Baroness Masham of Ilton
Crossbench - Life peer
Became Member: 12th February 1970
Left House: 12th March 2023 (Death)
55 Former APPG memberships
Access to Medicines and Medical Devices, Acquired Brain Injury, Air Ambulances, Antibiotics, Atrial Fibrillation, Axial Spondyloarthritis, Bladder and Bowel Continence Care, Blood Donation, Brain Tumours, Cancer, Coeliac Disease, Continence Care, Coronavirus, Disability, Drugs, Alcohol and Justice, Eggs, Pigs and Poultry, Global Health, Global Tuberculosis, Headache Disorders, Health, Heart and Circulatory Diseases, Heart Disease, Heart Valve Disease, Hepatology, HIV and AIDS, Horse, Liver Disease and Liver Cancer, Liver Health, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, Medicines and Medical Devices, Men's Health, Minimally Invasive Cancer Therapies, Obesity, Osteoporosis, Osteoporosis and Bone Health, Osteoposis, Parkinson's, Patient and Public Involvement in Health and Social Care, Patient Safety, Prescribed Drug Dependence, Primary Care and Public Health, Pro-Life, Respiratory Health, Sepsis, Skin, Spinal Cord Injury, Stem Cell Transplantation, Thrombosis, Tuberculosis, Vaccinations for All, Valproate and other Anti-Epileptic Drugs in Pregnancy, Vascular and Venous Disease, Vascular Disease, Vulnerable Groups to Pandemics, Women's HealthDivision Voting information
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Lords initiatives
These initiatives were driven by Baroness Masham of Ilton, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Baroness Masham of Ilton has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Baroness Masham of Ilton has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
Latest 50 Written Questions
(View all written questions)The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply and I will place a copy of their letter in the Library of the House.
Medicine is a hugely competitive course, and consistently has far more applicants than there are places available.
The department has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England – a 25% increase over three years. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England. In addition, we temporarily lifted the cap on medical and dental school places for students who completed A levels in 2020 and in 2021 and who had an offer from a university in England to study medicine or dentistry, subject to their grades.
My right hon. Friend, the former Secretary of State for Education, and my hon. Friend, the former Minister for Health, have made clear to all medicine and dental schools, in joint letters in October 2021 and again in March 2022, that there is no room for flexibility this year, and it is the department's firm expectation that all schools will only recruit up to the maximum number of students as set in the Office for Students’ intake targets.
We are confident that providers will make fair decisions around admissions and students who are unable to secure a place in medicine will have a number of other high-quality options, either within higher education or through other post-18 pathways.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department published the special educational needs and disabilities review on 29 March 2022.
We have also launched a full, accessible 16-week consultation so that everyone can have their say and the department is keen to hear from a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties. We are making sure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents can respond, as well as people working in education, health and care, and charities and other experts.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The ‘Too Little, Too Late’ report recommends an increase in funding for a range of early intervention services. This year, the government announced a £500 million package to give families effective support earlier by creating a network of family hubs in half of the council areas in England and helping up to 300,000 more vulnerable families through the Support Families programme.
The report’s other recommendations include a legal duty for early help and additional data collection on early help. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has now set out its final recommendations, and we will consider those relevant to early help to inform any next steps.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We are determined to ensure all children receive high quality physical education (PE) in order to keep fit, active and healthy, whilst also developing a lifelong participation in physical activity and sport.
PE is a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the national curriculum. The programme of study sets the expectation that schools should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way that supports their health and fitness. Through the primary PE and sport premium, primary schools have already received over £450million of ring-fenced funding to provide additional and sustainable improvements to their PE and sport provision. In an independent evaluation, 84% of schools reported an increase in pupil engagement in PE during curricular time and in the levels of participation in extra-curricular activities.
Since the introduction of the primary PE and sport premium there has been an increase in the number of schools with a specialist PE teacher from 30% before the premium to 46% in 2014/15. Eighty-one per cent of schools also reported that the funding was used to up-skill and train existing staff in 2014/15. From September 2017, the funding will be doubled to £320million per year and schools will continue to have the freedom to spend the funding based on the needs of their pupils.
The Government does not prescribe specific subject content for initial teacher training (ITT). All ITT courses must be designed so that teacher trainees can demonstrate by the end of their training that they meet all of the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes demonstrating good subject and curriculum knowledge by having a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas.
