Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2023 to Question 2154 on Gynaecology: Waiting Lists, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of waiting times for NHS gynaecology services in Rotherham.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is taking action to recover elective services, including for patients waiting for National Health Service gynaecology services in Rotherham, by providing record levels of staffing and funding as the NHS implements the Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care. We have not made a specific assessment of waiting times for NHS gynaecology services in Rotherham.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Scottish and Welsh counterparts on banning the import and sale of fur since April 2022.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has regular discussions with the Devolved Administrations about a range of animal welfare topics. This includes our work to build the evidence base on the fur sector.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help parents access specialist support needed to enable their child to (a) fully participate in school life and (b) avoid being regularly absent.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Specialist support for children with additional needs to participate in education and avoid being regularly absent is vitally important. The department is taking a number of steps towards both these goals. In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the department set out plans to build a consistent national SEND and AP system that parents and carers can trust, easily navigate, and have confidence in.
The foundation for the new nationally consistent system will be evidenced-based National Standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The Standards will clarify the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and who is responsible for securing the support. This will help families, practitioners and providers understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education, no matter where they live or what their needs are.
On 22 November 2023, the department also announced Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools. This new programme, backed by £13 million of investment, will bring together Integrated Care Boards, local authorities, and schools, working in partnership with parents and carer to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodiverse children. These measures will also benefit attendance, improving which is a top priority for the government. The department recognises that pupils with SEND can face additional barriers.
To ensure pupils receive the support they need to regularly attend and participate in school, the department has published guidance expecting schools to have sensitive conversations with families about attendance, work with parents to develop specific support approaches, establish strategies for removing any in-school barriers and ensure joined up pastoral care is in place where needed.
A range of programmes including attendance hubs spreading best practice across school and attendance mentors providing one-to-one support will also tackle absence for children with SEND.
In addition, the department is investing £2.6 billion between now and 2025 to fund new special and AP places and improve existing provision, including opening 33 new special free schools, with a further 48 in the pipeline; and £21 million to go towards training 400 more educational psychologists, building on the £10 million investment announced earlier in 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason her Department has indefinitely delayed the introduction of the Liberty Protection Standards.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The difficult decision to delay the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards was not taken lightly. We have done so to enable the Department, and local partners, to prioritise the reforms set out in the Next Steps to Put People at the Heart of Care plan. These include investment in the workforce, technology, and support for unpaid carers.
These priorities, alongside the funding uplift of up to £8.1 billion over this year and next to strengthen adult social care provision, will drive forward our ambition of ensuring that everyone can access the right care, in the right place, at the right time. Until the Liberty Protection Safeguards come into force, the existing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, which form a key part of the Mental Capacity Act, remain in place and ensure that decisions are made in a person's best interests.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual cost to the public purse is of NHS repeat prescriptions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information is not held in the format requested. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds information on the net ingredient cost (NIC) for both repeat dispensing, where a patient is able to obtain repeat supplies of National Health Service prescriptions without the need for their general practitioner (GP) to issue a prescription each time a supply is required, and repeat prescribing, where the patient still needs to obtain an NHS prescription from their GP each time they require their prescribed medication or appliances. The NIC is the basic reimbursement cost of a medicine. It does not consider discounts, amount for containers or other added reimbursement expenses so the final amount the NHS pays will be different.
The following table shows the total number of items and NIC for both repeat dispensing and repeat prescribing for prescriptions that have been dispensed in the community in England for financial year 2022/23:
| Total Number of Items | Total Net Ingredient Cost (£) |
NHS Repeat Dispensing | 156,550,745 | 490,019,357 |
NHS Repeat Prescribing | 734,963,250 | 7,100,020,164 |
Source: NHSBSA
As identified in Good for you, good for us, good for everybody: a plan to reduce overprescribing to make patient care better and safer, support the NHS, and reduce carbon emissions in 2021, addressing overprescribing is a key area of opportunity for delivering greater value for money in medicines in the NHS, and it forms part of NHS England’s ongoing Medicines Value programme priorities.
