Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the facilities available for critical adolescent mental health cases.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
If children and young people do need to be admitted to inpatient services for mental health treatment, they should be accommodated in an environment that is suitable for their age. In some instances, clinically urgent situations will sometimes necessitate children and young people being placed on wards that are not specialised for children and young people’s mental health services, or away from their home and family. In these situations, patient safety, the least restrictive environment, and clinical need remains paramount.
The model of provision of National Health Service funded inpatient treatment for children and young people is being re-designed to support the move to community-based provision, where children and young people are able to access appropriate support in a timely, effective, and patient-centred way, close to home and in the least restrictive environment.
This transition is being supported by the introduction of provider collaboratives to support place-based commissioning and to develop local services that meet the needs of their communities. Options may include increased day provision, and the new model will see a change to how inpatient environments are best utilised.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has allocated for smoking cessation campaigns in the 2025-26 financial year; and whether he has made an assessment of the number of additional quit attempts that may be made as a result of these campaigns.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 2025/26 budget for smoking cessation campaigns has not yet been confirmed.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to implement a strategic plan to remove asbestos from all non-domestic buildings.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to working towards asbestos removal across Great Britain’s (GB) workplaces, whilst ensuring the safe management of any asbestos present.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is engaging with stakeholders about how to improve what is known about the scale and condition of asbestos remaining in GB workplaces. This will be used to develop a robust evidence base that can support or improve legacy asbestos management as part of a wider, long term strategic plan.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent childhood obesity.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Obesity robs our kids of the best possible start in life, and is particularly concentrated in the most deprived areas.
Supporting people to stay healthier for longer is at the heart of our Health Mission. We face a childhood obesity crisis and this government is taking action.
We have acted to end the targeting of junk food ads at children. We’ve also given local authorities stronger powers to block applications for unhealthy takeaways near schools to put children first.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to expedite implementation of the recommendations from the Hughes report, published on 7 February 2024; and whether he plans to prioritise establishment of (a) interim payments and (b) a valporate specialist unit to support those affected.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report. The report sets out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, including proposals for a financial scheme and for the establishment of a valproate specialist unit. The Government will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s Report at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his speech to the 2024 Country Land and Business Association conference of 21 November 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the proposed 25-year farming roadmap to include (a) food and (b) food consumption.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
At the Country Land and Business Association conference, Defra communicated that we would work together with farmers on a 25-year roadmap. This means we will not be telling farmers what to do. The 25-year farming roadmap will be co-produced to transition to new models that are more environmentally, and more financially, sustainable for the long-term.
Defra will focus on making farming and food production more profitable and sustainable for decades to come.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, by what procedure central government funding is allocated to institutions providing hospice care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on the demand in that ICB area, but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.
From 2007/8 until 2023/24, children and young people’s hospices received funding via the Children’s Hospice Grant. While 2023/24 marked the final year of the Children’s Hospice Grant in its previous format, in 2024/25, NHS England provided £25 million of funding for children and young people’s hospices, maintaining the level of funding from 2023/24. For the first time, this funding was distributed to hospices by ICBs, on behalf of NHS England, rather than being centrally administered as before. Since 2022/23, individual allocations of this funding have been determined using a prevalence-based model, enabling allocations to reflect local population need.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase the amount of health-related content in the national curriculum.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Health education has been compulsory in all state-funded schools in England since 2020, as part of statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).
The RSHE curriculum, which is currently being reviewed, includes a wide range of health-related topics, including healthy eating, physical fitness, mental wellbeing and first aid, as well as the risks of smoking, drugs and alcohol.
Separately, the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will consider how RSHE fits into the wider curriculum.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to support (a) low and (b) middle income countries issuing compulsory licenses for the HIV prevention tool lenacapavir.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Lenacapavir could play a critical role in the global fight against HIV but only when it is available and affordable in countries that need it. We strongly supported Unitaid's decision to invest £17 million to accelerate access to Lenacapavir through market-shaping grants.
As Lord Collins stated in Parliament on 18 November at the HIV APPG roundtable, we welcome Gilead's bilateral voluntary licensing agreements with six generic manufacturers to make and sell generic Lenacapavir in 120 resource-limited countries, and their commitment to provide Lenacapavir at non-profit pricing in sub-Saharan Africa.
In combination with our market-shaping interventions, this will help accelerate access to this potentially groundbreaking tool.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will prioritise global health spending in the Overseas Development Assistance budget in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a leader on global health and one of the largest providers of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for health, including to organisations like Gavi, helping to vaccinate one billion children, and through the Global Fund, which has cut the global death rate from HIV, malaria and TB by 50 per cent, and as the largest flexible funder of the World Health Organization.
In 2024/25, we are prioritising predictability and stability after years of turbulence under the previous Government. We will publish the FCDO's ODA programme allocations for 2024/25 shortly. We are considering how to allocate our ODA programme budget for 2025/26 to lay the foundations for our ODA spending in future years; the allocations will be published in due course.