Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on reducing levels of (a) long-term and (b) short-term exposure to air pollution.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Long-term and short-term exposure to most air pollutants has reduced over the past 20 years. Significant reductions in annual average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter have been achieved over this period. More information on these can be found in our annual Air Quality Accredited Official Statistic publication: Air quality statistics - GOV.UK/
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of poor air quality on marginalised communities.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is an issue that Defra takes seriously, which is why we commissioned our independent Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) to examine the evidence on air pollution disparities across different communities and regions in the UK.
Their report demonstrates spatial differences in pollution emissions and concentrations, evidencing that low income and deprived communities often live in areas with higher air pollution concentrations and higher local emissions, and highlighting links between lower quality of housing and increased exposure to indoor air pollution.
The report provides a number of recommendations to address this complex challenge, which the department is now considering.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on meeting the World Health Organization's 2021 global air quality guidelines.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to cleaning up our air. We consider the World Health Organization's guidelines when reviewing our own targets and are making progress towards meeting them. We publish our progress against our current targets in the Air Pollution in the UK report each September, and last week we published updated statistics on air pollution concentrations in 2024 based on our monitoring data.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children and young people with cancer receive (a) treatment and (b) care outside the region from (i) Bournemouth and (ii) the South West; and what assessment he has made if the (A) cost of travel and (B) the adequacy of financial support available.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families in England. NHS England and the integrated care boards are currently responsible for commissioning and ensuring the healthcare needs of local communities are met, including providing support for travel.
The National Health Service runs schemes in England to provide financial assistance for travel to a hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests, when referred by a doctor or other primary healthcare professional. The Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) provides financial assistance to patients in England who do not have a medical need for transport, but who require assistance with the costs of travelling to receive certain NHS services. Patients who do not qualify for the HTCS and who are on a low income may be able to claim the costs from the Department for Work and Pensions through Universal Credit or a Personal Independence Payment. The provision of disability benefits is also the responsibility of the Department for Work and Pensions.
On 4 February 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to identify tangible ways to improve outcomes and experiences for young cancer patients. The work of the taskforce is ongoing, and officials are exploring opportunities for improvement across a range of areas, including detection and diagnosis, genomic testing and treatment, research and innovation, and patient experience. The taskforce will also ensure that the unique needs of children and young people with cancer are carefully considered as part of the National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for children and young people with cancer across England, including Bournemouth and the South West region.
The specific information requested is not held by the Department of Health and Social Care. Therefore, we cannot share how many children and young people with cancer receive treatment and care outside the region from Bournemouth and the South West, nor have we have not made a formal assessment of the cost of travel, the adequacy of financial support available, or the effectiveness of the NHS HTCS in providing support for young cancer patients' travel costs across specific localities in England. This information is not held centrally as it is held at individual NHS trust level.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 effectiveness of the NHS Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme in providing support for young cancer patients' travel costs.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families in England. NHS England and the integrated care boards are currently responsible for commissioning and ensuring the healthcare needs of local communities are met, including providing support for travel.
The National Health Service runs schemes in England to provide financial assistance for travel to a hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests, when referred by a doctor or other primary healthcare professional. The Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) provides financial assistance to patients in England who do not have a medical need for transport, but who require assistance with the costs of travelling to receive certain NHS services. Patients who do not qualify for the HTCS and who are on a low income may be able to claim the costs from the Department for Work and Pensions through Universal Credit or a Personal Independence Payment. The provision of disability benefits is also the responsibility of the Department for Work and Pensions.
On 4 February 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to identify tangible ways to improve outcomes and experiences for young cancer patients. The work of the taskforce is ongoing, and officials are exploring opportunities for improvement across a range of areas, including detection and diagnosis, genomic testing and treatment, research and innovation, and patient experience. The taskforce will also ensure that the unique needs of children and young people with cancer are carefully considered as part of the National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for children and young people with cancer across England, including Bournemouth and the South West region.
The specific information requested is not held by the Department of Health and Social Care. Therefore, we cannot share how many children and young people with cancer receive treatment and care outside the region from Bournemouth and the South West, nor have we have not made a formal assessment of the cost of travel, the adequacy of financial support available, or the effectiveness of the NHS HTCS in providing support for young cancer patients' travel costs across specific localities in England. This information is not held centrally as it is held at individual NHS trust level.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the reforms to Personal Independence Payment outlined in the Pathways to Work Green Paper on people aged under 25 with cancer.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Entitlement to Disability Living Allowance for children (DLAc) under 16 and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for young people from age 16 are assessed based on the additional care/daily living and mobility needs arising from a long-term disability or health condition, rather than a diagnosis of a condition or disability itself.
Applications under the special rules for end of life, where life expectancy is 12 months or less, are unaffected by the planned eligibility changes to PIP to introduce a new requirement to score a minimum of four points in one daily living activity. Claims are fast tracked, and the person is eligible for the higher-rate care/daily living component from the date of claim.