Notes:
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to the oral evidence given by Andrew McCoubrey, Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan of his Department, to the Foreign Affairs Committee on Follow-up to Afghanistan Inquiry on 17 October 2023, Q33, HC 1888 of Session 2022-23, what steps the Government has taken to encourage the World Bank to release further funds from the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund to provide (a) humanitarian assistance following the recent earthquake in Afghanistan and (b) support for Afghan people during winter 2023-23.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The FCDO is committed to supporting Afghanistan's citizens, including helping them respond to the recent earthquake. We provided an additional £1 million to Red Cross and the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund to provide emergency shelter, food and health assistance. The UK has been instrumental in unlocking over $1 billion through the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund and we continue to work with the World Bank to deliver support at scale in health, food security and community resilience in the earthquake affected areas.
In 2023/24, we are providing the World Food Programme with over £30 million to deliver humanitarian assistance, including prepositioning essential winter food supplies in hard-to-reach areas.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to the oral evidence given by Andrew McCoubrey, Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan of his Department, to the Foreign Affairs Committee on Follow-up to Afghanistan Inquiry on 17 October 2023, Q33, HC 1888 of Session 2022-23, if he will make a commitment to publishing his Department’s analysis of the implications for UK aid funding decisions for Afghanistan of the United Nations Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment of Afghanistan, due to be completed by the end of November 2023.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
As the Development White Paper highlights, the UK Government prioritises humanitarian assistance to people in greatest need. On Monday the UK hosted the Global Food Security Summit, announcing up to £100 million in new humanitarian funding to countries worst hit by food insecurity, including Afghanistan. We continue to monitor the food security situation in Afghanistan, including analysing Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) data and other assessments and evidence, and use these to inform portfolio planning. In recognition of the needs in Afghanistan this year, we provided the World Food Programme with over £30 million for emergency food, cash and nutrition assistance.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to deliver family hubs in every area of the country.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is investing around £300 million through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme to enable 75 local authorities to create family hubs, and to improve vital services to give every baby the best start in life.
The local authorities taking part in the programme were selected by targeting areas with the highest levels of deprivation. An additional £28 million has also been made available to these local authorities to improve early language development, by supporting parents to help their children learn at home. This builds on the government’s previous investment to champion family hubs, including a £12 million transformation fund which will open family hubs in a further 13 local authorities in England.
This investment in family hubs is significant. It will have a wide reach across the country, improving outcomes for thousands of babies, children, and families.
The department’s ambition is to see family hubs open across the country. However, it is crucial that the department focuses on delivering well in the local areas that it is currently funding. The department will continue to build the model and evidence base, whilst working with the National Centre for Family Hubs to champion and spread good practice for all local authorities. The evidence and learning from this investment will help to improve services across England where they are most needed and help to build the evidence based for future investment decisions.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the implementation of UK sanctions against the Burmese military.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Since the coup in February 2021, we have imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and 29 entities. On 31 October, we announced our sixteenth round of sanctions, targeting those who profit from supplying Myanmar's military with finance and arms. Our sanctions implementation is robust - HM Treasury assesses every instance of reported non-compliance and takes action in all cases where we conclude a breach has occurred. The UK is considering a range of further targets to hold the Myanmar regime to account and will continue to maintain international efforts to ensure sanctions are effective and investigate activities that support circumvention.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the views of teachers are taken into account in its review of the Relationships, Sex, Health and Education statutory guidance.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In carrying out its review of the Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance, the department has sought evidence from a range of stakeholders, including groups representing teachers and schools, to share evidence about areas of the guidance they think should be strengthened.
A small group of teachers also contributed their views directly in the roundtables with Ministers, which took place over summer 2023, focusing on key topics such as suicide prevention and RSHE teaching materials.
Teachers will also have an opportunity to present their views as part of the public consultation on revised guidance due to be launched in the coming months.