Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of court cases has HMRC won in each of the last five years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC publishes its litigation outcomes every year within it’s Annual Report. The latest report for 2022-2023 together with links to previous years’ reports can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, What estimate his Department has made of the average cost to businesses of successfully defending a court case brought by HMRC in each of the last five years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC does not estimate or collect customer data on the costs incurred by businesses who seek to contest an assessment through the courts.More detail of the department’s litigation strategy can be found on GOV.UK at www.gov.uk/government/publications/litigation-and-settlement-strategy-lss
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support children who were entering the school system at the time of the first lockdown.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique challenge for teachers, school staff, students and families, particularly for those children who were starting school at the time of the first lockdown. The Department has focused on addressing the effects of the pandemic and the challenges it created in order to improve outcomes for children. The Department’s strategy is focused on ensuring all children can access a high quality education, by providing excellent teachers, high standards and well evidenced, targeted interventions.
To support pupils, the Department has provided significant funding to the Core Schools Budget and is supporting schools to offer well evidenced interventions which are targeted at those most in need. Almost £5 billion was made available for recovery, funding an ambitious multi year programme that includes direct funding to schools, teacher training, and tailored tutoring.
The Department continues to provide support for younger pupils’ literacy. In July 2023, the Department published an updated version of the Reading Framework, providing teachers and school leaders with evidence informed guidance on good practice in reading. It has been expanded from reception and Key Stage 1 to cover Key Stage 2 and 3, to help schools improve reading for all pupils and support them to engage confidently with reading at secondary school. This is on top of the Department’s wider efforts to give children a strong foundation in reading through the phonics screening check, support for phonics and the work of English Hubs. England came fourth out of 43 comparable countries in the recent PIRLS international survey, and scored significantly above the international and European averages, making it the highest performing country in the western world.
This is supplemented by targeted interventions for those in need. The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) allocates funds to schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, nearly four million tutoring courses have been started to date. In addition, the Department’s Accelerator Fund (2021/22), supports the rollout of well evidenced literacy and numeracy programmes in schools, through English Hubs and Maths Hubs.
On top of this, this year’s school funding will total over £57.7 billion. Including the additional funding for teachers’ pay, funding for both mainstream schools and high needs is £1.8 billion higher in 2024/25 compared with 2023/24. The overall Core School Budget will total over £59.6 billion in 2024/25. This is the highest ever level in real terms per pupil, as measured by the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling up Housing and Communities on the improving the speed of Local Authorities producing Educational, Health and Care plans.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The Department for Education has met with the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) at ministerial level to discuss all aspects of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) policy, including Education Health and Care (EHC) plan reform. The department is acting to improve the SEND and AP system and works closely with our counterparts in DLUHC and other government departments on this as necessary.
In the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the department set out plans to reform the EHC plan system.
The SEND and AP reforms seek to make best practice common practice in how EHC plans are delivered. They include establishing a single EHC plan form and supporting processes across England, including developing digital requirements for EHC plan systems to improve consistency and access to information. The department will also test the use of multi-agency panels to enable local authorities to make judgements based on a holistic view of the needs of the child or young person across education, health and care when deciding whether to issue an EHC plan. We are already engaging with children, young people, families, and practitioners to develop this work.
The department wants to ensure that EHC plans, where required, are issued as quickly as possible, so that the child or young person can access the support they need. In 2022 (the latest figures available), there were 114,457 requests for an EHC plan. 66,244 new EHC plans were issued, the highest number since they were introduced. 49.1% were issued within 20 weeks.
The department recognises the vital role local authority staff play in supporting families in the SEND and EHC plan system. We will consider the skills and training these staff require and, when consulting on amending the SEND Code of Practice, will propose new guidance on delivering a responsive and supportive casework service.
Where a council does not meet its duties, we do not hesitate to take action that prioritises children’s needs and brings about rapid improvement.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is for the statement by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency that there is high public awareness of the Yellow Card scheme in relation to reporting suspected adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccination.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has worked with its partners across the health system to ensure that planned COVID-19 vaccination programme communications include information about the Yellow Card scheme. Information about the reporting of side effects via Yellow Card was included on both the information for vaccinees and the UK Health Security Agency materials to support the vaccination programme. These materials were made available as part of the initial call-recall process, as well as at vaccination centres.
Additionally, the MHRA optimised website search functionality for the dedicated Coronavirus Yellow Card reporting site and worked with media outlets to encourage them to carry messages about the reporting of side effects. The scheme was also promoted through targeted social media campaigns, the Drug Safety Update and a press release informing healthcare professionals and members of the public that reporting to the new site would enable the MHRA to rapidly identify new and emerging side effects. The general public were also encouraged to report any suspected side effects of the vaccine to the MHRA via a Yellow Card on televised press briefings.
The number of reports received through the scheme increased throughout the pandemic for non-COVID-19 medicines and vaccines from both patients and healthcare professionals, demonstrating increased public awareness of the important of reporting side effects. Patients are now the largest reporting group in the scheme, and in 2022 the highest number of reports from members of the public were received by the Yellow Card scheme to date.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
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 27 June 2023 to Question 190812 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, what assessment he has made of (a) the robustness and (b) the implications for his policies of the study's findings in Table 2 on levels of Serious Adverse Events for people vaccinated with the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
All COVID-19 vaccines deployed in the United Kingdom have been authorised for use following a rigorous review by the independent regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The MHRA continuously monitors safety during the widespread use of a vaccine. It keeps all available evidence under review, including studies, published literature and data arising from usage in the UK and internationally, including the article referenced. The MHRA communicates safety advice based upon the totality of evidence rather than the strengths and limitations of individual data sources.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the rate is of hospital admissions from suspected adverse drug reactions.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on (a) the number of veterans with PTSD and (b) how many were diagnosed (i) before and (ii) after they left the Armed Forces.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence does not collect or hold information on all veterans and cannot say how many have a diagnosis of PTSD.
The number of personnel medically discharged with PTSD listed as a principal or contributory cause can be found at; https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/medical-discharges-among-uk-service-personnel-statistics-index
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the support for or veterans who show symptoms of PTSD (a) two, (b) five and (c) seven years after they left the Armed Forces.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In April 2023, NHS England re-launched an integrated Op Courage service which brings together the current bespoke and separate strands into a single integrated veterans’ mental health service. This new service will make it easier for veterans to access the support they need and reduce the need for cross-referrals between services within Op Courage.
NHS England will continue to evaluate the service to ensure it meets the needs of service users as part of good and standard practice.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in how many and what proportion of cases in which a fatal outcome was reported following covid-19 vaccination did a healthcare professional seek further information about the case; and how many and what proportion of such follow-up requests resulted in (a) further information and (b) no response being provided.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) acknowledge receipt of every Yellow Card report received and a team of safety experts follows up for further information as necessary, including all reports with a fatal outcome, based on the completeness, severity and clinical details provided in the report.
Responses to follow-up requests for adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports are recorded and stored with the original report on the MHRA’s ADR database. The information is then passed downstream for use in signal detection and the identification of safety concerns. The data is available for its core purpose of assessment and signal detection; however, the systems were not designed to quantify the follow-up metrics requested. As such, it is not possible to automatically generate metrics on the proportion of follow-up requests sent, or those which resulted in further information being received.