Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
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 improve access to NHS dental care in Burton and Uttoxeter.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In order to increase access to dental care in the Midlands, NHS England commissioned a scheme from 8 January to 31 March 2021 to provide additional sessions at weekends. This initiative saw an additional 17,250 patients treated by 91 participating practices. NHS England has evaluated the scheme and is considering recommissioning the service to further improve access in the region.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much highways maintenance funding was allocated from the public purse to Staffordshire County Council in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019 and (d) 2020.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The funding provided by the Department for Transport for highways maintenance funding to Staffordshire County Council in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019 and (d) 2020 is shown in the table below.
Year | £m |
2017/18 | 28.321 |
2018/19 | 29.574 |
2019/20 | 22.993 |
2020/21 | 33.802 |
Total | 114.690 |
2020/21 also includes an allocation of the £2.5 billion Pothole Fund announced at Budget 2020, to be allocated over 5 years between 2020/21 – 2024/25.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities are adequately supported with decarbonising public transport networks.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government has allocated £25m in 2021/22 to support local authorities with the skills and people needed to implement the National Bus Strategy. We have already given an initial £100k to each Local Transport Authority, with more capacity funding to be allocated soon. We are also developing a Bus Centre of Excellence to serve as a repository of information and guidance for local authorities and bus operators, helping to build capabilities into the future.
Our Transport Decarbonisation Plan, due to be published shortly, will include further commitments to drive the decarbonisation agenda at the local level.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what testing facilities are available for Mycoplasma Bovis within the UK.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
There are various testing facilities in the UK and more than one testing method. Post-mortem examination and sampling is the most effective way of testing for this pathogen, but blood samples and nasal or tracheal samples can be used in the live animal.
The testing facilities include:
The GB network of testing facilities can be found here: http://apha.defra.gov.uk/vet-gateway/surveillance/diagnostic/national-network.htm.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of Mycoplasma bovis on the farming industry.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
There is an ongoing assessment for the detection of, and disease due to, Mycoplasma bovis and other respiratory pathogens. This is conducted both by the network of veterinary investigation centres throughout the UK, and via samples sent by private veterinarians to Government laboratories and private laboratories.
Mycoplasma bovis is still considered to be a significant pathogen in bovine respiratory disease.
A survey is due to be published by the UK Ruminant Health and Welfare Group. This comprehensive survey of cattle farmers and cattle professionals (veterinarians and farm advisors) asked 530 cattle farmers to rank their disease concerns. Mycoplasma bovis was ranked 7th most important by professionals, 12th by dairy farmers and 9th by beef farmers.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has a dedicated and specialist Mycoplasma group at its Weybridge Laboratory. This group advises veterinarians in other countries about Mycoplasma bovis and other Mycoplasmas. Respiratory samples from across England and Wales are sent to this group and the testing monitors for other Mycoplasmas, including exotic Mycoplasmas. This includes Mycoplasmas that cause Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia, which is a notifiable disease.
The results from testing across the network of veterinary investigation centres and partner post-mortem providers in England, Wales and Scotland are collated by a Veterinary Investigation Diagnosis Analysis (VIDA) database. The VIDA results indicate an increase in GB incidents (as a percentage of diagnosable submissions) from 3.5% in 2016 to 5.5% in 2020. Disease trends are summarised in the APHA Quarterly Reports which can be found here:
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on additional funding to enable local authorities to continue to provide discretionary payments under the covid-19 self-isolation support scheme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Discussions have taken place with HM Treasury regarding a range of issues including the Test and Trace Support Payment. The Government has provided a total of £110 million to local authorities for the scheme to date, including £35 million for discretionary payments. To enable local authorities to continue supporting individuals on low incomes to self-isolate, we are increasing the funding available to local authorities for discretionary payments to £20 million a month.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
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 ensure that businesses (a) correctly display the QR code for the NHS Test and Trace app or (b) take contact details where use of that app is not possible.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Displaying an official National Health Service QR code poster and collecting contact details for NHS Test and Trace for certain venues is a legal requirement for designated businesses and venues in England. If a customer or visitor chooses to check in by scanning the NHS QR code, they do not also need to provide their contact details. Local authorities are enforcers of this regulation in England and have the power to issue fines starting from £1,000 for venues that are failing to comply. Fines will rise to £10,000 for repeat offenders. The police can be used as a last resort.
We have held stakeholder engagement meetings with each of the sectors in scope of the guidance to explain the policy and provide an opportunity for question. We have also published advice on how to print and display the official NHS QR code poster which is available at the following link:
https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01258/en-us
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are currently being accommodated in hotels in Burton constituency; and how much that accommodation cost the public purse in the most recent period for which data are available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support
Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential so we do not provide this information, however, total asylum spends are published as part of transparency data https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data
Data is published on a quarterly basis from 31st March 2014 with the latest information covering until 30th June 2020. The next quarterly figures are due to be released in November 2020
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the reliability of the polymerise chain reaction test for covid-19.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The current sensitivity of our polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for COVID-19 such as those used at our lighthouse laboratories is over 99%. All manufacturers of PCR tests for COVID-19 must meet the requirements of our validation process to ensure the accuracy of their tests.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What steps his Department is taking to help reduce the spread of covid-19 in prisons.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As community rates increase, the risk of outbreaks in prisons inevitably rises. We have planned for this and have a range of measures in place, informed by public health advice, to protect our staff, prisoners and the NHS over Winter.
Our hard-working prison staff are continuing to implement regimes that have been adapted for safety, with social distancing and PPE use. We are also quarantining new arrivals, isolating those with symptoms, and shielding the vulnerable.
These interventions are supporting us to minimise importation, limit the spread of infection and protect against explosive outbreaks.