Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for bringing forward legislative proposals to ban the use of electronic shock collars on (a) cats and (b) dogs.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government remains committed to banning electronic training collars controlled by hand-held devices that administer electric shocks to cats or dogs.
We will pursue new regulations to deliver this commitment on a revised timeline. Parliamentary business will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including material on (a) diagnosing and (b) detecting cardiovascular diseases in women's health hubs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific assessment has been made. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for menstrual problems, contraception, menopause, and more. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services that meet the needs of their local population, and will determine the exact services that their women’s health hub will provide, so long as they deliver the core services set out in the Women’s Health Hubs: Core Specification, which is available at the following link:
Future expansion of women’s health hubs will reflect the need to meet women’s health needs holistically. This could also include developing care pathways into wider health and public services, including those for cardiovascular disease, however hubs should not create an additional step in the patient journey, or delay referral for specialist or urgent care where required.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of heart valve surgery for (a) women and (b) ethnic minorities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England continues to work with its partners in raising awareness of aortic stenosis, with a particular focus on women. NHS England is also working to increase access to cardiac surgery. The breathlessness pathway, launched in April 2023, encourages general practitioners to examine all patients for the signs of valvular heart disease. Heart valve disease is a focus for cardiac networks, with pathways in in place to improve early detection of valve disease in the community.
In November 2023, a dedicated Heart Valve Disease (HVD) Expert Advisory Group was convened to provide NHS England’s Cardiac Transformation Programme with leadership, advice, quality assurance, expert review, and endorsement of the projects and deliverables that comprise the HVD workstream, with a focus on improving the speed and equity of access to high quality treatment for heart valve patients.
To improve the early detection and diagnosis of heart valve disease across England, including aortic stenosis, £2.3 billion has been committed to open 160 community diagnostic centres by March 2025. This will increase the volume of diagnostic activity and further reduce patient waiting times. The centres have delivered over 5 million additional tests since July 2021, including those that detect cardiovascular disease.
In addition, the National Health Service is investing in cardiac networks to support whole pathway improvements. These networks have been developed to take an evidenced based, clinically led, whole pathway approach to improvement, from prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and through to end-of-life care.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase awareness of the symptoms of heart valve disease in women.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England continues to work with its partners in raising awareness of aortic stenosis, with a particular focus on women. NHS England is also working to increase access to cardiac surgery. The breathlessness pathway, launched in April 2023, encourages general practitioners to examine all patients for the signs of valvular heart disease. Heart valve disease is a focus for cardiac networks, with pathways in in place to improve early detection of valve disease in the community.
In November 2023, a dedicated Heart Valve Disease (HVD) Expert Advisory Group was convened to provide NHS England’s Cardiac Transformation Programme with leadership, advice, quality assurance, expert review, and endorsement of the projects and deliverables that comprise the HVD workstream, with a focus on improving the speed and equity of access to high quality treatment for heart valve patients.
To improve the early detection and diagnosis of heart valve disease across England, including aortic stenosis, £2.3 billion has been committed to open 160 community diagnostic centres by March 2025. This will increase the volume of diagnostic activity and further reduce patient waiting times. The centres have delivered over 5 million additional tests since July 2021, including those that detect cardiovascular disease.
In addition, the National Health Service is investing in cardiac networks to support whole pathway improvements. These networks have been developed to take an evidenced based, clinically led, whole pathway approach to improvement, from prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and through to end-of-life care.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on funding for state pensions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on pensioners' finances.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of abolishing National Insurance Contributions on determining eligibility criteria for the state pension.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government believes the double taxation of work is unfair. That is why we’ve cut 4p from employee NICs in the last six months which will mean the average worker receives a tax cut worth £900 this coming year and why we are committed to ending this unfairness.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to the public purse of the Pensions Dashboards programme has been as of 29 January 2024.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pensions Dashboard Programme is principally funded by levy payers, through the Financial Services Levy, which is collected by the FCA from the financial services industry and the General Pensions Levy, which is a levy collected from pension schemes.
PDP has spent £52 million between 2019/20 and the end of November 2023 (with spend relating to 2023/24 subject to final audit).
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had recent discussions with the UN World Food Programme on the decision to pause food distribution in northern Yemen; and whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure the adequate supply of food to that region.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
After months of negotiations, in November, the World Food Programme (WFP) made the difficult decision to pause food distributions in the north of Yemen due to Houthi unwillingness to target food aid at the families who need it most. The UK has worked closely with WFP as it made this decision. We support WFP's efforts to ensure aid reaches those most in need and will further support WFP to resume food distributions once an agreement with the Houthi authorities is reached.
Ensuring food security for vulnerable populations in Yemen remains a UK priority. The FCDO's Food Security Safety Net programme will spend up to £250 million over 5 years, aiming to tackle food insecurity by providing cash transfers to up to 1.5 million of Yemen's most food insecure households through funding partners such as WFP, Social Fund for Development, and a consortium of NGOs.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 16 November to Question 881 on Bowel Cancer: Screening, what her planned timetable is for publishing a decision on lowering the screening age for bowel cancer from 60 to 50 years old.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England started the lowering of age for bowel cancer screening in April 2021. The following table shows the rollout plan for the bowel screening:
Cohort age at first invitation | Year invitations start |
Age 56 | 2021/22 |
Age 58 | 2022/23 |
Age 54 | 2023/24 |
Age 50 and 52 | 2024/25 |
Note: The timeline may differ slightly from region to region