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Written Question
Conditions of Employment
Wednesday 8th May 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's Response to the Government consultation on measures to reform post-termination non-compete clauses in contracts of employment, published on 12 May 2023, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a statutory limit of three months on the length of such clauses.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Introducing the statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses of 3 months will require primary legislation. The Government will introduce this legislation when parliamentary time allows.


Written Question
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood
Wednesday 24th April 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Child Death Review Statutory and Operational Guidance (England), published in October 2018, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that every family that loses a child to Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood is assigned a key worker to act as a single point of contact.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

NHS England is aware that not all parents who have lost their child to sudden unexplained death in childhood, are currently being assigned key workers. Departmental officials are working alongside NHS England and the National Child Mortality Database to acquire data on sudden unexplained death in infants. This is intended to increase our evidence base, understanding, and inform actions and policy on sudden unexplained death in childhood, including regarding assigning key workers as a single point of contact.


Written Question
Maternity Services: Complaints
Wednesday 24th April 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has had discussions with NHS England on ensuring that (a) reviews, (b) investigations and (c) complaints processes relating to maternity services include consideration of the (i) impact of ethnicity on the care received and (ii) potential role of (A) racism and (B) discrimination.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

NHS England, along with the devolved administrations and the Crown Dependencies, funds Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries to collate ethnicity data, in relation to all perinatal and maternal deaths across the United Kingdom. They publish annual surveillance reports which provide comparators of rates of mortality for women and babies from different ethnic groups. They also publish confidential enquiries, assessing care provision along the whole care pathway, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme provides independent, standardised, and family focused investigations to provide learning to the health system. This includes analysis of data to identify key trends, and collaboration with system partners to escalate safety concerns.


Written Question
Bereavement Counselling: Perinatal Mortality
Wednesday 24th April 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that maternity services are reviewing (a) initiatives and (b) services based on the experiences of bereaved parents to ensure high standards of care for all patients in line with national and local guidelines.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnerships (MNVPs) provide a forum in all areas of England for engagement between maternity services and their users. In November 2023, NHS England published MNVP guidance, which made it clear that effective MNVPs will reach out to seldomly heard groups, including bereaved families. This engagement should be accessible and appropriate.


Written Question
Maternity Services: Complaints
Wednesday 24th April 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that maternity and neonatal complaints systems are (a) transparent and (b) compassionate for parents.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

Anyone has the right to make a complaint about any aspect of National Health Service care, treatment, or service. The NHS Complaint Standards set out how organisations providing NHS services should approach complaint handling. They apply to NHS organisations in England, and independent healthcare providers that deliver NHS-funded care.

If complainants need assistance in making a complaint, officers from the Patient Advice and Liaison Service are available in most hospitals. Additionally, assistance can also be provided by the Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service.


Written Question
Disability: Employment
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support people with disabilities that impact their ability to work.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities

The Government has a wide range of initiatives to support disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work. These include:

  • The Work and Health Programme providing tailored and personalised support for disabled people;
  • Access to Work grants helping towards extra costs of working beyond standard reasonable adjustments;
  • Disability Confident encouraging employers to think differently about disability and health, and to take positive action to address the issues disabled employees face in the workplace;
  • A digital information service for employers providing better integrated and tailored guidance on supporting health and disability in the workplace;
  • Increasing access to Occupational Health, including the testing of financial incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed;
  • Increased Work Coach support in Jobcentres for disabled people and people with health conditions to help them move towards and in to work;
  • Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres offering advice and expertise on how to help disabled people and people with health conditions into work;
  • Work in partnership between the DWP and health systems, including Employment Advice in NHS Talking Therapies, and the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care programme, a Supported Employment model (place, train and maintain) delivered in health settings, aimed at people with physical or common mental health disabilities to support them to access paid jobs in the open labour market.

Building on existing provision and the £2 billion investment announced at the Spring Budget 2023, we announced a new package of support in Autumn Statement 2023. This includes:

  • Doubling the number of places on the Universal Support employment programme, to provide support for 100,000 people per year when fully rolled out;
  • Formally launching WorkWell, which will bring together the NHS, local authorities, and other partners, in collaboration with jobcentres, to provide light touch work and health support in approximately 15 pilot areas;
  • Building on the extension of the certification of the fit notes to a wider range of healthcare professions, exploring new ways of providing individuals receiving a fit note with timely access to work and health support; and
  • Establishing an expert group to support the development of the voluntary national baseline for Occupational Health provision.

From 2025, we are reforming the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to reflect new flexibilities in the labour market and greater employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions, whilst maintaining protections for those with the most significant conditions. Alongside these changes, a new Chance to Work Guarantee will effectively remove the WCA for most existing claimants who have already been assessed without work-related requirements removing the fear of reassessment and giving this group the confidence to try work.

People on low, or no income or earnings, who have a health condition or disability which restricts the amount of work they can do or prevents them from working altogether, and where they meet the entitlement criteria, can claim Universal Credit and/or New Style Employment and Support Allowance with medical evidence, usually a valid Statement of Fitness for work, commonly known as a ‘fit note’, from a clinician.


Written Question
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 14 June 2023 to Question 188530 on Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood, whether it remains her policy to update the information on the NHS website on sudden unexplained death in childhood before June 2024.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

On 28 July 2023, the National Health Service United Kingdom website team updated its content on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) to distinguish between SIDS and Sudden Unexplained Death Childhood (SUDC), including a reference and link to the charity SUDC UK for further information.

However, a decision was made not to incorporate information about SUDC to the website content on febrile seizures. This was based on the lack of high-quality evidence connecting the two and is in line with the British Medical Association guidance and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Clinical Knowledge Summary. It was also noted that the primary advice and directives on seeking help for febrile seizures would remain unchanged.


Written Question
Electricity Generation: Carbon Emissions
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending her Department's guidance on community benefit to include low-carbon electricity generation projects.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)

At the Autumn statement, Government committed to review our approach to community benefits to ensure that we are being strategic in identifying key sectors where community benefits can support delivery of infrastructure. The result of this review will inform our assessment of the case for extending community benefits to include technologies such as electricity generation.


Written Question
Electricity Generation: Carbon Emissions
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending community benefits to low-carbon electricity generation projects.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)

At the Autumn statement, Government committed to review our approach to community benefits to ensure that we are being strategic in identifying key sectors where community benefits can support delivery of infrastructure. The result of this review will inform our assessment of the case for extending community benefits to include technologies such as electricity generation.


Written Question
Leasehold
Tuesday 6th February 2024

Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will take steps to review the £250 threshold for triggering a consultation procedure under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

Answered by Lee Rowley

Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 is designed to ensure leaseholders are better informed about proposals and costs of upkeep and maintenance of the building, and that they have more time to ensure they can make suitable finance arrangements. We will continue to keep the threshold for consultation under review.