Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is making funding available to (a) pharmaceutical companies and (b) researchers to conduct medical studies into B12 injectables.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR is not currently supporting pharmaceutical companies or research specifically on injectable vitamin B12.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including injectable vitamin B12. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to tackle non-payment of housing benefit to district councils when the beneficiary is not a registered social landlord.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
There are no current plans to change subsidy rules in Supported Housing which are in place to help ensure quality and value for money for taxpayers. Under the Housing Benefit subsidy arrangements, DWP reimburses local authorities for the cost of Housing Benefit in their respective areas subject to the rules set out in legislation. For supported housing cases, 100% subsidy is usually paid to the local authority by DWP where the landlord or provider is registered with the Regulator for Social Housing in England. In cases where the landlord or provider is not registered, the subsidy will still be payable to local authorities, but will be restricted in line with the rules set out in legislation.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the policy paper entitled Network North, published on 4 October 2023, whether the £150 million funding for improving bus services in (a) northern England and (b) the midlands (i) is ringfenced and (ii) can be used by local authorities to fund bus routes which were commercially viable before the covid-19 pandemic but are no longer.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The new £1 billion Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding for buses in the North and the Midlands, announced on 4 October, will continue and expand the improvements started by the £1.2 billion for BSIPs announced in 2022 and 2023. The first downpayment of £150 million has been indicatively allocated for 2024-25.
The new funding can be used in the same way as existing BSIP funding. LTAs may use the funding to deliver the interventions that they and local operators, where they have an Enhanced Partnership, expect will deliver the best outcomes for passengers. Further details on the terms of funding will follow in due course.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
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 assessment of the potential merits of implementing the recommendations of the APPG on Brain Tumours report entitled Pathway to A Cure – breaking down the barriers, published on 28 February 2023; whether his Department is taking steps to support brain tumour research applications to the National Institute for Health and Care Research; and whether his Department has plans to ring-fence funding for (a) discovery, (b) translational and (c) clinical research into brain tumours.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department welcomes the All-Party Parliamentary Group report. We are taking steps to ensure that funders work closely together to coordinate work along the translational pathway, from the discovery and early translational science typically supported by the MRC, feeding through to the applied health and care research funded by the NIHR.
It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications.
NIHR is taking action to help researchers develop high-quality proposals, including working with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission on workshops and courses for applications in development. Similarly, the NIHR Research Support Service will support researchers applying for funding with expert advice, to help them develop the best funding applications.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
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 improve care provided to patients with (a) Crohn's disease and (b) ulcerative colitis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
To support healthcare professionals in the early diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance, including guidance specifically on the use of faecal calprotectin tests as a way of diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). NICE’s IBD quality standard outlines that referral to a specialist assessment for suspected IBD should be within four weeks.
NICE guidelines represent best practice and health professionals, including general practitioners, and service commissioners are expected to take them fully into account. Guidelines published by NICE are not mandatory and do not replace the judgement of clinicians in determining the most appropriate treatment for individual patients.
In addition, NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) specialty report on gastroenterology, published in September 2021, sets out actions and recommendations for the National Health Service to improve patient care and ensure consistency of care across the country.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including the diagnosis and management of IBD.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the change in the amount of granite that will be mined as a result of the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2.
Answered by Huw Merriman
No granite would have been mined for the construction of the Phase 2 route from Birmingham to Manchester because granite does not occur naturally in the ground along the chosen route
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
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 increase the early diagnosis of (a) Crohn’s disease and (b) ulcerative colitis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
To support healthcare professionals in the early diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance, including guidance specifically on the use of faecal calprotectin tests as a way of diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). NICE’s IBD quality standard outlines that referral to a specialist assessment for suspected IBD should be within four weeks.
NICE guidelines represent best practice and health professionals, including general practitioners, and service commissioners are expected to take them fully into account. Guidelines published by NICE are not mandatory and do not replace the judgement of clinicians in determining the most appropriate treatment for individual patients.
In addition, NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) specialty report on gastroenterology, published in September 2021, sets out actions and recommendations for the National Health Service to improve patient care and ensure consistency of care across the country.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including the diagnosis and management of IBD.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) creating an Investment Zone at Charnwood Campus and Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park and (b) extending his plans for an Investment Zone for the proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority to include Charnwood Campus and Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park.
Answered by Jacob Young
At the Spring Budget on 15 March 2023, the Chancellor announced 12 Investment Zones (IZs) across the UK. We have invited eight areas in England to co-develop proposals with the Government. We will keep the list of Investments Zones under review subject to the overall fiscal envelope of the programme.
Places invited to co-develop an Investment Zone proposal with government have been selected based on a transparent and robust methodology, published in full on gov.uk. Further guidance on the co-development process was published in the Technical Document in July.
Investment Zones are locally led and, recognising local leaders know their areas best, all stages of co-development has allowed flexibility and autonomy for each place to identify and select the best mix of interventions for their proposal - and where that funding is spent. Decision making regarding how and where to spend this envelope ultimately resides with the proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority (EMMCCA).
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that training centres have the (a) resources and (b) developed curriculum to train heat network installers.
Answered by Robert Halfon
In the 2021 Heat and Buildings Strategy, the government committed to a range of policies enabling a zero-carbon heating system in the UK. In the strategy, the government committed to investing £338 million into the Heat Network Transformation Programme over 2022/23 to 2024/25.
The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy’s 2020 Heat Network Skills Review found, among other things that:
Earlier this year, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ran the Heat Training Grant competition for education providers in England. This funding facilitates the ability to provide training on the designing, building, and maintenance of heat networks. A further round of the scheme will run for training to be delivered in academic year 2024/25.
There are existing courses funded by the department for education that provide the skills needed to build and operate heat networks. These are highlighted in the list below:
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) feasibility and (b) potential merits of extending the retail, hospitality and leisure business rates relief scheme beyond 31 March 2024 for businesses in business improvement districts.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The 2023-2024 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) Business Rates Relief scheme provides eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 75 per cent relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business. This was an expansion from the 50 per cent rate in 2022-2023. Currently, around 230,000 properties are eligible for this relief, representing a tax cut worth over £2 billion.
Businesses may also benefit from other business rates measures, including the multiplier freeze, and the Supporting Small Business scheme, which caps bill increases at £600 per year for businesses losing some or all of their eligibility for Small Business or Rural Rate Relief due to the recent revaluation.
Any future announcements regarding business rates relief will be made at a fiscal event.