To improve the quality and consistency of initial teacher training, in July 2016, the Government published a new framework of core content for ITT. The new framework emphasise the need for all ITT providers to audit trainees’ subject knowledge early in their training and make provision to ensure that trainees have sufficient subject knowledge to satisfy the standard by the end of their training.
In the new Sport Strategy, the government has committed to support children and young people to develop the confidence and skills to take part and to be positive about sport and activity. As part of this work, we will be exploring how to increase physical literacy standards in primary schools.
We want all pupils to be healthy and more physically active, with the Government’s recent Childhood Obesity Plan setting out an ambition that young people should be active for at least 60 minutes every day, as recommended by the Chief Medical Officer.
Since 2013, the Government has provided over £450million of ring-fenced funding to primary schools to make additional and sustainable improvements to PE and Sport. We know this funding is making a difference, with 87% of primary schools reporting that the quality of PE teaching has increased since the introduction of the premium. The majority of schools have also introduced new sports in both curricular PE (74%) and extra-curricular sport (77%) since the premium was introduced. But we know there is more to do, which is why revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the primary PE and sport premium to £320million a year from September 2017.
Through the Sport Strategy, we have also extended the remit of Sport England, to cover children aged 5 and above, outside of school. Sport England's new strategy 'Towards an Active Nation' sets out a new £40million investment into projects that offer opportunities for families with children to get active and play sport together outside of school.
In relation to fitness testing, it is up to schools to determine how best they deliver a diverse and challenging PE curriculum. We are considering how we can track levels of physical activity in schools to help support children to have healthy and active lives and will be providing schools with further guidance and best practice examples to help deliver this.
This Government wants all children to lead healthy and active lives and schools have a key role to play in teaching children about healthy lifestyles. Schools have the flexibility to choose which educational resources they use to support their teaching and there are opportunities across the curriculum for pupils to be taught the knowledge and skills they need to support heathy living.
The national curriculum is compulsory in state maintained schools and sets the expectation that across a variety of subjects, pupils are taught about the importance of leading a healthy active lifestyle. Physical education (PE) is compulsory at all four key stages in the national curriculum and should provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way that supports their health and fitness. Across science and design and technology, pupils are taught about the importance of healthy eating and nutrition.
Change4Life is the Government’s flagship social marketing programme aimed at inspiring everyone to eat well, move more and live longer. In 2015 more than 385,000 families signed up to the “10 Minute Shake up” campaign, which are designed as fun activities for children to squeeze short 10-minute bursts of activity into their day. In January 2016, Change4Life launched the Food Detective campaign. Developed by educational experts, these curriculum-linked resources encouraged pupils to become Food Detectives and to learn more about sugar and 5 a day to support a healthy and balanced diet.
All schools are required to teach a broadly balanced curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for adult life.
The national curriculum focuses on the essential knowledge children need so that teachers can design a wider school curriculum that is responsive to the needs of their pupils. This teaching can include a range of topics, including lessons about health and chronic disease. These topics can fall under Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. We have made it clear in the introduction to the national curriculum that all schools should make provision for high quality; age appropriate PSHE.
To help schools plan their provision, the PSHE Association has produced a suggested programme of study for schools to follow, which includes content about ‘Health and Wellbeing’.
All schools are required to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for adult life.
The national curriculum focuses on the essential knowledge children need so that teachers can design a wider school curriculum that is responsive to the needs of their pupils. This teaching can include a range of topics that fall under PSHE, such as health education and health awareness.
To help schools plan their provision, the PSHE Association has produced a suggested programme of study for schools to follow, which includes content about ‘Health and Wellbeing’.
Ofsted do not inspect individual curriculum subjects. Instead, the framework enables important aspects of PSHE to be considered in a proportionate and integrated way, linked to the core inspection areas.
Children and young people with medical conditions should receive the support they need to enable them to participate in a full education. The Government has introduced a new duty at Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 under which school governing bodies must make arrangements to support such pupils. All exclusions must be for a disciplinary reason and follow the legal exclusion process. No pupil should be excluded from school because of their HIV status.
Schools may wish to teach about HIV through subjects such as personal, social health and economic education (PSHE), or in relation to particular events. The statutory Sex and Relationship Guidance includes the requirement to teach about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted infections are also covered as part of the national curriculum for science at key stage 3.
