Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost was of refurbishments to his Department's offices at 39 Victoria Street in the last 12 months; and what the procurement references were for these refurbishments.
Answered by Will Quince
Alongside ongoing maintenance, within the last 12 months work has been carried out at 39 Victoria Street to remove a suite of individual ministerial offices and replace these with a flexible co-working space accessible by all members of staff that can also be used for large meetings.
Ministers now use desks on an open-plan floor alongside department staff.
Space has also been provided to allow NHS England staff to work in the Department to further improve collaboration between the two organisations.
This work has been undertaken alongside a wider programme to reduce the number of Department of Health and Social Care offices from 21 to 10 core locations, as well as a wider reform and efficiency programme, which has seen the Department’s headcount reduced by around one in six over the last year.
The total cost of refurbishment work at 39 Victoria Street was approximately £140,000. All work has been undertaken by existing facilities management contractors and within existing, pre-allocated, annual budgets for property maintenance.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to decide on the UK’s position on vaping for the Europe Preparatory Meeting for the Tenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Turkey from 9 October 2023; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The WHO European Region preparatory meetings for the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will take place virtually from 3 October to 4 October 2023.
Members of the tobacco control team in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will represent the United Kingdom at the preparatory meetings. It is Departmental policy not to name officials below Senior Civil Service grades who attend these events.
The Government has regularly set out its position on vaping at the Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and we will do so at the next conference in November 2023 along with the preparatory meeting in October. The delegation will not agree to any decisions which would impact on our ability to make vapes available for adult smokers who wish to quit.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times officials in his Department have met representatives of the Care Quality Commission to discuss the rollout of the new regulatory platform in the last two months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Officials in the Department hold regular governance and accountability meetings with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), during which the CQC provides progress reports on various aspects of its work, including the new regulatory platform. There were no such meetings scheduled in the last two months.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) steps his Department is taking to monitor the implementation of the new regulatory platform for the Care Quality Commission and (b) information relating to implementation his Department is collecting for analysis; what his planned timeframe is for completion of those reviews; and whether his Department plans to publish the findings of that work.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no current plans to undertake a formal analysis or review of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) new regulatory platform. The Department continues to monitor CQC’s progress on its new regulatory platform as part of regular governance and accountability meetings. As an independent body, the CQC may undertake its own analysis and review of its approach and systems for regulating health and social care providers in England.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, at which meetings the Government was represented at the Sixth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for a WHO Instrument on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response which took place between 17 and 21 July 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government was represented by officials from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for the entirety of the Sixth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body between 17 and 21 July 2023.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in which meetings the Government will be represented at the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations 2005.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government was represented by officials from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for the entirety of the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) that took place between 24 and 28 July 2023.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer to Question 193672 on Department of Health and Social Care: Contracts, if he will seek advice from (a) the National Audit Office and (b) other external bodies on improving the financial monitoring of contracts entered into by his Department.
Answered by Will Quince
A post award assessment is made on the risks to contract delivery and each contract is given a classification which determines the nature and intensity of the contract management support from officials at the department. The Departments contract management operating model includes tools such as a contract management plan, balanced scorecard, risk register and issues log, business continuity plans and exit plans. Scorecards are produced which provide a balanced view of performance, risks and issues, finances and spending, which inform an overall risk profile and which can be provided to Ministers on request.
Contract performance for high-risk contracts is reported to the Department’s Performance and Risk Committee as well as to Permanent Secretaries ahead of the bi-annual accountability meetings they hold with Directors. Whilst there isn’t systematic reporting to Ministers across all contracts, Ministers have been provided with ad-hoc reporting on expenditure and savings options against certain categories of contracts (consultancy and professional services for example).
The Department has introduced a system to attach contract references to all new individual purchase orders raised in the payment system from June 2021 where associated to a contract. The project is due to be completed within the next 12 months which will enable the central collation and validation of spend against the Department’s full portfolio of contracts.
The Department operates its commercial activities in accordance with the good practice set out by the Government Commercial Function, and our approach has been reviewed by both the National Audit Office and Government Internal Audit Agency.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 19 July 2023 to Question 193672 on Department of Health and Social Care: Contracts, what systems are in place for Ministers to track spending on (a) all contracts and (b) contracts where problems are encountered.
Answered by Will Quince
A post award assessment is made on the risks to contract delivery and each contract is given a classification which determines the nature and intensity of the contract management support from officials at the department. The Departments contract management operating model includes tools such as a contract management plan, balanced scorecard, risk register and issues log, business continuity plans and exit plans. Scorecards are produced which provide a balanced view of performance, risks and issues, finances and spending, which inform an overall risk profile and which can be provided to Ministers on request.
Contract performance for high-risk contracts is reported to the Department’s Performance and Risk Committee as well as to Permanent Secretaries ahead of the bi-annual accountability meetings they hold with Directors. Whilst there isn’t systematic reporting to Ministers across all contracts, Ministers have been provided with ad-hoc reporting on expenditure and savings options against certain categories of contracts (consultancy and professional services for example).
The Department has introduced a system to attach contract references to all new individual purchase orders raised in the payment system from June 2021 where associated to a contract. The project is due to be completed within the next 12 months which will enable the central collation and validation of spend against the Department’s full portfolio of contracts.
The Department operates its commercial activities in accordance with the good practice set out by the Government Commercial Function, and our approach has been reviewed by both the National Audit Office and Government Internal Audit Agency.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers from his Department have held with members of senior and executive leadership at Penn Hospital since January 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and other Departmental Ministers regularly engage with external organisations, including National Health Service mental health trusts, on a range of issues relating to health and social care. These are routinely published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of staffing levels at Penn Hospital.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has not made any such assessments as these are matters for the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC recently inspected Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in February 2023. The CQC looked at acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units core services at five sites, including wards at Penn Hospital.
The CQC rated wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units as ‘Requires Improvement’ overall and in all domains except ‘Caring’, which was rated ‘Good’.
The CQC identified five breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The CQC served requirement notices for the breaches and the Trust has subsequently devised an action plan to address the CQC’s concerns. The CQC monitors this regularly, including via monthly meetings with Trust leaders.