Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of women’s health hubs in reducing waiting times for women’s health (a) diagnoses and (b) treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We are investing £25 million into women’s health hubs to support better access to services, improve health outcomes, and reduce unnecessary secondary care referrals. The interim report from the University of Birmingham, RAND, and the Cambridge Evaluation (BRACE) Centre, named Early evaluation of women’s health hubs and published in October 2022, showed that hubs can ease pressures on secondary care services and gynaecology waiting lists by improving access to care in the community. The report is available at the following link:
Our cost-benefit analysis published in July 2023 used existing evidence to quantify the benefits generated by hubs, which includes improved access to services, improved health outcomes for women, and fewer secondary care referrals. This estimates there will be £5 of benefits for every £1 spent on a hub the size of a primary care network. Further assessments will be made based on reporting from integrated care boards, as their hubs are set up.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken for endometriosis diagnoses.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Care for menstrual problems including endometriosis is a 2024 priority for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy. We are investing £25 million in establishing women’s health hubs, which will play a key role in improving access to care for menstrual problems such as suspected endometriosis.
Through the NHS Delivery Plan for tackling the COVID-19 related elective care backlog, we are increasing activity through dedicated and protected surgical hubs that conduct planned procedures only. Surgical hubs are focusing on providing high-volume low-complexity surgery such as laparoscopies for suspected endometriosis. As of March 2024, 48 surgical hubs conduct gynaecological procedures.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are playing an important part in tackling the backlogs of people waiting for diagnostic tests, which includes checks, tests, and scans for patients on gynaecological pathways, including those with endometriosis. As of March 2024, there are 155 CDCs open already, and up to 160 set to open by March 2025.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is currently updating its guideline on diagnosing and managing endometriosis, which will provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based recommendations on diagnosing and treating endometriosis. NHS England is also updating the service specification for severe endometriosis, which sets the standards of care expected from National Health Service organisations.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department holds on the number of prosecutions for ill-fitting Personal Protective Equipment provided to women workers initiated by local authorities in the last five years.
Answered by Simon Hoare
The department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people with valid digital immigration status have been detained at the UK border for non-possession of physical immigration status documents in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Border Force do not hold the data on people who have been detained for not possessing evidence of their permission to enter, obtained digitally, in an easily accessible format.
Immigration system statistics, year ending December 2023, are available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-december-2023.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of prosecutions that were initiated by the Health and Safety Executive for ill-fitting PPE provided to women workers in the last five years. .
Answered by Paul Maynard
In the last five years, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has not initiated any prosecutions relating specifically for ill-fitting Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) provided to women workers.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the document entitled Draft terms of reference for the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, what updates his Department has provided on relevant developments in its area of work to that group since 2019.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Shadow Minister (Home Office) (Security)
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities over a range of issues. More broadly, I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 1 March 2024, Official Report, PQ 16019 on tackling anti-Muslim hatred.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of schools in (a) Oxford, (b) Oxfordshire, (c) the South East and (d) England are expected to offer A-Levels in modern foreign languages in the next five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The department does not produce future trends of the number of students taking specific qualifications, or future trends in the number of schools or colleges offering specific qualifications.
The department recognises the importance of the study of languages in Britain and is taking steps to increase the number of pupils studying languages at GCSE level and beyond. This is particularly important given that languages were made non-mandatory in 2004. The department’s Language Hubs programme is comprised of 15 lead hub schools across England, all of which will work with other schools in their area to improve standards of language teaching, in line with recommendations of the Teaching Schools Council’s 2016 modern foreign languages pedagogy review.
Managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education, the programme provides high-quality teacher Continuing Professional Development and includes improving transition from key stage 2 to key stage 3, increasing opportunities among disadvantaged pupils to study languages, and increasing the access to home, heritage, and community languages.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of future trends in the level of student uptake in A-Levels in modern foreign languages in (a) Oxford, (b) Oxfordshire, (c) the South East and (d) England.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The department does not produce future trends of the number of students taking specific qualifications, or future trends in the number of schools or colleges offering specific qualifications.
The department recognises the importance of the study of languages in Britain and is taking steps to increase the number of pupils studying languages at GCSE level and beyond. This is particularly important given that languages were made non-mandatory in 2004. The department’s Language Hubs programme is comprised of 15 lead hub schools across England, all of which will work with other schools in their area to improve standards of language teaching, in line with recommendations of the Teaching Schools Council’s 2016 modern foreign languages pedagogy review.
Managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education, the programme provides high-quality teacher Continuing Professional Development and includes improving transition from key stage 2 to key stage 3, increasing opportunities among disadvantaged pupils to study languages, and increasing the access to home, heritage, and community languages.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of future trends in the level of student uptake for GCSE level modern foreign languages in (a) Oxford, (b) Oxfordshire, (c) the South East and (d) England.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The department does not produce future trends of the number of students taking specific qualifications, or future trends in the number of schools or colleges offering specific qualifications.
The department recognises the importance of the study of languages in Britain and is taking steps to increase the number of pupils studying languages at GCSE level and beyond. This is particularly important given that languages were made non-mandatory in 2004. The department’s Language Hubs programme is comprised of 15 lead hub schools across England, all of which will work with other schools in their area to improve standards of language teaching, in line with recommendations of the Teaching Schools Council’s 2016 modern foreign languages pedagogy review.
Managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education, the programme provides high-quality teacher Continuing Professional Development and includes improving transition from key stage 2 to key stage 3, increasing opportunities among disadvantaged pupils to study languages, and increasing the access to home, heritage, and community languages.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of schools in (a) Oxford, (b) Oxfordshire, (c) the South East and (d) England are expected to offer A-levels in (i) art and design, (ii) dance, (iii) drama, (iv) music, (v) film studies and (vi) media studies in the next five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The department does not produce future trends of the number of students taking specific qualifications, or future trends in the number of schools or colleges offering specific qualifications.
The requirement on all state-funded schools to teach a broad and balanced curriculum encompasses the arts. Alongside drama as part of the English curriculum and dance as part of the physical education curriculum, music and art and design, remain important pillars of the knowledge-rich national curriculum. This is also reflected in the reformed GCSEs and A levels in art and design, dance, drama, music, film studies and media studies which were introduced for first teaching from 2015 for A levels and from 2016 for GCSEs. The government also introduced parallel reforms to Technical Awards at level 2 to ensure these were high-quality and fit-for-purpose.
Examining recent trends over the past five years, between 2019 and 2023, around half of pupils at Key Stage 4 have taken at least one approved arts qualification, which includes GCSEs set out above and Technical Awards.
The department has committed over £714 million of funding between 2016 and 2022 in a diverse portfolio of music and arts education programmes to ensure all children, whatever their background, have access to a high quality education in music and arts. Over and above school core funding, the department will continue to invest around £115 million per year in cultural education up to 2025.