Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Collins of Highbury on 4 November 2024 (HL1875), what the policy is of (1) the Department for Health and Social Care and (2) NHS England, on recognising species dysphoria, in relation to (a) cats, (b) dogs, and (c) llamas.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neither the Department nor NHS England has a specific policy on recognising species dysphoria.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of mandatory training for NHS England employees Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Human Rights Skills, published in August 2024; and whether they will place a copy of any training materials in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Human Rights Skills training has been withdrawn by NHS England. There are currently no plans to have a copy of the training materials in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for the Department of Health and Social Care on 22 October 2024 (4235), what their policy is on the use of the phrase "pregnant people" by the NHS, in place of sex-specific language such as “pregnant women” or “pregnant women and girls”.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service website aims to provide health advice and guidance that is clear and easy to understand, and that helps everyone who uses the website find the information they need, so they can make informed decisions about their own health.
This Government believes in an approach to equality that benefits all groups, not some groups at the expense of others. As part of this, we understand the need for health information to be as clear as possible and to use language that is grounded in biological sex. Using the right language is crucial to ensure patients, including women, receive the dignity and inclusion they should expect when accessing services. However, we recognise that for some people, their gender identity is different from their biological sex.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost and feasibility of implementing the High Court approval mechanism proposed in the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Now that Parliament has voted to give the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill a Second Reading, the Government will assess the impacts of the bill, and we expect to publish an impact assessment before Members of Parliament consider the bill at the Report stage.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - 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 discharging its obligations under section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to update the health and social care sectors on how frequently it will assess the providers it regulates.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) was planning to publish information about their expectations of the frequency of future assessments in July 2024. Due to the timing of the review into the operational effectiveness of the CQC led by Dr Penny Dash, the CQC did not share this information as planned.
The interim findings of Dr Dash’s review, as well as the full and final report published on 15 October 2024, made clear recommendations on how the CQC needs to change its regulatory approach. The CQC has committed to making those changes.
The CQC will publish an update on how frequently it will be carrying out its future assessments in due course, in consultation with stakeholders and others, as outlined by Section 46 (7) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State at the Department for Health and Social Care on 7 October (HC4240), what guidance (1) the Department for Health and Social Care, and (2) NHS England, have given to NHS trusts and its arms-length bodies on reducing external spending on equality, diversity, and inclusion programmes.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance was published on 14 May 2024, and required all Departments and arm's length bodies to set controls on all equality, diversity, and inclusion related expenditure. No further guidance was issued by the Department to National Health Service trusts.
NHS England has not published written guidance to NHS trusts and arm’s length bodies on reducing external spending on equality, diversity, and inclusion programmes.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many abortion clinics run by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, MSI Reproductive Choices and the National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service have (1) never been inspected by the Care Quality Commission, or (2) not been inspected by it since 30 September 2021.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of abortion clinics which have never been inspected by the Care Quality Commission, as well as the number of clinics which have not been inspected since 30 September 2021:
Name of provider | Have never been inspected | No inspection since 30 September 2021 |
British Pregnancy Advisory Service | 1 | 6 |
MSI Reproductive Choices | 4 | 5 |
National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service | 4 | 3 |
Source: Care Quality Commission.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether equality, diversity and inclusion spending in the NHS provides value for money in relation to patients' health needs; and whether they plan to initiate a review into that spending.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides a service that is available for all, and good equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles ensure that everyone can access healthcare.
NHS England does not routinely collect data on EDI spend across the NHS. NHS England does not have plans to initiate a review into EDI spending, and the Department does not plan to initiate a review into this spending.
Embedding inclusive leadership and promoting equal opportunities and fairness is part of the NHS Constitution, the Equality Act 2010 and is one of the recommendations of the Messenger Review. Implementing EDI principles is the personal responsibility of every member of staff in the NHS.
EDI roles are wide-ranging and help the NHS meet its legal duties set out for public bodies in the Equality Act 2010, through the public sector equality duty and the principles that guide the NHS Constitution.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the policy of (1) the Department of Health and Social Care, and (2) NHS England, on payments for Stonewall membership for NHS trusts, including the Workplace Equality Index gold award; and what assessment they have made of whether those policies are compatible with Government policy following the Cass Review.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England do not have national policies relating to Stonewall membership for National Health Service trusts, and support NHS trusts in defining the appropriate policies to support equality, diversity, and inclusion, to align with the Government's Health Mission and priorities. As a consequence, there have been no assessments following the Cass Review.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many abortion clinics run by (1) the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, (2) MSI Reproductive Choices, and (3) National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service, have (a) never been inspected by the Care Quality Commission, and (b) not been inspected in the past three years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of abortion clinics which have never been inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as well as the number of clinics which have not been inspected in the past three years:
Name of provider | Have never been inspected | Have not been inspected in the past three years |
British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) | 0 | 6 |
MSI Reproductive Choices | 3 | 6 |
National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service (NUPAS) | 4 | 2 |
Source: Care Quality Commission
There are four NUPAS clinics that do not have any rating. This is because these were registered in the last 12 months.
There are three MSI Reproductive Choices clinics that do not have a rating. Two of these clinics do not have a rating because they were registered in the last 12 months. One of these clinics was registered nearly two years ago but has not yet had an inspection. This is because the transition to the Single Assessment Framework (SAF) has delayed inspection in some cases.
Under Section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, the CQC must update the health and social care sectors as to how frequently they will assess the providers they regulate. The CQC plans to publish an interim statement in August 2024 about how frequently they plan to assess each type of service.