Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to publish the (a) nature and (b) content of concerns raised by the Ministry of Defence once they have been raised formally through appropriate channels.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Ministry of Defence has indicated its concerns relate to national security. It is therefore unlikely the content of the concerns will be published.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2024 to Question 12098 on Aquind: Electricity Interconnectors, whether she has received the representations required for the re-determination of the application.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The relevant representations have not yet been finalised or submitted.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much funding her Department has provided to support research into pandemic preparedness in the financial year 2023-24.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DHSC are the lead department for pandemic preparedness, a core element of the UK Biological Security Strategy.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that staffing levels of mental health professionals in the NHS meet levels of demand for their services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
To deliver the NHS Long Term Plan’s mental health commitments and help reduce waiting times, our aim has been to grow the mental health workforce nationally by an additional 27,000 professionals by March 2024.
We are making positive progress, delivering three quarters of this, or approximately 20,800 new professionals, by December 2023, with further growth expected to have been achieved once the full year figures for 2023/24 are available. This growth is in addition to the commitment to grow the National Health Service’s mental health workforce by 19,000 between 2016/17 and 2020/21, as set out in Stepping Forward to 2020/21: the mental health workforce plan for England, which was achieved in September 2021.
At a national level, we are committed to attracting, training, and recruiting the mental health workforce of the future, as well as retaining and developing our current workforce. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s modelling projections set out a need to grow the overall mental health and learning disability workforce the fastest of all care settings, at 4.4% per year up to 2036/37, to help improve access to services and quality of care.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the rate of public satisfaction with the NHS was in (a) February 2024 or (b) the most recent month and year that data has been collected.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data regarding the rate of public satisfaction with the National Health Service is publicly accessible, and is available at the following link:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/institution/NHS
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care takes public perceptions of the NHS into account in her policy decisions. We have published recovery plans for elective services, urgent and emergency care, primary care and dental care, to improve access and performance of crucial NHS services.
Furthermore, we have made a great deal of progress in putting patients at the heart of care, through our recently announced programmes to expand choice, advanced care planning conversations, personal health budgets, and by providing more information to patients.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 potential implications for her policies of public satisfaction with the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data regarding the rate of public satisfaction with the National Health Service is publicly accessible, and is available at the following link:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/institution/NHS
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care takes public perceptions of the NHS into account in her policy decisions. We have published recovery plans for elective services, urgent and emergency care, primary care and dental care, to improve access and performance of crucial NHS services.
Furthermore, we have made a great deal of progress in putting patients at the heart of care, through our recently announced programmes to expand choice, advanced care planning conversations, personal health budgets, and by providing more information to patients.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will introduce key performance indicators for Highways England in the elimination of rubbish on the strategic roads network.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National Highways are monitored against a performance indicator in the performance specification for the current Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2). This measures the percentage of the Strategic Road Network where litter cleansing is managed by National Highways which is either free of litter, refuse and detritus, or predominately free apart from some small items, in line with the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. As part of developing the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), the Department for Transport is continuing to explore potential metrics for inclusion in the RIS3 performance specification, as was well as considering improvements to existing metrics, such as litter.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Hitachi on its rail plant in Newton Aycliffe.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
My Department has met Hitachi Rail’s UK management team several times in recent months to discuss workload at the company’s Newton Aycliffe site. We remain keen to discuss options with Hitachi for ensuring a sustainable future for their site.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison (a) officers and (b) other staff have been (i) investigated, (ii) arrested and (iii) charged in relation to (A) drug smuggling and (B) corruption at HMP Berwyn in the last two years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There is no place for any form of corruption or unacceptable behaviour in the Prison Service. Such behaviour is contrary to our core values and will not be tolerated. The Ministry of Justice’s Counter Corruption Unit and Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Unit are working to ensure that professional standards of behaviour are maintained.
In relation to the various items of information requested, it is necessary to consider whether providing information in relation to a small number of cases could lead to the identification of individuals, in a way that would constitute a breach of our statutory obligations under data protection legislation. As we believe that the release of this information would risk such identification, it is not possible to provide the figures requested.
Asked by: Lord Young of Cookham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Leader of the House when they will respond to the Report of the Procedure Committee of the House of Commons Commons scrutiny of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords (1st Report, HC 338).
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government responded to the House of Commons Procedure Committee Report Commons scrutiny of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords (1st Report, HC 338) on Wednesday 17th April 2024. A copy of the report can be found on the Procedure Committees website on the link below.
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/126/procedure-committee/publications/