Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that best practice in palliative and end of life care is shared across the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that access to high-quality palliative and end of life care can make all the difference to individuals and their loved ones. NHS England meets regularly with regional and system leaders, providing a forum for the sharing of best practice. In addition, there is a palliative and end of life care workspace available on the FutureNHS Collaborative Platform, which includes a range of resources, case studies, and discussion fora, with access to the platform available for anyone with a NHS.net email account.
NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling integrated care boards (ICBs) to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.
As of April 2024, NHS England is including palliative and end of life care in the list of topics for regular performance discussions between national and regional leads. These meetings will provide an additional mechanism for supporting ICBs to continue improving palliative and end of life care for their local population.
The Ambitions Framework, refreshed by the National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership, which is made up of NHS England and 34 partner organisations with experience of, and responsibility for, end of life care, sets out the vision to improve end of life care through partnership and collaborative action between organisations at local level throughout England, by setting out six key ambitions.
Furthermore, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance and quality standards on end of life care for adults, and children and young people. These are based on best practice in developing and delivering care and, while not statutory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether his Department monitors the role of external state actors in influencing electoral outcomes in the EU.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
International partners, including in the EU, could be at risk of attempts by foreign states to interfere in elections. Collaboration with international partners, including in the EU, is an essential part of countering these risks. Through the UK's Defending Democracy Ministerial Taskforce, FCDO officials have engaged with partners, including Austria, Romania, and France, to share best practice and identify opportunities for future joint work to build resilience against interference in our democratic processes. FCDO regularly updates to the Taskforce's Ministerial meetings on key risks, learnings, and responses from international elections to inform the UK's election preparations. The UK will continue to engage with international partners.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Army publication entitled Family Guide: What to do after the death of a partner or relative, when that guide (a) was last updated and (b) will be updated next.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Army Families Guide was introduced in 2010. Minor amendments have been made subsequently, with the last amendment in August 2023.
The Bereavement and Aftercare Support team in Army Headquarters are partway through a revision of this guide to update content, improve layout and complement rather than duplicate the Defence Purple Pack. Work is due to be completed in autumn 2024.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will have discussions with the Mayor of London on the (a) reasons for the duration of time during which an escalator at Paddington Station has been out of service and (b) impact of that on elderly and disabled visitors to that station.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Facilities at Paddington London Underground station are the responsibility of Transport for London (TfL). DfT Ministers and officials meet regularly with TfL on a range of issues.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of secondary school trainee teachers of (a) physics, (b) chemistry, (c) foreign languages, (d) religious education, (e) mathematics and (f) computing have been recruited to begin training in Autumn 2024.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Departmental targets for 2024/25 postgraduate initial teacher training (PGITT) were calculated by the Teacher Workforce Model (TWM) and include recruitment to High Potential ITT (HPITT) which is a two year employment-based ITT programme attracting high performing graduates and career changers who are unlikely to have otherwise joined the profession. The targets are calculated to replace all teachers expected to leave the workforce in 2025/26, and the working hours lost from teachers that will reduce their teaching hours between years. PGITT is only one of many routes into the teacher workforce, all of which are considered when calculating targets. Other routes include undergraduate university courses, Assessment Only (AO), the upcoming teacher degree apprenticeship, returners, new to the state-funded sector entrants, and newly qualified entrants that defer entry into the profession (deferrers).
Further information may be found in the following publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/postgraduate-initial-teacher-training-targets.
Departmental targets are for 23,955 secondary teacher trainees to start their initial teacher training (ITT) in autumn 2024, including HPITT trainees. As of last month, there have been 7,618 acceptances to postgraduate secondary courses in England (excluding HPITT acceptances).
Acceptance figures exclude HPITT acceptances as this data is not published. It is expected that more candidates will be recruited in the final four months of the cycle. Therefore, although acceptance figures provide a better indication of the number of teacher trainees starting training in Autumn 2024, they are not directly comparable to TWM trainee targets.
The physics TWM trainee target is 2,250 (incl. HPITT) and currently there have been 554 acceptances (excl. HPITT).
The chemistry TWM trainee target is 1,220 (incl. HPITT) and currently there have been 314 acceptances (excl. HPITT).
