Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help tackle shortages of medications due to supply issues in the North East of England.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department monitors and manages medicine supply at a national level so that stocks remain available to meet regional and local demand. Information on stock levels within the North East of England is not held centrally.

Most supply issues can be managed to avoid shortages, and while we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we do have a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise, to mitigate risks to patients.

The resilience of the United Kingdom’s supply chains is a key priority, and the Department and NHS England are committed to helping to build long term supply chain resilience for medicines. We are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages. The Department, working closely with NHS England, is taking forward a range of actions to improve our ability to mitigate and manage shortages and strengthen our resilience. As part of that work, we continue to engage with industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver solutions.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the life expectancy is for (a) women and (b) men in each local area in the UK.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 25th February is attached.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many contracts his Department has awarded to Altrad since 2022; what the value of those contracts is; and how many of those contracts relate to the removal of asbestos.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

We do not hold any contracts for this supplier “Altrad”.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the statistics are for poverty related death per local area in each of the last five years.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are no official published statistics on poverty-related deaths. Statistics on deaths from specific causes are based on the medical causes of death recorded on a death certificate, which are coded using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Although poverty is included within the ICD it is rarely coded as a cause of death.

Estimates of the number of deaths due to some factors that influence mortality but are not always stated as a cause of death, such as smoking, can be made. However, there is no agreed definition of a poverty-related death for use within Government, and no official statistics on potential numbers.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce the workload of teachers.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Teacher and leader workload is unacceptably high. This is why the department is committed to working with the sector to eliminate unnecessary workload.

We know that reducing teacher workload will play a key role in recruiting and retaining excellent school staff and will support the government’s mission to transform the education system so that all children and young people get the skills, care and opportunities they deserve.

Work is underway across the department to help reduce burdens, including through the reform of accountability, curriculum and assessment and the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and through the government’s child poverty taskforce.

We are working with the sector to identify where we can go further to address unnecessary workload, including through the Improving Education Together agreement.

Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, contains a range of supportive resources for schools to review and reduce workload, and improve staff wellbeing.

The department worked in partnership with the education sector and mental health experts to develop the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter.

The charter sets out commitments from the department, Ofsted, and schools and colleges to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff, including an explicit commitment to continue to support schools to drive down unnecessary workload. Over 4,000 schools and colleges have signed up to the charter.

In addition, we are working with a group of colleges to pilot a suite of funding and audit simplifications to make the system more efficient and less bureaucratic to support the further education (FE) workforce to reduce burdens. We have given these colleges more flexibility by reducing FE funding rules, simplifying funding calculations, and removing some individual ringfences within adult skills funding and 16-19 funding. We are testing how we can make audit and assurance processes simpler, make it easier for colleges to deliver Skills Bootcamps, and are testing improvements to apprenticeships.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help reduce the divide in attainment between the north and south of England; and what the barriers are to reducing that divide.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they are from. However, we know that too many children and young people face barriers to learning. This is not acceptable, which is why the Opportunity Mission will break down barriers and the unfair link between background and success, helping all children achieve and thrive wherever they are in the country.

High and rising standards in every school are at the heart of this mission. The department aims to deliver these improvements through excellent teaching and leadership, a high-quality curriculum, and a system which removes the barriers to learning that hold too many children back.

To ensure all children and young people have expert qualified teachers driving high and rising standards across our schools and colleges, the department is committed to recruiting 6,500 new expert teachers.

Teaching School Hubs have been established across the country, which provide approved high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers. These Hubs play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework, national professional qualifications and Appropriate Body services. Three Rivers Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence which delivers teacher training and development across Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland.

We have also launched the Curriculum and Assessment Review that will look closely at key challenges to attainment, and the barriers which hold children back from the opportunities and life chances they deserve.

The department is strengthening our tools for faster and more effective school improvement by launching the new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams. Supported by over £20 million, these teams will provide both mandatory, targeted intervention for schools identified by Ofsted as needing to improve, and a universal service, acting as a catalyst for a self-improving system for all schools.

The department has also introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to give every family the certainty that they will be able to access a good local school for their child, where they can achieve and thrive, regardless of where they live.

Absence is one of the biggest barriers to success for children and young people. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, which limits their opportunity to succeed. This government is determined to tackle this and have a comprehensive strategy in place.

This includes our attendance mentoring programme, which multiple areas in the north, including Middlesborough, Blackpool and Hartlepool, are benefiting from. Backed by over £15 million investment, the programme provides targeted one-to-one support for students who are persistently absence.

To enable the sharing of good practice across the sector, we also have a network of Attendance Hubs led by a school with good attendance practices. Each hub has a broad geographical spread, and schools are clustered with similar schools. There are currently 31 hubs across England working with 2,000 schools.

Households below average income

Avanti West Coast ticket offices and station staffing

Royal Academy of Arts proposed job reductions

Changes to Great Western Railway ticket offices and stations

News journalism and artificial intelligence tools

Newcastle United FC's footballing achievement

Coalfields Regeneration Trust funding

Three promotion places from the National League

Keeping transport workers safe

Garforth Residents' Campaign Against Giggle Fibre Telegraph Pole Installations

UK-USA trade deals and the NHS

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Found: Leishman Dr Simon Opher Ellie Chowns Iqbal Mohamed Shockat Adam Ms Stella Creasy Jon Trickett Ian Lavery

Found: Leishman Dr Simon Opher Ellie Chowns Iqbal Mohamed Shockat Adam Ms Stella Creasy Jon Trickett Ian Lavery

Found: Leishman Dr Simon Opher Ellie Chowns Iqbal Mohamed Shockat Adam Ms Stella Creasy Jon Trickett Ian Lavery