Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2025 to Question 24365, on Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: WRAP, what guidance (a) his Department and its agencies and (b) WRAP, funded by his Department has produced on the no side waste rubbish and recycling policies for household waste collection.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, waste collection authorities may require householders to place waste for collection in receptacles of a kind and number specified. If householders do not follow waste collections rules, there is guidance on circumstances in which a waste collection authority can issue a fixed penalty notice or penalty charge available here: Household waste bins: when and how councils may issue fixed penalties - GOV.UK. Additionally, Defra recently published guidance on ensuring good waste collection services for households: Ensuring good waste collection services for households - GOV.UK. Waste is a devolved policy, and the devolved administrations have their own arrangements for household and business recycling and waste collections.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 (a) pilot and (b) support the adoption of new diagnostic tools for dementia (i) including blood tests and (ii) generally.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The Department funds research into dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society and the People’s Postcode Lottery, the NIHR is funding the Blood Biomarker Challenge which seeks to produce the clinical and economic data that could make the case for the use of a blood test in the NHS to support diagnosis of dementia.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) expand capacity in dementia diagnostics and (b) facilitate access to new dementia treatments when available.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, builds on the investments already made with an ambitious vision for the future of diagnostic testing. This will include more straight-to-test pathways, increasing and expanding community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and better use of technology. With 170 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) due to be up and running by the end of March 2025, CDCs can take on more of the growing diagnostic demand within elective care. We will also deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding several existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.
NHS England has a dedicated team in place which has been planning for the roll out of new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, if and when they are approved for use. To prepare for the new generation of dementia treatments in development, NHS England is working to ensure the diagnostic and treatment capacity, clinical pathway redesign and investment are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended treatments as soon as possible.
NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have piloted enhanced information sharing arrangements for new disease-modifying treatments enabling the organisations to fully align their processes and make faster decisions on the use of these medicines within the NHS in England.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 dementia cases which could be (a) prevented and (b) delayed by addressing modifiable risk factors.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For most people, their local general practice surgery is the first port of call when a health problem starts, so excellent primary care is the key to unlocking timely diagnosis of progressive health conditions like dementia.
The NHS Health Check aims to prevent heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and some cases of dementia among adults aged between 40 and 74 years old. Through the check, people aged between 65 and 74 years old should be made aware of the signs and symptoms of dementia and be signposted to memory services as appropriate.
The Government is investing in dementia research across all areas, from causes, diagnosis and prevention to treatment, care and support, including for carers.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of (a) CT and (b) MRI scans for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, builds on the investments already made with an ambitious vision for the future of diagnostic testing. This will include more straight-to-test pathways, increasing and expanding community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and better use of technology.
With 170 CDCs due to be up and running by the end of March 2025, CDCs can take on more of the growing diagnostic demand within elective care. We will also deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding several existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time from referral to diagnosis has been for people being referred to memory assessment services in the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A timely diagnosis is vital to ensuring that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care, and support that can help them to live well and remain independent for as long as possible.
The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services, including the detection and diagnosis of dementia, and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services. The Government and NHS England remain committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7%.
The Dementia Care Pathway: Full Implementation Guidance, commissioned by NHS England, outlines the dementia care pathway and associated benchmarks to support improvements in the delivery and quality of care and support, for people living with dementia and their families and carers. The guide showcases good-practice examples of services that have successfully reduced their waiting times. Further information is available at the following link:
To support recovery of the dementia diagnosis rates and implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, NHS England has developed a dashboard for management information purposes. The aim is to support commissioners and providers of memory services with appropriate data and enable targeted support where needed.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of what the NHS waiting list will be in (a) 12 months, (b) two years, (c) three years and (d) by the end of the Parliament.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Projected estimates of National Health Service waiting list size are currently being refined. We have delivered a reduction in the list of 160,000 pathways, as well as provision of over two million extra appointments between July and November 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, seven months ahead of schedule. This includes operations, consultations, diagnostic tests, and treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and endoscopy.
As set out in the Plan for Change, we will ensure 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029; and the Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out an expectation that national performance will increase from 58% as of December 2024 to 65% by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5 percentage point improvement by March 2026.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2025 to Question 31697 on Department for Work and Pensions: Muslim Council of Britain, if the Prime Minister will have discussions with the Minister for Social Security and Disability on his attendance at that event.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Our policy on engagement with the Muslim Council of Britain has not changed. I refer the Hon Member to the answer of the Rt Hon Member for East Ham on 27 February 2025, Official Report, PQ 31697.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 ensure that the NHS Health Check digitisation (a) reaches all communities equitably and (b) does not exacerbate health inequalities for dementia.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Health Check Online service is being developed to improve access and engagement with the cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention programme by enabling people to take a check at home, at a time convenient to them. The digital service will complement the face-to-face programme and is based on extensive user research and behavioural insight to ensure the service meets user needs.
Increasing uptake in the NHS Health Check Programme through the new online service, for those who are willing and able to do so, will free up primary care capacity to target resources towards underserved groups at the highest risk of CVD.
A six-month pilot in three local authorities will begin from spring 2025, and, as part of the independent evaluation, we will examine the impact on health inequalities. The results of this will inform the development and rollout of the online service in future.
The online service will follow the same assessments and criteria as the current service, signposting people to behavioural support, such as smoking cessation, and clinical management where appropriate. This includes making people aware of the signs and symptoms of dementia and being signposted to memory services as appropriate.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 26 September 2024 to Question HL1117 on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Equality, how many staff in his Department have been permitted to undertake diversity-related network time during core working hours since 1 January 2025.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office does not hold the data requested. The majority of staff time spent on diversity staff networks is voluntary and unpaid.