Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help (a) prevent and (b) diagnose carbon monoxide poisoning in (i) healthcare settings and (ii) the homes of vulnerable people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works with national and local stakeholders, public health partners and Government Departments to develop advice and actions which can be taken to improve diagnosis and prevent accidental exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) in healthcare settings and homes, including the homes of vulnerable people.
It has a programme of work to increase awareness and prevent exposure to CO. This includes participating in the cross-Government group on gas safety and carbon monoxide awareness and providing updated and consistent evidence, for example, for medical professionals diagnosing and managing CO poisoning in patients, and during antenatal checks.
UKHSA produces advice for the public on the risks from CO and regularly issues national press releases to raise public awareness of the dangers. In addition, UKHSA has published research quantifying CO exposure in the population, identifying risk factors for exposure and interventions to reduce the risk to the public.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish its response to the consultation on ending the sale of new non-zero emission buses, coaches and minibuses.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The National Bus Strategy contained a commitment to set a legal end date for the sale of new diesel buses and set an expectation for when the entire bus fleet will be zero-emission.
In spring 2022, the Department consulted on determining the exact date for ending the sale of new, non-zero emission buses. Calls for evidence about the decarbonisation of coaches and minibuses were also held. We will provide further updates in due course.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish guidance on socially and economically necessary bus services.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We plan to publish new guidance on socially and economically necessary services (SENS) in this Parliament.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 50 of the National Bus Strategy for England, when his Department plans to commence the review of the rights of local authorities to set up new municipal bus companies.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We will publish a Call for Evidence during this Parliament, as the first part of a review into whether it remains right that local authorities cannot set up new municipal bus companies.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 September 2023 to Question 199184 on Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment: Internet, which postcodes are eligible for the online application service for PIP launched on 27 July; and what criterion was used to select these postcodes.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
One key element of the Health Transformation Programme is a new online application service for Personal Independence Payment (PIP). As explained in my answer to Question 199184, this is currently being tested in selected postcode districts across England.
It is vital that we develop an online claim service that works for all claimants across the country. The initial range of postcodes were carefully selected to ensure they are representative of the wider population and allow us to robustly evaluate the impact of the service.
Limiting the number of claimants during the testing phase means we can test the functionality and stability of the new service, learning and making improvements before we gradually and carefully increase the number of people who can use it. As we scale the service, this list of postcode districts will gradually increase until the service is available nationally across England, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2024.
A list of postcodes can be found below*. People can check if they are able to apply for PIP online through our ‘How to Claim’ GOV.UK page and using the postcode checker which will be constantly updated.
B16 | B18 | B21 | B42 | B66 | B67 | B68 | B69 | B70 | B71 |
BD11 | BD12 | BD4 | BH1 | BH10 | BH11 | BH12 | BH13 | BH14 | BH15 |
BH16 | BH17 | BH18 | BH2 | BH22 | BH3 | BH4 | BH5 | BH6 | BH7 |
BH8 | BH9 | BN20 | BN22 | BN23 | CB11 | CM24 | CW12 | DE21 | DE7 |
DE72 | DE75 | DY11 | DY13 | E11 | E12 | E18 | E7 | GL1 | GL10 |
GL5 | HD1 | HD4 | HP23 | HR7 | HR8 | IG1 | IG2 | IG3 | IG4 |
IG5 | IG6 | IG7 | IG8 | IG9 | IP10 | IP11 | IP12 | IP13 | IP15 |
IP16 | IP17 | IP18 | IP19 | IP20 | IP3 | IP4 | IP5 | IP6 | KT10 |
KT12 | KT6 | KT7 | KT8 | KT9 | L10 | L21 | L22 | L23 | L29 |
L30 | L38 | L9 | LE13 | LN10 | LN11 | LN12 | LN13 | LN9 | LU1 |
LU2 | LU3 | LU4 | LU7 | M15 | M16 | M23 | M31 | M32 | M33 |
M41 | NE1 | NE2 | NE4 | NE5 | NE98 | NG10 | NG15 | NG17 | NR31 |
NR32 | NR33 | NR34 | NR35 | PE21 | PE23 | PE24 | PE25 | PE34 | RG14 |
RG20 | RG21 | RG22 | RG23 | RG24 | RH7 | RH8 | RM10 | SG7 | SK11 |
SO24 | ST13 | TN8 | TW16 | TW17 | WA14 | WA15 | WF13 | WF15 | WF16 |
WF17 | WR13 | WR14 | WR2 | WR5 | WR6 | WS6 | YO11 | YO12 | YO13 |
YO14 | YO22 | YO25 | CM17 |
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* This list will change as we continually scale the new online PIP service.
