Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to provide access to psilocybin for the treatment of (a) severe depression and (b) other health conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), who have invested £1.1 million in a randomised controlled trial to examine if it is feasible, safe and effective to use psilocybin to treat people with treatment-resistant depression. The NIHR is supporting psilocybin research via the NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, where researchers are developing and evaluating the efficacy and safety of psilocybin therapy for use in the National Health Service and other healthcare settings. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including the use of psilocybin in the treatment of severe depression and other chronic conditions.
Before any new medicine can be used to treat patients, it must go through a strictly monitored development process. Manufacturers of medicines are expected to conduct research and clinical trials, and medicines must undergo scrutiny by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency which will assess the safety, quality and efficacy of a product before a marketing authorisation (licence) may be granted. For a licence to be granted for a medicine the MHRA must receive a full marketing application from the applicant. In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates all new medicines for clinical and cost effectiveness and makes recommendations about routine funding and use on the NHS. This is the foundation of NHS decisions about routine access and funding of medicines.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to help support traditional high street retailers to expand into e-commerce.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Digital Exporting Programme provides support for UK companies looking to sell their products to international consumers through digital channels such as ecommerce. Digital Trade and Ecommerce Advisers provide one-to-one support and can help with everything from developing a digital commerce strategy to making websites more attractive to international audiences. UK Export Academy provides sector-specific webinars, masterclasses and virtual missions, helping businesses grow by finding new customers and increasing sales.
Help to Grow: Management is an intensive national training programme helping thousands of SME businesses to improve their productivity and grow their businesses, including through upskilling them in digital adoption.
The Retail Sector Council recently published a paper on the challenges facing the sector and is encouraging a dialogue with business to work with government to identify measures that both business and government should consider.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what business rates will be in each of the next five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government froze the business rates multiplier for a third consecutive year in 2023-24, a tax cut worth £9.3 billion to business over the next 5 years. Overall, the Government has taken action to hold the tax rate steady, protecting businesses from inflationary pressures over the last three years at a cost of £14.5 billion to the Exchequer.
Decisions on future business rates support will be made in due course.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of public transport in County Durham.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport is investing in the bus sector to deliver the ambitions of the National Bus Strategy to make bus services more reliable and cheaper. We are providing over £2 billion of funding for English Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) outside London to support the delivery of Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs), including the introduction of new services. This includes the recent announcement of an additional £1 billion redirected from HS2 to support bus services in the North and Midlands.
We have also announced that a new uplift of 60% will be added to Community Transport Operators’ (CTOs) Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) claims until 31 March 2025. On top of this, we have extended the £2 bus fare cap until the end of 2024, meaning we are investing nearly £600 million in total to cap bus fares.
North East Combined Authority and North of Tyne Combined Authority received £163,521,172 in Government funding to make improvements set out in their joint BSIP up to March 2025 in the first phase of BSIP funding. They have also been indicatively allocated £11.2 million in further BSIP funding from Network North for 2024/25. The allocations for future years will be published in due course.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
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 increase the availability of NHS dental appointments in County Durham.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In July 2022 we announced a package of reforms to improve access to National Health Service dentistry, which outlined the steps we are taking to meet oral health need and increase access to dental care, including in County Durham. The changes that have been implemented include improvements to ensure dentists are remunerated more fairly for more complex work and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value.
From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32.
But we know we need to do more, and that there are some areas where access is particularly problematic. We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the independent review into the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) to be completed; if he will publish the report of that review; and what steps he plans to take to help ensure that the standard of service provided by NEAS improves as quickly as possible.
Answered by James Morris
NHS England is establishing governance arrangements for an independent review to formally commence as soon as is practicable. The families and staff affected will have an opportunity to contribute to the review’s Terms of Reference in due course. Once the review is completed, its report will be published independently of the National Health Service. Local commissioners and the NHS will support the implementation of any recommendations to improve the culture within and the quality of service provided by the North East Ambulance Service as soon as possible. Further details will be available shortly.
NHS England advises that the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has measures in place to improve the standards of service it provides. An investment of £38 million has been agreed for 2022/23 to improve clinical care, recover ambulance response times, increase the operational and Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) workforce and the establishment of an additional EOC in the south of the Trust’s area.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of the forthcoming Women's Health Strategy, what steps his Department plans to take to help ensure adherence to NICE guidelines for (a) diagnosing and (b) treating endometriosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As set out in the Women’s Health Strategy, we will work with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on its five-year strategy to ensure that guidelines can be implemented and accessible to healthcare professionals and commissioners of local services. NICE’s guidelines describe best practice which healthcare professionals are expected to take fully into account in the care and treatment of patients. However, these guidelines are not mandatory and do not override a clinician’s responsibility to make appropriate decisions for individual patients.
NICE reviewed its endometriosis guideline in 2021, which was amended to highlight that those with endometriosis outside the pelvic cavity should be referred to a specialist endometriosis centre. NICE has begun a review of its guidelines on endometriosis to consider whether it should be updated.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason the use of solar photovoltaic panels is not taken into account for the purposes of an Energy Performance Certificate.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The underlying methodology for producing an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) assesses energy performance based on the fixed components of the building. This includes solar photovoltaic panels.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to raise the minimum rentable Energy Performance Certificate rating from E to D.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government committed in the Clean Growth Strategy to improve as many privately rented homes as possible to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2030 where practical, affordable and cost effective. The Government consulted on raising the standard to EPC C for new tenancies from 1 April 2025 and for all tenancies by 1 April 2028. The Government has carefully analysed the responses received and will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason electric room heaters are considered less efficient than radiators powered by an oil boiler for the purposes of an Energy Performance Certificate, given that electric heaters can be powered by renewable energy.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) use an Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) to score the energy performance of buildings based on their estimated running costs. Since energy costs can be a significant outlay, it is important that homeowners and occupiers are aware of the potential running costs of their building.
Given the higher cost of electricity relative to oil, the presence of an electric radiator may result in a low EER without added measures to reduce energy demand, such as insulation. The metrics on the EPC are kept under review as the Government develop policy to simultaneously tackle fuel poverty and decarbonise buildings.