Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, what the forecasted number was of (a) beneficiaries or (b) families in percentage format of the Healthy Start Scheme for (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2022-23.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, on what timescale his Department measures forecasted uptake of the Healthy Start Scheme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money was (a) allocated to and (b) spent on the Healthy Start Scheme in the 2021-22 financial year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Healthy Start Scheme is a demand-led scheme and spending on the scheme varies each year. Departmental forecasts on numbers of beneficiaries and uptake of the Healthy Start scheme are not available. The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Heathy Start Scheme applications were rejected due to the form being filled out incorrectly in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) March 2023; and how many applications to that scheme were rejected in that period in total.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The NHS Business Services Authority does not collect this data.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2023 to Question 185900 on Healthy Start Scheme, how much funding was provided to his Department for the Healthy Start scheme in 2021-22; and what was the forecasted number of families on the scheme during this time.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The cost of operating the Healthy Start scheme in 2021/22 was £78,148,555. Departmental forecasts of the number of families on the scheme during this time are not available.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of recipients of Healthy Start paper vouchers who have not re-enrolled via the online registration system as of 1 June 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The NHS Business Services Authority estimates that as of 1 June 2023 there were 34,020 households which previously were in receipt of paper vouchers which have not successfully applied to the NHS Healthy Start prepaid card scheme.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an estimate of the uptake of the Healthy Start Scheme on a (a) monthly and (b) yearly basis; and what recent estimate his Department has made of the uptake of the Healthy Start Scheme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Monthly uptake figures for the Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website. In May 2023, uptake for the Healthy Start scheme was 64.9%.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral contribution of 30 November 2022, Official Report, column 896, what the evidential basis was for his statement that the UK had had the fastest vaccine roll-out in the world because of its freedoms after leaving the European Union.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
All European Union member states pursued a joint vaccine procurement, which was slower to obtain supplies of vaccine than the approach pursued by the United Kingdom Government. Because the UK approach differed from that taken by the EU the UK was the first country in the world to authorise and deploy the Pfizer and Oxford / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines. The UK was also the first major European economy and first G20 member to vaccinate 50% of its population with at least one dose, and to provide boosters to 50% of the population.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral contribution of 26 October 2022, Official Report, column 295, what the evidential basis is for his statement that the Government has reintroduced the nurses' bursary.
Answered by Will Quince
In September 2020, the Government introduced an enhanced Learning Support Funding (LSF). Under the LSF, all eligible nursing students in England now receive non-income assessed and non-repayable grants of at least £5,000 per year, with additional funding for those studying certain subjects and those with child dependants. Students eligible for the LSF can also access maintenance and tuition fee loans provided by the Student Loans Company.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average weekly Healthy Start payment was for (a) individuals entitled to the scheme and (b) households with claimants receiving a digital card payment in March 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
In March 2023, the average weekly Healthy Start payment for individuals on the scheme was £7.25 and the average weekly payment for households was £7.86. This includes one-off back dated payments, which were made to some beneficiaries’ pre-paid cards in March.
The average weekly payment for individuals on the scheme, not including back dated payments, was £5.03 and the average weekly payment for households, not including back dated payments, was £5.49.