Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
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 on determining the successful bids for the government's New Hospital Programme.
Answered by Will Quince
We received 128 expressions of interest for new hospitals and the Government has now confirmed that five of these schemes will join the New Hospital Programme.
These hospitals all have significant amounts of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete, and have been independently assessed as unsafe to operate beyond 2030. Government is therefore prioritising these major rebuilds. Considering this, the Government is not inviting further schemes to join the programme at this time. Going forward, new schemes will be considered through a rolling programme of capital investment in hospital infrastructure to secure the building of new hospitals beyond 2030.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on analysing responses to the acquired brain injury call for evidence.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work on the development of the strategy, based on the feedback from the Call for Evidence, the Patient and Public Voice Reference Group, the Programme Board and the Steering Group.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of levels of police participation in Domestic Abuse Matters training in (a) Watford and (b) England.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Domestic Abuse Matters training, developed by the College of Policing, in collaboration with SafeLives, with input from Women’s Aid and Welsh Women’s Aid, aims to improve the police response to domestic abuse and to achieve national consistency in the service police forces provide to people experiencing domestic abuse.
The majority of police forces in England and Wales have undertaken the Domestic Abuse Matters training in their force to date, including Hertfordshire Police who are the force for Watford.
We have also funded the development of a new module of the training that is targeted at officers investigating domestic abuse offences to enable further improvement in police responses to domestic abuse incidents.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) consumer rights and (b) support available to consumers who purchase goods and services from a company that becomes insolvent.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In 2014 the Government asked the Law Commission to examine the protections for consumers in insolvency situations who have prepaid for goods and services. Its report was published in 2016 and found that the combination of existing law and chargeback rules provided important protection, and that substantial amounts could be refunded in this way.
The Government’s response to the Commission’s recommendations was published in 2018 and has already led to new guidance to insolvency office-holders on chargeback provisions.
The UK regime sets some of the highest standards of consumer protection in the world. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill currently before Parliament establishes new tools to drive competition in digital markets, and boosts consumer rights and enforcement against unscrupulous businesses.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
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 ensure that prevention is central to NHS dental care.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Prevention is crucial to the work of the health and social care system, including in dentistry, and everyone has a role to play. The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID) has published an evidence-based toolkit, ‘Delivering Better Oral Health - an evidence-based toolkit for prevention’, for dental practice teams to support preventive advice and treatment for their patients available at the following link:
Water fluoridation is a safe public health intervention to improve the oral health of both adults and children and helps to tackle inequalities. The Health and Care Act will make it simpler to expand water fluoridation schemes across England. We announced funding to begin expansion, subject to consultation, across the North-East of England.
We know that good oral health in the early stages of childhood is likely to lead to better long-term dental health. There is good evidence for the effectiveness of daily supervised toothbrushing programmes in schools and early year settings, particularly in deprived areas. Such schemes can be commissioned by local authorities or the National Health Service and exist across the country.
Following the implementation of ‘Our plan for patients’, we are planning to announce additional reforms of the NHS Dental System shortly.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to train teachers on (a) autism and (b) other neuro-diverse conditions.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department has transformed the support and training available to support teachers and leaders at every stage of their career to deliver improved outcomes for young people across the country.
The golden thread of professional development begins with Initial Teacher Training (ITT) followed by a new two-year induction programme based on the Early Career Framework (ECF), which are designed to support trainees and newly qualified teachers to meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5, that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils including, where appropriate, those identified as being neurodivergent or as having other special educational needs.
We have publicly committed to reviewing the ITT core content framework and ECF alongside each other into more closely combined frameworks. We will explore how to better support new teachers to meet the needs of pupils with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
For experienced teachers and leaders, a range of specialist and leadership National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) are available. NPQs are designed to support professionals to hone and develop their existing skills, helping them to become more effective inside and outside the classroom, and ensure they support all pupils to succeed in both mainstream and specialist settings.
In March 2023, as part of the Improvement Plan for SEND and Alternative Provision, the department announced plans to introduce a new leadership NPQ for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs). This new NPQ will equip SENCOs with the knowledge, practical skills, and leadership expertise to shape their school’s approach to supporting children with SEND.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department provides for (a) people diagnosed with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva and (b) their families.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no specific prescribed service for treatment of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). However, children with FOP are cared for by National Health Service paediatric rheumatologists and/or geneticists with input from other clinicians as required. For patients with rare diseases such as FOP, expert centres provide clinical guidance, support and advice to patients, their families and carers.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers are currently serving in Hertfordshire and Watford.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area (PFA), on a bi-annual basis in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.
These data are collected by PFA only, and lower levels of geography, such as towns or boroughs are not collected. Data on the number of police officers in Hertfordshire Constabulary as at 31 March each year, from 2007 to 2022 can be found in the ‘Workforce Open Data Table’. The latest mid-year figure, as at 30 September 2022, is also available in the data tables accompanying the latest ‘Police Workforce’ bulletin.
While the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office publishes a quarterly update on the number of police officers (headcount terms only) in England and Wales, also broken down by PFA. Lower levels of geography, such as towns or boroughs are not collected. Data as at 31 March 2023 are available here: Police Officer Uplift, quarterly update to March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The latest data from the ‘Police Officer Uplift’ statistics shows, as at 31 March 2023, there were 2,415 police officers (headcount) in Hertfordshire Constabulary. This is the highest number of police officers on record in Hertfordshire Constabulary surpassing the previous peak of 2,236 officers as at 31 March 2007.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
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 international collaboration on research into (a) slowing the symptoms of and (b) finding a cure for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.
Answered by Will Quince
The United Kingdom is committed to building international connectivity so that data and expertise can be shared for the benefit of people living with rare diseases. International collaboration is a cross cutting theme of the UK Rare Diseases Framework and we continue to engage with initiatives such as the Horizon Europe Partnership on Rare Diseases and the World Health Organization Global Network for Rare Diseases. The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In the last five years, the NIHR has supported the delivery of eight studies relating to Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva via NIHR infrastructure, which includes research on potential treatments.
Asked by: Dean Russell (Conservative - Watford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to support research on (a) slowing the symptoms of and (b) finding a cure for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In the last five years the NIHR has supported the delivery of eight studies relating to Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva via NIHR infrastructure which includes research on potential treatments.