Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what dates four nations ministerial meetings have taken place on the topic of infected blood in the last 12 months.
Answered by John Glen
I, and my predecessors in this role, have met with Ministers across the four nations a number of times in the last 12 months, and will be doing so again ahead of tabling a Government amendment for Report Stage of the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the cost of establishing an appeal body for asylum applications processed in Rwanda under the UK-Rwanda treaty.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
We are working at pace with the Government of Rwanda to establish an appeal body for asylum applications. More details on this will be released in due course.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the oral contribution by the Leader of the House at Business Questions on 7 March 2024, Official Report, column 974, how (a) individual people and (b) organisations can register to meet him during his tour on the infected blood scandal.
Answered by John Glen
I am committed to engaging with the Infected Blood community and updating Parliament on progress of the Government response to the Infected Blood Inquiry as appropriate. Plans are currently being developed at my request to meet those infected and affected by Infected Blood across the United Kingdom to talk about their priorities ahead of the publication of the Inquiry’s final report. Further information on this will be shared soon.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the oral contribution by the Leader of the House at Business Questions on 7 March 2024, Official Report, column 974, where he plans to visit as part of his tour on the infected blood scandal; and when he will be undertaking this tour.
Answered by John Glen
I am committed to engaging with the Infected Blood community and updating Parliament on progress of the Government response to the Infected Blood Inquiry as appropriate. Plans are currently being developed at my request to meet those infected and affected by Infected Blood across the United Kingdom to talk about their priorities ahead of the publication of the Inquiry’s final report. Further information on this will be shared soon.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when building work is planned to start at Hall Road Academy in Kingston upon Hull.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Hall Road Academy was announced in December 2022 as part of Round 4 of the School Rebuilding Programme. The project will commence before April 2025.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken help tackle the import of dogs with cropped ears since 1 January 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is already an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation, including the cropping of a dog’s ears or the docking of their tails. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 creates tougher penalties for anyone convicted of such an offence face, either being sent to prison for up to five years, or receiving an unlimited fine, or both.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by the hon. Member for North Devon on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of dogs with cropped ears.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental practices handed back their NHS contract in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
From 1 April 2023, the 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. This included the transfer of all funding, Units of Dental Activity, and the management responsibility for National Health Service dentistry.
As set out in Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, we are working on further reforms to the 2006 contract, in discussion with the dental profession, to properly reflect the care needed by different patients, and more fairly remunerate practices. We expect to develop options for consultation with the dental profession in advance of a further announcement later this year. Any changes would be phased in from 2025 onwards. We do not hold data centrally on how many dental practices handed back their NHS contract in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cases of ear cropping of dogs were (a) reported, (b) investigated and (c) charged in 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp
The Home Office collects information on the number of offences of ‘Carrying out, permitting, causing to be carried out or failing to prevent prohibited procedure on a protected animal’ and their investigative outcomes, recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis. The latest information is available up to the end of September 2023.
This shows that there were 16 offences of ‘Carrying out, permitting, causing to be carried out or failing to prevent prohibited procedure on a protected animal’ offences recorded in the first nine months of 2023. Of these cases eight resulted in the investigation being complete with charge or summonsed. Four cases are still under investigation.
Table 1, Carrying out, permitting, permitting, causing to be caried out, or failing to prevent prohibited procedure on a protected animal, England and Wales, January 2023 to September 2023
Outcome type/group | January to September 2023* |
Charged/Summonsed | 8 |
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) | 2 |
Investigation complete - no suspect identified | 1 |
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest | 1 |
Offences not yet assigned an outcome | 4 |
Total | 16 |
*Excluding West Midlands, Humberside and Devon and Cornwall Police Force
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
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 ensure that patients affected by unexpected closures of NHS dental practices can still access dental care.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
We want to make sure that everyone needing a National Health Service dentist can access one. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. This is especially important for those who live in rural or coastal communities where we know access can be particularly challenging.
Our plan includes a new Golden Hello scheme for dentists who want to move to those areas which persistently struggle to attract dentists into NHS work. A Golden Hello of £20,000 will be offered per dentist, for a total of up to 240 dentists.
There are other measures in our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will help to improve access across all areas of the country. The new patient premium is designed to support dentists to see patients who may not have seen an NHS dentist for some time, and is offered in recognition of the additional time that may be needed for practices to assess, stabilise, and manage patients’ oral health needs. We will also raise the minimum Units of Dental Activity rate from £23 to £28 supporting practices across the country to deliver more NHS care.
Patients unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice are advised to contact NHS 111 for assistance. NHS dentists are now required to update their NHS website profiles regularly, at least every 90 days, to ensure patients have access to up-to-date information on where they can access care.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2024 to Question 16659 on Blood: Contamination, how much members of the expert group who are not legal experts will be paid.
Answered by John Glen
As set out in my response to Question 16659, members of the expert group will receive remuneration for their work. However, the Government will not be releasing the details of how much individual members of the expert group are being paid.