Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the additional cost of children who transfer into the state education system as a result of changes to business rates for private schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
The government’s impact note on the removal of eligibility of private schools for business rates charitable relief estimates an extremely limited impact from the business rates policy taking effect, with any movement estimated to represent 0.03% of the total state school pupil population in England. This impact note is attached and can be found here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0129/ImpactNote.pdf.
Removing the eligibility for business rates charitable relief from private schools will raise approximately £140 million per year. Based on average per-pupil spending in England for the 2024/25 financial year, the government expects the revenue costs of pupils entering the state sector as a result of the business rates measure in England to steadily increase to a peak of around £20 million per annum after several years.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease on economic growth.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many lives are lost prematurely to cardiovascular disease (CVD). In 2023, 29% of all CVD deaths in England occurred in people under 75 years old. The Government is committed to ensuring fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, including CVD.
That is why the Health Mission set an ambition to reduce premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next 10 years. To deliver on this, the Department and NHS England are working together at pace to understand both the scale of the challenge and the opportunities for progress across the prevention, treatment, and management of CVD.
We know that CVD is one of the largest health condition contributors to economic inactivity in England. Of the 2.5 million working-age people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, 770,000 reported cardiovascular problems as a contributing factor. Estimates show that CVD costs the National Health Service £10 billion annually, and £24 billion annually to the wider economy.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the annual cost to the NHS of hospital admissions from preventable cardiovascular disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the second highest cause of premature death in England. It affects over 6.4 million people, causes one in four premature deaths, and 1.6 million disability adjusted life years.
According to the Kings Fund analysis, there were approximately one million hospital admissions for CVD in England in 2019/20, leading to 5.5 million bed days. During the 2023/24 financial year, there were 220,000 admissions for coronary heart disease and 100,000 admissions for stroke. CVD costs the National Health Service an estimated £10 billion, and the economy an estimated £24 billion a year.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve early detection and diagnosis of (1) high blood pressure, and (2) raised cholesterol levels.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the biggest killers, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). Improving early detection and diagnosis of the key risk factors for CVD, including high blood pressure and raised cholesterol levels, is vital to deliver on this commitment.
The Government continues to support the NHS Health Check, England’s CVD prevention programme. For every 1.4 million NHS Health Checks delivered annually, there are 343,000 cases of high blood pressure identified, resulting in 40,000 diagnoses of hypertension, as well as 900,000 people identified with raised cholesterol levels.
To improve access to the NHS Health Check, we are developing a new NHS Health Check Online service, which people can use at a time and place convenient to them, to understand and act on their risk of CVD.
Subject to the outcomes of the NHS Health Check Online pilot, starting in spring 2025, the aim is to roll it out nationally from spring 2026, delivering approximately one million checks in the first four years.
The Department is also piloting a new programme to deliver up to 130,000 lifesaving heart health checks in the workplace. These checks can be completed quickly and easily by people at work across 48 local authorities until 31 May 2025.
For the 2025/26 contract year we have also brought in changes to shift care from sickness to prevention by incentivising general practitioners to focus on the most common killers, such as heart disease. Knowing that prevention is better than treatment, we have raised the upper threshold of CVD indicators in order to stimulate performance gains and improve CVD care for patients.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the progress of the cardiovascular disease prevention programme.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to ensuring that fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, including from cardiovascular disease (CVD). That is why, in our Health Mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we have committed to reducing premature deaths from heart disease and strokes by 25% in the next 10 years.
The NHS Health Check programme, England’s CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.4 million people a year and, through behavioural and clinical interventions, prevents approximately 300 premature deaths, and 500 heart attacks or strokes a year. Data reported by local authorities shows that between April 2013 and December 2024, over 13.6 million NHS Health Checks have been delivered.
To improve access to the NHS Health Check, we are developing a new NHS Health Check Online service, which people can use at a time and place convenient to them, to understand and act on their risk of CVD.
For the 2025/26 contract year we have also brought in changes to shift care from sickness to prevention by incentivising general practitioners to focus on the most common killers, such as heart disease. Knowing that prevention is better than treatment, we have raised the upper threshold of CVD indicators in order to stimulate performance gains and improve CVD care for patients.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards the aim in the NHS 10 Year Plan to reduce preventable premature deaths from cardiovascular disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). A central mission of the Government is to build a health and care system fit for the future. To achieve this, it is crucial that we tackle preventable ill health, such as CVD, by ensuring that those at risk of developing or already living with the disease are identified and can be effectively treated.
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to improving the identification and treatment of CVD risk factors, such as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol, and atrial fibrillation. There has been significant progress since the plan was made in 2019, including that:
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve personalised prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our approach to personalised prevention is through the NHS Health Check, England’s cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention programme.
The Government continues to support this programme as it assesses the top seven risk factors for CVD in people aged 40 to 74 years old. Where an individual’s NHS Health Check indicates that further action is necessary, they may be referred to either behavioural support services and/or a clinical assessment, where appropriate.
To improve access to the NHS Health Check, we are developing a new NHS Health Check Online service, which people can use at a time and place convenient to them, to understand and act on their risk of CVD.
The Department is also piloting a new programme to deliver up to 130,000 lifesaving heart health checks in the workplace. These checks can be completed quickly and easily by people at work across 48 local authorities until 31 May 2025.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total cost of customs declarations from Great Britain to Northern Ireland in the past 12 months.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has not made an estimate of the total cost of declarations for goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland in the past 12 months.
The latest available information relating to declarations for goods moved on this route is for the calendar years 2022 and 2023. This information can be found on GOV.UK.
Businesses moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland can access free to use support from the Trader Support Service.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the 754 schools announced as early-adopters of the breakfast club scheme are currently offering breakfast club schemes, and in how many schools will this represent new provision.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The aim of the early adopter scheme is to test and learn what works in advance of national rollout on breakfast clubs to all primary schools. The schools taking part in the early adopter scheme were therefore selected to be broadly representative of the national picture. Across all primary schools, an estimated 22% have no breakfast club provision at all before school, and the remaining 78% have some provision, according to the 2022 School and College Panel. However, we know that provision is usually charged for or has limitations on the number of children who can attend. This figure will shortly be updated to reflect changes in provision since 2022.
Our new early adopter breakfast clubs are free, open to all pupils in the school, last at least 30 minutes and include food. This will save parents up to £450 per year, meaning more money in their pockets.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many hospital admissions for preventable cardiovascular disease there have been in each of the past three years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on the number of admissions for cardiovascular disease which are preventable. However, we know that up to 70% of cardiovascular disease is preventable and linked to behavioural, metabolic, and environmental risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, living with obesity, and air pollution.
The Government is tackling the root cause of preventable heart disease and stroke through the landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill, implementing advertising regulations for less healthy food and drink to children on television and online, and giving councils stronger, clearer powers to block the development of new fast-food shops near schools.