Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of fluoridating the water supply in Devon.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made. The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers in their joint statement in September 2021 concluded that on balance, there is strong scientific evidence that water fluoridation is an effective public health intervention for reducing the prevalence of tooth decay and improving dental health equality across the UK.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to publish the research study into single use sky lanterns, disposable barbecues and helium balloons that concluded in March 2023.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra commissioned Eunomia in September 2022 to assess the environmental impacts of single use barbecues, sky lanterns and helium balloons. The research concluded earlier this year and we are hoping to publish the report soon.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish the final report of the Roads policing review.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I believe the Hon member is referring to the Government Response to Call for Evidence on Roads Policing.
The Call for Evidence saw 149 responses submitted, many of which were incredibly detailed. The Government intends to publish the response, once it has given the responses full consideration.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure equal experiences of patients with (a) Chron's disease and (b) Ulcerative Colitis in the South West.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) national specialty report on gastroenterology was published in September 2021. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis is one of the conditions covered under gastroenterological services in the report. The report sets out actions and recommendations to improve patient care in gastroenterology. The aim is to reduce unwarranted variation in treatments and services in, which will ensure consistent care is provided to IBD patients across the country.
The GIRFT programme is now embedded within NHS England programmes to improve quality and productivity, so that best practice is adopted throughout the National Health Service. RightCare scenarios support local systems to identify where patient outcomes, quality of life and service costs can be improved as the result of shifting the care pathway from a suboptimal journey to an optimal one that consistently delivers timely, evidence-based excellence of care. Once published, a new IBD RightCare scenario will set out high-quality joined-up care at every point of the patient journey.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the NHS dentistry backlog in North Devon constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the South-West, NHS England have commissioned additional urgent dental care appointments that people can access via NHS 111.
They have also implemented a new pathway called stabilisation dental care to support those who do not have access to a regular dentist but require non-urgent dental care.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what cost-benefit analysis has been conducted of departmental funding for the Blue Belt programme since its creation in 2012.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Blue Belt initiative was launched in 2016 and has invested over £40 million in enhancing the protection of waters around the UK's Overseas Territories (OT). Over 4.3m square kilometres is designated as protected waters and the Blue Belt supports the OTs on management, monitoring, surveillance and enforcement - less than £10 per protected square kilometre to date. The Blue Belt programme has also raised awareness of the value and global significance of OT waters and contributes to the delivery of the global target to protect 30% of the world's ocean by 2030.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to safeguard the provision of digital terrestrial television and radio broadcast services beyond 2040 for communities in rural areas; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by John Whittingdale
I refer my honourable friend to the answer I gave on 5 June 2023 to her question UIN 186801.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Media Bill on access to digital terrestrial television in the period to 2040.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government remains committed to the future of digital terrestrial television (DTT), the technology which underpins Freeview. Millions of households across the UK rely on DTT, particularly rural communities and older people.
We also recognise the crucial role that DTT services play in the wider UK broadcasting system, in particular in helping ensure that public service content continues to be widely available and free-to-air to all audiences.
For these reasons, the Government has already legislated to secure the continuity of DTT until at least 2034.
As the sector evolves, it is right that we continue to evaluate the future distribution of television services. To that end, and as set out in the Broadcasting White Paper, the Government has asked Ofcom to continue to track changes in DTT viewing and to undertake an early review on market changes that may affect the future of content distribution before the end of 2025.
Before any decisions about the future of terrestrial television are made, close consideration will be given to how any changes would impact audiences, and especially those who rely on DTT as their primary means of watching television.
Separately, the Media Bill will reform decades-old laws to turbocharge the growth potential of our world-leading public service broadcasters (PSBs). The Government has published impact assessments for the draft Media Bill and, as is usual practice, an updated set will be submitted to the Regulatory Policy Committee for independent scrutiny, and published when the Bill is introduced.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Personal Independence Payment assessments were carried out (a) face-to-face, (b) remotely and (c) on paper in each month since 1 September 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments carried out (a) face to face (b) remotely (this includes telephone and video) and (c) paper based can be found in the tables below.
For the months from September 2022 to May 2023 (the latest month figures are available) the number of assessments per channel are:
Month | Face-to-Face | Remote | Paper-Based |
Sep-22 | 6,440 | 62,530 | 15,540 |
Oct-22 | 7,080 | 65,380 | 15,990 |
Nov-22 | 7,540 | 71,150 | 18,340 |
Dec-22 | 5,260 | 52,530 | 13,810 |
Jan-23 | 6,150 | 72,800 | 17,750 |
Feb-23 | 6,880 | 65,810 | 17,420 |
Mar-23 | 7,210 | 78,130 | 20,200 |
Apr-23 | 6,610 | 59,680 | 16,260 |
May-23 | 7,290 | 68,460 | 18,600 |
The channel proportion is:
Month | Face-to-Face | Remote | Paper-Based |
Sep-22 | 7.6% | 74.0% | 18.4% |
Oct-22 | 8.0% | 73.9% | 18.1% |
Nov-22 | 7.8% | 73.3% | 18.9% |
Dec-22 | 7.3% | 73.4% | 19.3% |
Jan-23 | 6.4% | 75.3% | 18.4% |
Feb-23 | 7.6% | 73.0% | 19.3% |
Mar-23 | 6.8% | 74.0% | 19.1% |
Apr-23 | 8.0% | 72.3% | 19.7% |
May-23 | 7.7% | 72.6% | 19.7% |
Please note:
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June to Question 186951 on Packaging: Recycling, how her Department plans to define the life of packaging.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department has no plans currently to define the life of packaging.