Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to find departing members of (1) NHS England, and (2) the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), roles elsewhere in the public sector; and what plans they have to prevent departing members from these organisations from taking retirement packages and then gaining re-employment in NHS England or DHSC.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to lead this transformation. As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the pension arrangements for departing workers from (1) NHS England, and (2) the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); and what plans they have to limit the cost of such pensions in any restructuring of NHS England or DHSC.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Employees have different pension arrangements depending on the length of service and the terms and conditions of employment. Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to lead this transformation. As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds.
There may be some short-term upfront costs as we undertake these changes, but these costs and more will be recouped in future years because of a smaller, leaner centre.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answers by Lord Livermore on 13 March (HL Deb cols 813–14), who sits on the British Infrastructure Taskforce; and what are its terms of reference.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Meetings of the British Infrastructure Taskforce are convened by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to help boost investment in infrastructure and drive growth nationwide. The Taskforce is attended by some of the UK’s largest financial services companies.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is the government’s centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. The IPA leads the project delivery and project finance professions across government. The IPA supports the successful delivery of all types of major projects; ranging from railways, schools, hospitals and housing, to defence, IT and major transformation programmes. These functions, along with those of the National Infrastructure Commission, will move to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) on 1 April 2025.
NISTA will bring oversight of strategy and delivery into one organisation, developing and implementing our ten-year infrastructure strategy in conjunction with industry, while driving more effective delivery of infrastructure across the country. Alongside existing assurance mechanisms, NISTA will have an enhanced role in supporting major projects, including validating business cases prior to HM Treasury funding approval.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the British Infrastructure Taskforce and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority interact and ensure that government infrastructure projects (1) are delivered on time, and (2) provide value for money.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Meetings of the British Infrastructure Taskforce are convened by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to help boost investment in infrastructure and drive growth nationwide. The Taskforce is attended by some of the UK’s largest financial services companies.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is the government’s centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. The IPA leads the project delivery and project finance professions across government. The IPA supports the successful delivery of all types of major projects; ranging from railways, schools, hospitals and housing, to defence, IT and major transformation programmes. These functions, along with those of the National Infrastructure Commission, will move to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) on 1 April 2025.
NISTA will bring oversight of strategy and delivery into one organisation, developing and implementing our ten-year infrastructure strategy in conjunction with industry, while driving more effective delivery of infrastructure across the country. Alongside existing assurance mechanisms, NISTA will have an enhanced role in supporting major projects, including validating business cases prior to HM Treasury funding approval.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answers by Lord Livermore on 13 March (HL Deb cols 812–13), who leads the Infrastructure and Projects Authority; and what is its remit.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is currently led by Nick Smallwood. Nick Smallwood will be stepping down at the end of March 2025.
The IPA works across Government to support the successful delivery of all types of major projects, ranging from railways, roads, schools, hospitals and housing, to energy, telecommunications, defence, IT and major transformation programmes. The IPA’s Mandate can be found on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infrastructure-and-projects-authority-mandate.
On the 1 April 2025, the functions of the IPA will be taken over by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), which will combine the functions of the IPA and the National Infrastructure Commission. NISTA will be led by Jean-Christophe Gray until a permanent CEO is appointed.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding to support children and young people's hospices will be allocated for 2025–26 compared to (1) 2022–23, and (2) 2023–24.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2022/23, NHS England provided £21 million of funding for children and young people’s hospices in England through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. In addition, in 2023/24, NHS England provided £25 million of funding through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Finally, in 2025/26, £26 million of revenue funding is being provided to support children and young people’s hospices. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant.
Additionally, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England, spanning 2024/25 and 2025/26, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. The Government has released the first £25 million tranche of that funding for 2024/25, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. Of this first tranche of funding, children and young people’s hospices are receiving £3,065,705. This does not include hospices which provide both adult and children’s services. The second tranche of the £75 million of funding for 2025/26 will be available from April 2025, and hospices will be informed of their allocations in due course.
It is important to note that the funding outlined above does not represent the totality of the National Health Service funding provided to children and young people’s hospices, most of which are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding from their local integrated care board (ICB) for providing services within the NHS. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on the demand in that ICB area, but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.
ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of children and young people’s palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification for children and young people.
The Department does not hold specific data regarding the total amount of funding children and young people’s hospices receive from ICBs each year. Individual ICBs oversee and maintain records of these transactions.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that 300,000 small businesses are planning job cuts in response to the planned rise in employer national insurance contributions.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
An assessment of this policy has been published by HMRC in their Tax Information and Impact Note. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s October 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook set out the expected economic impacts of this change.
Once the impact of all Budget measures are taken into consideration, the OBR expect the employment level to increase from 33.1 million in 2024 to 34.3 million in 2029.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Gustafsson on 11 February (HL Deb cols 1104–07), what plans they have to provide a further update to the House on the remedial actions they have taken following the Post Office Horizon scandal; and what steps they have taken to improve the skills of, and accountability measures relating to, directors from the Civil Service who represent the Government on the boards of organisations of which the Government owns a share.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I provided the House an update on the redress schemes on the 27 February.
There are currently over 300 public bodies, many of whom operate with independent Boards. The decision on whether to place a representative on the Board is for the sponsoring Department.
UK Government Investments (UKGI) currently provides a Shareholder Representative function on behalf of Departments for 25 of government's most commercially-focused bodies, including providing Board representatives for 22 of these bodies. UKGI provides extensive training for its representatives covering a range of corporate governance issues. This training has developed significantly in recent years and is regularly updated.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s speech to the Confederation of British Industry Conference on 25 November 2024, whether it remains their policy that there will be no further tax rises or borrowing, beyond those in the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As the Chancellor has said, the commitment to our fiscal rules is non-negotiable, and we will meet them at all times.
The Chancellor has asked the OBR to produce an economic and fiscal forecast on the 26 March. This will provide a clear assessment of our performance against the fiscal rules. We will not give a running commentary on economic developments.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Exchequer Secretary on 30 January (HC26469), whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the representations they received from TheCityUK on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government does not intend to place a copy of the representations in the House of Commons library as these are considered confidential and disclosure may prejudice the exchange of information in the policy development process.