Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to meet the Government’s ageing society target of five extra healthier, more independent years of life as identified in the Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Delivering the Government’s Ageing Society Grand Challenge will require complex systems thinking across a number of areas including housing, financial support, workforce as well as health and care. We are working with a range of partners across Government, industry, academia and the voluntary sector and we are taking steps in number of areas. These include building United Kingdom business awareness of the longevity economy and age-diverse workforce; supporting local places through Local Industrial Strategies to address the opportunities and challenges of an ageing society; and building research and innovation collaborations with international partners.
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 incorporate research and evidence into healthy nutrition and physical activity into the Government’s ageing society target of five healthier, more independent years of life as identified in the Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s consultation document ‘Advancing our Health: Prevention in the 2020s’, was published in July 2019. It sets out proposals to support the achievement of the Ageing Society Grand Challenge Mission for everyone to enjoy five extra years of healthy, independent living by 2035 whilst narrowing the gap between the richest and poorest.
‘Advancing our Health’ included the third chapter of the childhood obesity plan which sets out further measures to help meet our ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030 and significantly reduce the gap in obesity between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030. All chapters of the plan were informed by the latest research and emerging evidence, including from debates in Parliament and various reports from key stakeholders. We have also captured analysis from the National Institute for Health Research Obesity Policy Research Unit, which was established as part of the initial plan, through £5 million investment over five years.
Government nutrition advice is underpinned by the best available scientific evidence, which is regularly reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Committee for Nutrition. In the United Kingdom the Eatwell Guide represents current government recommendations on a healthy, balanced diet to promote long term health at a population level. The Eatwell Guide applies to most people over the age of five and is available to view at the following link:
The UK Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidelines published in September 2019 reflect the most up to date review of evidence for muscle and balance health. These guidelines provide recommendations and targets for different age groups and for people with disability.
‘Advancing our Health: Prevention in the 2020s’ is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/advancing-our-health-prevention-in-the-2020s
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of time it will take to meet the Government’s ageing society target of five healthier, more independent years of life.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Through the Ageing Society Grand Challenge (ASGC), led by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Government has set an ambitious mission to “ensure that people can enjoy at least five extra healthy, independent years of life by 2035”.
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What recent steps she has taken to support businesses in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
We are committed to making the UK the best place to start and grow a business.
BEIS has unveiled several new measures to support business across the UK, including an £88 million boost for productivity and the publication of the SME Finance Charter.
We have also invested £591 million to South East Local Enterprise Partnership, which covers South Basildon and East Thurrock, to empower local areas to reach their potential, boosting national productivity and growth.
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will publish the Green Paper on prevention.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We published our prevention Green Paper ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, on 22 July. The consultation ended on 14 October and we are currently analysing the responses.
A copy of the prevention Green Paper can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/advancing-our-health-prevention-in-the-2020s
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps UKRI are taking to support interdisciplinary working in UK research.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
UK Research and Innovation has established several mechanisms to encourage and support multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and this is a central theme in the organisation’s recently published Delivery Plans. In addition to examples taking place across its Councils, UKRI supports a multibillion pound portfolio of cross-cutting funds demonstrating commitment to interdisciplinary research.
The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and Future Leaders Fellowships, for example, were both designed to encourage and support interdisciplinary projects. The Strategic Priorities Fund realises Sir Paul Nurse’s vision of a ‘common fund’ and is already investing in interdisciplinary projects that each bring together several of UKRI’s councils along with government departments to tackle shared challenges and opportunities.
In addition to these targeted programmes, quality-related funding awarded by Research England allows universities and researchers in England to address their research priorities as they identify them
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What progress the Government has made on improving training and support for prison officers.
Answered by Robert Buckland
A delivery review of the Prison Officer Entry Level training (POELT) course has culminated in the development of a Level 3 Custody and Detention Officer Apprenticeship. New learning methodologies will have greater focus on practice of the knowledge, skills and behaviours relevant to the Prison Officer role whilst also recognising the need for continuous training outside of the classroom. Two checkpoints will be included during this time where Apprentices will return to an L&D centre for further learning. |
This will give new prison officers the confidence to carry out their role safely. The Apprenticeship will be launched in early adopter sites from October 2019. All training is reviewed regularly to ensure it reflects current organisational policies and practices. New courses are developed based on requests from Stakeholders within the organisation.
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was allocated from the public purse to dementia research in 2017-18.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government remains strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and the United Kingdom research community is playing a significant role in the global effort to find a cure or a major disease-modifying treatment by 2025.
The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The usual practice of the NIHR is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics such as dementia. Research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including dementia. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.
NIHR funding for dementia research was £43.0 million in 2017/18, having increased from £27 million in 2013/14. Government spending overall on dementia research is running ahead of the Government’s 2020 Dementia Challenge commitment to maintain this at £300 million over five years. The total in 2017/18 was £82.5 million (£43 million via the NIHR, £36.3 million via the Medical Research Council and £3.2 million via the Economic and Social Research Council).
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage more people to participate in dementia research.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s Dementia 2020 Challenge aims to make England the best country in the world for dementia care, support, awareness and research. The Government is committed to supporting research into dementia to find a disease-modifying treatment by 2025, and to help people with dementia live well with the condition. People participating in research are a vital part of this effort.
Significant progress has been made to increase participation, notably via Join Dementia Research. This service is run by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR, which is funded by the Department), and the charities Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK. To date, 40,286 people have registered with the service to be informed about research projects in which they may be able to participate, and 12,881 of these have joined in dementia studies.
Asked by: Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to upskill more healthcare professionals to signpost patients with dementia to dementia research opportunities.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s Dementia 2020 Challenge aims to make England the best country in the world for dementia care, support, awareness and research. The Government is committed to supporting research into dementia to find a disease-modifying treatment by 2025, and to help people with dementia live well with the condition. People participating in research are central to this effort, as are the health and social care staff who support their participation.
We expect all people who are newly diagnosed with dementia, and their carers, to receive information on opportunities to take part in research into dementia. By 2020, we expect all relevant staff to have received appropriate dementia training. This should include training relevant staff to be able to signpost interested individuals towards research via the Join Dementia Research service. We are also currently exploring options for increasing take-up of the more advanced Tier 2 training to everyone who needs it.