Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 there are sufficient specialist training programmes for resident doctors to continue with their training to become (a) consultants and (b) GPs in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.
We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where the need is greatest.
To reform the NHS and make it fit for the future, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan as part of the Government’s five long-term missions. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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) help ensure equitable access to care for people diagnosed with interstitial lung diseases and (b) support local health services to improve (i) immediate and (ii) long-term care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The commissioning responsibility for interstitial lung disease (ILD) services has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs), to facilitate joined up care and the configuration of services that will meet local needs.
Early and accurate diagnosis is a priority for NHS England, and the work to improve this area of clinical care is underway, which should have an impact on reducing delayed diagnosis of ILD. The Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group is looking to update the national service specification during 2025/26, and this refresh will include an Equality Health Impact Assessment to support local implementation. The specification will cover diagnosis, management, and ongoing care for patients with ILD.
NHS England also funds the cost of anti-fibrotic treatments for ILD. Access to these treatments has recently been expanded to patients with non-idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis following the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s technology appraisal, Nintedanib for treating progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, in November 2021.
Furthermore, pulmonary rehabilitation plays an important role in the management of patients with ILD and should be made available to all patients who would benefit from this intervention, not just those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To better understand the uptake of this intervention, NHS England is aiming to modify the current National Asthma and COPD Audit Programmes so that conditions other than COPD are included, and service availability can be tracked.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on discontinuing the use of gestation cages for pigs.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. The UK banned gestation crates (also known as sow stalls) in 1999.
The use of farrowing crates for pigs is an issue we are currently considering very carefully.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of standards of food and drink imports.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK maintains high standards on food that is offered to consumers. For example, all food sold in the UK must comply with food compositional standards and labelling legislation whether it is produced domestically or imported into the UK. These rules protect consumers from lower quality products and enable them to make informed choices.
Defra periodically reviews and updates food compositional standards regulations to ensure they remain fit for purpose and reflect innovation in food production and changing consumer preferences.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing flooding under the statutory duties of English firefighters.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Fire and Rescue Authorities have duties under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) to prepare for emergencies, including major flooding. Fire Rescue Authorities also have discretionary powers to respond to incidents under their general powers in the Fire and Rescue Services Act (2004) and in response to the risks set out in their Community Risk Management Plans prepared under the National Framework.
The Home Office is undertaking further work alongside Defra, National Fire Chiefs Council and other relevant stakeholders to understand in more detail if there are gaps in the Fire and Rescue Services flooding response and resilience system.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people living in Nottinghamshire are employed by universities in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Higher Education Statistics Agency is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education (HE) sector. These data are shared with the department and include a wide range of information on staff working at UK HE providers.
However, information on the home addresses of HE staff is not collected, therefore those living in Nottinghamshire and employed by UK HE providers, cannot be identified by the department.
The following table presents staff numbers by HE provider for each academic year from 2014/15 to 2023/24: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/staff/table-24.
This table can be used to determine the number of staff working for HE providers that are based in Nottinghamshire, although we are not able to determine whether these staff also reside in Nottinghamshire.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long service users in (a) Broxtowe, (b) Nottingham and (c) the East Midlands are waiting for dyslexia assessments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on waiting times for dyslexia assessments is not held centrally.
Assessments for dyslexia in children are currently provided by an educational psychologist or an appropriately qualified specialist dyslexia teacher. If a parent thinks their child may be dyslexic, as a first step they should speak to their child’s teacher or their school's special educational needs co-ordinator about their concerns. They may be able to offer additional support to help the child if necessary.
Adults who wish to be assessed for dyslexia are advised to contact a local or national dyslexia association for advice. Further information on dyslexia assessments is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/diagnosis/
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long service users in (a) Broxtowe, (b) Nottingham and (c) the East Midlands are waiting for ADHD assessments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is, at present, no single, established dataset that can be used to monitor waiting times for assessment and diagnosis for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) nationally or for individual organisations or geographies in England. Although the data requested is not held centrally, relevant information may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts or commissioners.
We are supportive of a taskforce that NHS England has established to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD including timely access to services and support.
In conjunction with the taskforce, NHS England has carried out detailed work to develop a data improvement plan, understand the provider and commissioning landscape and capture examples from integrated care boards who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to undertake a review of NHS service users' right to choose a provider for ADHD.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to patients having the right to choose their provider when referred to consultant-led treatment, or to a mental health professional, for their first appointment as an outpatient. This is a legal right for patients set out in legislation.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the right to choose an ADHD practitioner is still active in Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients, including those in Nottinghamshire, have the right to choose their provider when referred to consultant-led treatment, or to a mental health professional, for their first appointment as an outpatient. Further information on the choices available for patients can be found on the NHS Choice framework, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework