Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing sentences for offenders guilty of unlawful act manslaughter.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Parliament is responsible for setting the overall legal sentencing framework and the maximum penalty for unlawful act manslaughter is life imprisonment.

However, sentencing is entirely a matter for our independent courts. When deciding what sentence to impose the courts take into account the circumstances of the offence and any aggravating and mitigating factors in line with any relevant sentencing guidelines issued by the independent Sentencing Council.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to review the Overseas Scale Rates.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

As with all taxes and allowances, the Government keeps flat rate expenses, including Overseas Scale Rates, under review.

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 people with (a) Motor Neurone Disease and (b) other degenerative conditions.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Patients, including those with motor neurone disease (MND), have been let down for too long whilst they wait for the care they need. The Government is committed to putting patients first. This means making sure that patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.

We have made a commitment that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment within our first term. This includes those waiting for treatment for MND. As a first step to achieving this, following the Budget, we will deliver an additional 2 million operations, scans, and appointments across all specialities during our first year in Government, which is equivalent to 40,000 per week.

At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with MND, including the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Programme for Neurology and the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit. NHS England has also established a Neurology Transformation Programme (NTP), a multi-year, clinically led programme to develop a new model of integrated care for neurology services, including MND.

The GIRFT National Specialty Report made recommendations designed to improve services nationally and to support the National Health Service to deliver care more equitably across the country. The report highlighted differences in how services are delivered, and provided the opportunity to share successful initiatives between trusts to improve patient services nationally.

In addition, the NTP has developed a model of integrated care for neurology services to support integrated care boards (ICBs) to deliver the right service, at the right time, for all neurology patients, including providing care closer to home. A toolkit is being developed to support ICBs to understand and implement this new model. The NTP has also developed an online, interactive adult neurology dashboard to support systems to understand their local neurology landscape and benchmark against other ICBs in England. It sets out key metrics and visualisations for neurology services locally, providing information about the scope and quality of local neurology services using existing whole population, whole pathway data.

The NTP is also working with the National Clinical Director for Neurology and the Neurology Clinical Reference Group to develop a revised service specification for neurology, which will: set out clear deliverables for specialised centres; provide a clearer model of care, incorporating up-to-date guidance and best practice; and set out new quality outcomes focusing on improving patient outcomes and experience.

Found: Sureena Brackenridge; Dr Caroline Johnson; Amanda Martin; Darren Paffey; Manuela Perteghella; Mark Sewards

Found: Paffey (Labour; Southampton Itchen) Manuela Perteghella (Liberal Democrat; Stratford-on-Avon) Mark Sewards

Found: Q14 Mark Sewards: Thank you, Sir Ian, for your answers so far.

Submit Evidence (by 30 Jan 2025)

A number of recent reports have set out in detail the extent of the crisis in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system, which is letting down children and their families, creating intense pressure on local authority funding and on schools.