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 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.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department have taken to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to delivering the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in October 2027, as agreed with the devolved governments of the UK, and in accordance with the Joint Policy Statement published in April 2024.
We plan to lay the DRS regulations for England/Northern Ireland before Parliament in late 2024 and for them to come into force in early 2025 (assuming parliamentary time allows) and for the Deposit Management Organisation, who will run the scheme, to be appointed in April 2025 as planned.
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, whether he has made an assessment of the potential health benefits of magnesium supplements.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s nutrition advice is based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and its predecessor, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutritional Policy (COMA).
The COMA set dietary reference values for magnesium for men and women aged 19 to 64 years old at 300 milligrams and 270 milligrams a day, respectively. Current Government advice is that individuals should be able to get all the magnesium they need by eating a varied and balanced diet.
The SACN discussed the topic of magnesium as part of its horizon scanning in 2020, 2022, and 2024. Meeting papers are available on the SACN webpage. The committee has noted that while ‘significant proportions of the population had [low intakes], there was limited evidence that this was of public health concern’. There is no agreed biomarker for measuring magnesium status.
Magnesium is therefore on the SACN’s watching brief as a low priority, and the SACN may consider it again in future, if there are any developments regarding biomarkers for magnesium status, to warrant a review of recommendations.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate she has made of the number of leasehold properties in England which contain Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not gather data on the number of leasehold properties which contain Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). However, our current assessment is that prevalence of RAAC is low in housing.
All building owners should continue to manage building safety and performance risks of all kinds in their buildings, including RAAC, in a proportionate, risk-based, and evidence-based manner. To do so, they should continue to follow guidance published by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) to identify, assess, and manage issues relating to RAAC.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make a request to his Azerbaijani counterpart for a UK delegation to visit the 23 Armenian prisoners being held by Azerbaijan in order to (a) verify their conditions and (b) ensure that international standards and conventions are being complied before COP29 in Baku in November.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has consistently urged the Azerbaijani authorities, including ahead of COP29, to ensure that those in detention are afforded a fair trial and are provided safe conditions, in accordance with Azerbaijan's international obligations and commitments. We are in touch with the UK delegation visiting Azerbaijan for COP29 to ensure a smooth visit to the country, however we have not received a formal request for UK Government support to visit Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.
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 potential impact of the roll-out of Electronic Travel Authorisation requirements on (a) processing times for non-UK based passengers transiting through airports in the UK and (b) queuing times.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme was launched to secure our borders and make the UK safer, by enhancing our ability to screen travellers upstream. The scheme will apply to passengers from eligible countries who are transiting the UK. ETAs form part of our long-term plan for a slicker, more efficient border, with a greater number of passengers able to benefit from automation at the border, enabling our highly skilled Border Force officers to focus on those who pose the most harm or are at the most risk.
We continue to engage positively with industry, and support the aviation sector in understanding what ETAs and wider digitisation will mean for passengers.