All schools must have behaviour policies to tackle bullying and the Department for Education is providing charitable organisations with £4 million (2013-15) to tackle all forms of bullying.
Children and young people with medical conditions should receive the support they need to enable them to participate in a full education. The Government has introduced a new duty at Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 under which school governing bodies must make arrangements to support such pupils. All exclusions must be for a disciplinary reason and follow the legal exclusion process. No pupil should be excluded from school because of their HIV status.
Schools may wish to teach about HIV through subjects such as personal, social health and economic education (PSHE), or in relation to particular events. The statutory Sex and Relationship Guidance includes the requirement to teach about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted infections are also covered as part of the national curriculum for science at key stage 3.
All schools must have behaviour policies to tackle bullying and the Department for Education is providing charitable organisations with £4 million (2013-15) to tackle all forms of bullying.
11 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Questions
(View all Baroness Masham of Ilton's Defra questions)The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) regulates Veterinary Medicinal Products (VMPs) and assesses applications submitted by the veterinary pharmaceutical industry to authorise and make available good quality, safe and efficacious VMPs, including veterinary vaccines. There are currently two veterinary vaccines authorised in Great Britain and Northern Ireland which include claims against Streptococcus equi which can cause strangles in horses. Current information about veterinary medicines authorised in Great Britain and Northern Ireland including these equine vaccines can be found on the Product Information Database on GOV.UK (www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/ProductInformationDatabase/).
Alternatively, where a suitable veterinary vaccine authorised in the UK is not available to treat a disease, a veterinary surgeon may apply to the VMD for a special import certificate, which allows the use of a veterinary vaccine authorised elsewhere in the world. These applications are subject to a risk assessment by the VMD.
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is working with the veterinary profession, including the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, to help ensure that there will be an adequate number of vets across all sectors of the veterinary profession.
Defra, alongside the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and the British Veterinary Association, was successful in campaigning for the addition of the veterinary profession to the Shortage Occupation List by the Home Office in September 2019. This enabled employers to recruit overseas veterinary surgeons more easily. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons continues to accept the vast majority of European veterinary degrees as well as maintaining mutual recognition agreements with many English-speaking countries that allow automatic registration for overseas vets.
Defra is also strongly considering proposals from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to increase the range of activities that can be delegated to allied professionals who work with animals to ease the pressure on the workload of the practising vet.
We are also looking forward to an increase in UK-trained vets thanks to several new veterinary schools opening across the UK. These include Surrey University, which saw its first cohort graduate in 2019, Harper Adams and Keele University, the University of Central Lancashire, Scottish Rural College and a collaboration between Aberystwyth University and the Royal Veterinary College. The increase in veterinary schools will lead to an increase in UK-trained vets graduating in the longer term.
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra is considering the latest data and working with the ornamental horticulture production industry to understand labour demand and supply, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements. We will continue to monitor the labour needs of the ornamental horticulture sector and help to ensure that these are met.
In December 2020, a Defra-led review into automation in horticulture was also announced alongside a review of the Seasonal Workers Pilot. The review will report on ways to increase automation in both the edible and ornamental horticulture sectors and meet the Government’s aim of reducing the need for migrant seasonal labour.
The Government has announced that the seasonal worker visa route will be extended to 2024 to allow overseas workers to come to the UK for up to six months to harvest both edible and ornamental crops. 30,000 visas will be available. This will be kept under review with the potential to increase by 10,000 visas if necessary.
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra is working closely with the Home Office to ensure there is a long-term strategy for the food and farming workforce beyond 2021.
The Government has announced that the seasonal worker visa route will be extended to 2024 to allow overseas workers to come to the UK for up to six months to harvest both edible and ornamental crops. 30,000 visas will be available. This will be kept under review with the potential to increase by 10,000 visas if necessary.
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As the Prime Minister previously said, it is illegal to sell dog and cat meat and there are no abattoirs with a licence to slaughter these animals in the UK.
The Government recognises both the symbolic and substantive nature of the issues raised, and is exploring what else can be done to send a clear signal that consumption of cats and dogs will never be tolerated.
The application window for the Basic Payment Scheme 2018 opened on 13 March and over 71,000 applications were submitted online by the 15 May initial regulatory deadline. In addition, a paper application was provided to those that chose not to use the online system. Applications can still be submitted up until 10 June, the final regulatory deadline, but penalties will apply.
