Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the number of tribunals and mandatory reconsiderations involving personal independence payment claims.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department’s aim is to make the right decision as early as possible in the claim journey. We have made improvements to our decision-making processes to ensure that people get the support they are entitled to as quickly as possible, because Decision Makers can better gather relevant additional evidence earlier in the process.
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 the Government is taking to ensure equal access to eating disorder treatment across the country.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 24 January 2022 to Question 105730.
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 recent assessment the Government has made of capacity challenges in County Durham's accident and emergency departments.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No assessment has been made. However, NHS England and NHS Improvement advise that additional staff are being recruited at the University Hospital of North Durham and Darlington Memorial Hospital. Darlington’s emergency department was extended in 2020 and there are further plans to redevelop and increase capacity at Durham’s emergency department. Same day emergency care units were also opened at each site in 2021.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has also enhanced paediatric services and facilities in the emergency departments and a new paediatric assessment unit has been installed at the Durham site. A new primary care hub has also been opened adjacent to the emergency department in Durham.
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, what steps the Government is taking to mitigate the effect of rising energy prices on the cost of living.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is monitoring the significant increases in wholesale energy prices closely, and meeting regularly with Ofgem, suppliers and consumer groups to understand the future impact on consumers as well as to discuss potential mitigations.
The Government is committed to protecting energy customers, especially the most vulnerable. The Energy Price Cap will continue to protect consumers, ensuring they pay a fair price for their energy this winter. Low income and fuel poor households will continue to be supported with their energy bills through the Warm Home Discount, which provides eligible households with a £140 discount. Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments will ensure that the most vulnerable are better able to heat their homes through the winter. Additionally, the Government announced an additional £500 million for local authorities, through the new Household Support Fund, to support vulnerable households meet daily needs such as utility bills.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the delays in licensing applications at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency are dealt with in a timely manner.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.
However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the digital telephone system will replicate the ability of the analogue system to provide stable emergency communications in the event of power outages.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) migration is industry-led. The Government and the independent telecoms regulator, Ofcom, are working together to ensure customers are protected.
Ofcom places a regulatory obligation on communications providers to take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations for their customers. Ofcom has issued guidance explaining how providers can fulfil this regulatory obligation during power outages, stating that at least one solution must be available for a minimum of one hour that enables access to emergency organisations in the event of a power cut. Any solution must be made available free of charge to customers who providers determine are reliant on their landline to make emergency calls during a power cut.
Alongside this, the emergency services have access to a number of resilient communications systems to coordinate emergency response activity via mobile networks. This includes the current Airwave system, and they will make use of the Emergency Services Network (ESN) once transition has completed.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of police foot patrols.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Visible policing in local neighbourhoods is central to the model of policing by consent.
We are committed to delivering on the people’s priorities and ensuring that policing has the resources it needs; we have increased the police funding settlement by £1.1billion in 2022/23, and through the Police Uplift Programme, police forces in England and Wales have already recruited over 11,000 additional officers and are on track to deliver 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.
In Durham specifically, the police force has recruited 75 additional uplift officers against a combined year 1 and 2 allocation of 135 officers to be recruited by March 2022. The force has also been allocated a further 90 officers for the final year of the programme.
Decisions about frontline policing, and how resources are best deployed, are for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, who are best placed to make decisions with their communities based on their local knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps is the government taking to ensure that reassessments for sufferers of chronic conditions are as unobtrusive and infrequent as possible.
Answered by Chloe Smith
As announced in the recent Shaping Future Support: Health and Disability Green Paper we want to make changes to the assessment process so people with the most severe health conditions and disabilities can claim the benefits they are entitled to through a simpler process. We are exploring how to test a new Severe Disability Group (SDG) so those with severe and lifelong conditions can benefit from a simplified process to access ESA/UC and PIP without ever needing to complete a detailed application form or go through a face to face assessment/reassessment.
We have already stopped reassessments for people with the most severe conditions that are unlikely to change. In Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper, we proposed ways to further reduce the number of unnecessary assessments, while continuing to ensure support is properly targeted. Alongside this, we proposed ways of offering greater flexibility and simplicity in the way that assessments are delivered, including improving the evidence we use to make decisions from health assessments, and learn the lessons of coronavirus where we introduced telephone and video assessments.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps is the Government taking to help resolve delays to licensing applications at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The quickest and easiest way to apply for a driving licence is by using the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online service. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their licence within a few days.
However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application and the DVLA receives around 60,000 items of mail every day. The DVLA understands the impact of delays on those who make paper applications and is working hard to process them as quickly as possible. To help reduce waiting times for paper applications, the DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff, increased overtime working and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham. There may be additional delays in processing more complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found here.
The majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online here.
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, what steps the Government is taking to mitigate the effect of rising energy prices on the cost of living.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The energy price cap is currently insulating millions of domestic customers from high global gas prices this winter, protecting 15 million families from increasing gas prices. The Government is also supporting low income and fuel poor households with their energy bills. The Warm Home Discount provides eligible households with a £140 rebate off their winter energy bills. The Winter Fuel and Cold Weather payments will help ensure those most vulnerable are better able to heat their homes over the colder months.