Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 8343 on Universal Credit, what progress his Department has made on reviewing Universal Credit in the context of rent charging years with 53 Mondays.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department will be considering the issue of rent charging years with 53 Mondays as part of its wider Universal Credit Review.
The Department is committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to and meeting our objectives of making work pay and tackling poverty. We have already begun this work with the introduction of the new fair repayment rate announced in the Budget. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders as the review progresses to seek views on proposed areas of focus and untapped opportunities in UC. Parliament will be updated on progress and future changes accordingly.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of the total cost of running Personal Independence Payment is spent on the provision of face-to-face and over the phone assessments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held by the Department.
For both the legacy Personal Independence Payment contracts (that completed on 6 September 2024) and the new Functional Assessment Service contracts, providers do not/did not split their costs by service channel.
Under the new Functional Assessment Service contracts, the costs provided by the Suppliers are not split between the individual service elements (ie Personal Independence payments, Work Capability Assessments and Specialist Benefits).
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce cost inefficiencies in purchasing medical supplies.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s new Operating Model, published on 30 January, sets out in Section 4 how it will support National Health Service bodies to deliver efficiencies by improving commercial arrangements. Further information is available at the following link:
These include supporting them to make full use of the products, goods, and services available through the NHS Supply Chain, when best value exists, to procure from frameworks operated by an accredited framework host, to use the NHS Spend Comparison Service to identify savings, the Health Commercial System, also known as Atamis, to undertake commercial activity, and the NHS procurement value and savings methodology to track and report on procurement savings and benefits.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure the timely release of funds by banks to executors of wills.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
In recent years banks and building societies have sought to make the bereavement process easier by increasing the amount they will release without needing a grant of probate. As such the threshold varies between different firms. The nominal threshold in legislation is to require probate to be obtained for estates above £5000 in value (The Administration of Estates (Small Payments) Act 1965), although in practice many financial institutions operate a threshold of £20,000. Banks also differ on issues such as whether they are willing to release funds for funeral and other essential expenses ahead of probate being granted. These are commercial decisions.
UK banks and building societies are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA does not have specific rules or guidance regarding probate in its rules. Nonetheless, banks are bound by the FCA’s Consumer Duty which requires firms to act to deliver good outcomes and avoid causing harm to customers. The FCA also provides guidance on firms providing fair treatment for vulnerable customers, which includes those going through a bereavement. If an executor is having a dispute with a bank, then they will be able to raise a formal complaint. The FCA’s rules require firms to properly investigate all complaints, and it continues to monitor firms’ complaint handling processes.
The Government is also supportive of previous industry efforts to improve handling of these sensitive cases, including the Financial Services Death Notification Service developed by UK Finance.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will introduce a re-insurance scheme for properties at risk due to coastal erosion.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The £36 million coastal transition accelerator programme is supporting communities and businesses at risk of coastal erosion to transition and adapt to a changing coast.
This includes working with the finance and property sectors to explore innovative finance or funding mechanisms to help move communities away from rapidly eroding areas, for instance schemes to incentivise the relocation of at-risk infrastructure for businesses and homeowners.
The Environment Agency administers the Coastal Erosion Assistance Grant on behalf of Defra. The grant provides £6,000 per property to assist local authorities with the demolition and removal costs associated with homes at imminent risk from coastal erosion.
There are currently no plans to extend the scope of the Flood Re scheme, however Defra regularly reviews all policies, including eligibility for Flood Re.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of when he will meet his target of providing an extra 62,000 neurology appointments in England in each year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients have been let down for too long whilst they wait for the care they need. Currently, the waiting list stands at 7.48 million patient pathways, with over 6 million people waiting, including 235,000 on neurology waiting lists.
We will ensure that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by March 2029, increasing performance to 65% by March 2026, as set out in the Elective Reform Plan. We will deliver an additional 2 million operations, scans, and appointments across all specialties, including neurology appointments, during our first year in Government, as a First Step in our commitment to ensuring that patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.
Alongside the breadth of reforms and productivity efforts in the plan, we will increase activity, deliver improvements in patient experience, and reduce waiting times for neurology patients across the country.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a cross-Government strategy on the health and wellbeing of coastal communities.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
We are taking action across Government to address the environmental and socio-economic determinants of health, and are aiming to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions. We know that targeted action to tackle health inequalities will facilitate economic opportunities, and support a National Health Service fit for the future.
Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of the 10-Year Health Plan, to ensure the NHS is there for anyone who needs it, whenever they need it. We have established 11 working groups to take forward policy development that will feed into the plan. This includes working groups focused on how care should be designed and delivered to improve healthcare equity, alongside ensuring that access to healthcare services is effective and responsive.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prescriptions for pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy were dispensed by Norfolk and Waveney (a) integrated care board and (b) clinical commissioning group in each year between 2019 and 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) provided by the NHS Business Services Authority gives the total number of prescription items of each medicine dispensed in the community in England. The following data relates to prescriptions for products that fall within the definition as set out in Paragraph 010904, related to pancreatin, in the British National Formulary.
The following table shows the total number of National Health Service prescription items that were dispensed in the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, regardless of where prescribed, from January 2019 to November 2024
Year | Number of prescription items |
2019 | 14,291 |
2020 | 13,587 |
2021 | 13,933 |
2022 | 13,933 |
2023 | 14,460 |
2024 | 14,698 |
Note: data for 2024 is from January to November.
The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) relates to the prescribing organisation, so the following statistics are consistent with the English Prescribing datasets rather than the dispensing organisation shown in PCA.
The following table shows the total number of NHS prescription items that were prescribed by cost centres linked to the Sub Integrated Care Board Location (SICBL), or prior to 2020 the CCG area of Norfolk and Waveney, from January 2019 to November 2024:
Year | Number of prescription items |
2019 | 14,290 |
2020 | 13,727 |
2021 | 14,238 |
2022 | 14,387 |
2023 | 14,904 |
2024 | 14,935 |
Note: data for 2024 is from January to November.
Historical data has been re-presented using the latest NHS organisation structure. These two tables are not directly comparable as the data available for integrated care boards relates to dispensing, whereas the data available at the SICBL or CCG level relates to items prescribed.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve (a) data for and (b) research into coastal communities.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The National Institute for Heath and Care Research (NIHR) has funded a range of research specifically focusing on coastal populations, including investing in local authority and higher education partnerships, as well as studies that focussed on health care in these areas. Further information about this research is available at the following link:
https://nihr.opendatasoft.com/pages/homepage/
The NIHR has a Research Inclusion Strategy which, amongst other objectives, aims to widen research access and participation for greater diversity and inclusion, including for populations in coastal communities. Further information on the strategy is available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/who-we-are/research-inclusion/strategy-2022-27
The NIHR’s research funding guidance requires researchers to show how they will make sure their research is inclusive and addresses inequalities in health and care, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/who-we-are/research-inclusion/funding-application-guidance
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential (a) cultural and (b) historic merits of protecting areas from flooding and coastal erosion in a future review of the flooding formula.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We will launch a consultation in the coming months which will include a review of the existing flood funding formula to ensure that the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account when delivering flood protection. Feedback will be sought on the advantages and disadvantages of potential reforms to the flood funding formula.