The Government is not aware of any delays to the service and as such there are no plans to extend the deadlines.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 Act does not provide a comprehensive definition of litter or refuse, although the courts have considered the definition to be wide. Litter is most commonly assumed to include materials, often associated with smoking, eating and drinking, that are improperly discarded and left by members of the public; or are spilt during business operations as well as waste management operations.
Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 says: “A person is guilty of an offence if he throws down, drops or otherwise deposits any litter in any place to which this section applies and leaves it”. Ultimately it is for a court to rule whether a release of sky lanterns would be covered.
An independent study commissioned by Defra and the Welsh Government published in 2013 concluded that the risks to animals or damage to the environment by sky lanterns were relatively minor and that voluntary action and initiatives have been shown to be effective. Based on these findings, we currently have no plans to ban the use of sky lanterns.
Defra and the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England (AHWBE) recently met police forces, farming and rural interests groups to discuss the situation. Under the auspices of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, five police forces are collaborating to pilot more systematic data collection of incidents and good response practices.
There are two vaccines authorised for use in the UK for Schmallenberg virus.
The decision on whether to develop and market a veterinary medicine is a commercial one for those pharmaceutical companies wishing to invest the necessary capital.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) will accept applications to import Schmallenberg vaccines authorised outside of the UK to facilitate availability.
Since the recurrence of the disease, the Government has been in dialogue with one of the Marketing Authorisation Holders of the UK authorised vaccines to discuss their plans for resuming manufacture and marketing.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are continually assessing the spread of Schmallenberg virus (SBV). Principally, APHA are analysing laboratory results from cattle and sheep samples submitted to the network of APHA Veterinary Investigation Centres and non-APHA partner post-mortem examination providers. This information is published, and updated fortnightly, on the APHA Vet Gateway website.
A summary of this information can be seen in the tables below.
The total number of SBV-affected sheep flocks that have been diagnosed by APHA in England and Wales during winter 2016/17. There have been no recorded cases in Scotland to date.
Country | December 2016 | January 2017 | February 2017 (up to 22nd) | Total |
England | 7 | 41 | 13 | 61 |
Wales | 2 | 10 | 2 | 14 |
Total | 8 | 51 | 15 | 75 |
Source: APHA
The total number of SBV-affected cattle herds flocks that have been diagnosed by APHA in England during winter 2016/17. There have been no recorded cases in Wales and Scotland to date.
Country | December 2016 | January 2017 | February 2017 (up to 22nd) | Total |
England | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Total | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Source: APHA
APHA are continually working with both industry and the veterinary profession in Great Britain to improve the evidence base to help further assess the spread of SBV. The sheep and cattle sectors are using media channels to raise awareness of the disease to encourage farmers to discuss suspect SBV cases with their vet. APHA are supporting any subsequent testing.
In addition, APHA’s Cattle Expert Group and Small Ruminant Expert Group are working with their sectors and counterparts in other European countries, who have also seen a rise in cases, to gather, share and analyse information, including any early warning clinical signs.
1 Department for International Development Questions
(View all Baroness Masham of Ilton's DFID questions)My Right Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for International Development, announced an investment of £1.1billion in the Global Fund, including a commitment to double private sector contributions for tackling malaria, up to a maximum of £200million, and £90 million tied to successful delivery against a performance agreement.
The UK’s investment will fund 40 million bednets to tackle malaria; provide enough lifesaving anti-retroviral therapy for 1.3 million people with HIV; and support the treatment of 800,000 people with tuberculosis.
EU licences will continue to be recognised in the UK during the transition period, and vice versa. This means that motorists visiting the UK or the EU will not require an International Driving Permit, and vice versa.
Arrangements after the transition period will depend on the outcome of negotiations with the EU. The UK Government will work with its European partners to minimise any extra burden on motorists after the transition period, as this is advantageous for both the UK and the EU. 24 of the 27 EU Member States have already stated that they will continue to recognise UK photocard licences in all circumstances.
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the importance of seat belts in promoting road safety; quite simply they save lives. That is why the law requires vehicle occupants, with very few exceptions, to wear them. Advice on www.gov.uk and in The Highway Code in respect of seat belts focusses on the importance of wearing a seat belt.
