Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 improve access to GPs within the two-week appointment guideline for patients who prefer face to face appointments or are unable to use online forms (a) in Norfolk and (b) nationally.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Norfolk.
NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made towards publishing data on the number of appointments each GP practice in England is delivering and how long people wait between booking and receiving an appointment.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We expect this data to published with monthly general practice appointment data on 24 November 2022.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the number of dentists taking on NHS patients (a) nationally and (b) in Norwich North constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Norwich North. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Norwich North.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
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 improve access to NHS dentists in Norwich North constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in Norwich North. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Norwich North.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to help ensure the accuracy of dental listings with availability on the NHS website.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In July 2022, we announced improvements to the National Health Service dental system, including a requirement for dentists to update information at NHS.UK at least every 90 days. Compliance will be monitored on the number of dentists updating this availability quarterly through NHS dental contracts.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department provides additional funding to local authorities where hotels have been block booked for an indeterminate period for the sole use of asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Due to the continuing unprecedented high volume of small boats arrivals and the historical pressure from COVID-19 measures on the asylum system it has been necessary to continue to use hotels to accommodate some asylum seekers to meet our immediate statutory need.
When a new hotel has been identified, the Home Office will write to the Local Authority Chief Executive and the MP for the area to inform them of our plans to house asylum seekers within the hotel identified. This is normally done in advance of a hotel being used, but where an urgent need for accommodation occurs, this may take place retrospectively. We also then offer the Local Authority a meeting to discuss the hotel, where they are able to provide feedback on the proposed site and all related matters.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department undertakes assessments of the potential impact of block booking hotels for an indeterminate period for the sole use of asylum seekers on the local and regional economy before making those bookings.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Due to the continuing unprecedented high volume of small boats arrivals and the historical pressure from COVID-19 measures on the asylum system it has been necessary to continue to use hotels to accommodate some asylum seekers to meet our immediate statutory need.
When a new hotel has been identified, the Home Office will write to the Local Authority Chief Executive and the MP for the area to inform them of our plans to house asylum seekers within the hotel identified. This is normally done in advance of a hotel being used, but when a particularly urgent need for accommodation occurs, this may take place retrospectively. We also then offer the Local Authority a meeting to discuss the hotel, where they are able to provide feedback on the proposed site and all related matters.
Community cohesion is an important aspect of using contingency sites successfully and we actively engage and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to understand and act on any concerns appropriately as the site operates.
The Full Dispersal model, announced on 13 April 2022, aims to reduce then end the use of hotels by allowing the Home Office to procure dispersal properties within the private rental sector in all Local Authority areas across England, Scotland and Wales, rather than the minority of Local Authorities which currently participate. This more equitable approach is supported by £21million of un-ringfenced grant funding to make sure eligible Local Authorities can provide wraparound support locally. Local authorities will also receive £3,500 for each new dispersal accommodation bed space in the 22/23 financial year.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has taken recent steps to help promote good community relations in areas where hotels have been block booked for an indeterminate period for the sole use of asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Due to the continuing unprecedented high volume of small boats arrivals and the historical pressure from COVID-19 measures on the asylum system it has been necessary to continue to use hotels to accommodate some asylum seekers to meet our immediate statutory need.
When a new hotel has been identified, the Home Office will write to the Local Authority Chief Executive and the MP for the area to inform them of our plans to house asylum seekers within the hotel identified. This is normally done in advance of a hotel being used, but when a particularly urgent need for accommodation occurs, this may take place retrospectively. We also then offer the Local Authority a meeting to discuss the hotel, where they are able to provide feedback on the proposed site and all related matters.
Community cohesion is an important aspect of using contingency sites successfully and we actively engage and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to understand and act on any concerns appropriately as the site operates.
The Full Dispersal model, announced on 13 April 2022, aims to reduce then end the use of hotels by allowing the Home Office to procure dispersal properties within the private rental sector in all Local Authority areas across England, Scotland and Wales, rather than the minority of Local Authorities which currently participate. This more equitable approach is supported by £21million of un-ringfenced grant funding to make sure eligible Local Authorities can provide wraparound support locally. Local authorities will also receive £3,500 for each new dispersal accommodation bed space in the 22/23 financial year.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average cost per day was of temporarily housing asylum seekers in hotel accommodation in Norwich North constituency in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We currently have one hotel in use in the Norwich local authority area to accommodate asylum seekers. On 1st November 2022 the average (mean) length of stay was 140 days, the longest stayer was 180 days. Calculations over time cannot be provided as pass through is not measured.
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support Data are published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 25 August 2022.
The next quarterly figures are due to be released in November 2022. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of these statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in a specific type of accommodation. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) average, (b) most frequent and (c) longest stay was for an asylum seeker placed in hotel accommodation in Norwich North constituency in the last three years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We currently have one hotel in use in the Norwich local authority area to accommodate asylum seekers. On 1st November 2022 the average (mean) length of stay was 140 days, the longest stayer was 180 days. Calculations over time cannot be provided as pass through is not measured.
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support Data are published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 25 August 2022.
The next quarterly figures are due to be released in November 2022. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of these statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in a specific type of accommodation. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.