Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to increase the opening hours of thrombectomy centres nationally to improve access to stroke treatment.
Answered by Lord Markham
Thrombectomy is available in 24 centres in England, with two additional non-neuroscience centres currently under development. The latest data shows that 2.8% of patients are receiving a thrombectomy following a stroke.
Integrated Stroke Delivery Networks and thrombectomy providers are developing services to provide access to thrombectomy in England 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To increase the number of specialists qualified to provide the treatment in the National Health Service, the General Medical Council aims to extend accredited training for additional medical specialists such as neurosurgeons, neurologists and stroke physicians to train in the delivery of mechanical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to meet the target of 10 per cent of eligible stroke patients receiving thrombectomy by 2022 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Lord Markham
Thrombectomy is available in 24 centres in England, with two additional non-neuroscience centres currently under development. The latest data shows that 2.8% of patients are receiving a thrombectomy following a stroke.
Integrated Stroke Delivery Networks and thrombectomy providers are developing services to provide access to thrombectomy in England 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To increase the number of specialists qualified to provide the treatment in the National Health Service, the General Medical Council aims to extend accredited training for additional medical specialists such as neurosurgeons, neurologists and stroke physicians to train in the delivery of mechanical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the speed of Category 2 ambulance response times on (1) outcomes for stroke survivors and (2) access to thrombectomy treatment.
Answered by Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist
Category 2 calls are ‘emergency’ calls which include serious time-sensitive incidents such as strokes and heart attacks. NHS England has allocated an additional £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements.
NHS England is providing targeted support to some hospitals which face the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients to identify short and longer-term interventions. NHS England is also implementing pre-hospital video triage in ambulances for patients with suspected stroke in specific areas in England. These patients will receive a video consultation from their home or in an ambulance with a hospital-based stroke clinician, who will advise the paramedics on the best course of action for the patient, such as whether thrombectomy is required or to which hospital they should be conveyed.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the contribution the lack of electrified diversionary routes makes to delays on railways; and what investment plans, if any, they have to deal with such situations.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Since 2010, more than 1,200 miles of electrification has been delivered in Great Britain, including almost 800 miles in England and Wales in the last four years.
This increases the number of routes which can be used by electric trains, with further investment in electrification planned.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the current Feed-In Tariffs paid by energy companies for electricity generated from domestic solar panels; when were these tariffs last revised; and whether they have a policy to raise these in line with current energy costs.
Answered by Lord Callanan
A breakdown of the current Feed in Tariffs (FIT) for domestic solar can be found on Ofgem's website (copy attached).
The FIT tariff rates are adjusted annually, in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) and there are no current plans to adjust this policy.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support significant reductions in bus fares in locations where (1) elasticities of demand are likely to be high, and (2) costs to government are low, to help restore patronage to buses and support wider reductions in traffic congestion.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Evidence suggests that where people’s travel is more discretionary or where people have alternative travel options, passenger demand tends to be more price sensitive. Some operators run fares promotions to benefit from these elasticities at off peak times or when there is more spare capacity on buses. The Government has piloted initiatives to reduce fares in places such as in Cornwall, to help us understand how cutting prices effects patronage.
The Government has also provided over £2.5 billion in new funding to support improvements to bus services and are on track to meet the commitment of £3 billion new funding invested in buses in this parliament. This includes £1.1 billion in new funding for bus transformation deals to deliver London-style fares, infrastructure, and service improvements.
In addition, the Government spends over £200m every year through the Bus Service Operators Grant to keep fares down and maintain an extensive local transport network. A further £42m is provided annually through this grant directly to Local Transport Authorities to subsidise socially necessary bus services
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why a franchise was let for the operation of East Midlands Trains in 2019 when insufficient rolling stock was available to meet the commitments of the franchise.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The East Midlands Railway (EMR) Franchise was let in May 2019 with suitable plans in place for trains to deliver the contracted service. Since then the pandemic and its impact has caused delays to the delivery of trains expected from other operators.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to require the restoration of the hourly train service between Nottingham and Lincoln.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The weekday timetable currently provides an hourly direct service between Nottingham and Lincoln, with the exception of three gaps in each direction spread across the day. With EMR we will continue to monitor demand on this route and keep under review if further services can be operated.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for the low market share of railway journeys between Nottingham and Lincoln; and the role of the (1) emergency timetable, and (2) frequent cancellation of services, in this low market share.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
No assessment has been made of rail’s market share of journeys between Nottingham and Lincoln, although for rail demand itself, EMR will monitor usage of their services.
Asked by: Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the using British Rail Class 222 units from the Midland Main Line to add services to the principal stations in (1) the East Midlands, (2) Lincoln, (3) Nottingham, (4) Derby, (5) Leicester, and (6) Birmingham; and what conversations they have had with Midlands Connect about such a change.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
No formal assessments have occurred regarding the Class 222s being used for additional services in the East Midlands after the full introduction of new Class 810s. We currently expect that, after the future planned fleet introductions and cascades, EMR will have sufficient and appropriate rolling stock to meet its post-Covid service requirements, although we will keep this under constant review.