Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of NHS-registered GPs in England who offer all patients the ability to make an appointment in person or by phone rather than through the NHS app or other online booking facilities.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The GP Contract requires all practices to enable patients to telephone or visit their practice in person to make appointments. Online tools must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels for accessing a general practitioner, and practice receptions should be open so that patients without access to telephone or online services are in no way disadvantaged.

To support patients who depend on telephone bookings, recent contractual changes require all general practices to offer online booking throughout core hours, from 8:00am to 6:30pm. This is designed to ease pressure on phone lines by allowing those who prefer online booking to do so at any time, freeing up phone lines, reducing long phone queues, and improving the experience for those reliant on telephone bookings.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the methods used by absent parents on incomes above £156,000 to evade full and accurate assessment for child maintenance by the courts.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Where a parent’s gross income exceeds £156,000 a year, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) makes a maximum maintenance calculation. Any further consideration of child maintenance is a matter for the courts, which have their own mechanisms for examining the finances of those involved in proceedings where relevant.

Where a paying parent’s income is not fully reflected in a statutory maintenance calculation, the CMS can take account of certain forms of diverted and unearned income through the variation process where income has not been fully reflected in a maintenance calculation. Where information is disputed or appears not to reflect a parent's true circumstances, caseworkers can access specialist support, including the Financial Investigation Unit.

The Government continues to work closely with HMRC to improve the quality and timeliness of income data and strengthen the identification of complex income arrangements. Assessments and processes are kept under review to help ensure that child maintenance liabilities accurately reflect parents' financial circumstances and that all parents contribute appropriately towards their children.

The CMS can provide information to the courts where requested through the proper legal process, including information used in child maintenance calculations and, where relevant, findings from CMS investigations

The CMS remains committed to ensuring that parents meet their financial responsibilities to their children.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government why the £156,000 cap on annual income earned by the absent parent eligible for assessment by the Child Maintenance Service has not been uprated since December 2012; and what assessment they have made of the resulting impact on child poverty.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The £156,000 annual gross income limit reflects the £3,000 gross weekly income threshold introduced with the 2012 child maintenance scheme. The scheme was designed to provide a standard formula for assessing child maintenance in most cases. Where a paying parent’s income exceeds this threshold, receiving parents may apply to the courts for a top-up order. Higher-income cases can involve more complex financial arrangements and, as intended when the scheme was introduced, the courts remain responsible for determining any additional maintenance above the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) calculation limit.

The Government keeps all aspects of the child maintenance system under consideration, but there are currently no plans to uprate this threshold.

A paying parent with gross weekly income of £3,000 or above would be liable for child maintenance of approximately £294 per week for one qualifying child, £392 per week for two qualifying children and £482 per week for three or more qualifying children under the statutory formula, before any adjustments for shared care or other factors.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of treatment for eating disorders for (1) people under 18, and (2) people over 18, in each of the health boards in England.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has recently updated guidance for children and young people’s eating disorder services, strengthening early identification, and ensuring care is joined up across schools, primary care, and specialist services, with faster access to treatment where an eating disorder is suspected.

NHS England expects to publish the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework shortly. The mental health personalised care framework sets out the approach and related principles and actions for delivering personalised care for adults and older people with severe mental health problems.

As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England has established 15 Adult Eating Disorder Provider Collaboratives across England to oversee specialised adult eating disorder services. In addition to delivering inpatient care, these collaboratives are supporting the development of intensive community and day treatment models, helping more people receive care closer to home where clinically appropriate, reducing reliance on inpatient admission and geographical variation, while implementing improved processes supporting earlier discharge from hospital.

NHS England has also published guidance for commissioners and providers on adult eating disorders across community, inpatient, and intensive day-patient care, to support local systems in developing coherent pathways across different levels of treatment intensity.

Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning appropriate community and outpatient provision for their populations, while specialised provision supports those adults whose needs require a higher level of intensity, medical monitoring, or specialist intervention.