Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps her Department has taken to help ensure that individuals carrying out jury duty do not experience financial hardship.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Jury service is a vital civic duty, and the Government is committed to ensuring jurors feel supported throughout their service. Jurors can claim subsistence and travel expenses, as well as a loss of earnings allowance from the court. The jury summoning process provides for applications for deferral or excusal from service based upon financial hardship.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential need for Commissioner intervention in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, in the context of the absence of senior leadership.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently temporary senior leadership arrangements in place at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust. Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and NHS England’s North East and Yorkshire Regional Team continue to provide ongoing support to the trust, ensuring that the temporary acting arrangements are successfully in place and offering any additional support that is required.
NHS England will continue to provide ongoing support to the trust and its senior leadership team to ensure that our patients and public continue to receive the highest quality of care possible across the Humber region.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued on when the absence of senior leadership may necessitate intervention by a commissioner in an integrated care board.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care board (ICB) chairs are appointed by NHS England subject to the approval of my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in line with NHS England’s guidance, where the ICB chair position has become vacant before a successor can be approved by the Secretary of State, the ICB board may be chaired by an acting chair, which is normally, but not always, the deputy chair. The ICB governance guidance, updated in July 2024, made it a requirement for all ICBs to have a deputy chair. Information on further related requirements is available in the guidance at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/guidance-on-integrated-care-board-constitutions-and-governance/
ICB chief executives are appointed by the ICB chair subject to the approval of NHS England. All ICBs are required to have an Accountable Officer; an Acting CEO can cover temporary periods of absence.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on whether the (a) Chair and (b) Chief Executive of Humber and North Yorkshire integrated care board remain in post.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Chair of the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) resigned from the post on 12 March 2025. The ICB is currently identifying a Non-Executive Member to act as Chair for a short period. The Chief Executive is currently taking a leave of absence, and acting CEO arrangements are currently in place.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to involve young people in Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes constituency in the development of the National Youth Strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State was pleased to announce the new National Youth Strategy, stating the Department’s commitment to delivering a strategy by and for young people through the most ambitious listening exercise in a generation. We have launched our nation-wide survey, with over 10,000 responses to date, and are holding events across all regions with young people and the youth sector. Our Youth and Expert Advisory Groups are now established and guiding us in our development. We will publish the strategy in the summer, with an interim report in the coming months.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 adequacy of assessments undertaken by medical examiners to establish causes of death.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Medical examiner offices are staffed at a trust level with oversight and guidance from the National Medical Examiner based in NHS England. The National Medical Examiner publishes standards of performance that medical examiners are expected to meet in exercising their functions. To become a medical examiner, a qualifying medical practitioner should undertake relevant training including e-learning and face to face training and continuing professional development. While the Government has not made its own assessment of the adequacy of assessments undertaken by medical examiners to establish causes of death, the National Medical Examiner must publish an annual report which would include the way in which medical examiners had exercised their functions, including in relation to standards of performance.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the medical examiner process on (a) bereaved relatives and (b) the time it takes for families to arrange funerals.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Early data since the introduction of the reforms indicates the median time taken to register a death appeared to have risen by one day, from seven days to eight days prior to Christmas. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The average time taken to register increased further over the Christmas weeks, but this was expected given increases are observed during this period every year; the average has subsequently decreased.
The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification. Deaths certified by a doctor, that comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, have typically had a median time to registration of seven days, though there can be variation at a local level. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.
The introduction of medical examiners is in part about making sure deaths are properly described and improving practice, but the impact on the bereaved is also central. The reforms aim to put the bereaved at centre of the process and the medical examiner office must offer a conversation with representatives of the deceased, so they can ask any questions they have about the death or to raise concerns. Ensuring the system is appropriately resourced and works for all those who interact with it is crucial, and something we will continue to monitor with NHS England.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 GPs undertaking medical examinations on GP workloads.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are determined to 'bulldoze bureaucracy' and cut red tape, ensuring general practitioners (GPs) spend less time filling in forms and more time caring for patients. We recognise it is vital for roles to be satisfying, rewarding and sustainable so that our experienced GPs continue to contribute throughout their career.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
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 adequacy of medical school places.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need, including doctors, to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.
We have launched the 10-Year Health Plan which will set out a bold agenda to reform and repair the National Health Service. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. This summer we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to build the transformed health service we will deliver over the next decade.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department has taken to help tackle empty shops on high streets.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Vacancy is a blight that we see too often in our towns.
We are supporting areas with new powers to help fill empty premises including High Street Rental Auctions and a new ‘right to buy’ to help prevent the loss of valued assets by bringing them into community ownership.