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Ministry of Justice has published information on the number of males and females prosecuted and convicted for broader ‘seat belt offences’ by age group:
Prosecutions and Convictions for seat belt offences, by sex (where sex was known) and age group, England and Wales, year ending December 2014 to year ending December 2018
Prosecutions | |||||
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Males | 7,158 | 6,884 | 6,605 | 5,288 | 5,639 |
Juveniles | 30 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 7 |
Young adults | 290 | 248 | 230 | 174 | 185 |
Adults | 6,838 | 6,616 | 6,365 | 5,106 | 5,447 |
Females | 944 | 869 | 722 | 546 | 652 |
Juveniles | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
Young adults | 52 | 29 | 31 | 20 | 23 |
Adults | 884 | 839 | 688 | 524 | 627 |
Total | 8,102 | 7,753 | 7,327 | 5,834 | 6,291 |
Convictions | |||||
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Males | 6,554 | 6,351 | 6,205 | 5,018 | 5,299 |
Juveniles | 22 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
Young adults | 270 | 228 | 219 | 165 | 177 |
Adults | 6,262 | 6,111 | 5,980 | 4,848 | 5,117 |
Females | 865 | 791 | 664 | 507 | 594 |
Juveniles | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Young adults | 48 | 25 | 30 | 19 | 19 |
Adults | 812 | 765 | 633 | 486 | 575 |
Total | 7,419 | 7,142 | 6,869 | 5,525 | 5,893 |
Adults are those offenders aged 21 and over, whilst juveniles are aged under 18 and young adults are aged 18-20.
‘Seat belt offences’ cover a range of different offences, but a large proportion would be for not wearing a seat belt. The Ministry of Justice does not have a classification for specific offences involving ‘wearing a seatbelt incorrectly‘; this may fall under the broader offence of seat belt offences, but to identify these specific offences would require a manual search of court records, which would be of disproportionate cost.
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department does not hold information on whether casualties in reported road accidents were wearing a seat belt incorrectly.
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the importance of seat belts in promoting road safety; quite simply they save lives. That is why the law requires vehicle occupants, with very few exceptions, to wear them. Advice on www.gov.uk and in The Highway Code in respect of seat belts focusses on the importance of wearing a seat belt.
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the importance of seat belts in promoting road safety; quite simply they save lives. That is why the law requires vehicle occupants, with very few exceptions, to wear them. Advice on www.gov.uk and in The Highway Code in respect of seat belts focusses on the importance of wearing a seat belt.
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK currently operates within a harmonised EU framework for the regulation of disinfectants, under the Biocidal Products Regulation 528/2012. The intention is to continue to operate within the existing framework of rules and standards when the UK leaves the EU.
The Government does not intend to depart from the framework of the Biocidal Products Regulation 528/2012 (BPR) after the UK’s departure from the EU. Using powers in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 the BPR will be retained in UK law and amended by a statutory instrument solely to correct deficiencies arising from EU exit and to enable the Regulation to function correctly in a UK context post-exit.
17 Department of Health and Social Care Questions
(View all Baroness Masham of Ilton's DHSC questions)No specific assessment has been made. Individual employers are responsible for determining the appropriate mandatory training for staff to meet the required standards for patient care set by regulatory bodies.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is selecting early adopter sites to trial a ‘Managing Heart Failure@home’ approach and is working with clinical cardiac networks on local plans for systems to support patients with managing heart failure and raising awareness.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is addressing the factors which increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke, including working with local government to modernise the NHS Health Check programme and delivering social marketing and behavioural interventions.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working with NHS England on the operational planning and assurance in the event of any industrial action and with NHS Employers on national discussions with trade unions and to support employers locally. Employers and trade unions will discuss local derogations to identify which services are exempt from strike action in order to protect patient safety.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Suppliers, such as Sanofi, will determine whether to apply for a marketing authorisation for a new medicine from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). For an authorisation to be granted for a medicine, the MHRA must receive a full marketing application from the applicant.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the United Kingdom, the COVID-19 vaccines currently in use have been authorised by the independent regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority. The majority of people will be offered a vaccine manufactured by Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna. However, for those clinically intolerant to these MRNA vaccines, the Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Novavax is also available. All vaccination centres order supplies according to anticipated requirements. NHS England has asked regional teams to nominate sites in England to administer the Nuvaxovid vaccine.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the authorisation of a vaccine by Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) can consider its use in an immunisation programme, following an official request from the Department or independently with an intent to review a possible improvement to public health.
