Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on the (a) Childcare Allowance (b) Parent Learning Allowance and (c) Dependent's Allowance of the NHS Bursary; and how many people have (i) made a claim and (ii) been eligible for support under that scheme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
Prior to 2017, the NHS Bursary was available to nursing, midwifery and allied health professions students as well as medical and dental students. Nursing, midwifery and allied health professions students starting courses after 2017 were transitioned on to the Student Finance loans system and the NHS Learning Support Fund.
The following table shows for the years 2018/19 to 2022/23 the number of students who received an element of NHS Bursary, together with the number of students who received available childcare components and their corresponding expenditure.
Financial Year | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23* |
Number of Students who Received an Element of Funding | 67,748 | 43,470 | 20,147 | 17,289 | 18,076 |
Number of Students in Receipt of Dependants Allowance | 9,178 | 5,050 | 1,096 | 357 | 247 |
Dependants Allowance Expenditure (£) | 19,053,850 | 8,344,526 | 1,599,887 | 539,752 | 363,775 |
Number of Students in Receipt of Parent Learning Allowance | 9,141 | 5,033 | 1,077 | 332 | 179 |
Parent Learning Allowance Expenditure (£) | 7,846,287 | 3,417,731 | 653,253 | 211,489 | 103,489 |
Number of Students in Receipt of Childcare Allowance | 5,031 | 2,557 | 576 | 144 | 83 |
Childcare Allowance Expenditure (£) | 16,659,222 | 7,028,750 | 1,313,955 | 399,834 | 238,972 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
Note: The NHS Business Services Authority moved to a new system in 2022/23. The student count is from two different IT systems with no unique identifier, with potential for duplication in the count. Financial values are unaffected.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what stocks NHS England has of (a) covid-19 boosters, (b) covid-19 rapid tests, (c) N95 masks and (d) flu vaccines as of October 2023, in the context of preparations for winter 2023-24.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
COVID-19 vaccines are purchased by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). NHS England manages the distribution of stock to the front-line. At the beginning of the autumn/winter campaign, NHS England had access to 14.5 million doses of applicable vaccines, to meet the needs of the eligible cohorts as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. NHS England also has stocks of 1,509,200 COVID-19 rapid tests and 114,061,080 FFP3 respirators.
NHS England does not centrally procure or stock any adult flu vaccines. General practitioners and other providers are responsible for ordering adult flu vaccine directly from suppliers, which are used to deliver the national flu programme to the other eligible groups.
Children’s flu vaccines are centrally procured and distributed by UKHSA. We are unable to provide specific stack levels as this information is commercially sensitive but there are adequate stocks of the live attenuated vaccine.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on Parental Support from the NHS Learning Support Fund in each of the last five years; and how many people have (a) made a claim and (b) been eligible for support under that scheme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows for the years 2018/19 to 2022/23 the number of students who received an element of funding from the NHS Learning Support Fund, together with the number of students who received available childcare component and its corresponding expenditure:
Financial Year | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 |
Students who Received an Element of Funding | 14,067 | 26,382 | 110,923 | 130,213 | 133,658 |
Students in Receipt of Child Dependants Allowance (CDA) or Parental Support (PS) | 8,014 | 14,013 | 36,192 | 34,034 | 35,649 |
CDA and PS Expenditure (£) | 5,908,671 | 11,700,520 | 35,068,824 | 49,751,801 | 52,565,170 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on the Childcare Allowance and Parents’ Learning Allowance of the Social Work Bursary in each of the last five years; and how many people have (a) made a claim and (b) been eligible for support under that scheme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Suggested reply
The following table shows the breakdown of funding offered to parents across the Social Work Bursary scheme:
Financial Year | Number of students in receipt of Parent Learning Allowance | Parent Learning Allowance Expenditure (£) | Number of students in receipt of Childcare Allowance | Childcare Allowance Expenditure (£) |
2018/19 | 1,239 | 1,236,341 | 567 | 2,114,319 |
2019/20 | 1,256* | 1,211,047 | 630* | 2,124,705 |
2020/21 | 1,175 | 1,183,842 | 573 | 2,252,088 |
2021/22 | 1,083 | 1,061,297 | 458 | 1,941,897 |
2022/23 | 958 | 911,748 | 389 | 1,484,316 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA)
Note: NHS BSA cannot give a count of applications that were deemed ineligible for the parent learning allowance or childcare allowance, as they do not directly record this in their systems. The information for the 2019/20 financial year contains data from two different IT systems with no unique identifiers, so there is a possibility of duplication in the count of students funded.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will issue guidance to Integrated Care Boards on transparency around commissioning decisions including (a) which commissioning decisions and details thereof should be published and (b) which commissioning decisions and details thereof should be considered commercially sensitive for purposes of freedom of Information requests.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department and NHS England are working to reform the rules on procurement for healthcare services, otherwise known as the ‘Provider Selection Regime’, including for transparency surrounding decisions, and will provide an update on this in due course. Right now, integrated care boards (ICBs) must follow the current rules on transparency in procurement as set out in the Procurement, Patient Choice, and Competition Regulations (PPCCR) 2013 (No. 2) and the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2015.
