Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that children's hospices receive equitable and sustainable long-term funding, in light of their role in delivering the 10-Year Health Plan.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 will be, or how it will be administered.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will review the way in which children's palliative care is currently planned and funded.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 will be, or how it will be administered.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will commit to ensuring that ringfenced NHS funding for children's hospices will be available for multiple years beyond 2025–26, and when they intend to make such a commitment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 will be, or how it will be administered.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to close the Fleming Fund and, if so, whether they have an alternative model for maintaining Britain's antimicrobial resistance commitments.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out at the Spring Statement, the Government is reducing its Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income by 2027 to respond to pressing security and defence challenges that the United Kingdom is facing. As a result, the Fleming Fund will close at the end of its current grant agreements by March 2026. The Government is committed to exiting the Fleming Fund responsibly. Each country context is different, and we are currently in discussions with governments and partners to ensure all possibilities of sustainability are explored. We are working through detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used in future years, including future allocations for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) activities. This will be informed by internal and external consultation and impact assessments, ahead of publishing indicative multi-year allocations in the autumn.
Tackling AMR remains a priority for the Government and is vital for protecting our National Health Service, including via delivery of the UK National Action Plan on AMR, as laid out in the recent publication of the 10-Year Health Plan. Through global partnerships and diplomacy, the UK is working with our partners to drive robust implementation of the commitments from the Political Declaration, including on the importance of strengthening multisectoral surveillance.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure media literacy programmes are part of local and regional strategies in schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Media literacy is currently taught through the national curriculum for citizenship at key stages 3 and 4. Citizenship teaching should equip pupils with the skills and knowledge to explore political and social issues critically, to weigh evidence, debate and make reasoned arguments.
Citizenship teaches about distinguishing fact from opinion as well as exploring freedom of speech and the role and responsibility of the media in informing and shaping public opinion. Complementary aspects of media literacy are also taught through relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) and computing which together equip pupils to evaluate and apply information technology, and to be a discerning consumer of information online.
Support for teaching is available through a number of sources, including optional, free and adaptable resources from Oak National Academy at: https://www.thenational.academy/.
The department also funds the National Centre for Computing Education, to support the teaching of computing. This includes units on messaging in digital media, the credibility of sources, and identifying ‘fake’ news and edited images.
The government endorses Ofcom’s three-year Media Literacy Strategy, which commits to working with regional partners to share learnings and effective educational practices with teachers, senior leaders and relevant education authorities. The strategy also includes working with Multi-Academy Trusts in England to help schools support parents on online safety with the aim to develop this into a national approach.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the link between poor media literacy and the impact of health misinformation on public health decision-making.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the impact of health misinformation on public health decision making, but recognises the importance of accurate health information being available to the public and of preventing misinformation.
The Department regularly rebuts factual inaccuracies when they appear in traditional media and undertakes extensive planning, engagement, and strategic work to ensure accurate public health information is available on social media channels, to mitigate misinformation. In addition, the Department strives to ensure that all of the information it publishes is accurate, clear, and accessible to a variety of audiences, including using easy read versions.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government who is responsible for ensuring that pharmacies in women's prisons are stocked correctly and take into account prisoners' illnesses; and how many qualified clinicians are on duty each day.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England contracts prison healthcare and pharmacy services directly via its Health and Justice regional commissioning teams, which also assure the contracts.
Contracted providers are expected to enable access to a prescription dispensing pharmacy service, which can be on-site or via an externally contracted pharmacy, that meets the same standards as those provided by community pharmacies.
The provider is responsible for ensuring the service meets the standards set out in the National Health Service’s health and justice national prison primary care service specification. These include the expectation that dispensed medicines are provided for supply to the patient within specific timeframes, with the pharmacy deciding which medicines to keep in stock based on the usual items prescribed.
The contracted provider will decide how many qualified clinicians need to be on duty each day based on the health needs and size of the prison population, and the admission, release, and transfer rates at the prison. The provider provides the regional commissioning team with information about the workforce and service delivery arrangements as part of the contract monitoring information and service assurance.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the Angiolini Inquiry Part 2 Report will be published.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Angiolini Inquiry is an independent public inquiry, and the Chair is responsible for delivery of its Terms of Reference. The Terms of Reference for Part 2 anticipated that the Inquiry would report to the Home Secretary within 24 months of Part 2 commencing in May 2023. The Department is in regular contact with the inquiries it sponsors about their delivery plans.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to convene a cross-department unit on business and human rights that consults with civil society and those with lived experience of business harms on a frequent basis.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Department for Business and Trade works closely with departments across government to prevent corporate human and labour rights abuses, and engages regularly with civil society on these matters. DBT operates the UK National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct (RBC), which is governed by a Steering Board attended by representatives from FCDO, CMA, DESNZ, DWP, and external representatives from business, civil society and trade unions. In addition, DBT is working closely with the FCDO on a National Baseline Assessment on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This will contribute to the evidence base to inform the UK’s approach to tackling business-related human rights abuses.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to open a public consultation on introducing requirements on businesses and financial institutions to incentivise them to respect human rights, including those of indigenous peoples and human rights defenders.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Government is committed to tackling environmental harms, modern slavery and human and labour rights abuses in both private and public sector supply chains and will take an evidence-based approach as we assess the best ways to achieve this. The Department for Business and Trade regularly engages with stakeholders in business, financial institutions and civil society on these issues, as do other Government departments, and we will consult thoroughly with interested stakeholders as we consider any further action.