Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will extend the Primary PE and Sports Premium beyond the 2020-21 academic year to enable children who have been in lockdown to catch up with the level of physical skills attainment appropriate to their age.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Physical education (PE) and school sport plays an important role in supporting children and young people to be physically active, particularly during the current COVID-19 restrictions. The Department is working with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care on how to support better PE, sport and physical activity provision for all children and young people. This is part of our continuing work to deliver our joint school sport and activity action plan, published in 2019.
The Department is considering arrangements for the primary PE and sport premium for the 2021-22 academic year and will confirm the position as soon as possible.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment has been made of the relative risk of potentially overwhelming the health service by prioritising people aged 80 and over and prioritising all frontline health care workers in the NHS for the covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
No such comparative assessment has been made. The Department has taken advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) on priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination. The JCVI advised that the first priority for any COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the reduction of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers have been offered vaccinations in priority group two.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on ensuring illegal migrants and overstayers cooperate with public health services during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has regular discussions with his counterparts across Government.
Vaccination against COVID-19 is a primary care service. It is therefore not within scope of the Charging Regulations and is available free of charge to anyone living in the United Kingdom, including those living here without permission. If an individual is registered with a general practitioner (GP) practice, they will be invited for the vaccine at the appropriate time based on the prioritisation set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. If an individual is not registered with a GP, National Health Service regional teams working with the appropriate local system will contact unregistered people to ensure they are offered the vaccine.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of illegal migrants and overstayers who are reluctant to engage with the NHS during the covid-19 outbreak as a result of concerns over their immigration status.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We have made no such estimate.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed National Landscapes Service on the management of National Parks.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The independent Landscapes Review, led by Julian Glover, set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).
We welcome this ambition, as the Government is committed to ensuring our protected landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.
The Landscapes Review included recommendations for long-term structural changes, such as creating a new National Landscape Service and changing National Park and AONB statutory purposes, that would require legislation were they to be taken forward.
We are working closely with National Park Authorities, AONB organisations and wider stakeholders to consider the potential effects of the Landscape Review’s recommendations and to develop a well-informed response to the review, which we will publish in due course.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government plans to publish its formal response to the Glover Review.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The independent Landscapes Review, led by Julian Glover, set out a compelling vision for more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).
We welcome this ambition, as the government is committed to ensuring our protected landscapes flourish as havens for nature and are places that everyone can visit and enjoy.
The Landscapes Review included recommendations for long-term structural changes, such as creating a new National Landscape Service and changing National Park and AONB statutory purposes, that would require legislation were they to be taken forward.
We are taking time to carefully consider the recommendations and working with partner organisations to inform and develop our response to the review, which we will publish in due course.
In the meantime, we are working to implement the ambitions of the Review on the ground now. For example, we are leading a £5.77m cross-governmental project to test nature-based social prescribing in seven test and learn sites, run national experimental work to understand its scalability, and deliver a robust project evaluation. This will help improve mental health and wellbeing by connecting more people to nature, including in protected landscapes.
The £80m Green Recovery Challenge Fund, which launched in September 2020, will kickstart a programme of nature-based projects to restore nature, tackle climate change and connect people with the natural environment. Some of these projects will help deliver on the Landscape Review's recommendations, such as the proposal to give every child a night under the stars in a national landscape.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what public information he is providing to reassure (a) illegal migrants and (b) overstayers that they should not avoid medical treatment if they have symptoms of covid-19, and can come forward for (i) medical assistance or (ii) to receive immunisation without being reported to the Home Office.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has published a message on the National Health Service website stating that overseas visitors to England, including anyone living in the United Kingdom without permission, will not be charged for testing or treatment for COVID-19 or for vaccination. The message also states that no immigration checks are needed to receive these services.
This message has been shared with Public Health England and included in the migrant health guide. Translated information on testing and treatment is currently available in 40 languages and will shortly be updated to include the information on vaccination. The Department is engaged in producing further communications materials and is working with other government departments to ensure this message reaches vulnerable migrant groups.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people aged 80 years and over did the NHS have recorded as living in each NHS region in England as of 1 January 2021.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The following table shows the number of patients registered at a general practice who were aged 80 years old or over as of 1 January 2021, by region.
Region | Number of patients |
London | 301,046 |
South West | 355,808 |
South East | 505,103 |
Midlands | 552,288 |
East of England | 360,621 |
North West | 348,910 |
North East and Yorkshire | 446,897 |
Total | 2,870,673 |
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the proportion of the individual doses of the (a) Pfizer Biontech vaccine and (b) Astra Zeneca vaccine that were distributed to each of the seven English NHS regions before 5pm on 15 January 2021 corresponded to the number of people aged 80 and over and recorded by NHS England as living in each region, as a proportion of the total number of people aged 80 and over in England as a whole.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The number of individual doses of the Pfizer BioNTech and the Oxford/Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccines held centrally is not available in the format requested as stock holdings are not static and are constantly changing.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many individual doses of the (a) Pfizer Biontech vaccine and (b) Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine (i) had been distributed to each of the seven NHS regions in England and (ii) were being held centrally by 5pm on 15 Friday January 2021.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The number of individual doses of the Pfizer BioNTech and the Oxford/Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccines held centrally is not available in the format requested as stock holdings are not static and are constantly changing.