Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about the steps the CQC is taking to reduce the waiting time for (1) initial inspections, and (2) re-inspections, of healthcare providers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has introduced additional oversight measures to ensure significant improvements are made to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) operational performance.
The CQC is aware of the issues health and social care providers have experienced and is progressing four immediate actions and five foundational improvements, which include clearing the backlog of registration applications and making improvements to its assessment approach to enable them to complete more, and publish higher quality, assessment reports.
Action carried out to address the registration backlog includes changing the way providers apply for registration, recruiting additional registration inspectors, and streamlining the internal registration processes. The CQC’s registration team has been clearing the backlog of registration applications that are over 10 weeks old, focusing on the oldest ones first.
Action carried out to make improvements to the CQC’s assessment approach include making some changes to the internal technology systems the CQC uses to carry out assessments.
These actions will ensure the CQC is more efficient, and will lead to a reduction in the time providers wait before they receive a first inspection and rating.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Care Quality Commission about the estimated timeframe for the elimination of the backlog for registering new healthcare providers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has introduced additional oversight measures to ensure significant improvements are made to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) operational performance.
The CQC is aware of the issues health and social care providers have experienced and is progressing four immediate actions and five foundational improvements, which include clearing the backlog of registration applications and making improvements to its assessment approach to enable them to complete more, and publish higher quality, assessment reports.
Action carried out to address the registration backlog includes changing the way providers apply for registration, recruiting additional registration inspectors, and streamlining the internal registration processes. The CQC’s registration team has been clearing the backlog of registration applications that are over 10 weeks old, focusing on the oldest ones first.
Action carried out to make improvements to the CQC’s assessment approach include making some changes to the internal technology systems the CQC uses to carry out assessments.
These actions will ensure the CQC is more efficient, and will lead to a reduction in the time providers wait before they receive a first inspection and rating.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the Care Quality Commission about improving the consistency of the quality of reports about healthcare providers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has introduced additional oversight measures to ensure significant improvements are made to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) operational performance.
The CQC is aware of the issues health and social care providers have experienced and is progressing four immediate actions and five foundational improvements, which include clearing the backlog of registration applications and making improvements to its assessment approach to enable them to complete more, and publish higher quality, assessment reports.
Action carried out to address the registration backlog includes changing the way providers apply for registration, recruiting additional registration inspectors, and streamlining the internal registration processes. The CQC’s registration team has been clearing the backlog of registration applications that are over 10 weeks old, focusing on the oldest ones first.
Action carried out to make improvements to the CQC’s assessment approach include making some changes to the internal technology systems the CQC uses to carry out assessments.
These actions will ensure the CQC is more efficient, and will lead to a reduction in the time providers wait before they receive a first inspection and rating.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to reform regulatory procedures for doctors and dentists by utilising or amending powers pursuant to section 60 of the Health Act 1999.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has been considering its priorities for professional regulation and will be setting these out shortly.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of interim suspensions of doctors subject to fitness to practice investigations; and what plans they have to improve the interim suspension procedure for patients and doctors.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of all medical doctors, anaesthesia associates, and physician associates practising in the United Kingdom. It sets and enforces the standards all doctors, anaesthesia associates, and physician associates must adhere to. If an allegation is made about a professional on its registers, the GMC has a statutory duty to investigate and take action to safeguard the health and well-being of the public where necessary. In serious cases, an Interim Orders Tribunal can suspend, or impose conditions upon, a professional’s registration on an interim basis, pending completion of the GMC’s investigation and possible hearing of the case by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Services.
The GMC is independent of the Government, directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The Government has no current plans to discuss the interim suspension procedure with the GMC.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the projected cost of clinical negligence claims over the course of the Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
The causes of the overall cost rise are complex and there is no single fix, as costs are likely to be rising because of a range of factors, including higher compensation payments and legal costs, rather than more claims or a decline in patient safety.
We recognise that this is an important issue, and ministers intend to look at all the drivers of cost.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many students wishing to study (1) ancient history, and (2) classical history, at university were prevented from doing so as a result of a reduction in places in each of the past three years; and what assessment they have made of the future of these subjects as university courses.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on student entrants across UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on students entering courses in different subject areas, categorised using the HE Classification of Subjects system. Counts of entrants across all subjects from 2019/20 to 2022/23 are published in Table 52 of HESA’s Student Data, which are detailed below and can also be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-52.
Entrants to UK higher education providers by subject of study | |||
Subject | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Ancient history | 645 | 595 | 540 |
Classical studies | 1,995 | 1,950 | 1,985 |
The department does not hold information on the number of university places available for each course. We are unable to assess the extent to which the decline in entrants was linked to the reduction of places.
English universities are independent, autonomous institutions and are therefore free to choose which courses they run. Quality is assessed by the Office for Students, the regulator of HE providers in England.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made on the role of online advertising in financing criminal content online, and whether they have proposals to deal with the issue.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government continually assesses the impact of online services’ activities on UK citizens.
The Online Safety Act establishes a new regulatory regime for online services including platforms and search engines. It gives these services duties to tackle illegal content and protect their users from harm. Ofcom is the regulator for this regime. It has strong enforcement powers if platforms fail to comply. These powers include business disruption measures with court approval. Through these powers, third-party service providers can be required to withdraw services from a non-compliant platform.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the prevalence of money laundering in the online advertising sector, and whether they have proposals to deal with the issue.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises that online advertising may be targeted by criminals to commit fraud and that illicitly obtained funds from fraud can be laundered and used for further criminal purposes. The upcoming National Risk Assessment (NRA) for money laundering and terrorist financing will consider how the proceeds of fraud are laundered within the UK.
The Government welcomes pledges to prevent fraud by tech companies under the Online Fraud Charter and we are committed to working with industry to reduce fraud. The Online Safety Act will require the largest user to user and search services to take steps to prevent the publication or hosting of any fraudulent advertising on their service.
DCMS are leading the Online Advertising Taskforce, which is working to improve transparency and accountability in the online advertising supply chain. One of the Taskforce's key objectives is to improve the evidence around the scale and threat of the illegal harms.
Asked by: Lord Carlile of Berriew (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many collective proceedings applications were filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, broken down by opt-out and opt-in proceedings, in each month since July 2023.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The following numbers of collective proceedings applications, broken down by opt-in and opt-out proceedings, have been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal in each month since July 2023:
Month / Year | Opt-Out | Opt-In |
Jul 23 | 4 | 0 |
Aug 23 | 2 | 0 |
Sep 23 | 1 | 0 |
Oct 23 | 0 | 0 |
Nov 23 | 4 | 0 |
Dec 23 | 4 | 0 |
Jan 24 | 0 | 0 |
Feb 24 | 1 | 0 |
Mar 24 | 1 | 0 |
Apr 24 | 0 | 0 |
May 24 | 1 | 0 |
Jun 24 | 4 | 0 |
Jul 24 | 0 | 0 |
Aug 24 | 1 | 0 |
Sep 24 | 0 | 0 |
Oct 24 | 0 | 0 |
Nov 24 | 1 | 0 |
Dec 24 | 2 | 0 |