Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 adequacy of fracture liaison services in southwest London.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fracture Liaison Services are commissioned by integrated care boards, which make decisions according to local need. This includes the NHS South West London Integrated Care Board.
Officials continue to work closely with NHS England to explore a range of options to provide better quality and access to these important preventative services. This includes how best to support systems, who are responsible for commissioning.
The Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme, which includes a dedicated Fracture Liaison Service database, is a national clinical audit of fracture prevention care, delivered by the Royal College of Physicians. This includes reporting on individual Fracture Liaison Services, and supporting local and national service improvement.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 (a) develop and (b) improve Fracture Liaison Services.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and NHS England support the clinical case for services which help to prevent fragility fractures, and support the patients who sustain them. The Government is committed to ending the postcode lottery for access to Fracture Liaison Services.
Officials continue to work closely with NHS England to explore a range of options to provide better quality and access to these important preventative services.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 support people diagnosed with osteoporosis.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, which sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week Referral to Treatment target by the end of this Parliament. Further information on the Elective Reform Plan is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/reforming-elective-care-for-patients/
Part of the plan sets out funding to boost bone density scanning capacity, to support improvements in early diagnosis and bone health for conditions such as osteoporosis. This will provide an estimated 29,000 extra scans per year.
As announced in the Get Britain Working white paper, we are delivering the joint Department for Work and Pensions, Department of Health and Social Care, and NHS England Getting It Right First-Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal (MSK) Community Delivery Programme. With a £3.5 million funding boost, GIRFT teams will deploy their proven Further Faster model to work with integrated care board leaders to further reduce MSK community waiting times, including for those with osteoporosis, and improve data, metrics, and referral pathways to wider support services.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 make dentistry more affordable.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to National Health Service dental services being available for all those who need them. Free NHS dental care is available to people who meet one of the following criteria:
Support is also available through the NHS Low Income Scheme for those patients who are not eligible for exemption or full remission of dental patient charges. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-free-nhs-dental-treatment-in-england/
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 merits of increasing the regulation of private dental charges.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service contracts independent dental providers to deliver NHS dental treatment. Dentists must make clear which treatments can be provided on the NHS and which can only be provided on a private basis, and the costs associated for each. If a patient decides to choose alternative private options, this should be included in their treatment plan.
The Department and NHS England do not control the cost of private dental or orthodontic treatment.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the (a) efficacy and (b) efficiency of NHS Pathways.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking action to improve the efficacy and efficiency of NHS Pathways across the health system.
The NHS Pathways clinical content and assessment protocols are consistent with the latest advice from the respected bodies that provide evidence and guidance for medical practice. In particular, NHS Pathways is concordant with the latest guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the UK Resuscitation Council, and the UK Sepsis Trust.
The NHS Pathways Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is a triage product used to support urgent and emergency care in England, and is embedded in NHS 111 and 999 telephony service, and NHS 111 online. It is continuously reviewed to ensure it remains safe, effective, and efficient. The system is developed and maintained by a group of experienced National Health Service clinicians with an urgent and emergency care background. The safety of the clinical triage process is overseen by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the relevant royal colleges, and clinical professional groups endorse and approve the CDSS.
The NHS triages patients waiting for elective care, including surgeries, through clinical prioritisation, ensuring the order in which patients are seen reflects clinical judgement on need as well as taking into account overall wait time.
The Government is taking action to improve efficacy and efficiency of NHS Pathways across the health system. The recently published Elective Reform Plan commits to reforming outpatient care through clinical pathway transformation. Reform will include doing more activity in the community and increasing the opportunities for patients to be referred straight to diagnostic tests without the need to first see a consultant, reducing unnecessary follow-up appointments and freeing up clinical time for those who need it most. The Elective Reform Plan also makes changes to advice and guidance to support more patients being cared for outside of hospitals, avoiding 800,000 unnecessary referrals each year.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase awareness of e-visas in other countries.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office is developing a border and immigration system that is more digital and streamlined. eVisas - which over 6 million people have been successfully using for several years - are a key part of this transformation and will enhance people's experience and increase the immigration system's security and efficiency.
We continue to deliver a wide range of communications activity to raise awareness of eVisas, both in the UK and overseas.
We have undertaken extensive engagement with foreign governments in conjunction with the FCDO to raise awareness of the transition to eVisas and the phasing out of physical immigration documents. Our Engagement Team have met with Embassies and High Commissions and produced communication materials to assist with this transition.
We have also delivered a significant eVisa communications campaign, which has encouraged holders of physical immigration documents to take action to access their eVisa, and key elements of this have sought to reach an international audience. At key points in eVisa delivery throughout 2024, the Home Office communications team issued eVisa announcement press notices to diaspora media and international journalists, and held three press briefings to which international media were invited. This activity resulted in wide-ranging international eVisa media coverage.
We recognise that the transition to eVisas may affect some countries’ internal processes where verification of UK immigration status may be required. We have informed other Governments that a person can do this through a share code, a physical document confirming their UK status or permission, a screen from a person’s UKVI account, or a copy of a letter or email sent to the person when their status or permission was granted. It is a matter for individual countries to set their own policies but we have engaged with them, through FCDO, about what the transition to eVisa means, and continue to do so. We advise that people check what individual countries’ requirements are before travelling or applying for a visa.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of 11 December 2024 from the hon. Member for Tooting, reference number RA60941.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 7 January.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support the rights of women in Afghanistan.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We have repeatedly condemned Taliban restrictions on women and girls' rights, including through UN Security Council and Human Rights Council resolutions. As the Foreign Secretary has said, exclusion of women from all aspects of public life is a tragic setback for Afghanistan. Officials from the Doha-based UK Mission to Afghanistan continue to press Taliban acting ministers and Afghan officials on human rights abuses in Afghanistan, including the most recent ban on female medical education. Our current £161 million aid programme provides vital life-saving support to the country's most vulnerable people, including access to healthcare and education. We are committed that at least 50 percent of people reached with UK aid in Afghanistan will be women and girls.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 made of the potential merits of reforming the non-qualifying leaseholder status for building remediation funding.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We understand that many leaseholders are frustrated by the limits of qualifying status set out in the Building Safety Act.
The principle of the leaseholder protection package is to protect leaseholders living in their own homes in unsafe buildings. They also seek to balance the rights of leaseholders who own additional properties with those freeholders (not connected with the developer) who, like the leaseholders, were innocent in the creation of the emerging defects.
To achieve this balance a threshold was set at ownership of up to three properties in total, to cover those individuals who had purchased properties primarily to live in. The inclusion of up to three properties was aimed at giving protection to, for example, those who had been unable to sell flats that they had been forced to move out of, e.g. because of a growing family.
The Government has committed to review how to better protect leaseholders from costs and take steps to accelerate the pace of remediation across the country.
In the meantime, there is a range of support for those leaseholders whose lease does not qualify for protection under Part 5 of the Building Safety Act 2022. This includes support with cladding remediation and protection for their principal residence on 14 February 2022 if it is in a relevant building above 11 metres or five storeys.