Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the salary threshold for visas for social workers on the recruitment of social workers from overseas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Social workers are recruited under the Health and Care Worker visa, and therefore are exempt from the salary threshold of £38,700 required by the Skilled Worker visa. Social workers recruited from overseas are subject to national pay scales, and therefore must be paid in line with the National Health Service agenda for change pay scales.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to announce the pay award for NHS workers for 2024-25.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has submitted its evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, the Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body, and the Senior Salaries Review Body, in order for them to make recommendations on a pay uplift for National Health Service workers for 2024/25. We will carefully consider the pay review bodies’ comments and recommendations when we receive them, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of the number of people in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England who have unmet care needs; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure those care needs are met.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for assessing individuals’ care and support needs and, where eligible, for meeting those needs. Where individuals do not meet the eligibility threshold, they can get support from their local authorities in making their own arrangements for care services, as set out in the Care Act 2014.
We recognise that some people still experience challenges in accessing the care and support they need, when they need it. That is why ensuring that people find adult social care fair and accessible is one of the three main objectives of our 10-year reform vision for adult social care. To achieve this vision, we are supporting local authorities to address workforce pressures, drive improvements in their local area, and better streamline their assessment processes.
To support this, the Government has made available up to £8.6 billion in additional funding over the financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25, to support adult social care and discharge. This includes up to £1.5 billion of additional grant funding for adult social care for 2024/25, compared to 2023/24, alongside a 2% increase to the adult social care precept for local authorities with social care responsibilities, uptake of which will generate a further £609 million in 2024/25. In addition, the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund, worth almost £2 billion over two years, is designed to support increased adult social care capacity, improve market sustainability, and enable local authorities to make improvements to adult social care services.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether additional new burdens funding will be committed to local authorities who will require additional enforcement capacity within trading standards teams to enforce the policies included in the 2023 Department For Health and Social Care policy paper Stopping the Start.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department published the command paper, Stopping the Start, in October 2023, which sets out our plans to create the first Smokefree Generation, to tackle youth vaping, and to strengthen tobacco and vape enforcement. These measures amount to the most significant public health intervention in a generation.
The policies announced in the command paper are being introduced through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is currently undertaking its passage through Parliament. The bill changes the age of sale of tobacco so that those born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be legally sold tobacco. It also prohibits the sale of non-nicotine vapes to under 18-year-olds, and the free distribution of vapes to under 18-year-olds, and introduces fixed penalty notices for breaches of the age of sale legislation.
To help tackle the rise in youth vaping, the bill provides powers to restrict vape flavours, point of sale displays, and packaging, and the Government has also confirmed that under environmental legislation, we will ban the sale and supply of disposable vapes. Any new burdens on local trading standards to enforce these new measures will be assessed ahead of any future regulations.
We are strengthening our enforcement activity through £30 million of new funding per year for enforcement agencies, including for trading standards, to boost the enforcement of underage tobacco and vape sales. In addition, fixed penalty notices introduced in the bill will support trading standards to take quicker action against irresponsible retailers, through using on-the-spot fines rather than going through lengthy magistrate’s court processes. Local authorities will keep the proceeds, to invest back into their enforcement activity.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of upgrading the National Firearms Licensing Management System database.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government received a wide range of views in response to last year’s consultation on firearms licensing. We are carefully considering all the comments received before publishing our response, which will set out what action we intend to take to further strengthen the controls on firearms. I cannot give an exact timescale for publication but I expect this to be shortly.
The Home Office worked with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England to introduce a digital firearms marker, which is placed on GP patient records. The digital marker enables the doctor to advise police if a firearm certificate holder begins to experience a medical condition which could affect their suitability to possess firearms, so that the police can review whether the person remains suitable. The digital marker has been rolled-out to GP practices since May 2023 and the Home Office is working with the DHSC and NHS England to obtain monitoring data about operation of the marker across the country.
His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services currently plans to carry out a thematic inspection of police firearms licensing arrangements in its 2024-25 inspection programme. The Home Office will assist the Inspectorate with any guidance or information it requires ahead of the inspection.