The modern foreign languages TWM trainee target is 2,540 (incl. HPITT) and currently there have been 622 acceptances (excl. HPITT).
The religious education TWM trainee target is 580 (incl. HPITT) and currently there have been 198 acceptances (excl. HPITT).
The mathematics TWM trainee target is 3,065 (incl. HPITT) and currently there have been 1,001 acceptances (excl. HPITT).
The computing TWM trainee target is 1,330 (incl. HPITT) and currently there have been 202 acceptances (excl. HPITT).
One of the department’s top priorities is to ensure that it continues to attract and retain high-quality teachers. The department is investing in attracting the best teachers where they are needed the most, through its teaching marketing campaign, support services for prospective trainees, and financial incentives package including bursaries worth up to £28,000 and scholarships worth up to £30,000. The department’s in-house teacher recruitment journey and associated digital services are generating new real-time data and insight to drive innovation. For example, the department has now rolled out an ITT course specifically designed to support more engineers to teach physics.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to enhance cybersecurity infrastructure to help tackle phishing scams through (a) text messaging and (b) fake payment websites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Criminal Justice Bill will introduce a new offence of supplying or possessing “SIM farm” devices, which allow criminals to send scam texts to thousands of people at the same time, without good reason or undertaking adequate due diligence.
In addition, the Government and Industry have signed the Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter, a voluntary agreement to improve counter-fraud efforts. Under the Telecommunications Charter, the sector has introduced firewalls that detect and stop scam texts from reaching customers. The firewalls have stopped 960million scam text messages since January 2022.
Furthermore, domain registrars, Internet infrastructure (IIPs) and service providers (ISPs) operate robust voluntary arrangements for filtering, blocking and takedown of malicious websites, which is supported by the operational work of our agencies and law enforcement. NCSC also works in collaboration with industry partners to present ISPs with real-time threat data that enables them to instantly block access to known fraudulent or malicious websites. This has a major impact in protecting citizens from cyber- and cyber-facilitated crimes.
Where voluntary arrangements prove unsuccessful, we are introducing a new legislative power will provide law enforcement and investigative agencies with a formal process to suspend IP addresses and domain names that are being used to facilitate serious crime. This power will also be introduced as part of the Criminal Justice Bill.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many security passes are valid for use on the Parliamentary Estate by (a) MPs, Peers and their staff; (b) staff supporting Parliamentary activities in each House, (c) staff supporting non-Parliamentary activities, (d) security guards; (e) police officers; (f) contractors and (g) any other category.
Answered by Charles Walker
A breakdown of pass data is available, however the categories used do not match up exactly with the categories specified. This is because the House regards every member of the Administration as supporting parliamentary activities, whether directly or indirectly.
The number of passes on issue changes constantly, so the following represents a snapshot of data recorded on 17 April 2024:
(a) MPs, Peers and their staff
(b) (c) and (d) Staff in both Houses
(e) police officers
(f) contractors
(g) any other category
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department is taking steps to support nurseries experiencing financial challenges as a result of increased business rates.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government recognises the pressure that businesses have been under since the pandemic and that is why the government froze the business rates multiplier for three consecutive years from April 2021 until April 2024 at a cost of £14.5 billion.
To make sure that the most vulnerable businesses continue to be supported, the government announced a further freeze to the small business multiplier at Autumn Statement for 2024-25, which will protect over a million ratepayers from a multiplier increase. This means bills will be 6.6 per cent lower than without the freeze. In addition to this support, some nurseries will already be in receipt of business rates relief where they have a ‘charitable purpose’, such as those part of academy chains.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the presence of foreign military bases on the sovereignty of host countries in West Africa.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Decisions about hosting foreign military bases in Africa are for host countries to make. The UK supports the sovereignty of states and encourages all actors to ensure foreign forces are deployed in line with African Union and UN frameworks on peacekeeping and security operations. This ensures respect for international law and human rights, and accountability, are upheld. UK military will continue to work with, and at the invitation of, elected governments to support on security.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the financial loss to UK residents due to (a) fraudulent text messages and (b) fake payment websites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Fraud strategy estimates that in 2019/20 the financial loss from fraud offences was £3.1bn.
A link to the Fraud strategy can be found here: Fraud Strategy 2023