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
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 (i) Autism assessments and (ii) overall SEND assessments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on autism assessments is not held centrally in the format requested, but may be held by individual providers or integrated care boards (ICBs). Some relevant information is available on autism assessment waiting times for the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB and the Midlands commissioning region.
In the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB, the Autism Waiting Time Statistics published by NHS England show that there were a total of 6,120 patients of all-ages with an open suspected autism referral in December 2024, the latest available data. The median waiting time of all patients in this ICB with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was in the quarter, was 244 days in December 2024.
In the Midlands commissioning region, the Autism Waiting Time Statistics show that there were a total of 58,445 patients of all-ages with an open suspected autism referral in December 2024. The median waiting time of all patients in the Midlands commissioning region with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was in the quarter, was 352 days in December 2024.
Caution should be used when interpreting these statistics since they are experimental rather than official statistics.
Schools decide whether a pupil has additional needs that warrant them being on the school's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities register. Some relevant information on waiting times for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities is available from the GOV.UK website, from Education, health and care plans: England 2024, with the latest data available being from 2023. In Nottingham,
TARGET DATE 05/03/2025
67.1% of EHCPs, including exceptions, were issued within 20 weeks and in the East Midlands 40.4% of EHCPs, including exceptions, were issued within 20 weeks.