service demand resulting from a bigger population, against the fact that some costs will be similar regardless of these differences, for example the costs of establishing a parent carer panel. Each local authority’s total funding allocation therefore consists of two elements. The first is a fixed amount for each of the programme’s strands. The second element is a variable amount for each strand based on each local authority’s relative population size.
As outlined in the 'Family Hubs and Start for Life programme: local authority guide' each element of the programme focuses on a specific age range. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide. The variable amounts were, therefore, based on the most relevant population age ranges for the objectives of each programme strand.
For further information please see the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62ed30f98fa8f5033275fce8/Family_Hubs_and_Start_for_Life_programme_-_methodology_for_allocating_funding_to_local_authorities.pdf.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
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 trends in the level of uptake for breast cancer screenings amongst ethnic minority women.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national breast screening programme does not currently have the capability to routinely cross reference patient’s ethnicity data with uptake data. NHS England has started work to improve its data collection capabilities as part of the development of the new screening IT system, through the Digital Transformation of Screening programme. This will support the collection of population-level data on protected characteristics such as ethnicity, to support services in improving uptake.
More widely, NHS England has developed a national plan to improve uptake, including interventions to address inequalities and screening barriers. This includes ensuring appointments are as convenient as possible, and efforts are focused on areas and groups with low uptake.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners sentenced to custodial sentences had previously received at least one (a) community and (b) suspended sentence in each year since 2010.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent judiciary and, by law, courts are required to be satisfied that the offence committed is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified, and even when that threshold is met, courts are able to consider whether a community sentence would be more suitable in that particular case. In many cases, sentences served in the community can more effectively reduce reoffending when compared to short custodial sentences.
Data showing the number and proportion of prisoners sentenced to custodial sentences, who have previously had at least one community order or suspended sentence order respectively for each year since 2010, is drawn from the Police National Computer. This can be viewed in the table below.
Table showing the number and proportion of offender s(1), (2) sentenced to immediate custody(3) in each year since 2010(4), who previously(5) received at least one community order(6) or suspended sentence order respectively(7), prior to the immediate custodial sentence. England and Wales(8).
Year | Number of offenders who received at least one community order prior to an immediate custodial sentence | Proportion of offenders who received at least one community order prior to an immediate custodial sentence | Number of offenders who received at least one suspended sentence order prior to an immediate custodial sentence | Proportion of offenders who received at least one suspended sentence order prior to an immediate custodial sentence |
2010 | 34,550 | 40% | 23,602 | 28% |
2011 | 40,134 | 46% | 25,870 | 29% |
2012 | 42,183 | 49% | 26,216 | 31% |
2013 | 41,201 | 52% | 26,670 | 33% |
2014 | 41,962 | 54% | 27,746 | 36% |
2015 | 41,699 | 54% | 28,381 | 37% |
2016 | 42,985 | 55% | 30,138 | 38% |
2017 | 41,424 | 56% | 30,010 | 41% |
2018 | 38,318 | 57% | 28,112 | 42% |
2019 | 35,524 | 58% | 25,634 | 42% |
2020 | 28,623 | 59% | 20,895 | 43% |
2021 | 28,523 | 55% | 20,898 | 41% |
2022 | 27,230 | 56% | 20,339 | 42% |
Source: MoJ extract of the Police National Computer
1 - 'Proportion' refers to the number of offenders in each year who received an immediate custodial sentence in each year and had at least one previous community order or suspended sentence order respectively as a proportion of all offenders who received an immediate custodial sentence in the same year.
2 - Offenders are counted once in each year but may appear in multiple years if they received an immediate custodial sentence in more than one of the years.
3 - Immediate custodial sentences include types of detention other than adult prison (e.g. detention and training orders given to 10 to 17 year olds or detention in Young Offenders Institutions). An offender sentenced to immediate custody does not necessarily mean that the offender is a member of the prison population.
4 - The figures for 2020 and 2021 are likely to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
5 - Previous community orders or suspended sentence orders respectively may have been received at any time prior to the index offence (last immediate custodial sentence) in each year.
6 - Community orders strictly include community orders, with or without electronic monitoring or curfew restrictions, but excludes other types of community sentences (e.g. youth rehabilitation order, supervision orders) and other sentences that may be served in the community (e.g. suspended sentence orders). At least some of the orders included were only introduced in their current form in 2005.
