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 ensure women who use wheelchairs have access to mammograms.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to improving the accessibility of the screening programmes it commissions under the Public Health Services (S7a) agreement, particularly for under-served groups in society.
Contractually, providers of screening services in the National Health Service are required to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that their services are accessible for people with disabilities. For example, the NHS breast screening service offers longer appointments at accessible sites to support women with physical disabilities.
Services make reasonable adjustments within the constraints of equipment, to ensure that disabled people are offered the opportunity to have breast screening, however there may be situations where this is not possible. Providers will deal with these on a case by case basis and offer an alternative approach as necessary.
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 recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of rates of breast screening participation in Yorkshire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on screening participation in Yorkshire is collected and assessed yearly by NHS England. Data is collected on screening coverage, the percentage of women adequately screened in the last three and a half years, and uptake which shows the percentage of women invited who attended screening within six months of their invitation. The latest data, which is from 2020/21 for Yorkshire, shows that uptake was 61.4%, with coverage being 64.4%.
The national targets for uptake are as follows:
- Acceptable level: greater than or equal to 70.0%
- Achievable level: greater than or equal to 80.0%
The national targets for coverage are as follows:
- Acceptable level: greater than or equal to 70.0%
- Achievable level: greater than or equal to 80.0%
Data is published by NHS England and available at the following link:
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, with reference to the national bowel screening programme, when he plans to next review that programme; and whether he has plans to raise the acceptable and achievable bowel screening target thresholds in line with breast screening targets.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national bowel cancer screening programme in England is currently revising all standards and as a part of this process current thresholds will be reviewed. This review will consider the lowering of the screening age for bowel cancer from 60 to 50 years old.
The process for setting standards involves the meeting of experts as well as meeting with stakeholders and interested parties to ensure the standards are evidence based, acceptable and realistic. Full details on how these standards are set is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/principles-of-population-screening/screening-standards
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, how many applications for pension credit were received in the financial years (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of applications for Pension Credit that were received for each of the financial years April 2020 to March 2023 is shown in the table below:
Financial Year | Pension Credit Applications Received |
2020/21 (CAM) | 144,125 |
2021/22 (CAM) | 149,055 |
2022/23 (CAM) | 269,835 |
2022/23 (AfPC) | 2,016 |
2022/23 Total (CAM & AfPC) | 271,851 |
Source of Data: Customer Account Management (CAM) System and Apply for Pension Credit (AfPC) System (introduced from January 2023).
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that the cost saving arising from the removal of VAT on period products is passed onto consumers.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government keeps all taxes and reliefs under review and considers a range of evidence, including data and research on factors like pricing, when assessing the effects of tax changes. While the Government does not control prices, a VAT relief may contribute to the conditions for price reductions.
The Government continues to monitor the effects of the zero rate on period products to aid the policymaking process and is looking into whether savings are being passed on to consumers. HMT and HMRC work closely together to integrate the findings of their monitoring and evaluation processes into future tax relief policy.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish his Department's response to the Driving licensing review - call for evidence on opportunities for changes to the driver licensing regime.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The results of the Call for Evidence were published on 6 June 2023.
The results are being analysed and we will confirm the next steps in due course.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has taken steps to raise awareness of the NVQ in chimney sweeping among the construction and insurance industries.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
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 recent assessment he has made of whether any hospitals in South Yorkshire contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Health Service has been surveying sites and undertaking reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) mitigation work since 2019 and has issued guidance for trusts nationally on how to establish the presence of RAAC in their estate. There is ongoing engagement with trusts on a national and regional level to ensure RAAC is identified across the NHS estate.
The Department has published a full list of hospitals with confirmed RAAC on GOV.UK, which is available at the following link:
As of 17 October, there is one hospital in South Yorkshire with confirmed RAAC, Barnsley Hospital. The trust has joined the national RAAC programme.
Where structural surveys identify RAAC in their estate, trusts are inducted into the national programme. Each site will be different, and just because RAAC is present, it does not necessarily mean there is a high risk.
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, with reference to chapter 2 of the report entitled, Tipping Point: The Future of Dementia, published by Alzheimer’s Research UK in September 2023, whether he has considered the potential merits of taking steps to increase NHS capacity to diagnose dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In December 2022, the recovery of the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% was included in the National Health Service priorities and operational planning guidance, as part of the refined mental health objectives for 2023/24. This reinforces the importance of dementia as a key priority for NHS England and provides a clear direction for integrated care boards to support delivery of timely diagnoses within systems.
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 his planned timetable is for implementing the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government has supported the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) (No. 2) Act since its introduction and is delighted to see it receive Royal Assent.
We are committed to expanding the benefits of Automatic Enrolment (AE) to younger people and helping all workers save more for their retirement, consistent with our 2017 AE Review proposals. We will consult on the detailed implementation at the earliest opportunity and report to Parliament before using the powers in the Act.