Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on food security in (a) Sudan and (b) South Sudan of disruption of the planting season.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Intense conflict and economic decline mean that 17.7 million people in Sudan (37 % of the population) are now experiencing acute food insecurity. This represents the highest percentage of food insecurity immediately after the harvest on record for Sudan. The spread of the conflict to the "breadbasket" state of Jazira meant that food production, grain milling, storage and transportation have been heavily impacted. In South Sudan, agricultural production and coping capacity are extremely limited due to the impact of conflict, flooding, under-investment and lack of infrastructure. The UK is supporting food assistance and livelihoods for some of the most vulnerable people in the two countries, but humanitarian access remains extremely challenging.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on funding for sexual health clinics.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services that meet the local demand, and these include online and face to face provision of advice and interventions. Individual local authorities decide on spending priorities based on an assessment of local need for sexual health services, as well as the blend of service access that best suits their population.
In 2024/25 we are allocating £3.6 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual health services, through the Public Health Grant. This will provide local authorities with an average 2.1% cash increase compared to 2023/24. No specific discussions on funding for sexual health clinics have been held with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) an ageing population and (b) trends in the level of comorbidities on demand for rehabilitation services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Effective capacity and demand planning supports the provision of adequate rehabilitation packages. The 2023-2025 Better Care Fund Policy Framework requires local areas to agree and submit a plan showing:
- expected demand for intermediate care services, and other short-term care, to help people to remain independent at home;
- services to support this recovery, including rehabilitation and reablement;
- expected capacity in the health and wellbeing board area to meet this demand.
Appropriate capacity should be commissioned, within available budgets, for people with step-down intermediate care needs. This includes, but is not limited to, older people and those with comorbidities.
In addition, the Major Conditions Strategy outlines our approach in tackling six groups of major health conditions, by creating a health and care system that is faster, simpler, and fairer, focusing on prevention, proactive care and more person-centred care.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average weekly time out of cell for prisoners in HMP Wandsworth has been for each week in 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Prison governors set a regime for each day specifying when prisoners will ordinarily be unlocked. There will be occasions, however, where certain prisoners will remain in their cell during these times. Reasons for this will include illness, the management of operational incidents, and other operational reasons such as staff needing to be deployed to other duties. There will also be occasions where prisoners will be out of cell at times when they are scheduled to be locked in, for example to attend medical appointments at hospital, a late arrival from court, or a transfer between prisons.
To accurately record the amount of time prisoners spend out of cell, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service would therefore be required to record information for each individual prisoner, taking into account their unique movements on a daily basis.
There is no central mandate which governs the amount of time that prisoners should spend out of their cells. Governors are instead afforded the flexibility to deliver balanced regimes that maintain an appropriate level of time out of cell on a range of activities, including association, which meet the needs of the establishment’s population.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made regarding the 12 targets set out in the Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper, published on 2 February 2022.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As set out in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act, the Government will publish an annual report on mission progress, this will detail the progress that has been made against the 12 missions set out in the Statement on Missions in January 2024.
Levelling Up is a long-term ambition, but we are already making headway. 64% of England’s population and 90% of the North are now covered by a devolution deal. We have met the 5G element of the digital connectivity mission early, achieving 5G coverage for the majority of the population with 72% of premises having outdoor access to a 5G signal. The disparity in employment rates between regions has reduced and productivity has grown faster across many Northern cities than London.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 help increase specialist knowledge of cerebral palsy across the (a) health and (b) social care workforce.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The standards of training for health care professionals are the responsibility of the health care independent statutory regulatory bodies, including the General Medical Council (GMC), the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Health and Care Professions Council. These have the general function of promoting high standards of education, and co-ordinating all stages of education, to ensure that health and care students and newly qualified health care professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for professional practice, including knowledge of cerebral palsy.
The training curricula for postgraduate specialty training is set by the relevant royal college, and has to meet the standards set by the GMC. Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they do emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has also published a range of guidance on care and support for children and young people, and adults with cerebral palsy, to support health care professionals and commissioners. The guidance outlines the kind of specialist care that children, young people, and adults with cerebral palsy may need from health and social care professionals. The guidance document for children and young people with cerebral palsy, and the guidance document for adults with cerebral palsy, are available respectively at the following links:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng62
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng119
NHS England has also produced an e-learning course on the prevention of cerebral palsy in preterm labour, which is available at the following link:
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/prevention-of-cerebral-palsy-in-preterm-labour/
NHS England has established the Getting It Right First Time (GRIFT) national programme, which is designed to improve the treatment and care of patients through an in-depth clinically led review of specialties, to examine how things are currently being done and how they could be improved. The GRIFT National Speciality Report on Neurology makes recommendations on the diagnosis and management of a range of neurological conditions, including cerebral palsy, and will support the National Health Service in delivering care more equitably across the country, and improving services nationally.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, backed by £2.4 billion, sets out the steps needed to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The plan will double medical school training places by 2031, and sets out that the NHS will focus on expanding the number of clinicians who train to take up enhanced and advanced roles and work as part of multidisciplinary teams. We expect that this will increase the number of health care professionals in the speciality of neurology, and those that have specialist knowledge of cerebral palsy.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an estimate of the number of small and medium-sized businesses in (a) 2010, (b) 2015, (c) 2020 and (d) the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Estimated number of private sector small and medium-sized businesses at the start of 2010, 2015, 2020 and 2023 (the latest year for which data is available) are provided in the table below.
Table: Estimated number of private sector small and medium-sized business by year
| Number of businesses |
2010 | 4,476,700 |
2015 | 5,394,300 |
2020 | 5,972,600 |
2023 | 5,547,100 |
Source: Business Population Estimates
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people who are dying of hunger or who are food insecure in Sudan.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In Sudan 17.7 million people (37 percent of the population) are now thought to be experiencing acute food insecurity. This is likely to worsen in the coming months in parts of West Darfur, Khartoum, and among the displaced population more broadly. In 2024/2025, we are providing £89 million for Sudan, which will include assistance to address food insecurity.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many businesses that have employees there were in (a) 2010, (b) 2015, (c) 2020 and (d) the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Estimated number of employing businesses in the private sector at the start of 2010, 2015, 2020 and 2023 (the latest year for which data is available) are provided in the table below.
Table: Estimated number of employing businesses in the private sector by year
| Number of employing businesses |
2010 | 1,224,500 |
2015 | 1,311,900 |
2020 | 1,412,700 |
2023 | 1,445,000 |
Source: Business Population Estimates
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people of pensionable age there were in Midlothian constituency at the most recent date for which figures are available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold the information required to answer this request. Please see below a link to a publication from the National Records of Scotland that holds data pertaining to this request.