Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote international cooperation and joint research to find solutions for both type one and type two diabetes sufferers.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is delivering improvements as part of the Vision for the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery to make the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical research, attracting investment from commercial companies to deliver cutting edge research in a range of disease areas, including diabetes. For example, we introduced the National Contract Value Review to standardise costing and contracting for commercial research in the National Health Service.
This has reduced set up times for clinical research by a third which makes running research in the UK more efficient for commercial companies.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) supports conduct of clinical research in the NHS, providing tailored support for both non-commercial organisations and the life sciences industry. The CRN has a Diabetes Speciality Group to support research across key priorities in diabetes.
The NIHR works in partnership with Diabetes UK to deliver the joint UK Strategy for Clinical and Applied Diabetes Research. The NIHR also funds a Global Health Research Unit on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in South Asia, creating partnerships between research organisations in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UK.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what partnerships and expedients they are encouraging to progress diabetes type one stem cell and non-stem-cell research.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is delivering improvements as part of the Vision for the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery to make the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical research, attracting investment from commercial companies to deliver cutting edge research in a range of disease areas, including diabetes. For example, we introduced the National Contract Value Review to standardise costing and contracting for commercial research in the National Health Service.
This has reduced set up times for clinical research by a third which makes running research in the UK more efficient for commercial companies.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) supports conduct of clinical research in the NHS, providing tailored support for both non-commercial organisations and the life sciences industry. The CRN has a Diabetes Speciality Group to support research across key priorities in diabetes.
The NIHR works in partnership with Diabetes UK to deliver the joint UK Strategy for Clinical and Applied Diabetes Research. The NIHR also funds a Global Health Research Unit on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease in South Asia, creating partnerships between research organisations in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the UK.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) South Holland district and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Lincolnshire County Council is participating in the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder, which came out of the department’s children’s social care implementation strategy Stable Homes, Built on Love. The pathfinder aims to rebalance children’s social care away from costly crisis intervention to more meaningful and effective early support.
As part of the pathfinder, the department is working with a select number of local areas to test significant changes to how local areas help children and young people. This includes increasing support at the earlier end of the system, with the aim of keeping children with birth parents or wider family where safe to do so. This will help to reduce the number of children looked after and therefore drive down demand for foster care or other placements.
There is support available from the department where children are unable to stay with their birth families and foster care placements are sought. Lincolnshire County Council are being supported by the Fosterlink support service. Fosterlink provides support for local authorities to improve the way they recruit foster carers by reviewing current processes to identify areas for service and practice improvements, as well as creating a national network in which to share best practice.
More broadly, the department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain the foster carers we have.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is uplifting the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on this investment since 2014 of over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
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 establish walk-in clinics in each Integrated Care Board; and what estimate she has made of the cost of doing so.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The commissioning of establishing local services in the National Health Service is a matter for integrated care boards. The Government has no plans at this time to roll out hubs nationally.
Based upon current schemes which are either operational or under development in England, and assuming a facility floorplan of 3,000 square metres, the construction of a single walk-in hub service would cost £21.4 million in 2024/25 prices. Ongoing running costs for each building could be approximately £2 million to £2.3 million dependent on whether it was operational seven days a week and included wider primary care services such as dentistry.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so that foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as aiding the retention of foster carers already in place.
St Helens North is participating in this programme, working in a regional cluster group, ‘Foster4’, which is led by Warrington.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is increasing the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on its investment since 2014 of over £8 million to advance the work of the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of foster care placements in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Lincolnshire County Council is participating in the £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder, which came out of the department’s children’s social care implementation strategy Stable Homes, Built on Love. The pathfinder aims to rebalance children’s social care away from costly crisis intervention to more meaningful and effective early support.
As part of the pathfinder, the department is working with a select number of local areas to test significant changes to how local areas help children and young people. This includes increasing support at the earlier end of the system, with the aim of keeping children with birth parents or wider family where safe to do so. This will help to reduce the number of children looked after and therefore drive down demand for foster care or other placements.
There is support available from the department where children are unable to stay with their birth families and foster care placements are sought. Lincolnshire County Council are being supported by the Fosterlink support service. Fosterlink provides support for local authorities to improve the way they recruit foster carers by reviewing current processes to identify areas for service and practice improvements, as well as creating a national network in which to share best practice.
