Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the Government plans to roll out fast electric vehicle chargers in Blue Badge parking bays for accessibility purposes.
Answered by Jesse Norman
We want an electric vehicle charging infrastructure network which has accessibility embedded in its design.
This year, the Government and the national disability charity Motability co-sponsored the British Standards Institution to develop a new accessibility standard for electric vehicle charging. The PAS (Publicly Available Standard) 1899 provides specifications on designing and installing accessible public electric vehicle chargepoints.
The location of chargepoints on public highways is a matter for local authorities which are responsible for issuing Blue Badges and associated on-street accessible parking bays. The Government encourages local authorities to consider installation of accessible chargepoints at appropriate locations, taking into account the specifications laid out in PAS 1899.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure dedicated miscarriage facilities are available within maternity ward settings to support miscarriage trauma and grief.
Answered by James Morris
NHS England’s guidance on the configuration of the estate in maternity services states that a woman who has lost her baby should not be accommodated on a ward or bedroom where there are new mothers. The guidance, Children, young people and maternity services. Health Building Note 09-02: Maternity care facilities’ is available at the follow:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/HBN_09-02_Final.pdf
We have funded SANDS to work with other baby loss charities and the Royal Colleges to produce and support a National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) to reduce the variation in the quality of bereavement care provided by the National Health Service. The NBCP standards ensure that families can access dedicated miscarriage facilities. As of 1 April 2022, 78% of NHS trusts in England have committed to adopting the nine NBCP standards.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS statistics that one in six children aged between six and 16 have a probably mental health disorder, whether the Government plans to provide additional support for youth mental health services.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have committed to invest an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England by 2023/24. This will enable a further 345,000 children and young people to access National Health Service-funded mental health support.
In 2021/22, we made £500 million available to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. This included £79 million to ensure that approximately 22,500 more children and young people could access community mental health services and a further 2,000 to access eating disorder services. We have also accelerated the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges to 20% to 25% of the country, which will increase to over 500 teams, covering approximately 35% of pupils by 2023/24. We have also launched a public call for evidence to support the development of a new cross-Government ten-year plan for mental health which is open until 7 July 2022.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has taken steps to amend mental health services provision for children in response to increased demand for those services as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have committed to invest an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England by 2023/24. This will enable a further 345,000 children and young people to access National Health Service-funded mental health support.
In 2021/22, we made £500 million available to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. This included £79 million to ensure that approximately 22,500 more children and young people could access community mental health services and a further 2,000 to access eating disorder services. We have also accelerated the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges to 20% to 25% of the country, which will increase to over 500 teams, covering approximately 35% of pupils by 2023/24. We have also launched a public call for evidence to support the development of a new cross-Government ten-year plan for mental health which is open until 7 July 2022.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 adequacy of post-diagnosis support services for children with autistic spectrum disorder.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No recent assessment has been made. However, in 2021/22 NHS England and NHS Improvement provided £7 million to local areas to test and implement timely autism diagnosis and post-diagnosis pathways for children and young people. NHS England and NHS Improvement are also developing a national framework for autism diagnostic pathways for children and young people. The ‘SEND review: right support, right place, right time’ green paper is consulting on improvements in health, care and educational support for children with special educational needs and disabilities, including those who are autistic.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support the Access to Work scheme offers those working as freelancers.
Answered by Chloe Smith
To enable greater flexibility for disabled freelances and contractors Access to Work has introduced a flexible application, providing greater flexibility for disabled people taking up time limited contracts and freelance opportunities. The flexible application will reduce the bureaucracy of re-applying for Access to Work when starting a new period of employment and the need for repeated Holistic Assessments where the needs remain the same.
To complement the flexible application, an Adjustments Passport is being piloted with contractors and freelancers to empower the passport holder to have confident conversations with future employers about their workplace adjustments.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to reduce delays in processing Access to Work claims.
Answered by Chloe Smith
DWP are in the process of recruiting and training extra staff for Access to Work, and using overtime working to process outstanding claim volumes.
Applications with a job start within the next four weeks are being prioritised. In addition, we are now treating applications that are classified as renewal applications for on-going support as a priority group and contact will be made as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department had with disabled people and disability groups prior to his Department’s decision to amend its guidance relating to ticket office opening hours.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Department for Transport consulted with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) during the consultation to amend the Secretary of State’s Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA) Ticket Office Guidance.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department plans to take to (a) increase the (i) number and (ii) scale of wildlife tunnels and bridges and (b) improve the maintenance of existing wildlife tunnels and bridges.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department for Transport is committed to conserving, restoring and improving biodiversity across its estate and delivering new requirements set out in the Environment Act 2021.
National Highways is increasing the number of wildlife tunnels and bridges on its network, ranging from simple wildlife tunnels and ledges to allow and encourage safe badger and otter movement, to large structures including green bridges where appropriate, which connect habitats and wildlife corridors. Green bridges are components of a number of National Highways’ new road projects.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
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 reduce waiting times for disabled children to receive community equipment assessments.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.