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Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2023 to Question 198639 on Childcare, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure the adequacy of (a) trained staff, (b) safe premises and (c) registered places in Blaydon constituency by the start of September 2025 to offer eligible children aged nine months and above to access 30 hours a week of free childcare for 38 weeks each year until the end of the term before they start at primary school.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Having enough staff in place to deliver high-quality education and care will be key to ensuring the successful delivery of our record expansion of early years entitlements. Driving up interest in early years careers and ensuring there are enough opportunities for career development is a priority for this government.
In the government’s Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children and the economy. By 2027/28, this Government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
The department is developing a range of new workforce initiatives including the launch of a new national campaign, planned for the beginning of 2024, to boost interest in the sector and support the recruitment and retention of talented staff. To increase interest in early years, we are working to remove unnecessary barriers to entering the sector as well as considering how to make early years qualifications more accessible, coordinated and relevant.
Over the summer the department launched a competition for Early Years Skills Bootcamps with a pathway to an accelerated level 3 Early Years Educator apprenticeship, and we will consider degree apprenticeship routes so everyone from junior staff to senior leaders can easily move into or indeed enhance their career in the sector. We are also working across government to boost early years career awareness by collaborating with the Department for Work and Pensions and Careers & Enterprise Company to promote the importance and value of a career in early years.
Regarding safe premises, with a growing number of staff joining the sector, the safety of our youngest children remains as important as ever. All new and existing early years providers must keep children safe and promote their welfare. The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework sets the standards that all early years providers in England must meet to ensure that children are kept healthy and safe. More information can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1170108/EYFS_framework_from_September_2023.pdf.
Under these requirements, all owners and managers of childcare settings have a responsibility to ensure that their premises, including overall floor space and outdoor spaces, are fit for purpose and suitable for the age of children cared for and the activities provided on the premises. All providers must also comply with the requirements of health and safety legislation, including fire safety and hygiene requirements. At all times when children are present, at least one person who has a current paediatric first aid certificate must be on the premises.
Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. Part B of the Early education and childcare statutory guidance for local authorities highlights that local authorities should report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and to make this report available and accessible to parents. More information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-and-childcare--2.
The Department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking to address those issues and where needed support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data his Department holds on the proportion of car parking spaces allocated to blue badge holders in local authority car parks by local authority.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has considered the potential merits of taking steps to help prevent the withdrawal of medical (a) products and (b) treatments for rare conditions from the UK market where that withdrawal would leave patients without access to such a product or treatment.
Answered by Will Quince
Companies may decide to stop manufacturing a medicine for several reasons including commercial decisions, manufacturing capacity restraint and production problems. Companies are free to review their portfolios as they think necessary, and the Department has no powers to insist that a company continues to keep a product on the market.
There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. It has well-established procedures to deal with medicine shortages and discontinuations, whatever the cause, and works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when shortages do arise. The team will also communicate management advice to the National Health Service advising clinicians on how to manage medicine supply issues.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2023 to Question 183537 on Rare Diseases, for what reason the proposal to provide patients with alert cards was not included in the England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2023; and how his Department plans to ensure adequate co-ordination of care for people with rare conditions in emergency settings.
Answered by Will Quince
There are currently no plans to include a proposal to provide alert cards to patients with rare diseases in the England Rare Diseases Action Plan in the next five years.
In the Second Progress Report from the Rare Disease Policy Board (2018), NHS England proposed to give every patient with a rare disease an ‘alert card’, which would include information about the patient’s rare disease. This proposal to develop ‘alert cards’ was not progressed at the time due to capacity constraints.
This proposal has not featured in the subsequent England Rare Diseases Action Plans (2022 and 2023), and NHS England is now focussing on delivering against the actions identified in these new plans. Progress is being made on existing actions to improve coordination of care and awareness of rare diseases amongst all health care professionals, including those who work in emergency settings.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2023 to Question 183537 on Rare Diseases, whether he plans to include the proposal to provide alert cards to patients with rare diseases in the England Rare Diseases Action Plan in the next five years.
Answered by Will Quince
There are currently no plans to include a proposal to provide alert cards to patients with rare diseases in the England Rare Diseases Action Plan in the next five years.
In the Second Progress Report from the Rare Disease Policy Board (2018), NHS England proposed to give every patient with a rare disease an ‘alert card’, which would include information about the patient’s rare disease. This proposal to develop ‘alert cards’ was not progressed at the time due to capacity constraints.
This proposal has not featured in the subsequent England Rare Diseases Action Plans (2022 and 2023), and NHS England is now focussing on delivering against the actions identified in these new plans. Progress is being made on existing actions to improve coordination of care and awareness of rare diseases amongst all health care professionals, including those who work in emergency settings.