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Written Question
Disability Aids: Children
Wednesday 16th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to distribute documentation to all local authorities in England to reiterate their duty to (a) assess children in need and (b) provide equipment based on the findings of that assessment.

Answered by Will Quince

The department has published statutory guidance (Working Together to Safeguard Children), for all local authorities in England setting out the duties for assessment of children in need, including requirements for the publication of threshold documents and the framework for assessments. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

The guidance is clear that such assessments should focus on outcomes, providing clear decisions on which services and support should be provided to improve the welfare of the child. Guidance is clear that, for disabled children, this includes provision of special equipment under Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.

On 15 December 2021, Ministers from the Department for Education, Department for Health and Social Security and the Home Office sent a joint letter to all local safeguarding partners (including local authority chief executives) to re-emphasise their roles in safeguarding children as set out in Working Together.


Written Question
Disability Aids: Children
Wednesday 16th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the £10 billion in extra funding provided as part of covid-19 recovery planning will tackle the waiting times for disabled children to receive an equipment assessment; and what estimate he has made of the timeframe in which those waiting times will be reduced.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

In 2021/22, we have made £2 billion available and a further £8 billion from April 2022 to March 2025 to increase activity and reduce waiting times for patients, including disabled children. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures and deliver 30% more elective activity by 2024/25.

NHS England and NHS Improvement published the ‘Community health services prioritisation framework’ on 11 January 2022. This sets an expectation that community health services, including therapy services and the provision of wheelchairs, orthotics, prosthetics and equipment for children and young people which have been delayed or paused as a result of COVID-19, should resume from 1 March 2022.

Additionally, the ‘2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance’, published in December 2021, includes a requirement for systems to develop and agree a plan for reducing community service waiting lists. Systems and providers have been asked to ensure that no-one is waiting for longer than 104 weeks for elective care by July 2022 and eliminate waiting times of over 78 weeks by April 2023, except where patients choose to wait longer or in specific specialities.


Written Question
Integrated Care Boards
Monday 14th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when there was last a comprehensive assessment of local continence care service needs; and whether there is a strategy in place to meet those needs in the context of formalising integrated care boards across England.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

In 2018, NHS England published ‘Excellence in Continence Care’ to improve the care and experience of patients with continence issues. While no assessment has been made of local continence care service needs, the guidance was produced with patient and public advocates, clinicians and partners from the third sector.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) will take on the commissioning functions of clinical commissioning groups and some of NHS England’s commissioning functions. There are no specific requirements on ICBs to assess local continence needs. However, ICBs will be responsible for providing a comprehensive health service for their local populations. ‘Excellence in Continence Care’ is a strategy for commissioners, which will include ICBs once established, to enable collaboration with providers and others.


Written Question
Incontinence: Health Services
Monday 14th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what NHS support is available for family carers looking after relatives with continence problems.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

Those with continence problems or their carers should request a full assessment from their general practitioner directly or through a referral to a specialist service. ‘Excellence in Continence Care’ provides further information on access to services and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/excellence-in-continence-care/

The National Bladder and Bowel Program is developing evidence-based service pathways to support a consistent approach to continence services and provide a framework.


Written Question
Incontinence: Health Services
Monday 14th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what policy framework is guiding NHS (a) performance and (b) quality improvement for continence services.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

The National Bladder and Bowel Project is developing evidence-based pathways to support a consistent approach to continence services and will provide a framework for services. NHS England’s ‘Excellence in Continence Care’ provides guidance to enables commissioners, including local authorities, to collaborate with providers and others to improve the care and experience of patients with continence issues.


Written Question
Anton Hammerl
Wednesday 9th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to (a) locate and (b) repatriate the remains of Anton Hammerl to his family in London.

Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary

I am saddened by the tragic circumstances in which Mr Hammerl lost his life whilst in Libya and send my sincere condolences to his family and friends. The UK condemns, and is committed to raising, violations of media freedom across the world at all levels. Journalists should be able to do their jobs without fear of retaliation or harm. We believe that those who seek to harm journalists or restrict their ability to work should be held to account.

The FCDO is only able to provide consular assistance to British nationals so cannot provide it to Mr Hammerl, as he was a dual national of Austria and South Africa. It would be incumbent on those countries to raise Mr Hammerl's case with the Libyan government.


Written Question
Anton Hammerl
Wednesday 9th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations her has made to the Libyan authorities on the killing of photojournalist Anton Hammerl in that country in April 2011.

Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary

I am saddened by the tragic circumstances in which Mr Hammerl lost his life whilst in Libya and send my sincere condolences to his family and friends. The UK condemns, and is committed to raising, violations of media freedom across the world at all levels. Journalists should be able to do their jobs without fear of retaliation or harm. We believe that those who seek to harm journalists or restrict their ability to work should be held to account.

The FCDO is only able to provide consular assistance to British nationals so cannot provide it to Mr Hammerl, as he was a dual national of Austria and South Africa. It would be incumbent on those countries to raise Mr Hammerl's case with the Libyan government.


Written Question
Immigration: EU Nationals
Monday 21st February 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many EU nationals who have been in the UK since infancy had their applications for UK citizenship turned down due to having a period overseas for study or work in the preceding five years in the time periods of (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021.

Answered by Kevin Foster

There are no plans to exempt EU nationals from the statutory residence requirements for British citizenship, which apply to all applicants regardless of nationality. It is fair all applicants, irrespective of nationality, meet these same requirements to ensure citizenship is granted on a consistent basis.

A person should not normally be absent from the UK for more than 450 days during a 5 year residential period, and no more than 90 days in the final year. There is some discretion available to caseworkers over excess absences and this is normally exercised where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and the absence is as a result of compelling or compassionate reasons beyond the applicant’s control. Details of how discretion may be exercised is published in nationality guidance.

There are no figures available through our normal reporting mechanisms for the specific scenario requested. Transparency data on overall approval/refusal numbers for citizenship applications can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q3-2021


Written Question
Immigration: EU Nationals
Monday 21st February 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to implement an exemption to the residency requirement for UK citizenship in regards to EU nationals who have been in the UK since infancy and have had a period overseas for study or work in the five years proceeding their application.

Answered by Kevin Foster

There are no plans to exempt EU nationals from the statutory residence requirements for British citizenship, which apply to all applicants regardless of nationality. It is fair all applicants, irrespective of nationality, meet these same requirements to ensure citizenship is granted on a consistent basis.

A person should not normally be absent from the UK for more than 450 days during a 5 year residential period, and no more than 90 days in the final year. There is some discretion available to caseworkers over excess absences and this is normally exercised where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and the absence is as a result of compelling or compassionate reasons beyond the applicant’s control. Details of how discretion may be exercised is published in nationality guidance.

There are no figures available through our normal reporting mechanisms for the specific scenario requested. Transparency data on overall approval/refusal numbers for citizenship applications can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q3-2021


Written Question
Electric Vehicles: Charging Points
Wednesday 9th February 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the results of the government consultation on the availability and accessibility of public electric car charging infrastructure will be published.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The Government is committed to ensuring an accessible and inclusively designed electric vehicle (EV) charging network is available for all consumers.

We have consulted on using our powers under the Automated Electric Vehicles Act (2018) to improve the consumer experience at public chargepoints. Proposals included opening public chargepoint data; improving the reliability of the network; streamlining the payment methods offered to drivers; and increasing pricing transparency. We are seeking to lay legislation in 2022.

We have also consulted on introducing accessibility requirements at EV chargepoints in autumn 2021. We will publish a response in 2022.