My Lords, I draw attention to my entry in the Lords register. I hope the Government will reflect further on …
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The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
20 January 2021
Dear Baroness Greengross,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) removed the upper age limit from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW); and when the statistics from this survey relating to those aged 75 and older will be published (HL12104).
The CSEW is a face-to-face victimisation survey which asks people aged 16 and over resident in households in England and Wales about their experiences of a range of crimes. Self-completion modules are included on the survey to collect information on topic areas that respondents could feel uncomfortable talking to an interviewer about. The upper age limit for respondents eligible for the self-completion modules of the CSEW was increased from 59 years to 74 years in April 2017. This is different to the main face-to-face part of the survey which has no upper age limit.
In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it was necessary to move the CSEW from a face-to-face survey to a telephone-only survey (by which it may be referred to differently as the TCSEW, or “Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales”, in publications). As a result, we are currently not asking questions around any sensitive topics, including domestic abuse and sexual assault, because of ethical and safeguarding concerns with this new mode of delivery.
Once it is possible to return to the face-to-face mode of delivery, we will immediately remove the upper age limit for respondents to the self-completion modules, in the interests of inclusivity. It will then take at least 12 months of data collection to enable us to produce accurate victimisation estimates for adults aged 75 and over.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
In the Strategy for our Veterans Consultation Response published in January 2020, we committed to exploring how veterans could benefit from initiatives developed and invested in through the cross-Government Tackling Loneliness agenda. The Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) is working with colleagues across Government to develop new initiatives to support veterans of all ages who are facing social isolation.
The Government recognises the important role that the charity sector plays in supporting and connecting with vulnerable and isolated veterans on the ground. In light of COVID-19, the Government awarded £6 million in emergency COVID-19 funding to 100 Service charities, to ensure that they could continue to provide vital services to the Armed Forces community throughout the pandemic. This is in addition to £10 million awarded yearly through the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, which provides specific funding to organisations through grants programmes. This includes a current grant programme to identify and support charities working to tackle loneliness in the Armed Forces community. Previous recipients of grant funding include Veterans Breakfast Clubs, Age UK and a number of other organisations who support older and socially isolated veterans.
The OVA has also commissioned new research looking at the specific impact of COVID-19 on the veteran community, including in terms of isolation and loneliness. This will allow policy makers to understand how the pandemic has affected the veteran community and respond with evidence-based and targeted interventions.
The Government's response to food vulnerability caused by COVID-19 is built around three categories of vulnerability: Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV), other Non-Shielded Vulnerable (NSV), and the economically vulnerable.
Individuals in the CEV group are those who have a medical condition that is deemed to put them at very high risk of COVID-19 related serious illness. This group has been asked to 'shield' by the Government until at least the end of June, meaning they need to stay at home at all times and minimise all contact with others, including other members of their household.
There are around 2.2. million people in England who fit into this group. The majority will have received a letter from the NHS or been contacted by their GP to inform them of their vulnerable status. The group comprises people of all ages - with extreme respiratory conditions (such as cystic fibrosis), certain types of cancers (such as leukaemia), those who have had organ transplants, as well as a range of other conditions or medical histories.
Many within this group have local family and friends who can get the vital provisions needed. There is a significant subset of the CEV group however who do not. Individuals in this group can register as extremely clinically vulnerable with the Government. Data from these registrations is shared with supermarkets on an ongoing basis, whereby supermarkets provide individuals with access to priority access to booking slots for delivery. The vast majority of supermarkets are engaged in this data-sharing initiative.
Individuals in the NSV group are those who are unable to access food and other essential supplies due to a COVID-19 related change in physical or financial circumstance.
We have been working quickly with local authorities, retailers, food businesses and the voluntary sector to support those who do not necessarily fall into the shielded category, but who may be struggling to access food and essential supplies as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. We have been careful to ensure that the definition of non-shielded food-vulnerable people includes those who are unable to access food due to the impact of COVID-19 on food services and delivery, as well as those who are in temporary isolation or enhanced social distancing. This group would include disabled people whose disabilities make it difficult for them to comply with social distancing requirements in food shops or whose access to food has been compromised by COVID-19. This could be a result of increased delivery demand, or their usual support networks being unable to help due to self-isolation or social distancing.
This group of non-shielded vulnerable people are now able to access food in a variety of ways, including through being paired with volunteers who will shop for them, and through food deliveries from local retailers, wholesalers and food businesses, many of whom will be able to take orders over the phone. We have also been working with retailers to enable these individuals to access priority delivery or click and collect slots.
Over 750,000 people have signed up as NHS Volunteer Responders via the mobile app GoodSam. Verified volunteer responders can receive tasks to help those in their communities, including through shopping for vulnerable people for food and essential supplies. Health and care professionals and a number of approved Voluntary and Community Services organisations are now able to refer vulnerable individuals into the system to receive support from volunteers. It is now also possible for individuals to self-refer for assistance from the programme, if they consider themselves to be vulnerable and in need of support.
