Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the extent of abuse of NHS staff.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We do not currently have a national mechanism to capture and report incidents of violence and aggression in the National Health Service. Data is held at a local level.
At a national level, data on self-reported violent incidents is gathered through the NHS Staff Survey. Results from the 2022 NHS Staff Survey indicated that 14.7% of NHS staff have self-reported that they have experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months.
27.8% of NHS staff who completed the NHS Staff Survey experienced at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients or service users, their relatives or members of the public. This figure is similar to previous years’ NHS Staff Survey data.
NHS England has commissioned a number of data insight workstreams to better understand the current landscape of statistics, data reporting and associated challenges. This includes a national review of all available data and intelligence sources, an analysis of the costs of violence to the health care system in England and a review of the impact on the safety and wellbeing of NHS staff.
The Ministry of Justice collects data on prosecution, conviction and sentences for the offence of assault on an emergency worker, although it does not identify the type of emergency worker. This data is available in the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly and the Outcomes of Offence Tool and Offence Group Classification: Criminal Justice System Statistics Quarterly: December 2022, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many incidents of abuse of NHS staff have resulted in criminal prosecution in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We do not currently have a national mechanism to capture and report incidents of violence and aggression in the National Health Service. Data is held at a local level.
At a national level, data on self-reported violent incidents is gathered through the NHS Staff Survey. Results from the 2022 NHS Staff Survey indicated that 14.7% of NHS staff have self-reported that they have experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months.
27.8% of NHS staff who completed the NHS Staff Survey experienced at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients or service users, their relatives or members of the public. This figure is similar to previous years’ NHS Staff Survey data.
NHS England has commissioned a number of data insight workstreams to better understand the current landscape of statistics, data reporting and associated challenges. This includes a national review of all available data and intelligence sources, an analysis of the costs of violence to the health care system in England and a review of the impact on the safety and wellbeing of NHS staff.
The Ministry of Justice collects data on prosecution, conviction and sentences for the offence of assault on an emergency worker, although it does not identify the type of emergency worker. This data is available in the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly and the Outcomes of Offence Tool and Offence Group Classification: Criminal Justice System Statistics Quarterly: December 2022, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they plan to offer Ukrainian refugees housed with British families when the initial six month period of the Homes for Ukraine scheme ends.
Answered by Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist - Opposition Whip (Lords)
As we move towards the next phase of the programme, we have set out options and support available to sponsors and guests that are coming to the end of their initial six-month sponsorship. Updated guidance is published on gov.uk for sponsors, guests, and local councils. This includes information on rematching, and helping guests to live independently by providing guidance on the UK housing market, support in developing necessary language skills and finding jobs.
The guidance for the Homes for Ukraine guests, hosts and councils setting out all the support options available to them can be accessed (attached) here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homes-for-ukraine-guidance-for-councils#four-to-6-months-after-guests-have-moved-to-your-area
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the changing costs of medical litigation; and what steps they are taking to address such costs.
Answered by Lord Bethell
In 2017 the National Audit confirmed that developments in the legal market are amongst the biggest factors influencing costs, rather than any detectable decline in patient safety.
The Department is working with the Ministry of Justice, other Government departments and NHS Resolution, to address this issue. The Government will publish a consultation on the next steps in 2021.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that Durham County Council may lose up to £14 million in its annual budget following the implementation of the Fair Funding Review.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government announced in April that it would not proceed with the implementation of the Review of Relative Needs and Resources, and wider local government finance reform, in 2021-22. This decision was taken in the interest of creating stability for local authorities and has allowed both government and councils to focus on meeting the immediate public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pressures of the pandemic recede, we will work with local government to understand the lasting impact it has had on both service demands and revenue raising. We will then revisit priorities for reform of the local government finance system, taking account of wider work on the future of business rates and Adult Social Care. No decisions have been taken from which to make assessments of how individual local authorities will be affected, and any final decisions will be taken in the context of this year’s Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Fair Funding Review on the budgets of local authorities with high levels of deprivation; and what estimate they have made of the expected average change to the annual budgets of local authorities with high levels of deprivation following the implementation of the Fair Funding Review.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government announced in April that it would not proceed with the implementation of the Review of Relative Needs and Resources, and wider local government finance reform, in 2021-22. This decision was taken in the interest of creating stability for local authorities and has allowed both government and councils to focus on meeting the immediate public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pressures of the pandemic recede, we will work with local government to understand the lasting impact it has had on both service demands and revenue raising. We will then revisit priorities for reform of the local government finance system, taking account of wider work on the future of business rates and Adult Social Care. No decisions have been taken from which to make assessments of how individual local authorities will be affected, and any final decisions will be taken in the context of this year’s Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Covid Recovery Commission Paper One: Levelling up communities, published on 11 October; and what metrics they have developed to judge the success of their ‘levelling-up’ agenda.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The Government is focusing on levelling up economic opportunity across the whole of the United Kingdom and considers a wide range of evidence in developing levelling up policy. The Spending Review will agree priority outcomes and metrics with departments which will be published. Strong local leadership is a key pillar of our levelling up agenda, and the English Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper will set out our plans for further devolution in England in due course.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase collaboration with Israel with regard to (1) medical devices, (2) remote care, and (3) cutting-edge medical technology, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The British Embassy in Israel has brought together numerous UK/Israel expertise exchanges covering vaccine development, testing and surveillance. Both sides continue to look to one another as new science developments are made. We have distributed widely to UK colleagues a brochure outlining many Israeli technologies and R&D projects related to COVID-19, of which several have already been followed up by both NHS England and NHSx.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend COVID-19 antigen testing to the entire population.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms can get a free test and must get tested as soon as their symptoms develop. The swab test takes less than a minute, is pain free and results from test sites are received within a day of the test being administered.
The Government has put in place the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history. The programme achieved the capacity to deliver 100,000 tests a day by 30 April, 200,000 tests a day by 30 May and is now capable of delivering more than 300,000 tests a day. We are committed to increasing this capacity to 500,000 by the end of October.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the proposed White Paper on social care will address the case for social care to be closely integrated with the NHS, as has been achieved in some areas like Salford.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Promoting integrated care is a priority for the Government and the recent NHS Long Term Plan highlighted integration of services as a key aim - making sure that everyone can receive high quality care that is coordinated around their individual needs.
Putting social care on a sustainable footing, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, is one of the biggest challenges that our society faces. There are complex questions to address, to which we want to give our full considerations in light of the current circumstances.