Asked by: Paul Holmes (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) value of grants made and (b) number of recipients of funding from the VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme was in (i) the UK and (ii) Hampshire since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme (EES) is a £25.5 million fund to support voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations across England to save money on energy bills. It was announced at the Spring Budget 2023 as part of the £101.5 million to support VCSE organisations struggling with cost of living pressures.
The scheme has two components:
As both components of the fund are still being delivered, details of the grants distributed (including award amounts and locations of the beneficiaries) are yet to be announced, but will be in due course.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether Bytedance would be required to divest ownership of TikTok under the terms of the provision on Foreign power acquisition of news media organisations added by the Government to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The new terms introduced in our amendments to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (DMCC) are based on the Enterprise Act 2002, and will therefore only apply to newspapers and news magazines given the unique role these publications play in contributing to the health of our democracy by providing accurate news and information, helping to shape opinions and contributing to political debate.
These changes would not cover online news providers or online intermediaries, including social media platforms such as TikTok.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure that school work experience placements are accessible to students living with disabilities.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Work experience is an important aspect of the support pupils receive to follow rewarding learning and training pathways which lead to fulfilling careers.
The department works with The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) to support secondary schools in providing pupils with multiple interactions with employers from year 7 to year 13 in line with Gatsby Benchmark 6 - Experiences of the Workplace. This 2023/24 financial year, the department has asked CEC to drive this agenda forward at pace to increase workplace opportunities, targeting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is in response to evidence that these pupils are less likely to access work experience opportunities than their peers.
The CEC Careers Hub network has been asked to use a proportion of their Hub Delivery Fund to stimulate meaningful employer-led activities to increase the quantity and quality of opportunities for young people to engage in encounters of the workplace. Within the fund, there is a focus on alternative provision, SEND and Pupil Referral Units across all year groups. One funded activity, ‘Let’s Explore VR’ delivered fully immersive experiences to SEND pupils across the Liverpool City Region, who faced social barriers to accessing and engaging with workplace careers insights and traditional work experience. The activity provided unique and engaging insights into a variety of workplaces, careers and sectors using virtual reality to transport the students into the world of work.
The CEC’s training is designed to promote SEND inclusion. The CEC have developed SEND awareness training for their Enterprise Coordinators and Enterprise Advisers and provide SEND Careers training to Careers Leaders and special educational needs co-ordinators in schools, to support the development of careers plans and employer experiences appropriate to the needs of students with SEND. There are now 38 named SEND specific Enterprise Coordinators in place across 31 Careers Hubs. Enterprise Coordinators are trained professionals who work with a cluster of 20 schools and colleges to build careers plans and make connections to local and national employers. In addition, 300 Enterprise Coordinators have undertaken masterclass training to gain an understanding of how to support schools, colleges and special schools with young people with SEND.
Supported internships are a study programme for young people aged 16 to 24 who have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and want to move into employment. They equip young people with the skills they need to secure and sustain employment through learning in the workplace.
The department is investing approximately £18 million until 2025 to build capacity in the supported internships programme and support more young people with EHC plans into employment.
In the 2023 Spring Budget, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced up to £3 million to pilot extending supported internships to young people with learning difficulties and disabilities without an EHC plan by March 2025. The pilot is being rolled out in 12 local authorities.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
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 support charitable organisations providing mental health services to those in need.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department recognises the valued contribution that mental health and suicide prevention voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations make in supporting people with their mental health.
During the pandemic, we provided £10.2 million of additional funding to support mental health charities, including Samaritans and the Campaign Against Living Miserably, and over £34 million to organisations supporting people who experience loneliness.
More recently, we announced that 79 organisations across the country have been allocated funding through the £10 million suicide prevention grant fund. These organisations, from local, community-led organisations through to national, are delivering a broad and diverse range of activity that will prevent suicides and save lives.
We have also announced that £8 million is being made available for 24 early support hubs across the country, a number of which will be run by voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.
