Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, What recent assessment has he made of the potential merits of developing an (a) regulatory framework and (b) NHS style oversight for the aesthetic industry.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to taking action to address concerns about the safety of the cosmetics sector and is exploring options for further regulation in this area. We will set out the details of our approach in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of strengthening the provisions of the Hunting 2004.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans in a generation to improve animal welfare and that is exactly what we will do. The Government has already committed to a ban on trail hunting which will provide significant protections to wild animals including foxes and hares. Work to determine the best approach for doing so is ongoing and further announcements will be made in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of limiting the amount of money that the Bank of England can pay in interest to commercial banks.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Bank of England has operational independence from the government to carry out its statutory responsibilities for monetary policy and financial stability. Monetary policy, including quantitative easing, is the responsibility of the independent Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England.
There are no plans to change the way reserves are remunerated at the Bank of England. The government continues to support the Bank to bring inflation in line with its target, including by managing the public finances responsibly.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing tax allowance rates to £20,000.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to not raising taxes on working people, which is why we are not increasing the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, employee National Insurance contributions, or VAT.
The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. The current Government is committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility and so, at our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds. As a result, they will rise with inflation from April 2028, meaning working people will keep more of their earnings.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of targeting the Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant at (a) Halton Council and (b) other areas that are high on the deprivation index.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant will be distributed using an interim needs-based formula, which allocates funding according to estimated need for children’s social care services. The department knows that deprivation is an important driver of need in children’s social care. The interim formula analyses socio-economic deprivation level data, as measured by the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), along with a range of other child-level and neighbourhood-level characteristics. This assessment of need is based on analysis of the most significant drivers of activity for children’s services which the department holds robust data.
Full details of the 4-step process to distributing this funding have been made available through an updated explanatory note: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67a0ed761f9e7f7dcc7b4002/Final_CSC_PG_Explanatory_Note.pdf#:~:text=This%20explanatory%20note%20describes%20the%20basis%20of%20the,from%20%C2%A3250%20million%20announced%20at%20the%20provisional%20settlement.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government recently consulted on the approach to determining new funding allocations for local authorities, including seeking feedback on the child-level and neighbourhood-level characteristics on which the assessment of need for children’s services is based. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/local-authority-funding-reform-objectives-and-principles/local-authority-funding-reform-objectives-and-principles. Following analysis of feedback, the department plans to set out further detail on the distribution methodology of this grant and the development of a new relative needs formula for children and family services.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 increase awareness of (a) cardiac health and (b) physical activity increasing risk of strokes in young people in (i) schools, (ii) universities and (iii) sports facilities.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee last reviewed screening for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in people under the age of 39 years old in 2019 and concluded that screening should not be offered, with further information available at the following link:
https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/
Research showed that current tests are not accurate enough to use in young people without symptoms, and that treatments and interventions were not based on good scientific evidence to prevent SCD.
To stop SCD in young people, the current consensus is to focus on rapid identification and care of people who are likely to be at risk of SCD due to a family link or because they have had symptoms, and to train people to carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation and to use defibrillators.
NHS England has published a national service specification for Inherited Cardiac Conditions, that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease, or families requiring a follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for specialised Inherited Cardiac Conditions services to investigate suspected cases. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification in line with the national service specification methods review process. NHS England is working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of this review, including National Health Service clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation. Further information on the service specification for Inherited Cardiac Conditions is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf
These documents describe the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients. They cover all paediatric cardiac activity, specifically surgery and cardiology, taking place in the Specialist Children’s Surgical Centres, or Level 1 services, the Specialist Children’s Cardiology Centres, or Level 2 services, and the Local Children’s Cardiac Centres, or Level 3 services, including activity undertaken by the specialist centres on an outreach basis where it is delivered as part of a provider network, with the aim of ensuring that all patient care is of a consistently high quality.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding access to diagnostic (a) checks and (b) screenings to improve detection of undiagnosed heart conditions in young people.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee last reviewed screening for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in people under the age of 39 years old in 2019 and concluded that screening should not be offered, with further information available at the following link:
https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/
Research showed that current tests are not accurate enough to use in young people without symptoms, and that treatments and interventions were not based on good scientific evidence to prevent SCD.
To stop SCD in young people, the current consensus is to focus on rapid identification and care of people who are likely to be at risk of SCD due to a family link or because they have had symptoms, and to train people to carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation and to use defibrillators.
NHS England has published a national service specification for Inherited Cardiac Conditions, that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease, or families requiring a follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for specialised Inherited Cardiac Conditions services to investigate suspected cases. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification in line with the national service specification methods review process. NHS England is working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of this review, including National Health Service clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation. Further information on the service specification for Inherited Cardiac Conditions is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf
These documents describe the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients. They cover all paediatric cardiac activity, specifically surgery and cardiology, taking place in the Specialist Children’s Surgical Centres, or Level 1 services, the Specialist Children’s Cardiology Centres, or Level 2 services, and the Local Children’s Cardiac Centres, or Level 3 services, including activity undertaken by the specialist centres on an outreach basis where it is delivered as part of a provider network, with the aim of ensuring that all patient care is of a consistently high quality.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 improve detection of undiagnosed heart conditions in young people.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee last reviewed screening for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in people under the age of 39 years old in 2019 and concluded that screening should not be offered, with further information available at the following link:
https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/
Research showed that current tests are not accurate enough to use in young people without symptoms, and that treatments and interventions were not based on good scientific evidence to prevent SCD.
To stop SCD in young people, the current consensus is to focus on rapid identification and care of people who are likely to be at risk of SCD due to a family link or because they have had symptoms, and to train people to carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation and to use defibrillators.
NHS England has published a national service specification for Inherited Cardiac Conditions, that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease, or families requiring a follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for specialised Inherited Cardiac Conditions services to investigate suspected cases. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification in line with the national service specification methods review process. NHS England is working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of this review, including National Health Service clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation. Further information on the service specification for Inherited Cardiac Conditions is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf
These documents describe the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients. They cover all paediatric cardiac activity, specifically surgery and cardiology, taking place in the Specialist Children’s Surgical Centres, or Level 1 services, the Specialist Children’s Cardiology Centres, or Level 2 services, and the Local Children’s Cardiac Centres, or Level 3 services, including activity undertaken by the specialist centres on an outreach basis where it is delivered as part of a provider network, with the aim of ensuring that all patient care is of a consistently high quality.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 commission a review into the adequacy of housing bands used to calculate council tax bands.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has no plans to commission a review of council tax bands. The Government is committed to keeping taxes on working people as low as possible.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has she made of the impact on her policies of the levels of damp and mould affecting housing managed by Onward Homes in Halton.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to working with social housing providers to ensure that homes are safe, decent, warm, and free from damp and mould.
The Deputy Prime Minister made a Written Ministerial Statement on 6 February (HCWS423) confirming that the government will bring Awaab’s Law into force for damp and mould in October 2025.
Awaab’s Law will empower social tenants to hold their landlords to account by law if they fail to investigate and fix hazards within their homes within set timescales. Tenants will be able to hold their social landlords to account by seeking redress through the Housing Ombudsman Service or taking legal action through the courts for a breach of contract.
The government is also committed to consulting on a new Decent Homes Standard and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards this year which will enable upfront preventative measures on disrepair and deliver improvements to tackle damp and mould.