Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
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 improve ophthalmology services.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning secondary care ophthalmology services to meet local need. We would expect services to be commissioned in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance where it is available or best available evidence and for patients to receive treatment, in line with their clinical priority, without any undue delay at any stage of their referral, diagnosis or treatment.
Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is a national clinical improvement programme, working with frontline clinicians to identify and reduce unwarranted variations in service delivery and clinical practice. NHS England advises the GIRFT report into ophthalmology, which will contain recommendations for service improvement, is due for publication shortly.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timeline is for launching a review into access to benefits for people that are terminally ill.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
On 11 July the Secretary of State launched an in depth evaluation of how the benefits system supports people nearing the end of their life and those with severe conditions.
The Department is taking this work forward as a priority and will be seeking input from a range of stakeholders including those who have first-hand experience of the special rules, whether clinicians or others supporting people applying for benefit, in due course.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of cancer clinical nurse specialist vacancies in the NHS.
Answered by Jo Churchill
NHS Improvement collects vacancy data for three staff groups; doctors, nurses and ‘other staff’. These vacancy statistics are published for England and at the regional level of North, Midlands and East, London and South.
NHS Digital published the latest NHS Improvement vacancy data which can be found at the following link:
The large majority of vacancies are filled by a combination of bank and agency staff.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to tackle cancer workforce shortages in the NHS people plan.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The interim NHS People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, puts the workforce at the heart of the National Health Service and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. A final People Plan will be published soon after the conclusion of the 2019 Spending Review.
The Cancer Workforce Plan for England, published in December 2017 by Health Education England (HEE), set out plans to expand capacity and skills in the cancer workforce, including targeting additional training support for seven priority professions which are key to cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, such as clinical radiology, histopathology, oncology and diagnostic and therapeutic radiography. HEE will now work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to understand the longer-term workforce implications of further development of cancer services. This work will inform the final People Plan.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Lincoln for reporting Year 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019, published on 8 July 2019, what plans his Department has to reduce the 30 per cent of prisoners that leave HMP Lincoln to homelessness or to no fixed abode.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I am currently considering the content and recommendations of the report from the IMB at HMP Lincoln which was published on 8 July 2019. I will respond to the report as soon as that process is completed, and I will ensure a copy of the response is sent to the Hon Member for Lincoln.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Lincoln for reporting Year 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019, what plans his Department has to tackle the 49 per cent increase in incidents of self-harm recorded at HMP Lincoln between 2017 and 2019.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I am currently considering the content and recommendations of the report from the IMB at HMP Lincoln which was published on 8 July 2019. I will respond to the report as soon as that process is completed, and I will ensure a copy of the response is sent to the Hon Member for Lincoln.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Lincoln for reporting Year 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019, what representations has he made to that Board on its statement that there was an extremely tardy manner in which the numerous repair and maintenance jobs across the establishment were dealt with.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I am currently considering the content and recommendations of the report from the IMB at HMP Lincoln which was published on 8 July 2019. I will respond to the report as soon as that process is completed, and I will ensure a copy of the response is sent to the Hon Member for Lincoln.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Lincoln for reporting Year 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019, what assessment has he made of the adequacy of the provision of rehabilitative programmes and courses offered to prisoners upon their release by HMP Lincoln.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I am currently considering the content and recommendations of the report from the IMB at HMP Lincoln which was published on 8 July 2019. I will respond to the report as soon as that process is completed, and I will ensure a copy of the response is sent to the Hon Member for Lincoln.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Lincoln for reporting Year 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019, published on 8 July 2019, what representations has he made to that Board on its statement that there was an apparent lack of co-ordination across government departments to tackle the high level of homelessness of discharged prisoners.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I am currently considering the content and recommendations of the report from the IMB at HMP Lincoln which was published on 8 July 2019. I will respond to the report as soon as that process is completed, and I will ensure a copy of the response is sent to the Hon Member for Lincoln.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of support provided to disabled prisoners at HMP Lincoln.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I am currently considering the content and recommendations of the report from the IMB at HMP Lincoln which was published on 8 July 2019. I will respond to the report as soon as that process is completed, and I will ensure a copy of the response is sent to the Hon Member for Lincoln.