Work is underway with the police on a programme of work to improve reliability of the National Firearms Licensing Management System, including establishing links with the Police National Database.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the holistic care approach for cancer (a) care and (b) delivery to (i) prosthetic infection and (ii) other clinical conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a formal assessment of the merits of expanding the holistic approach, used for cancer, to prosthetic infection and other clinical conditions, however the National Health Service is working towards a holistic approach in infection prevention and control, and in long-term conditions. This includes improving perioperative care for surgical clinical care pathways, including for prosthetic infections, whereby patients receive proactive, personalised support to optimise their health before surgery.
The NHS works hard to deliver care to meet people’s needs as far as possible, given this can have a significant impact on their experience and quality of life. Cancer Alliances across England are working to ensure that every person receives personalised care and support from cancer diagnosis onwards. This involves holistic need assessments to ensure people's physical, practical, emotional, and social needs are identified and addressed at the earliest opportunity. It also involves accessible information about emotional support, coping with side effects, financial advice, getting back to work, and making healthy lifestyle choices, before, during, and after treatment.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle post-operative infections in the context of (a) an ageing population and (b) trends in the number of joint replacement operations.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency manages a national surveillance programme, the Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Surveillance Service, which enhances the quality of patient care by providing hospitals with a framework for collection and comparison of their rates of SSI against national benchmarks. This information is used to review and guide clinical practice to reduce the risk of infection following surgery. Hip and knee replacements are two of the 17 categories of surgery under surveillance by hospitals. Surveillance in at least one orthopaedic surgical category per quarter, per financial year is mandatory for all National Health Service hospitals undertaking orthopaedic surgery, with hip and knee replacements being the most numerous.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support her Department is providing to children experiencing addiction issues.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Alcohol or drug dependence is rare in children and young people under the age of 18 years old, although they may be drinking problematically. Children may also experience second-hand harms of parental alcohol or drug dependence. The most effective and sustainable approach to reducing alcohol and drug harms in children is by giving them the best start in life, the best education possible, and keeping them safe, well, and happy.
Statutory guidance on relationships, sex, and health education requires all primary and secondary school pupils to be taught the key facts and risks of alcohol and drug use, as well as how to manage influences and pressure, and keep themselves healthy and safe. The Department has worked with the PSHE Association to develop the lesson plans on alcohol and is currently commissioning an update of the resources to be published later this year. Current resources are available at the following link:
https://pshe-association.org.uk/drugeducation
Through the cross-Government Drug Strategy, the Department has allocated £532 million of additional funding through to 2024/25, to support improvements in alcohol and drug treatment, including facilitating 5,000 more young people into age-appropriate treatment by 2024/25. Local authorities can also invest their allocation in options from a menu of interventions, some of which include strengthening the services available to children and families.
The Government also has an information and advice service called Talk to FRANK, which aims to reduce alcohol and drug use and its harms, by providing awareness to young people, parents, and concerned others. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to measure the air quality of (a) hospitals and (b) hospital car parks.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The policy around outdoor air quality measurement is led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This data is publicly available and used by National Health Service trusts, and NHS England. NHS England has set out a range of measures to reduce trusts’ impact on outdoor air quality, as part of its commitment to achieve Net Zero for direct NHS emissions by 2040. Specific actions are set out in its Net Zero Travel and Transport Strategy, Net Zero Estates Delivery Plan, and Clinical Waste Strategy, which are available respectively at the following links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/net-zero-travel-and-transport-strategy/
https://www.jpaget.nhs.uk/media/588250/Estates-Net-Zero-Carbon-Delivery-Plan.pdf
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-clinical-waste-strategy/
The NHS’s guidance on indoor air quality is set out in the NHS technical memorandum 03-01: Specialised ventilation for healthcare premises, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/specialised-ventilation-for-healthcare-buildings/
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to collaborate with the Department for Health and Social Care on pandemic preparedness.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our new £520m fund will help provide the capabilities and capacities to support domestic UK health resilience and ensure a robust response to potential future health emergencies, such as influenza pandemics. The Office for Life Sciences will publish the fund’s strategic objectives, process, and assessment criteria in due course. We are working closely with DHSC to ensure that the fund will contribute to the Government’s pandemic preparedness priorities.