Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2024 to Question 12735 on Personal Independence Payments, if he will take steps to reduce the median wait for award review decisions.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are aware that many claimants are waiting a long time for their award review.
Due to competing priorities and limited resources, we are currently prioritising getting new claims into payment as quickly as possible to ensure financial support is provided for those who need it.
Most award review decisions are now made without the need for an assessment by a Healthcare Professional, where we have sufficient information, which helps to reduce the time taken to process many cases.
For those waiting for a review, we keep them informed and continue to extend awards where necessary, to ensure claims remain in payment. This also ensures continuity of entitlement to Motability vehicles and blue badges for those who need it.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of Adult Gaming Centres on (a) the jobs market and (b) the exchequer.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Official statistics from a range of sources provide the Government with insights into the economic contribution of the betting and gaming industry as a whole. The latest headline statistics show that the gambling sector contributed £4.9bn to Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022, accounting for 0.2% of UK GVA. In the financial year 2023/24, the gambling sector employed around 94,000 people in Britain (provisional), accounting for 0.2% of UK jobs and paid approximately £3.4bn in betting and gaming duty. We do not hold official statistics on GVA, employment or tax revenue for adult gaming centres specifically.
The Gambling Commission’s industry statistics show that between April 2022 and March 2023, gross gambling yield for adult gaming centres was £533m. This represented c. 11% of gross gambling yield generated by non-remote casinos, arcades, betting and bingo.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the financial impact of Adult Gaming Centres on the high street economy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Official statistics from a range of sources provide the Government with insights into the economic contribution of the betting and gaming industry as a whole. The latest headline statistics show that the gambling sector contributed £4.9bn to Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022, accounting for 0.2% of UK GVA. In the financial year 2023/24, the gambling sector employed around 94,000 people in Britain (provisional), accounting for 0.2% of UK jobs and paid approximately £3.4bn in betting and gaming duty. We do not hold official statistics on GVA, employment or tax revenue for adult gaming centres specifically.
The Gambling Commission’s industry statistics show that between April 2022 and March 2023, gross gambling yield for adult gaming centres was £533m. This represented c. 11% of gross gambling yield generated by non-remote casinos, arcades, betting and bingo.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the average wait for a Personal Independence Payment review decision.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We make every effort to conduct award reviews as soon as possible. Most decisions are made without the need for an assessment by a Healthcare Professional.
Where the claimant requests a review of their Personal Independence Payment award, the median wait is 69 working days as of September 2024. Where the review is initiated by the department, the median wait for a decision that is referred to an assessment provider is 290 working days as of September 2024, and 252 days where it is not referred to an assessment provider.
Whilst reviews are outstanding, all payments to existing claimants continue. Should a review identify eligibility for an increased award, backdated payments will be made where appropriate to ensure claimants are not adversely impacted by delays.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to improve the communication of the real-time availability of ADHD medications in pharmacies to patients.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department monitors and manages medicine supply at a national level so that stocks remain available to meet regional and local demand. Information on stock levels within individual pharmacies is not held centrally.
To aid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) service providers, prescribers, and pharmacies, we have widely disseminated our communications and continually update a list of currently available and unavailable ADHD products on the Specialist Pharmacy Service website, helping ensure that those involved in the prescribing and dispensing of ADHD medications can make informed decisions with patients. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/prescribing-available-medicines-to-treat-adhd/
The team also regularly engages with patient groups to provide information on supply issues pertinent to them and their patients, and supports them with any patient communications they may wish to develop.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting lists for talking therapies.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest data for July 2024 show 90.7% of people completing treatment for talking therapies waited less than 6 weeks for their first appointment, against a target of 75%.
More broadly people with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health and that people can be confident of accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.
We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment.
By cutting mental health waiting lists and intervening earlier with more timely mental health support, we can get this country back to health and back to work, helping to grow the economy.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to (a) advise claimants migrating to Universal Credit from legacy benefits to check whether their eligibility for NHS Help with Health Costs will change and (b) include this advice in migration letters.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobcentre staff recognise that not all customers are aware of other financial help they may be entitled to. In such cases staff will signpost customers to online financial support.
We do not have plans to include this advice in migration letters. User research suggests that customers can feel overwhelmed with the volume of information in the migration notice, so we are careful about how much we include, focusing on the most relevant information and signpost people to services to support them with making their claim.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to improve the capacity of local authorities to administer the Household Support Fund.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since October 2021, over £2.9 billion has been allocated to Local Authorities (LAs) in England to support those most in need through the Household Support Fund (HSF).
LAs have the discretion to design their own local schemes within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination that the Department for Work and Pensions have set out for the fund. This is because they have the ties and the knowledge to best determine how support should be provided in their local communities.
We understand that improving how local government is funded is crucial to enabling councils to deliver support to their residents and ensuring we can deliver our missions. We will provide councils with more stability and certainty through multi-year funding settlements and by ending wasteful competitive bidding. This will ensure councils can plan their finances for the future properly, delivering better value for money for taxpayers.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 22 October 2024 to Question 9455 on Air Pollution: Poverty, if he will take steps to help tackle the impact of air pollution on people with a low income.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Chief Medical Officers Annual report on Air Pollution (2022) demonstrated the increased health risks associated with exposure to air pollution among those living in areas of higher socio-economic deprivation. The Government are committed to reducing health inequalities and DHSC are supporting Defra to deliver their comprehensive and ambitious Clean Air Strategy which will include a series of interventions to reduce emissions so that everyone’s exposure to air pollution is reduced.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 22 October 2024 to Question 9455 on Air Pollution: Poverty, if he will take steps to reduce the number of schools in England that are in areas exceeding World Health Organisation guidelines for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to improve air quality and protect children from the harms of pollution, and is committed to meeting the legal targets for air quality, including the targets recently set under the Environment Act 2021. The Department of Health and Social Care is working across Government to achieve this, including with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs on their Clean Air Strategy to reduce emissions and reduce harms associated with air pollution.
Local air quality is the responsibility of local authorities, who should prepare air quality action plans to ensure the level of pollutants is reduced, if it is not compliant with relevant limits. Local authorities are responsible for monitoring air quality in their areas and will decide where to undertake their monitoring, which may be around schools. The Government will continue to work with local authorities to support their work on improving air quality. Active Travel England and the Department for Transport are working on guidance for local authorities to help them implement School Streets vehicle access restrictions effectively.