Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 increase the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of radiologists in London.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations in London will have their own plans in place to manage their recruitment and retention needs, based on local workforce planning.
A clear plan for retention is an essential component of an overall supply plan for the NHS. We need to retain the experienced and skilled staff that we already have, and ensure that the NHS is an attractive place to work so that we can bring in the new trainees and recruits that we need. Nationally, the NHS retention programme is working with NHS organisations to improve culture and leadership across the NHS, addressing issues that matter to staff, such as the need for good occupational health and wellbeing support and the promotion of opportunities to work flexibly.
We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. A central and core part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce, and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients when and where they need it.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Online Safety Act 2023 in tackling instances of (a) online deception and (b) coercive and controlling behaviour by impersonations on (i) social media and (ii) dating apps.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act requires all in-scope services to protect users from online illegal content and criminal behaviour on their services. Coercive and controlling behaviour is a priority offence under the Act. Adult users of services over the designated threshold will also have the ability to verify their own identity, reduce the likelihood of seeing non-verified users’ content, and prevent non-verified users from interacting with their content. The government and Ofcom’s priority is getting these protections implemented effectively.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the existing rights for individuals holding British Overseas Citizen status.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
British overseas citizens (BOCs) are subject to UK immigration control, but are eligible for British passports and other consular services.
Many BOCs will have rights, including of residence and travel, that stem from the other nationalities that they hold. BOCs who do not hold, and have not voluntarily lost, any other nationality are able to apply to register as British citizens under section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981. BOCs are also able to apply to register as British citizens after 5 years of living in the UK, and meeting certain residence requirements under section 4(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of financial support available to individuals in hospital whose personal independence payments are paused.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where an adult age 18 or over is maintained free of charge while undergoing medical or other treatment as an in-patient in a hospital or similar institution funded by the NHS, payment of (but not entitlement to) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) ceases after 28 days. This is on the basis that the NHS is responsible for not only the person’s medical care but also the entirety of their disability-related extra costs and to pay PIP in addition would be a duplication of public funds intended for the same purpose. Once someone is discharged from hospital, payment of PIP recommences from the date of discharge.
Entitlement and payment of the standard allowance of Universal Credit will not change if a customer goes into hospital for treatment and/ or care, regardless of the duration of the stay. If the customer has been found to have limited capacity for work or work-related activity, this element will continue to be paid alongside the Universal Credit standard allowance.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals have had personal independence payments withdrawn after entering hospital care for more than 28 days in the last four years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Suspensions of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for admission to hospital are combined in the PIP Computer System with admissions to hospices and care homes. To distinguish hospital care from the other types of accommodation would require manual investigation of individual claimant records.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of HMRC's processing of refund requests for taxpayers.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC aims to process all refunds and repayments within a reasonable timeframe. The processing of these is recorded as part of HMRC’s post turnaround measure. HMRC’s service standard for post turnaround is 80% of customer correspondence cleared within 15 working days of receipt. HMRC’s performance has been 77% from April to August 2024.
Post performance is published monthly and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports#reporting-year-2024-to-2025.
To improve their services and meet published standards HMRC have recently deployed additional customer service advisers. They expect to meet their post service standards in the second half of 2024-25 as the new advisers are trained and up to speed.