7 – individuals can be present in both columns
8 - England and Wales includes all 43 police force areas plus the British Transport Police
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if NHS England will (a) fund and (b) publish a data dashboard to help integrated care boards commission children and young people’s palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has developed an all-age palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place in an easily accessible format. The dashboard is accessible to integrated care boards (ICBs) and their commissioners and helps them understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, including children and young people. This supports commissioners in their statutory duty for palliative and end of life care, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly based on prevalence.
Funding has been confirmed to ensure continued maintenance of the dashboard for 2024/25, with discussions ongoing regarding further development and use. There is, however, existing publicly available data, such as the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities ‘Fingertips’ data on palliative and end of life care.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much humanitarian aid has been delivered to civilians in Gaza with the support of Armed Forces personnel in each month since October 2023.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
UK Armed Forces personnel have been deployed as planning teams with Allies and partners to support the wider delivery of humanitarian aid. UK Armed Forces have directly delivered over 225 tonnes on humanitarian aid to support the civilian population of Gaza since October 2023. It is broken down by month below.
UK Armed Forces directly delivered to aid agencies via Egypt | |
October 2023 | 21 tonnes |
November 2023 | 53 tonnes |
December 2023 | 87 tonnes of UK and Cypriot aid |
January 2024 | Nil |
UK Armed Forces directly delivered to Gaza | |
February 2024 | (4 tonnes of UK aid air dropped by Jordan) |
March 2024 | 42 tonnes |
April 2024 (to 17 April) | 24 tonnes |
Asked by: Earl of Caithness (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of the UK Health Security Agency report Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) in the UK: State of the evidence 2023 in January, what steps they are taking to inform health professionals of the heightened risk to public health of (1) Lyme disease, and (2) emerging tick-borne diseases, including tick-borne encephalitis, from an increase in the UK distribution of tick species as a result of a warming climate; and what advice are they providing to those exposed to this risk through work or leisure.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has an active programme to promote awareness of tick-borne diseases among local authorities, health professionals and the public by 2025 in line with the Third National Adaptation Programme. This includes Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis. UKHSA has worked to develop a toolkit for local authorities and key stakeholders to raise awareness of the potential risks created by ticks and tick-borne disease, a copy of which is attached. UKHSA also publishes Lyme disease data on Fingertips, which is an open access public health data platform which allows the public, health professionals, and local authorities to view trends, compare indicators and understand the incidence of Lyme disease in their area.
Clinicians are also engaged via teaching sessions for General Practitioners, seminars for infection specialists, and briefing notes to notify clinicians of the possibility of tick-borne diseases, with detail of compatible signs and symptoms. Disease messaging is shared through media, social, and stakeholder channels at a national and regional level, such as the #BeTickAware campaign which aims to raise awareness in the population, including those at risk of exposure through work or leisure.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of funding provided by UK Research and Investment for research papers.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UKRI is the national funding agency that invests in and facilitates research and innovation activities across the United Kingdom. Research papers are a key means of communicating the results of research and innovation activities contributing to the body of knowledge across different research areas.
Every £1 of public R&D funding leverages around £2 of additional private sector investment. The UK is a leader in science and research. With less than one per cent of the world’s population, the UK accounts for 6.3% of the world’s academic publications, and 13.4% of the most highly cited research publications.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to speech and language therapists in schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department’s vision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), is the same as it is for all children and young people. The department wants them to achieve well in their early years, at school and in further education, to find employment, to lead happy and fulfilled lives and to experience choice and control.
The first response when any child is falling behind in school is good quality teaching. To support with this, the department is developing a suite of Practitioner standards, called ’Practice Guides‘ in the SEND and alternative provision Improvement Plan, which will set out the best available evidence to help professionals in mainstream settings, including early years staff, teachers and teaching assistants to identify and support the needs of children and young people they work with, including for those with speech and language needs.
In some cases, additional, specialist support may be required to meet the needs of a child, including support provided by speech and language therapists. The department is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to take a joint approach to SEND workforce planning. The department established a steering group in 2023 to oversee this work, which is intended to be completed by 2025. The government is also backing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take over the next 15 years to meet the needs of the changing population. This includes increasing the number of allied health professionals such as speech and language therapists.
In addition, working with NHS England, the department is funding the Early Language and Support for Every Child pathfinders within the department’s Change Programme until 2025. The project will fund nine Integrated Care Boards and local areas within each of the nine Change Programme Partnerships to trial new ways of working to better identify and support children with SLCN in early years and primary school settings.