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, whether suicide prevention funding for local authorities will be extended beyond April 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England is supported by a wide range of Government funded activity, that will support people’s mental health. This includes an increase in mental health spending of £4.6 billion between 2018/19 and 2023/24, compared to the original £3.4 billion set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan’s publishing. Of this, £57 million has been specifically for suicide prevention and suicide bereavement services in all areas of the country. Future funding beyond the Long Term Plan is yet to be determined. From 2021 to 2025 we will have made over £15 million available to support suicide prevention in voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations through our suicide prevention grant funds.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) terms of reference, (b) objectives and (c) deliverable measures are for NHS England’s Device Steering Group for the next 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The steering group will be chaired by the High-Cost Devices Senior Responsible Owner within the NHS England Pricing and Costing team. To maintain the high-cost devices exclusions list, the Pricing and Costing team obtain advice and recommendations from experts working in the relevant fields. The members of this steering group will work in healthcare or pharmaceutical capacities, independent of any private enterprise or commerce, and will be from the Department, National Health Service commissioning, specialist units of the NHS England Pricing team, and the NHS Classifications Service and National Casemix Office of NHS Digital.
There are currently 28 members, of whom, 14 members are from NHS England, nine from providers, four from representative bodies, and one from a commissioner. We are withholding the individual names and job titles of non-senior NHS England staff members, as well as names and job titles for external members of staff.
The steering group provides an independent review of candidate devices, by assessing their suitability for inclusion on the high-cost devices exclusions list, based on pre-existing acceptance criteria. A copy of the nomination form for the addition or removal of a drug or device to be excluded from NHS Payment Scheme prices, is attached for your information.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who the members are of the NHS England high cost devices steering group; and what the role of that group is.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The steering group will be chaired by the High-Cost Devices Senior Responsible Owner within the NHS England Pricing and Costing team. To maintain the high-cost devices exclusions list, the Pricing and Costing team obtain advice and recommendations from experts working in the relevant fields. The members of this steering group will work in healthcare or pharmaceutical capacities, independent of any private enterprise or commerce, and will be from the Department, National Health Service commissioning, specialist units of the NHS England Pricing team, and the NHS Classifications Service and National Casemix Office of NHS Digital.
There are currently 28 members, of whom, 14 members are from NHS England, nine from providers, four from representative bodies, and one from a commissioner. We are withholding the individual names and job titles of non-senior NHS England staff members, as well as names and job titles for external members of staff.
The steering group provides an independent review of candidate devices, by assessing their suitability for inclusion on the high-cost devices exclusions list, based on pre-existing acceptance criteria. A copy of the nomination form for the addition or removal of a drug or device to be excluded from NHS Payment Scheme prices, is attached for your information.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that dental services are represented in the governance structures of integrated care systems.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England.
ICBs are required to publish their constitution, which includes a list of ICB board members, in accordance with the Health and Care Act 2022. ICBs have made board member information, including members’ expertise and knowledge, publicly available on their websites.
The Health and Care Act 2022 sets out membership requirements of the ICBs that include representatives from NHS trusts, primary care, and local authorities. However, the local areas can go beyond the legislative minimum requirements in order to address their local needs. Most ICBs have used this discretion, and appointed additional members such as members for public health, voluntary, community and social enterprise representatives, and others based on their local area needs.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
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 the Fourth Report of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of Session 2022-23 on Rural Mental Health, HC248, published on 9 May 2023, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations in the section entitled Rural mental health service provision, policy and strategy development.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We remain committed to supporting thriving rural communities, as set out in our report Unleashing Rural Opportunity, published in June 2023.
Since the launch of the EFRA Committee’s inquiry in 2021, considerable progress has been made to help ensure access to mental health services in rural areas. The Government published its Response to the EFRA Committee Report on Rural Mental Health in October 2023.
The response recognised that people living and working in rural areas may face specific challenges in accessing the mental health services that they need and set out the various actions being taken forward to address mental health needs.
Key actions include:
To help improve the service and support on offer to farmers we will make up to £500,000 available to deliver projects that support mental health in the farming sector. This will build on the support already on offer through the Farming Resilience Fund, which has benefitted over 19,000 farmers to date.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle male suicide.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published on 11 September 2023, is a cross-Government strategy with over 100 actions that we believe will reduce the suicide rate within five years, with initial reductions observed within two and a half years. We have identified middle-aged men as a priority group within the strategy, and many of the actions will support suicide prevention in men by addressing the common risk factors for this group, such as a history of drug or alcohol misuse, family or relationships problems, and social isolation and loneliness. We have worked across departments to develop this strategy and will continue to do so, in order to deliver the actions within it.
In addition, on 23 August 2023 we launched a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to support voluntary community and social enterprise organisations in England in meeting the demand for their services to support people experiencing suicidal thoughts, or approaching a mental health crisis. Applications were encouraged from charities to support middle-aged men and other groups of concern. The fund will run to March 2025, and we expect to start making this funding available to successful applicants very soon.