More broadly, the department is investing over £36 million this parliament to deliver a fostering recruitment and retention programme, so foster care is available for more children who need it. This will boost approvals of foster carers, as well as taking steps to retain the foster carers we have.
Greater financial support for foster carers will help improve the experiences of all children in care. For the second year running, the department is uplifting the National Minimum Allowance (NMA) above the rate of inflation. For 2024/2025, the NMA will increase by 6.88%. This is on top of a 12.43% NMA increase in 2023/24.
In addition, the department estimates that changes to tax and benefit allowances will give the average foster carer an additional £450 per year as well as simplifying the process for self-assessment returns for most foster carers.
The department will also build on this investment since 2014 of over £8 million to help embed the Mockingbird programme, an innovative model of peer support for foster parents and the children in their care where children benefit from an extended family environment.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 February (HL2184), how many of the 20 Integrated Data Service projects and 600 Secure Research Service projects referred to in that answer have a lead researcher whose primary affiliation is given as (1) academic, (2) central government, (3) commercial, (4) local government, (5) non-commercial, and (6) the Office for National Statistics.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 14 March is below and attached.
The Lord Clement-Jones CBE
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
22 March 2024
Dear Lord Clement-Jones
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 February (HL2184), how many of the 20 Integrated Data Service (IDS) projects and 600 Secure Research Service (SRS) projects referred to in that answer have a lead researcher whose primary affiliation is given as (1) academic, (2) central government, (3) commercial, (4) local government, (5) non-commercial, and (6) the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL3276).
Of the monthly average of 600 projects running in the SRS during 2023, 382 were led by those affiliated with the academic community. There were no academic lead projects within the Integrated Data Service for the same period.
For the same period, the number of projects led by central government on the SRS was 43; these include agencies, public bodies, devolved administrations, ministerial and non-ministerial and public research bodies. The number of central government lead projects on the IDS was 10.
The number of commercial lead projects on SRS projects was 81; these include private sector organisations, primarily think tanks and consultancies. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.
The number of local government affiliated lead projects in SRS was 6. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.
The number of non-commercial affiliated lead projects in SRS was 69; these include those categorised as third sector/voluntary. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.
The number of Office for National Statistics lead researchers on SRS projects was 19. The subsequent number for the 20 IDS projects was 10.
We have recently communicated the timetable for the transition to IDS to our SRS users and over the next year, the IDS will scale its data at pace and onboard a range of users from across all the aforementioned user groups in SRS, leading to a more varied distribution of user types accessing projects on the IDS. The IDS has an ever-growing list of prospective use cases that it will onboard throughout 2024 as the service scales its data catalogue and analytical tooling capabilities.
In light of your interest in the IDS and to provide additional context around the SRS and IDS figures in this and our previous responses, I would like to personally offer our team to come and showcase the service, discuss future prospects around the SRS and IDS and answer any further questions you have. We would be delighted to attend a location at your convenience, if this is an attractive proposition.
Yours sincerely,
Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they gave, in deciding on introducing additional electricity generation by way of new gas facilities, to whether these requirements could have been met by accelerating the small modular reactors programme.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A range of sources of generation contribute to system flexibility, especially when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining. In the case of nuclear, Great British Nuclear is running a Technology Selection Process for Small Modular Reactors. The Government’s aim is to run the fastest competition of its kind in the world, to identify technologies with the potential to deliver projects in the mid-2030s.
In the immediate term, to maintain security of electricity supply, a limited amount of new gas capacity is needed as the main mature technology capable of providing sustained flexible capacity.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the agreement with Rwanda to host individuals relocated from the UK under the voluntary departures scheme was made; how many individuals can be relocated under that scheme; and if he will publish a Memorandum of Understanding relating to the scheme.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The option of voluntary relocation will be given to failed asylum seekers. It would be inappropriate to provide a running commentary on individual cases or numbers.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed for the voluntary relocation of individuals and will be published in due course.
People who voluntarily decide to relocate to Rwanda, if they are relocated, will be entitled to permanent residence in Rwanda.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what form of immigration status people relocated to Rwanda under the voluntary departures scheme will receive once in Rwanda; and whether that status will be (a) permanent or (b) time-limited.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The option of voluntary relocation will be given to failed asylum seekers. It would be inappropriate to provide a running commentary on individual cases or numbers.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed for the voluntary relocation of individuals and will be published in due course.
People who voluntarily decide to relocate to Rwanda, if they are relocated, will be entitled to permanent residence in Rwanda.