Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she is having with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the future of the Adoption and Special Guardian Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of spending review discussions, there are regular conversations between the department and His Majesty’s Treasury. We will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how we will allocate the department’s budget for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions.
The ASGSF has provided valuable support to both adoptive and special guardianship families during 2024/25, helping them to thrive and enabling children and young people to make the best start in life. In 2023/24, the last full financial year, the Fund supported a total of 19,495 children and families with funding of £49,191,908.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of (a) importance of the Adoption and Special Guardian Support Fund to families with adopted children and (b) funding provided to families out of the Fund in the last reported financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of spending review discussions, there are regular conversations between the department and His Majesty’s Treasury. We will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how we will allocate the department’s budget for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions.
The ASGSF has provided valuable support to both adoptive and special guardianship families during 2024/25, helping them to thrive and enabling children and young people to make the best start in life. In 2023/24, the last full financial year, the Fund supported a total of 19,495 children and families with funding of £49,191,908.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to ensure the continuance of the funding for the Adoption and Special Guardian Support Fund after March 2025.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As part of spending review discussions, there are regular conversations between the department and His Majesty’s Treasury. We will shortly be finalising business planning decisions on how we will allocate the department’s budget for the next financial year. All decisions regarding the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) are being made as part of these discussions.
The ASGSF has provided valuable support to both adoptive and special guardianship families during 2024/25, helping them to thrive and enabling children and young people to make the best start in life. In 2023/24, the last full financial year, the Fund supported a total of 19,495 children and families with funding of £49,191,908.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse is of staff being made redundant from NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that there may be some short-term upfront costs as we undertake the integration of NHS England and the Department, but these costs and more will be recouped in future years as a result of a smaller, leaner centre. By the end of the process, we estimate that these changes will save hundreds of millions of pounds a year, which will be reinvested in frontline services.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the minimum tapered annual allowance on trends in the levels of extra work taken on by (a) GPs and (b) consultants.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 6 April 2023, the standard annual allowance threshold increased from £40,000 to £60,000, giving individuals scope for greater tax-free pension growth. The tapered annual allowance further restricts the amount of tax-free pension saving available to the very wealthiest in society. The taper applies when taxable earnings reach £200,000.
A range of factors may influence personal decisions around intentions to take on extra work, making it difficult to measure the unique impact of tax measures. There is no clear evidence from National Health Service payroll data that the annual allowance pension tax regime constrains the activity of the consultant workforce in aggregate. Given measurement difficulty, no assessment has been made on the impact of the annual allowance pension tax regime on general practice activity, or consultant activity at specialty level.
Where NHS Pension Scheme members do incur annual allowance pension tax charges, these do not have to be met in the current tax year. The NHS Pension Scheme offers a Scheme Pays facility through which individuals can ask the scheme to pay the tax on their behalf in exchange for a fair reduction in the generous pension benefits paid at retirement.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 21 March 2025 to Question 38389 on NHS England and Question 38390 on NHS England: Redundancy Pay, if he will publish modelling outlining (a) how the short-term upfront costs will be recouped; and (b) in which financial year those costs will be recouped.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 21 March 2025 to Question 38389 on NHS England and Question 38390 on NHS England: Redundancy Pay, what the short-term upfront costs of integrating NHS England and his Department will be.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish modelling outlining the estimated cost of staff being made redundant from NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the annual allowance threshold on trends in the levels of extra work taken on by (a) GPs and (b) consultants.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 6 April 2023, the standard annual allowance threshold increased from £40,000 to £60,000, giving individuals scope for greater tax-free pension growth. The tapered annual allowance further restricts the amount of tax-free pension saving available to the very wealthiest in society. The taper applies when taxable earnings reach £200,000.
A range of factors may influence personal decisions around intentions to take on extra work, making it difficult to measure the unique impact of tax measures. There is no clear evidence from National Health Service payroll data that the annual allowance pension tax regime constrains the activity of the consultant workforce in aggregate. Given measurement difficulty, no assessment has been made on the impact of the annual allowance pension tax regime on general practice activity, or consultant activity at specialty level.
Where NHS Pension Scheme members do incur annual allowance pension tax charges, these do not have to be met in the current tax year. The NHS Pension Scheme offers a Scheme Pays facility through which individuals can ask the scheme to pay the tax on their behalf in exchange for a fair reduction in the generous pension benefits paid at retirement.