Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of patients with suspected myalgic encephalomyelitis that have been (a) misdiagnosed and (b) missed due to the SNOMED CT classification system in primary care.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has not undertaken an assessment of the coding for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Whilst we are unable to estimate the numbers of patients misdiagnosed or missed, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline NG206 estimates that there are over 250,000 people in England and Wales with ME/CFS. The guideline is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng206
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children live in households where at least one adult is in work which are affected by the benefit cap.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many vacancies there were in his Department for the most recent date for which figures are available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP does have ambitious recruitment plans over 2023/24 and latest plans are to fill approximately 4,850 posts a quarter, through internal and external recruitment to manage attrition and also grow key priority areas to respond to changing demand and commitments.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to provide additional funding to local authorities to cover the cost of increasing the national living wage for social care staff.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 made available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion or 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23. The government will look in the round at sector spending when finalising budgets at next year’s finance settlement, as we do every year. This will include considering the impact of inflation and other wider economic circumstances.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of how many children would be lifted out of poverty if the household benefit cap was (a) uprated with inflation since 2016 and (b) abolished.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is not possible to produce robust estimates of the effect of the impact of uprating the household benefit cap by inflation on the number of children in child poverty or similar impacts of the removal of the household benefit cap on the same group.
There was a significant increase to the benefit cap levels following a review last year. The benefit cap continues to provide a strong work incentive and fairness for working taxpaying households and encourages people to move into work, where possible.
Where possible it is in the best interests of children to be in working households and, of course, returning to employment will significantly increase the likelihood of a household not being affected by the cap.
Both rates and numbers of children in absolute poverty (60% of 2010/11 median income, both before and after housing costs) were lower in 2021/22 than in 2009/10. In 2021/22 there were 400,000 fewer children in absolute low income after housing costs than in 2009/10.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ending the two-child limit on the number of children living in poverty; and if he will make an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of such a decision.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to review this policy.
The latest available estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of such a decision was made in 2019, and can be found here.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of how many and what proportion of children were living in poverty in 2010 based on his Department's households below average income data.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest available National statistics on child poverty covering 2021/22 are available here.
This Government has overseen significant falls in absolute poverty since 2009/10. Both rates and numbers of children in absolute poverty (60% of 2010/11 median income, both before and after housing costs) were lower in 2021/22 than in 2009/10.
In 2009/10, 28% (3.7m) children were living in absolute poverty after housing costs.
In 2021/22, 23% (3.3m) children were living in absolute poverty after housing costs.
This means that, in 2021/22, there were 400,000 fewer children in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10, a decrease of 5 percentage points.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help facilitate research into the (a) causes and (b) treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Since 2012, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s Medical Research Council (MRC) has awarded £6.2 million for research on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This includes DecodeME, a significant strategic initiative co-funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research in 2020, which aims to find genetic causes of ME/CFS in order to better understand the disease and ultimately to find treatments.
The Government works with the ME/CFS Priority Setting Partnership to identify research priorities in this area and MRC has an open highlight notice to encourage ME/CFS research.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing public funding for research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Since 2012, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s Medical Research Council (MRC) has awarded £6.2 million for research on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This includes DecodeME, a significant strategic initiative co-funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research in 2020, which aims to find genetic causes of ME/CFS in order to better understand the disease and ultimately to find treatments.
The Government works with the ME/CFS Priority Setting Partnership to identify research priorities in this area and MRC has an open highlight notice to encourage ME/CFS research.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of applying the triple lock to the uprating of social security benefits in financial year 2024-25.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The triple lock is this Government’s commitment to increase the new and basic State Pensions annually in line with the highest of the increase in prices, the growth in average earnings, or 2.5%.
Accordingly, the Secretary of State has decided that – subject to Parliamentary approval – for the financial year 2024/25, the new and basic State Pensions, along with the Standard Minimum Guarantee in Pension Credit, will increase by 8.5%, in line with the growth in average earnings. Working-age and extra-costs disability benefit rates will – also subject to Parliamentary approval – increase by 6.7%, in line with the increase in prices and in accordance with the provisions of the Social Security Administration Act 1992.
Using 8.5% instead of 6.7% for these benefits would potentially add approximately £2.3bn to the cost of the social security system in that year.