Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what preparations he is making for the potential impact of conflict abroad on the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care works closely with NHS England and the Ministry of Defence to understand the impacts of international conflict on domestic healthcare delivery. This includes exercising existing plans such as the Reception Arrangements for Ministry of Defence Patients, which supports the return of injured personnel for treatment by the National Health Service. We also actively monitor the wider impacts of conflicts including emerging threats to medical supply resilience. We work in partnership with industry and the wider health system to support robust planning to mitigate these risks. The Department of Health and Social Care has established processes in place to manage disruption to the NHS.
The Department also provides medical aid to conflict-affected areas to reduce the impact of humanitarian crises in the region and beyond. For example, in 2023 the Department assisted with coordinating aid for displaced civilians in Gaza. Essential supplies included 76,800 surplus trauma kits, 1,350 water filters, and 2,560 solar lights.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) fly-tipping and (b) uncollected rubbish on public health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has not made an assessment of the potential impact of fly-tipping and uncollected rubbish on public health.
During specific incidents, for instance with the Birmingham City Council, the UKHSA has provided standard guidance to the local authority on the public health risk associated with household waste. The UKHSA is also part of a multi-agency response Strategic Commissioning Group (SCG), and has contributed to a risk assessment concerning the potential health impacts of uncollected waste. The UKHSA will continue to provide advice and support to Birmingham City Council, as part of this SCG.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency produce the Statutory guidance for Waste duty of care: code of practice, which is available at the following link:
Guidance for waste planning policy is published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waste
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 the upcoming increase to employers National Insurance contributions on hospices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, enabling the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.
The employer National Insurance contribution rise will be implemented in April 2025, and planning guidance published on 30 January 2025 sets out the funding available to integrated care boards, and the overall approach to funding providers in the next financial year. It takes into account a variety of pay and non-pay factors and pressures on providers of secondary healthcare, including charitable hospices. Further information on the planning guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2025-26-priorities-and-operational-planning-guidance/
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are pleased to confirm that the Government has released the first £25 million tranche of that funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. An additional £75 million will be available from April 2025.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 ensure that hospice care services across England are sufficiently funded; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of an ageing population on demand for palliative care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at end of life and their loved ones.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between integrated care board (ICB) areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.
We are pleased to confirm that the Government has released the first £25 million tranche of the £100 million capital funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. An additional £75 million will be available from April. We are also providing £26 million revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.
No formal assessment has been made of the potential impact of an ageing population on demand for palliative care services, but we know that currently approximately 600,000 people die per year in the United Kingdom. We are aware that the Office for National Statistics has projected that, by 2040, approximately 800,000 people a year will die in the UK, meaning that, the number of people needing palliative and end of life care is expected to increase by 42% by then.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 (a) financial and (b) social impact of hospices on the (i) health and (ii) social care sectors.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life, and their loved ones.
Palliative and end of life care are broad, holistic approaches, provided through a range of professionals and providers, and generalists and specialists across the NHS, social care, and voluntary sector organisations, including hospices. Therefore, the financial and social impacts of hospices on the broader health and care sectors are difficult to measure because the relevant consultations and tasks are not always coded as palliative or end of life care.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices. We will set out the details of the funding allocation and dissemination in the coming weeks.
I am meeting with the major hospice and palliative and end of life care stakeholders early in February 2025 to discuss potential solutions on longer-term sector sustainability.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2024 to Question 13775 on Hospices: Children, what his timescale is for announcing funding arrangements for the Children's Hospice Grant for 2025/26.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware that clarity on the 2025/26 funding arrangements is needed to help children’s hospices, as they confirm their budgets. I have met NHS England, Together for Short Lives, and one of the co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children Who Need Palliative Care, Lord Balfe, and discussed these issues at length.
The Department is working to confirm funding arrangements as a matter of urgency.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 ensure pandemic preparedness in the context of the mpox outbreak in Africa.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will continue to keep the global situation and our domestic preparations under close review, and ministers across the Government are working together to coordinate our response.
The UKHSA is engaged with our international partners, including the World Health Organisation, European, American, and African centres for disease control and prevention and national public health agencies, ensuring we receive updates about international cases in a timely fashion.
The Government holds a stock of vaccines to provide vaccinations to protect high-risk individuals during outbreaks. The Government will make further decisions on vaccine procurement as the situation evolves.
The risk to the United Kingdom’s population of being exposed to Mpox clade I is currently considered low. However, planning is underway to prepare for any cases that we might see in the UK. This includes ensuring that clinicians are aware and able to recognise cases promptly, that rapid testing is available, and that protocols are developed for the safe clinical care of people who have the infection and to prevent onward transmission.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2023 to Questions 184828 and 184829 on Defibrillators, when he plans to open the application process for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund to community groups.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. On 26 May 2023, the Department published the Community Automated External Defibrillators Fund (Grant Administration) for a supplier to manage grant applications for Automated External Defibrillators from local organisations and community groups. The notice is available at the following link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/2c6e4cd1-3302-448d-8ebe-2795fb996843
It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded to a supplier to expand defibrillator access in the community by Summer 2023.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2023 to Question 146994 on Defibrillators: Public Places, what his Department's estimated timeline is for completing the procurement processes for the £1 million fund to expand defibrillator access in the community.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage in its process of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. The Department will publish shortly an invitation for organisations to bid for the fund through GOV.UK. It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded to a supplier to expand defibrillator access in the community by August 2023.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press release entitled Number of defibrillators to be increased with new funding, published by his Department on 29 December 2022, when his Department plans to invite interested parties to bid for this grant funding.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage in its process of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. The Department will publish shortly an invitation for organisations to bid for the fund through GOV.UK. It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded to a supplier to expand defibrillator access in the community by August 2023.