Supermarkets have also been working at pace to expand the total number of delivery and click and collect slots. Most supermarkets are offering prioritised delivery or click and collect slots to those they have identified as vulnerable from their customer database (for example by age, shopping habits, previous use of vulnerable customer helplines).
DFID’s approach to non-communicable diseases is focused on improving the provision of basic health services for the poorest by supporting health systems strengthening such as improving health worker capacity and access to essential medicines. This helps to increase coverage, equity, access and quality of health services to address all health problems including non-communicable diseases.
As part of these efforts the UK Government continues to champion universal health coverage (UHC) to ensure access to quality essential services for all. UHC includes ensuring that no one is impoverished through paying for health services and reducing financial barriers for essential services, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable.
The Government currently spends £5.8 billion a year providing some help to 1.43 million people of pension age with the cost of their care needs.
Attendance Allowance provides financial support towards the extra costs faced by those with a severe disability. It is only available to those over State Pension age who require care or supervision as a result of their disability. The support is aimed at those with long term care needs so there is a qualifying period of 6 months. The qualifying period is waived for those with a terminal illness.
Claims for Attendance Allowance can be made by to the Department by telephone on 0800 731 0122 or by obtaining a claim form online at: www.gov.uk and returning to: Freepost DWP Attendance Allowance.
The Department routinely reviews its use of staffing resources to ensure that it meets the needs of our customers. The Department have recently recruited more staff to process Attendance Allowance claims, which will enable us to determine benefit eligibility within a shorter timescale.
Local authorities in England receive a public health grant to support their statutory duty to improve the health of their population. The public health grant to local authorities in England has increased from £3.279 billion in 2020/21 to £3.324 billion in 2021/22.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to a range of actions to prevent ill health, including the prevention of up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases over a 10 year period. Although no formal assessment has yet been made on the effects on investing in preventative healthcare on waiting lists and demand, it is estimated there will be a significant positive impact on National Health Service waiting lists as part of recovery from the pandemic. Preventative interventions can deliver significant health benefits for individuals as well as reducing the burden of preventable illness on the NHS.
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on care home occupancy has not been systematically collected from care homes, whose residents are a mix of publicly and self-funded clients.
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on care home occupancy has not been systematically collected from care homes, whose residents are a mix of publicly and self-funded clients.
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on care home occupancy has not been systematically collected from care homes, whose residents are a mix of publicly and self-funded clients.
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on care home occupancy has not been systematically collected from care homes, whose residents are a mix of publicly and self-funded clients.
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on care home occupancy has not been systematically collected from care homes, whose residents are a mix of publicly and self-funded clients.
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on care home occupancy has not been systematically collected from care homes, whose residents are a mix of publicly and self-funded clients.
The overall supply position of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products has been improving since the end of February 2020 and will continue to improve in the coming months.
We have been advised that supplies of Brevinor, Norimin and Synphase tablets will be available from late January/early February 2021, with supplies of Yiznell available from early January 2021. Supplies of Eloine and Zoely tablets remain available via the usual routes.
Issues such as regulatory or manufacturing problems, problems accessing supplies of pharmaceutical raw ingredients and commercial decisions to divest certain products can affect the supply of medicines, including HRT and oral contraceptives.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) took the decision to suspend new complaints in order to protect frontline services. It has now fully reopened and is working through complaints received during the pause. Members of the public will not lose their access to justice because of the pandemic, and complaints regarding the COVID-19 outbreak period are now being considered as are all other complaints. The LGSCO has taken steps to ensure complainants are not penalised on time grounds for not being able to come to the LGSCO during the pause. The LGSCO has also carefully tracked legislation and guidance in operation since the outbreak and developed expertise to consistently investigate complaints made about council and social care provider actions during that period.
We have made arrangements to help ensure that settings providing adult social care services can access personal protection equipment (PPE) where they have a clinical need, in line with published guidance. This includes community retirement settings that have care provision.
We have released millions of items of PPE to wholesalers for onward sale to the adult social care sector for providers to access if they cannot obtain PPE through their business as usual routes. We have also released of millions of items of PPE to Local Resilience Forums to help them respond to urgent local spikes in need across the adult social care sector and some other front-line services, where they are unable to access PPE through their business as usual and designated wholesaler routes. We have also mobilised a National Supply Disruption Response system to respond to emergency PPE requests, including for the adult social care sector if they cannot obtain PPE through other routes.
On access to COVID-19 testing, staff that are experiencing symptoms can be referred for testing by their employer, use the self-referral portal to order a home test kit or visit a regional testing site.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is committed to supporting its colleagues who wish to undertake a different role to support the national effort in combatting COVID-19. As of 30 April 2020, the CQC has 101 colleagues with a formal external loan agreement. It has released 18 colleagues to the Department, 16 to NHS Improvement, one to Public Health England and one to Public Health Wales. It has released an additional 65 colleagues under local agreements to organisations including National Health Service trusts, general practitioner practices and pharmacies. In the majority of cases they are undertaking a frontline role. The CQC paused its routine inspection programme on 16 March 2020. This has freed up around 2,300 specialist advisors, who are not the CQC’s employees but can be called upon to support their inspection programme alongside clinical duties, to focus on frontline work.