For your reassurance, there will be no immediate changes to PIP eligibility. Our intention is that changes will start to come into effect from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. After that date, no one will lose PIP without first being reassessed by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, who assesses individual needs and circumstance. Reassessments happen on average every 3 years. We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including ensuring health and care needs are met.
We are also consulting on raising the age at which young people move from DLAc to PIP, to better align with other key milestones in the transition to adulthood and support available.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the (a) qualifying period and (b) delays in processing applications for disability benefits on carers of children and young people with cancer who are unable to apply for (i) carers benefits and (ii) other associated support until the disability benefits have been awarded.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested on the number of delayed applications is not collected and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
It is a long standing principle that Carer’s Allowance can only be awarded once a decision has been made to award the “trigger” disability benefit to the person being cared for, but the award of Carer’s Allowance can be backdated to the date that the disability benefit is payable from.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) children under 16 and (b) young people between the ages of 16 and 25 are successful in their (i) PIP and (ii) DLA applications at (A) initial application and (B) appeal stage in (1) Bournemouth and (2) the rest of the UK.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Between October 2019 and September 2024, for claimants aged 16 to 25 inclusive, in England and Wales, there were 346,000 PIP clearances that were awarded at initial decision, which was 60% of initial PIP clearances for that age range. For the same clearances, 15,000 (3% of initial clearances) were awarded at the mandatory reconsideration stage (between the initial decision and appeal stage), 5,000 (1% of initial decisions) were lapsed, where the Department revises its decision in favour of the claimant before reaching tribunal, and 9,000 (2% of initial decisions) were overturned in favour of the claimant at appeal.
Between October 2019 and September 2024, for claimants aged 16 to 25 in Bournemouth, there were 1,090 PIP clearances that were awarded at initial decision, which was 57% of PIP clearances for that age range. For the same clearances, 50 (3% of initial clearances) were awarded at the mandatory reconsideration stage (between the initial decision and appeal stage), 20 (1% of initial clearances) were lapsed, where the Department revises its decision in favour of the claimants before reaching tribunal, and 30 (2% of initial clearances) were overturned in favour of the claimant at appeal.
Claimants aged under 16 cannot claim PIP.
For Disability Living Allowance (DLA), the information requested is not readily available for the specified geographical breakdowns. To provide this would incur a disproportionate cost. We have provided the information requested for England & Wales below:
(a) In FY24/25, 179,000 normal claims were awarded DLA for children. This is equivalent to a success rate of 84%.
(b) The latest Tribunal Statistics by Ministry of Justice indicates there were 1,390 decisions in favour of claimants that were cleared at hearing, equivalent to a success rate of 59%, between Q1-Q3 of FY2024/25.
Notes:
- Figures provided above are for PIP claims within DWP policy ownership and therefore exclude claimants in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- PIP data includes normal rules and special rules for end of life claimants, and is for both new claims and DLA reassessment claims.
- PIP data has been rounded to the nearest 1,000 for England and Wales level data, and rounded to the nearest 10 for data relating specifically to Bournemouth.
- Percentages have been rounded to the nearest percent.
- Components may not sum to totals due to rounding.
- PIP data has been expanded to a 5-year time span to provide adequate data specific to Bournemouth.
- Appeals data is currently available to the end of December 2024. Because of this, clearances (which are available to the end of January 2025) have had to be limited to the end of September 2024 to allow time for a claimant to go through the appeal process which takes an average of 3 months.
- Appeals data taken from the DWP PIP computer system’s management information. Therefore, this appeals data may differ from that held by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service for various reasons such as delays in data recording and other methodological differences in collating and preparing statistics.
- Not all Tribunal appeals will relate to the outcome of the PIP assessment, but other aspects of the PIP process.
- The Local Authority of Bournemouth was used to identify claimants in Bournemouth. The Local Authority geography relates to the origin of the claim (i.e. derived from claimant’s postcode) rather than the location of where the tribunal was held.
- Figures for DLA are rounded to the nearest thousand in (a) and nearest 10 in (b).
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of back-dating payments for disability benefits to cover the qualifying period for people with cancer diagnoses.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The qualifying period is an important part of the eligibility process for disability benefits and helps establish that the health condition or disability, and resulting needs, are of a long-standing nature.
Payment commences once the three-month qualifying period has been satisfied. Claims can be submitted before this point and consideration is always given to whether any of the qualifying period has been satisfied prior to the date of claim. The qualifying period commences from the point that needs arise, which can be before a diagnosis of cancer or any other health condition
Individuals with a terminal illness, with twelve-months or less to live are exempt from the qualifying period.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take in the National Cancer plan to improve diagnosis times for children and young people with cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases, including children and young people. To achieve this, the NHS has delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.
To support timely and effective referrals, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out detailed guidance for general practitioners on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms.
On 4 February 2025, the Department relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to identify tangible ways to improve outcomes and experiences for children and young people with cancer. The Taskforce is exploring opportunities for improvement across genomic testing and treatment, research and innovation, patient experience, and early detection and diagnosis.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on improving outcomes for cancer patients, including for children and young people with cancer, and will highlight how the Department will support the NHS to improve diagnosis rates for people in all parts of England.