Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to commission an up-to-date study of the comparative (1) cost and impact, and (2) feasibility and viability, of each type of infrastructure for conveying electricity.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Industry leads on innovation in the technologies and design of the infrastructure developed and delivered to meet our net zero targets. The Government does not currently plan to directly commission any new work.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Welsh Government on the relative benefits of cable ploughing new power lines.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is aware of cable ploughing as a technique for installing some types of electricity cabling lines and is aware of the Welsh Government’s work into the merits of cable ploughing. The Government looks forward to engaging with the Welsh Government on the outcomes of that work.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative costs of undergrounding power lines by (1) cable ploughing, and (2) open trenching.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Undergrounding is usually by open trenching with costs varying between 5-10 times those of overhead lines. These costs are from the Institution of Engineering and Technology Study, 2012. Cable ploughing is a newer method of undergrounding some types of electricity cables. The Government has not made a formal assessment of those costs. The Government regularly engages with industry to understand new opportunities and innovations.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to build on the proposals in the report of Sir Andrew Dilnot’s Commission on Funding of Care and Support, Fairer Care Funding, published in July 2011.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As announced in the Autumn Statement 2022, we listened to the concerns of local government and made the decision to delay the rollout of charging reforms from October 2023 to October 2025. These reforms include the introduction of a cap on personal care costs, and a more generous adult social care means test. The Government has been considering what form the rollout of charging reform from October 2025 will take.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have given any consideration to the use of ID cards.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is not considering ID cards at this time.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the UK sanctions list was last reviewed; and whether they will make the review public.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The government keeps all sanctions designations under review and, under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, a Minister may instigate a reassessment of a designation at any time.
The UK sanctions list is updated publicly on gov.uk every time a decision is made to make, vary, or revoke a designation. These updates are also publicised through the FCDO's sanctions e-alert subscription system.
The UK Sanctions List (UKSL) can be found here:
[https://docs.fcdo.gov.uk/docs/UK-Sanctions-List.html]
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the cost to the NHS of missed appointments at (1) hospitals, and (2) GP surgeries, in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is not possible to produce an estimate of the true cost to the National Health Service of these missed appointments, as this will depend on whether NHS staff were still able to use the time productively, for example by seeing other patients instead, or doing other work. NHS England advises local NHS organisations, general practices and trusts to plan for preventing and dealing with missed appointments. These include ensuring patients can cancel appointments in convenient ways, such as by text message or through online cancellation forms and offering telephone consultations if these better suit the patients’ requirements.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many missed dental appointments there have been in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst the Department does not hold this information in the format requested, data is recorded on dental activity that has occurred. For example, the Department holds data on the number of Units of Dental Activity commissioned and delivered each month on the NHS Business Services Authority Open Data Portal in an online-only format. The portal currently holds data from April 2016 to November 2023.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with local authorities about the financing of those in social care.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and officials in the Department have regular conversations with representatives of local government, including the Local Government Association and the Association for Directors of Adult Social Services, regarding the costs of meeting the needs of adults who draw on care and support. The Department regularly engages with local authorities, who are responsible for assessing eligibility for financial assistance as set out in the Care Act, to understand the impact charging policy has on individuals who draw on care. The Department also regularly engages with individual local authorities to better understand their financial plans for commissioning and delivering adult social care.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on integrating social care and the NHS.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Health and Care Act 2022 established integrated care systems, reforming how health and adult social care work together by putting partnership at the heart of planning. The Government has published guidance for integrated care partnerships (ICPs), on the statutory requirement for each ICP to publish an Integrated Care Strategy to address the health, social care, and public health needs of their system. All ICPs have now published their integrated care strategies.
The integration of health and social care is often best achieved through collaboration across smaller geographies within integrated care systems called places. Since the Health and Care Act 2022, we have seen good progress in the development of place-based arrangements to integrate health and social care. In October 2023, we published our Shared Outcomes Toolkit designed to help place-based partnerships develop shared outcomes as a powerful means of promoting integrated working and joined up care. We also issued a call for evidence as part of our review of Section 75 of the NHS Act 2006, which permits local authorities and National Health Service bodies to pool budgets, enabling joint commissioning and the commissioning of integrated services. The findings of this review will be shared in due course.