Putting social care on a sustainable footing, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society. The Government will bring forward a plan for social care this year. There are complex questions to address, which is why we will seek to build cross-party consensus. We will consider all options available to ensure that every person is treated with dignity and offered the security they deserve, and that nobody needing care is forced to sell their home to pay for it.
Details of UK bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) to China between 2009 to 2019 can be found in table A4b of the Statistics on International Development (SID), published on the gov.uk website at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/920048/Table-A4b.ods. Please note in line with SID revision policy there has been a minor revision to the 2019 SID dataset. A data processing error in reporting meant that the published 2019 figure of UK ODA spend in China was £500,000 lower than the actual spend [as the Grant in Aid ODA for the Great Britain-China Centre (GBCC) was mistakenly attributed to 'developing countries unspecified']
Further details on the programmes that underpin the figures in table A4b, including project titles and descriptions, can be found in the ODA activity level datasets published on gov.uk: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/921034/Data_Underlying_SID_2019.ods (for 2017-2019) and https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/695435/data-underlying-the-sid2017-revision-March.ods (for 2009 - 2016).
Her Majesty's Government's final 2020 ODA spend, including country data, will be published in the 'Statistics on International Development: Final UK Aid Spend' in autumn 2021.
The UK is clear that human rights are universal and is committed to protecting the human rights of all persons, including older persons. The UK recognises that there can be barriers to the enjoyment of human rights associated with certain characteristics, including age, and we know that older persons often face serious human rights issues in many parts of the world. We are supportive, in principle, of a multilateral instrument dedicated to the rights of older persons, and welcome the UN Open Ended Working Group on Ageing's work to help deepen our understanding of the important issues, before we consider what might be the most appropriate solution. There is currently no draft Convention for the UK to consider ratifying. We will continue to work closely with Parliament, academia, civil society and national human rights institutions, to draw on their expertise and ensure that our approach takes account of their views.
The public rightly expect police officers to meet high standards of professional conduct. In this country, the power of the police to fulfil their duties is wholly dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain this public respect.
The College of Policing, which sets and maintains training standards for policing, published the Code of Ethics in 2014. This includes a set of principles for policing, including that all officers and staff should take active steps to oppose discrimination and make their decisions free from prejudice. This is a cornerstone of police training and development.
The College of Policing’s foundation training for all those entering the service includes substantial coverage of police ethics and self-understanding, including the effects of personal conscious and unconscious bias. Initial training covers hate crimes, ethics and equalities, and policing without bias.
Forces also provide local training and development at several different levels ranging from initial entry, leadership and ongoing development to reflect and reinforce organisational values.
The Government has been clear that the police will get the financial support they need to keep our communities safe through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government took immediate steps to increase the availability of funding for forces to meet cashflow pressures caused by the pandemic. We flexed half of the £168 million Police Uplift ringfenced grant to include expenditure on COVID-19 related pressures for the first six months of the financial year. We also brought forward payment of the £142.6 million police pensions grant, which forces received in April this year.
The Government also recently announced that council tax and business rates collection fund deficits accumulated 2020-21 can be phased over three years rather than paid off in 2021-22. This will give police and other local authorities in England a breathing space when setting their budgets for next year.
The Home Office continues to gather evidence of forces’ additional Covid-19 related expenditures since the introduction of social distancing measures, de-veloped in close consultation with policing sector finance leads. We will use this evidence base to inform cross-Government decisions on the police’s fu-ture funding needs.
The government has published guidance (attached) on safer public spaces. It includes advice, information and examples of the potential interventions that can be used in public places to facilitate social distancing in areas of higher footfall such as in parks (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/safer-public-places-urban-centres-and-green-spaces-covid-19). Owners and operators are advised to implement cleaning protocols to limit coronavirus transmission in public places. It is advised that touch points (e.g. handrails and gates) should be particular areas of focus for increased cleaning.
To help everyone maintain good hygiene, consideration should be given to: configuration of toilet facilities to ensure they are kept clean, with social distancing achieved as far as possible and with best practice handwashing followed; where possible, providing hand towels as an alternative to hand dryers in handwashing facilities; signs at public toilets for queuing, social distancing and automatic sanitising; using signs and messages to build awareness of good handwashing technique and other respiratory hygiene behaviours, e.g. around coughing and sneezing in public places; where possible, providing hand towels as an alternative to hand dryers in handwashing facilities; and queue marking indicators at main entrance, popular park destinations and toilets.
We have now made £3.2 billion available to local authorities through an unringfenced grant so they can address pressures they are facing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The package recognises the additional costs and pressures on finances councils are facing as a result of the current crisis. It demonstrates the Government’s commitment to making sure councils, including upper and lower tier authorities, have the resources they need to support their communities through this challenging time.