Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) train operating companies, and (2) other stakeholders, on improving rail services to Stansted airport.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Officials meet regularly with the owners of Stansted Airport, Manchester Airport Group, and attend the annual Stansted Airport Surface Access Forum, along with other stakeholders.
Officials also engage regularly with Greater Anglia and CrossCountry about Stansted Airport services.
As a result, off-peak and weekend Stansted Express services doubled from December 2023 to give a 15-minute frequency to London.
The aspiration for full hourly CrossCountry services from Birmingham to Stansted Airport should be met when resources allow.
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 Markham on 22 January (HL1523), whether the complication rates referenced include the treatment of women as outpatients following telemedicine abortion complications arising from home use of early medical abortion pills.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The analysis of abortion complications data published by the Department compares Abortion Notification System (ANS) data on complications known to the abortion provider at the time of the patient’s discharge from the abortion service, and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) inpatient admissions data on abortion complications. It is not recorded on ANS whether the complications reported required inpatient or outpatient treatment.
The analysis does not include HES data on the treatment of women as outpatients following a termination. This is because HES data completeness is considerably higher for inpatient data than outpatient and accident and emergency data. Including the incomplete outpatient data in our analysis would have produced inaccurate results for this population.
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 Markham on 22 January (HL1523), whether the complication rates following the introduction of home use of early medical abortion pills would change if the outpatient treatment of complications were included in the statistics.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The analysis of abortion complications data published by the Department compares Abortion Notification System (ANS) data on complications known to the abortion provider at the time of the patient’s discharge from the abortion service, and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) inpatient admissions data on abortion complications. It is not recorded on ANS whether the complications reported required inpatient or outpatient treatment.
The analysis does not include HES data on the treatment of women as outpatients following a termination. This is because HES data completeness is considerably higher for inpatient data than outpatient and accident and emergency data. Including the incomplete outpatient data in our analysis would have produced inaccurate results for this population.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Manchester Airports Group regarding its ambition to develop new long-haul airline routes from Stansted airport as a means of driving growth in the region.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Ministers and officials regularly meet with Manchester Airports Group (MAG) to discuss a range of issues. Where opportunities for new commercial flights exist, airports and other stakeholders can work together to establish the case for commercial flights and work with airline partners to create new connections for their communities.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration, if any, they have given to introducing a temporary suspension of Air Passenger Duty to support the competitive position of UK airports.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As with all taxes, the Government keeps Air Passenger Duty (APD) under review and any changes are announced by the Chancellor at fiscal events.
APD applies to airlines and is the principal tax on the aviation sector since tickets are VAT free and aviation fuel incurs no duty. It is expected to raise £3.8 billion in 2023-24 and the primary objective of the tax is to ensure that airlines make a fair contribution to the public finances.
From April 2023, the Government has reduced the rate of APD on domestic flights in order to support UK-wide connectivity. The new domestic rate applies to all flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (excluding private jets) and is set at £6.50 for economy passengers, benefitting more than 10 million passengers in 2023-24.
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 Markham on 8 January (HL1277), why advice from third parties, including that from abortion providers, was not sought prior to the decision not to release the abortion statistics comparing data from the Department of Health and Social Care’s Abortion Notification System and the Hospital Episode Statistics on an annual basis; and what was the evidential rationale for that decision.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To consider the completeness of abortion complications data submitted via abortion notifications, the Department committed to publishing a one-time analysis comparing data from its Abortion Notification System and the Hospital Episode Statistics. The Department is inviting views from third parties on abortion statistics for England and Wales, including the future publication of abortion complications data, via an online user engagement survey as well as via email. We welcome responses from abortion providers and all interested parties on this matter.
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 methodology they are using to measure the efficacy and impact on women’s health of the 2022 changes to the Abortion Act 1967, permitting early medical termination of pregnancy taking place in the patient's home.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department works closely with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and abortion providers to ensure that abortions, including home use of medical abortion pills, are provided safely in accordance with the legal framework set by the Abortion Act 1967. Recently published data does not show an increase in abortion complications following the introduction of home use. The complication rates for Abortion Notification System and Hospital Episodes Statistics data remains similar both before and after the introduction of home use of early medical abortion pills.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government to what they attribute the increase in the number of paper HSA4 forms being submitted in respect of information on medical abortions since the relevant amendments to the Abortion Act 1967 in 2022.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The increase in the number of paper HSA4 forms in recent years is due to a number of factors, including an ongoing trend of increasing numbers of abortions performed annually since 2017. The Department has worked with abortion providers to encourage the submission of notifications electronically.
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 steps they are taking to encourage the (1) consistent, and (2) timely, provision of inpatient physiotherapy in acute district hospitals for older patients with frailty syndrome.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT), in conjunction with the British Geriatrics Society, published Six Steps to Better Care for Older People in Acute Hospitals, which accompanies the GIRFT hospital acute care frailty pathway. A copy of the document is attached.
The acute care pathway recommends that all older patients admitted to hospital as an emergency are assessed for their degree of frailty using a standardised assessment, namely the Clinical Frailty Scale. For patients identified as living with moderate or severe frailty, the pathway recommends a multidomain assessment, namely the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, and links this to functional optimisation, which would commonly include physiotherapy assessment supporting recovery or maintenance of mobility.
Ongoing support to patients to prevent hospital-acquired deconditioning should be supported by the whole ward team after physiotherapists have recommended appropriate intervention.
The Six Steps to Better Care guidance makes similar recommendations for older patients admitted to hospital for planned care. As part of GIRFT's ongoing review and support, implementation of these recommendations is reviewed at individual hospital trusts, including the staffing levels of older person multidisciplinary teams, which include physiotherapists.
In addition, GIRFT recommends the development of Advanced Care Practitioners (ACPs) specialising in frailty. Some trusts have development programmes to support training of ACPs, although there is variation in provision.
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 Markham on 18 December (HL660), what are the operational reasons for not publishing the abortion statistics for 2022 in England and Wales until April 2024.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2023 Abortion Statistics for England and Wales will not be published concurrently with 2022 statistics due to the need to collect, analyse and quality assure 2023 data. Work on this analysis will begin after publication of the 2022 statistics.
Publication of the 2022 statistics has been delayed due to a number of significant reasons, including issues associated with moving to a new data processing system, ongoing technical issues with the aspects of the system, and a significant increase in the number of paper HSA4 forms being submitted. Other factors that have delayed publication of the full 2022 statistics include an increased workload following the introduction of longer paper and electronic forms to collect additional information about medical abortion following the amendment of the Abortion Act in 2022 to permit home use of early medical abortion pills up to 10 weeks gestation.
As an interim step, the Department published abortion statistics covering the first six months of 2022 in June 2023.
The report comparing abortion complications data from the Department’s Abortion Notification System and the Hospital Episode Statistics was an experimental one-time publication. It was not the intention that this would become an annual publication. No clinical or other advice was sought prior to this decision. However, the Department is inviting views on abortion statistics for England and Wales via an online user engagement survey as well as via email. We welcome responses on all aspects of abortion statistics, including future of publication of abortion complications data.