ICBs are responsible for ensuring that commercially sensitive information is handled appropriately and in line with the law.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral statement of 25 May 2023, Official Report, column 477, when his Department will confirm how much funding will be provided for the rebuilding of Whipps Cross Hospital; and when the funding will be available to Barts Health NHS Trust.
Answered by Will Quince
We are committed to delivering the Whipps Cross New Hospital Programme scheme by 2030 and we are working with all Trusts to progress their new hospital builds with the certainty of the Programme now expected to be backed by over £20 billion. All schemes in the Programme, including Barts Health NHS Trust, have now received the details of of individual indicative funding envelopes to work towards in the progression of their schemes.
The disclosure of individual funding allocations is commercially sensitive information and could undermine future negotiating positions for the scheme, and should therefore not be released into the public domain. As per usual process, the availability of the funding for the full scheme is subject to the Final Business Case being reviewed and agreed.
Up to the end of financial year 2022/2023, Barts Health NHS Trust has received £18.9m to support the development of the business case as well as a range of preparatory activity to prepare the site ahead of main construction, such as demolition works.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of NHS flexible working practices on levels of GP recruitment and retention.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Government actively encourages better flexible working such as job-sharing and part-time hours. To support retention, the National GP Retention scheme is a package of financial and educational support to help doctors who might otherwise leave the profession remain in clinical practice.
However, as self-employed contractors to the National Health Service to provide primary medical services, it is largely up to general practices how they distribute pay and benefits to their staff. Employers have the flexibility to set terms and conditions, including to aid recruitment and retention.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of GPs that have left their practice (a) immediately following and (b) in the year following a period of parental leave in each of the last five years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, (a) what arrangements her Department has in place to help ensure that hospital trusts who have entered PFI contracts for buildings remain able to afford interest payments on those contracts and (b) what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of those arrangements in the context of rising inflation and interest rates.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department and NHS England are in regular discussions with National Health Service trusts over their financial affairs and this would include the impact of inflation on trusts’ contracts.
This Government has taken decisive action in response to the inflationary pressures on the NHS. On top of the additional funding of £3.3 billion from the 2022 Autumn Statement in each of the next two years NHS England has provided an additional £1.5 billion in funding to the NHS in 2022/23. This has been added to system allocations and is covering a range of pressures reported by systems including energy costs, higher costs of consumables, and the cost of PFI contracts that are tied to the retail price index.
The payments due under NHS PFI contracts are not subject to changes in interest rates. In 2023/24 the funding issued to the NHS, and reflected in the NHS payment scheme cost uplift factor, takes account of inflationary pressures in 2022/23 as well as further growth to account for expected non-pay inflation and energy price increases in 2023/24.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to certificates which exempt the holder from prescription charges, how many (a) Medical Exemption Certificates (b) NHS tax credit exemption certificates and (c) Maternity Exemption Certificates were held in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the number of certificates issued in each requested category, in each of the last five years. This information has been provided by the NHS Business Services Authority. Data on certificates held at any one point in time changes as certificates expire, eligibility changes and individuals choose or choose not to apply for a medical or maternity exemption certificate.
Certificate Issued Year | Maternity Certificate | Medical Certificate | Tax Credit Certificate | Grand Total |
2018 | 474,982 | 463,022 | 3,793,684 | 4,731,688 |
2019 | 483,299 | 457,021 | 3,437,594 | 4,377,914 |
2020 | 444,670 | 366,960 | 2,555,064 | 3,366,694 |
2021 | 463,214 | 387,787 | 1,977,486 | 2,828,487 |
2022 | 471,603 | 397,552 | 1,540,848 | 2,410,003 |
Grand total | 2,337,768 | 2,072,342 | 13,304,676 | 17,714,786 |