Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has set ICBs targets to promote CPR training in schools.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal requirement for integrated care boards (ICBs) to promote or recommend cardiopulmonary resuscitation training or any associated targets has been set. The Department and NHS England welcome ICBs setting locally led targets as best practice for local services and commissioners to work to.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of decreased funding on the provision of specialist domestic violence services; what steps she is taking to prevent further harm to victims.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Specialist and ‘by and for’ services are essential for providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of domestic abuse need. Access to support services can prevent re-victimisation, and help victims to access support, escape abuse, and move forward with their lives.
That is why we uplifted the National VAWG Helplines, including ‘by and for’ helpline providers, by over £1.5m in 2024/25, and we are now providing a further uplift of over £1m, bringing the total investment to over £6m in 2025/26. We also uplifted the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme by £398k in 2024/25, and we are now providing a further uplift of £600k to bring the total investment up to £2.4m for 2025/26.
The is part of a wider £19.9 million investment into 2025/26, which also includes £2.5m to help prevent and improve the response to VAWG. This includes increasing the understanding and identification of VAWG, work to prevent ‘honour’ based abuse and improving multi-agency working and risk management.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 adequacy of his Department's provision of care for dementia patients within the local community.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10-Health Year Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services.
We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
To reduce variation in diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has developed a tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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) transparent and (b) clearly reported data on hospital admissions and presentations to minor injury clinics due to dog bites, by healthcare trust in Great Britain.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently publishes data on hospital admissions, including those due to dog bites. This data can be found at the following link:
In 2023/24, in England, there were 10,678 finished admission episodes with an external cause of being bitten or struck by a dog. This data is available nationally and not disaggregated by individual National Health Service trusts or minor injury unit. There are no current plans to change this approach.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support teachers' mental health.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Torbay to the answer of 9 May 2025 to Question 44781.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of care experienced young people securing employment in the hospitality sector following the cessation of local authority support.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to ensuring that young people leaving care have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships and are engaged in education, employment and training.
The department fully recognises the potential benefits that employment in the hospitality sector offers to care leavers. 27 of the 237 organisations offering employment opportunities under our Care Leaver Covenant are from the hospitality industry. This includes Accor Hotels, Aramark, Birmingham Airport, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, PGL, Marston’s Brewery and Pubs, and Merlin Entertainments.
Further, our Care Leaver Ministerial Board, co-chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Deputy Prime Minister, has been established to secure cross-departmental action to improve the outcomes and experiences of care leavers, including in relation to their employment.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment the Government has made of the merits of introducing National Insurance Contributions exemptions for employers who hire individuals transitioning off working benefits.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to providing people who are out of work with the personalised support they need to find work, aiding the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate. At the Spending Review, the Government increased funding for employment support to over £3.5 billion by 2028-29, helping people to access the skills they need to progress, tackling unemployment and inactivity and ensuring more people are in better jobs.
There are a wide range of factors to take into consideration when introducing a tax relief. These include how effective the relief would be at achieving the policy intent, how targeted support would be, whether it adds complexity to the tax system, and the cost.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve the quality of training on (a) Tourette’s syndrome and (b) other tic disorders for service providers nationally.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it. NHS England’s Neuroscience Transformation Programme is supporting integrated care boards to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients, including providing care closer to home.
NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and RightCare Toolkits aim to improve care for patients with neurological conditions by reducing variation.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of neurological conditions for use by healthcare professionals and commissioners. NICE guidance ensures that patients are cared for in a consistently evidence-based way.