Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to bring forward legislation making it a criminal offence to be in possession of NOS canisters.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has committed to control nitrous oxide as a Class C drug before the end of the year.
We will bring forward legislation as soon as possible, but this will remain subject to Parliamentary procedure.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
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 reduce waiting times for (a) endoscopies and (b) other bowel cancer diagnostic tests.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 21 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services, including a number delivering endoscopy services. The remainder will increase diagnostic capacity, including endoscopy services, and other productivity improvements including digital transformation.
Direct Spending Review 21 investment in Endoscopy capacity has resulted in a net additional 31 endoscopy rooms in 2022/23, of which five were in CDCs. To date, NHS England have also approved additional investment, expected to deliver a further 25 net endoscopy rooms, of which five are to be in CDCs.
Alongside investment in physical capacity, several schemes are already underway to grow the endoscopy workforce including international recruitment of Clinical Fellows to enable back-fill for gastroenterology trainees to complete training.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
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 reduce the FIT screening for bowel cancer threshold from 120 ug/g to 20ug/g.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department and NHS England are working together to look at reducing the FIT screening threshold for Bowel cancer, including calculating the workforce capacity that would be needed.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made in negotiations with the European Commission on awarding Great Britain Part 1 listed status to enable pet owners to travel outside the UK with fewer restrictions.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
We are continuing to engage with the European Commission on awarding Great Britain 'Part 1' listed status and recognition of the UK's tapeworm-free status.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NICE appraisals have been terminated in (a) 2018-2019, (b) 2019-2020, (c) 2020-2021 and (d) 2021-2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The following table shows the number of appraisals terminated by the National institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for the timeframes requested:
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Appraisals published (including terminated appraisals) | 56 | 53 | 63 | 94 |
Terminated appraisals | 6 | 10 | 13 | 19 |
Appraisals were terminated due to the company not making an evidence submission to NICE. NICE requires companies to submit evidence on the technology or technologies being evaluated. In line with its established process and methods, NICE terminates an evaluation if no evidence submission is received.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many parents of deaf children participated in British sign language courses that were funded through the adult education budget in Kent and Medway in each of the last three years.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The department is continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB), which was £1.34 billion in the 2022/23 financial year.
This includes qualifications in, or focusing on, British Sign Language (BSL) up to and including level 2. These qualifications include, for example, the Level 1 Award in BSL which allows learners to communicate in BSL on a range of topics that involve simple, everyday language use, thereby giving them the basic skills and confidence in production and reception of BSL.
About 60% of the AEB has been devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, who determine which provision to fund for learners who live in their areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides the remaining funding for learners who live in non-devolved areas. Where community learning providers offer BSL courses, those providers are responsible for determining the course fees, including levels of fee remission.
There were 60 adult (19+) education and training learning aim enrolments in the 2021/22 academic year by learners living in Kent or Medway with ‘British Sign Language’ or ‘BSL’ in their aim title. In 2020/21, there were 35 enrolments and in 2019/20, there were 87. The department does not hold information as to whether the learners taking these aims have deaf children.
These figures do not correspond to learners, as learners may enrol on multiple aims. Additionally, these are funded adult (19+) education and training aim enrolments. This will include AEB-funded learning, as well as other funding provision, such as advanced learner loans.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when his Department plans to publish the Strategy for Community Spaces and Relationships.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
We want to consult and work with local communities and stakeholders to understand how community spaces and relationship could be strengthened. This work will begin in due course.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's estimated timescale is for bringing into force the removal of the financial burden for In-Vitro Fertilisation for female same-sex couples in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Funding decisions for health services in England, including In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population. We expect the removal of the additional financial burden faced by female same-sex couples when accessing IVF treatment to take effect during 2023.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to invest in cycling infrastructure in the next five years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is investing more than £3 billion into active travel up to 2025. This includes existing funding for active travel schemes delivered through funding streams such as the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) and National Highways to level up access to active travel across the country. The Department will invest at least £100 million of dedicated capital funding across the remainder of the Spending Review period up to 2024/25. Funding for 2025/26 onwards is subject to the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many defibrillators have been delivered to state-funded schools in (a) Medway and (B) Kent in 2023 as part of her Department's work with the Oliver King foundation.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 20 January 2023, the Department announced that the first deliveries of defibrillators had taken place. More information on the announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defibrillator-deliveries-begin-for-all-schools-that-need-one.
Since this announcement, as part of the ongoing rollout, the Department has delivered over 3,500 defibrillators to state funded schools.
As of 12 April 2023, 98 defibrillators have been delivered to state funded schools in Kent and 31 to schools in Medway Local Authorities. All eligible schools in Kent and Medway are expected to receive a defibrillator by the end of the 2022/23 academic year. Schools will be contacted by the supplier, Lyreco, once their defibrillator has been dispatched.
The Department would again like to express thanks to Mark King and the Oliver King Foundation.