Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of making Group B Strep a notifiable disease on the (a) prevention and (b) treatment of this infection in newborns.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Notifiable diseases, listed under schedule 1 of the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010, are kept under review by the Department and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The Government published a public consultation between 12 July and 15 November 2023, seeking views on proposed amendments to the regulations, including adding diseases to schedule 1 to make them notifiable.
Adding Group B Streptococcal (GBS) Infection to schedule 1 was not included in the consultation proposals, but a small number of respondents suggested it could be suitable for inclusion. A summary of responses to the consultation has been published. The Department and the UKHSA are considering the consultation responses, and confirmation of any changes to the regulations will be published in due course.
To increase awareness and understanding of GBS, NHS England published a revised Core Competency Framework in May 2023, which covers the mandated training for all maternity services, which now includes GBS. Undertaking this training will enable midwives and doctors to be better informed when speaking to families about the risk of GBS in labour. The Core Competency Framework is incentivised through the maternity incentive scheme administrated by NHS Resolution.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what systems her Department has in place to (a) track and (b) report cases of Group B Strep infection; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of making Group B Strep a notifiable disease on those systems.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
National surveillance systems, established and managed by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), are used to monitor trends, characteristics, and outcomes of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection, vital to prevention efforts. These include the reporting of cases diagnosed in local microbiology laboratories, and the submission of clinical isolates to the national reference laboratory. Analyses based on this surveillance is published in annual reports.
The UKHSA has jointly co-ordinated periods of enhanced surveillance with academic and public health collaborators, allowing greater understanding of risk factors and outcomes of infection, vital in identifying opportunities for prevention. Data generated through laboratory surveillance is utilised to assess the impact of prevention efforts.
The list of notifiable diseases is kept under review by the Department, with UKHSA involvement. Should GBS be added to the list of notifiable diseases, the means to assess the impact of this change on surveillance data will be considered.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to The Hughes Report, published by the Patient Safety Commissioner on 7 February 2024, if she will ensure that people impacted by bowel mesh are eligible for financial redress.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course. Bowel mesh, also known as rectopexy mesh, did not fall within the definition of pelvic organ prolapse that the PSC investigated for her report.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her Department's timescales are for responding to The Hughes Report, published by the Patient Safety Commissioner on 7 February 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course. Bowel mesh, also known as rectopexy mesh, did not fall within the definition of pelvic organ prolapse that the PSC investigated for her report.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure coordination across Government departments on the efficient implementation of the full infected blood compensation scheme.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
Ministerial colleagues and I, as well as officials in the Cabinet Office and relevant other Government Departments, are working closely to ensure effective design and implementation of the Government response to Inquiry, with regular meetings and engagement across Whitehall.
The Government is committed to responding to the recommendations made by Sir Brian Langstaff in full, after the publication of the final report. The Government has appointed an expert group to provide advice on recommendations regarding compensation, and we are bringing forward amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill at Report Stage in the Other Place to speed up the Government response to the Inquiry.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what preparations his Department is making for the roll-out of the infected blood compensation scheme.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
Ministerial colleagues and I, as well as officials in the Cabinet Office and relevant other Government Departments, are working closely to ensure effective design and implementation of the Government response to Inquiry, with regular meetings and engagement across Whitehall.
The Government is committed to responding to the recommendations made by Sir Brian Langstaff in full, after the publication of the final report. The Government has appointed an expert group to provide advice on recommendations regarding compensation, and we are bringing forward amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill at Report Stage in the Other Place to speed up the Government response to the Inquiry.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to recommendation 4.10 in the Annex entitled Guidelines for the implementation of the wise use concept in the publication entitled Guidelines for development and implementing National Wetland Policies adopted by Resolution VII.6 of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, whether his Department plans to formulate a National Wetland Strategy.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The UK plays an active role to support and implement the conservation and wise use of wetlands through the Ramsar Convention. In England we are not currently planning to publish a separate National Wetland Strategy but have set out our plan to recover nature and restore our habitats and wetlands in the revised Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP23), as well as our England Peat Action Plan. We are also meeting our commitments under the Ramsar Convention, as laid out in our Environmental Improvement Plan and the National Adaptation Plan, through establishing a UK Wetland Inventory - mapping our wetlands for the first time and supporting future action to protect these vital habitats.
We recognise that wetland restoration will be critical to protect the vast number of wetland species as well as providing critical nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaption. By 2030 we have domestically committed to halt the decline in species abundance and by 2042 we aim to reverse species decline; to reduce the risk of species extinction; and to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats outside protected sites. Many wetlands are also Protected Sites, of which we have committed to restore 75% to favourable condition by 2042.
Alongside setting targets in other areas including water and air quality, we are taking targeted action to recover our wetlands. Our recently announced and government-supported Lost Wetlands Nature Recovery Project will reclaim, restore and rewet a mosaic of wetland habitats over 5,000ha in South Greater Manchester and North Cheshire, previously lost to industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural intensification. Defra has also launched a 60,000-hectare Nature Recovery Project focusing on the Somerset Wetlands, with the 6,140-hectare super National Nature Reserve at its heart. These projects will enhance connectivity, species recovery and resilience to climate change.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of the Post Office Horizon Scandal GLO compensation claimants are represented by lawyers who have not signed up to the tariff of reasonable legal costs.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
My Department has offered to meet the reasonable legal costs of postmasters applying to the GLO scheme in line with a tariff agreed with claimants’ legal representatives. I wrote to all GLO postmasters in December 2022 advising them not to engage any lawyer who asks them for payment, as this might mean their compensation would be reduced by legal costs which they could not recover. My Department’s understanding is that only one lawyer has been engaged on that basis, representing one or two out of 492 claimants in the GLO scheme.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people entered the NHS midwifery workforce through (a) undergraduate training, (b) an apprenticeship, (c) a postgraduate conversion, (d) a return to midwifery programme and (e) international recruitment in the most recent period for which data are available; and if her Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of each such route on the size of the midwifery workforce in each of the (i) last and (ii) next five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS England is currently considering the methodology for undertaking a proper assessment of the impact of the various supply routes into the midwifery workforce.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in 2023 sets out the need to grow midwifery education and training, in line with the conclusions of the Ockenden Review. We will increase midwifery training placements from a baseline of 3,778 places to 4,269 places, and that by 2028 we envisage that about 5% will be through apprenticeships. We envisage that trusts will meet establishment levels set by midwifery staffing tools and achieve fill rates by 2027/28. Recent investment in midwifery of 650 training places in 2019 and 1,000 in each of the following three years means we expect to see solid growth in midwives of between 1.8 and 1.9% per year over the course of the plan. These increases are being measured against the 2018/19 baseline of 2,715 starters on midwifery programmes. And in early 2022, a funding offer was agreed to support 300 places for adult nurses on the shortened midwifery programme.
Asked by: Siobhan Baillie (Conservative - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the availability of flexible working arrangements for midwives.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
‘We work flexibly’ is one of the elements contained in the NHS People Promise with a commitment to deliver for staff, including midwives by 2024/25.
NHS England has created and shared flexible working arrangement resources and delivered bespoke webinars and workshops on the issue. They have also brought together midwifery leaders from across the system to share good practice, foster collaboration and support the implementation of flexible working across maternity services.
In September 2021, contractual changes took effect for employees covered by the NHS Terms & Conditions of Service Handbook which includes the right to request flexible working from day one without the need to provide a justification.
However, no assessment of the adequacy of the availability of flexible working arrangements specifically for midwives has been made.