Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 (a) raise awareness of Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and (b) support children with this condition in York Outer constituency.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve awareness of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) amongst healthcare professionals, and specifically general practitioners (GPs), the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500
In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced a clinical knowledge summary on blackouts and syncope, last updated in November 2023, which outlines how clinicians should assess and diagnosis PoTS. It is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/
GPs are asked to investigate symptoms to ensure that it is not misdiagnosed. Following referral, patients are treated within National Health Service cardiology and neurology services. Where more specialist advice is required, a referral will be made to an appropriate clinician.
Services for children with PoTS are locally commissioned and, as such, it is the responsibility integrated care boards (ICBs), including Humber and North Yorkshire ICB, which serves the York Outer constituency, to ensure that they commission services meet the needs of their local population.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 (a) raise awareness of and (b) support adults with autism in York Outer constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including support services for autistic people, in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The NICE guideline, Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management, aims to improve access and engagement with interventions and services, and the experience of care, for autistic adults.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to improve outcomes in all-age autism assessment pathways. This guidance will help ICBs and the National Health Service to improve outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance sets out what support should be available before an assessment, and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism based on the available evidence. This includes setting out specific considerations for developing post-diagnostic support.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to improve the frequency of cancer statistics releases.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cancer waiting times data is published on a monthly basis on the NHS.UK website. There are no plans at present to change the frequency of publication.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 lists for elective procedures.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients are waiting too long to access the care they need, with the total waiting list standing at over 7.5 million. Last week we saw the welcome news that waiting lists have fallen. Since we ended the strikes, we have been ramping up delivery of the 2 million additional appointments that we committed to deliver (which is equivalent to 40,000 per week). The investment delivered by the Chancellor in last month’s Budget will be matched with the reform our NHS needs, to get patients treated faster.Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to (a) protect and (b) support vulnerable people in relation to online gambling addictions.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is acutely aware of the impact harmful gambling can have on individuals and their families. We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all stakeholders in order to support the industry and ensure there are robust protections in place to protect those at risk. We will provide further updates to the House soon.
The Gambling Commission is responsible for the implementation of a number of the regulatory reforms set out in the white paper, such as introducing new regulations to make online games safer, and financial vulnerability checks aimed at reducing cases of unaffordable losses. It has consulted on and implemented the majority of these reforms.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of battery energy storage systems.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) have a key role in cost-effectively decarbonising the power sector by 2030. They help to balance the electricity system at lower cost by maximising the output from intermittent low carbon generation (such as solar and wind) and minimising both network upgrades and the need for new infrastructure.
The Department’s analysis indicates that short-duration flexibility offered by technologies including battery storage, could support up to 24,000 jobs (1) and reduce energy system costs by up to £10bn per year by 2050 (2) through minimising the need for new peaking generation and network assets.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her department is taking to improve the protection for people who have experienced (a) bullying, (b) harassment and (c) disability discrimination at work.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Equality Act 2010 provides strong protection by prohibiting direct and indirect discrimination by an employer against a disabled employee because of disability. The Act also prohibits harassment of an employee by their employer for reasons related to their disability.
The 2010 Act additionally places a reasonable adjustment duty on employers that could be relevant, for example, to how duties are allocated or to how a promotion exercise is conducted. For example, ensuring internal job application forms are accessible to visually impaired employees and job interviews are accessible to the deaf or hard of hearing.
Although bullying is not expressly prohibited in legislation, this unacceptable behaviour can manifest as unlawful harassment. Additionally, employees are protected from constructive dismissal in the employment rights legislation, where bullying can feature in the lead up to dismissal.
Where disabled employees, as defined under the 2010 Act, feel that they have been unfairly treated, they may discuss their concerns with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), which provides authoritative and impartial advice free to employees or employers in relation to employment discrimination issues via their website (http://www.acas.org.uk) and telephone helpline 0300 123 1100 or text relay service 18001 0300 123 1100. Acas also provides employees and employers with Early Conciliation to help them resolve/settle their workplace dispute without going to court.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to conduct a review into local authorities’ pre-application processes.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework stresses the importance of good quality pre-application discussions between local planning authorities and applicants, and the role that these can play in improving outcomes. The Government strongly encourages local planning authorities to utilise best practice guidance for pre-application engagement and planning performance agreements published by the Planning Advisory Service.
The King’s Speech announced that the Government would introduce a Planning and Infrastructure Bill to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery. This will include measures to modernise planning committees in order to improve decision making. Further details will be announced in due course.
I look forward to working with colleagues during the passage of the Bill and would be happy to receive representations on our proposals from my hon Friend and honourable members.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will meet the hon. Member for York Outer to discuss reforms to speed up the planning process.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework stresses the importance of good quality pre-application discussions between local planning authorities and applicants, and the role that these can play in improving outcomes. The Government strongly encourages local planning authorities to utilise best practice guidance for pre-application engagement and planning performance agreements published by the Planning Advisory Service.
The King’s Speech announced that the Government would introduce a Planning and Infrastructure Bill to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery. This will include measures to modernise planning committees in order to improve decision making. Further details will be announced in due course.
I look forward to working with colleagues during the passage of the Bill and would be happy to receive representations on our proposals from my hon Friend and honourable members.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Future Home Standard on National Grid capacity.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to expanding the electricity network to support the Clean Energy Superpower mission and is working closely with Ofgem and industry to mobilise the required investment at the scale and pace required.
Price controls set by Ofgem ensure network companies are investing in infrastructure build, as well as smart management of network assets, to ensure the network has sufficient capacity . This includes accommodating increasing numbers of households adopting electric heating, solar generation and EV charging, both through future standards for new build properties and retrofit of the existing housing stock.