The timetable for such consideration is dependent on factors including the current burden of disease to the population, whether an effective vaccine is already available and the amount of evidence available at the time. In order to issue evidence-based advice on the use of a particular vaccine, data on disease epidemiology, vaccine safety and efficacy will be required. Additional analysis including modelling or cost-effectiveness may also be necessary. The vaccine will either be discussed in an forthcoming scheduled meeting or in the case of a public health emergency, an extraordinary meeting may be arranged. These meetings may result in new or updated advice being issued by the JCVI and provided to the Government to inform, develop and make policy.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. The NHS Retention Programme seeks to understand why staff may leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well. Guidance on retention for National Health Service employers has been updated.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In February 2022, the Government amended immigration rules which allows domiciliary and care home workers to be recruited from overseas. Under current visa rules, overseas recruits are required to work for a registered sponsor. The sponsorship system ensures employers fulfil specific duties to confirm those who apply for permission to enter or stay in the United Kingdom to work are eligible and will comply with the conditions of their visa. Businesses are able to comply with these duties and demonstrate a verifiable track record of operating lawfully in the UK in a way private individuals and households cannot, both within the immigration system and the employer regulatory regime.
This ensures the integrity of the immigration system and provides important welfare safeguards for workers who migrate to the UK and individuals requiring care. There are no current plans to change this approach.
Multi-disciplinary teams within Primary Care Networks provide greater access to echocardiography to investigate the symptoms of patients with breathlessness and accelerate the early detection of heart failure and heart valve disease.
We have committed to creating an additional 50 million appointments a year in general practice by increasing and diversifying the primary care workforce. This will improve access for patients, including those at risk from heart failure and ensure staff can provide a range of care options for patients outside of hospital.
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is an annual voluntary incentive programme for general practitioner (GP) practices in England, which rewards practices for meeting the required thresholds for each indicator. No additional support is offered specifically to low-performing practices.
NHS England is implementing measures to raise awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment, overseen by the National Clinical Director for Heart Disease and supported by an Expert Advisory Group of clinical experts. This includes the launch of community diagnostic centres which could deliver over one million additional computerised tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound scans, echocardiograms scans and X-rays. This will support Primary Care Networks to increase diagnostic capacity for the detection of conditions such as heart failure and heart valve disease.
NHS England has developed five ‘NHS@Home’ pilots to support patients with heart failure in the community. The ‘Managing Heart Failure @home’ scheme aims to support people living with heart failure to manage their condition at home through patient education and remote monitoring. Working with a specialist clinician, patients are supported to understand their medications, reduce salt intake, monitor and record daily weight and blood pressure measurements and recognise symptoms which may indicate deterioration. The ‘Blood Pressure @Home’ initiative allocated more than 220,000 blood pressure monitors in England to enable at-risk patients to measure their blood pressure remotely and share the results with their GP practice, reducing the need for appointments and travel. These schemes aim to reduce hospital admissions and increase patients’ quality of life, through improved understanding of the management of the condition and communication with primary, community and specialist teams.
COVID-19 is a notifiable disease. Registered medical practitioners have a duty to make such notifications to the proper officer of the local authority and the UK Health Security Agency. There is no specific duty for the general public to make a notification and there is no advice to do so. However, individuals attending medical or dental appointments in person are advised to inform their healthcare provider where they are symptomatic or if they have a positive test for COVID-19.
No formal assessment has been made. Patients with non-tuberculous mycobacteria will continue to be managed in primary and secondary care settings and treated with the current available treatments known as ‘Guideline Based Therapy’ as recommended by the British Thoracic Society.
The British Thoracic Society guideline for the use of longterm macrolides in adults with respiratory disease suggests that patients who are able to expectorate should be considered for testing for non-tuberculous mycobacteria prior to starting long-term macrolide therapy. A copy of the guideline is attached. NHS England and NHS Improvement do not hold data on the number of tests undertaken.
No formal assessment has been made. Patients with non-tuberculous mycobacteria will continue to be managed in primary and secondary care settings and treated with the current available treatments known as ‘Guideline Based Therapy’ as recommended by the British Thoracic Society.
The British Thoracic Society guideline for the use of longterm macrolides in adults with respiratory disease suggests that patients who are able to expectorate should be considered for testing for non-tuberculous mycobacteria prior to starting long-term macrolide therapy. A copy of the guideline is attached. NHS England and NHS Improvement do not hold data on the number of tests undertaken.