Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the efficiency of accessing ADHD diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Rt hon. Member for Leeds Central on 5 April 2023 to Question 175511.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data their Department holds on the average response time to written parliamentary questions in the last six months; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has answered 4,509 written parliamentary questions from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the six-month period covering 1 March 2023 to 31 August 2023. Out of that number, the Department answered 3,555 within the required timeframes.
The Department has been embarking on an internal recovery programme to improve PQ performance, and in the most recent sitting month, July 2023, the Department achieved an on-time answering rate of 90.4%, exceeding our target set by Parliament.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps their Department is taking to improve response times to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has answered 4,509 written parliamentary questions from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the six-month period covering 1 March 2023 to 31 August 2023. Out of that number, the Department answered 3,555 within the required timeframes.
The Department has been embarking on an internal recovery programme to improve PQ performance, and in the most recent sitting month, July 2023, the Department achieved an on-time answering rate of 90.4%, exceeding our target set by Parliament.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care about the potential merits of facilitating the universal provision of Family Hubs across the UK.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Slough to the answer given on 19 June 2023 to Question 188780.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meet in regular cross-government discussions and are committed to working together. The Department for Education works with the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver the joint £300 million Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, which enables 75 local authorities in England to create family hubs, and to improve vital services to give every baby the best start in life. This builds on the government’s previous investment to champion family hubs, including a £12 million transformation fund to open family hubs in a further 12 local authorities in England.
Regarding family hub provision across the UK, education and health are devolved matters. It would therefore be for the devolved governments to decide on the provision of family hubs in their local areas.
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, how many contracts worth more than £1 million his Department has entered into where the (a) goods and (b) services contracted for have not been received and are no longer expected to be received in the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
In relation to Question 193672, there were 405 contracts which were active with a value of over £1 million on the Department’s central procurement and contract management database over the last five years. To provide an answer on whether “the goods and services contracted for have not been received and are no longer expected to be received in the last five years” we would have to consult all the individual contract managers for these contracts to obtain this type of information, which would then have to be properly collated and validated.
The contract manager would need to liaise with colleagues in the Department’s Finance directorate to find the relevant purchase orders to link spend to associated contracts and then make an assessment on whether goods and services were no longer expected to be received. We estimate that this would take a minimum of two hours per contract; multiplied by the number of contracts (405) this would total 810 hours. At a cost of £25 per hour this would equate to £20,250, which exceeds the disproportionate cost threshold of £850.
Presently, the Department has 249 contracts over £1 million which were active in the last 12 months. In a similar fashion to the above, the information requested for these contracts regarding goods and services not being received or not expected to be received is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
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 estimate he has made of the cost of providing an answer to that Question.
Answered by Will Quince
In relation to Question 193672, there were 405 contracts which were active with a value of over £1 million on the Department’s central procurement and contract management database over the last five years. To provide an answer on whether “the goods and services contracted for have not been received and are no longer expected to be received in the last five years” we would have to consult all the individual contract managers for these contracts to obtain this type of information, which would then have to be properly collated and validated.
The contract manager would need to liaise with colleagues in the Department’s Finance directorate to find the relevant purchase orders to link spend to associated contracts and then make an assessment on whether goods and services were no longer expected to be received. We estimate that this would take a minimum of two hours per contract; multiplied by the number of contracts (405) this would total 810 hours. At a cost of £25 per hour this would equate to £20,250, which exceeds the disproportionate cost threshold of £850.
Presently, the Department has 249 contracts over £1 million which were active in the last 12 months. In a similar fashion to the above, the information requested for these contracts regarding goods and services not being received or not expected to be received is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Leader of the House, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 19 June (HL8246), what explanations he has had from the Department of Health and Social Care concerning the number of questions allocated to that department that remain unanswered after 10 working days.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
As Leader of the House of Lords I have reiterated to all Front Bench Ministers the importance of adhering to the 10 day target for responses to questions for written answer. As stated in my response on 19 June (HL8246) the Department for Health and Social Care faced significant disruption to the delivery of parliamentary support due to the pressures they faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. They have since implemented a Written Parliamentary Question Recovery Plan to deal with the backlog of written questions. At the time of writing, DHSC’s PQ on-time rate for July is 89.6%, the highest percentage during a sitting month since early 2020.
The Permanent Secretary has further reassured me that they are committed to improving the process and have taken further steps to bring performance levels back to pre-pandemic levels including streamlining the drafting process. I will be looking for further improvements on their record as a result of the Department's Recovery plan. It is important that the highest standards are achieved by all Departments in replying to members of the House.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to increase funding for (a) screening and (b) treating ovarian cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department invests in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including ovarian cancer research.
Currently, there is no national screening programme for ovarian cancer, in part due to the unsuitability of the blood test as a screening tool. No funding has been allocated for screening for ovarian cancer.
However, it is worth noting that the NIHR has funded six research projects into screening for ovarian cancer since 2018, with a combined total funding value of £3.8 million. The NIHR also supports delivery in the health and care system for screening for ovarian cancer research funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors.
The Department is committed to timely access to clinically and cost-effective new cancer drugs on the National Health Service. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence appraises all new cancer medicines, including for gynaecological cancers. The Cancer Drugs Fund supports patient access to the most promising new cancer medicines while further evidence is collected, including for ovarian cancer.
On ovarian cancer awareness, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Twickenham on 9 May 2023 to Question 183186.
Asked by: Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
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 raise awareness of ovarian cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department invests in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including ovarian cancer research.
Currently, there is no national screening programme for ovarian cancer, in part due to the unsuitability of the blood test as a screening tool. No funding has been allocated for screening for ovarian cancer.
However, it is worth noting that the NIHR has funded six research projects into screening for ovarian cancer since 2018, with a combined total funding value of £3.8 million. The NIHR also supports delivery in the health and care system for screening for ovarian cancer research funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors.
The Department is committed to timely access to clinically and cost-effective new cancer drugs on the National Health Service. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence appraises all new cancer medicines, including for gynaecological cancers. The Cancer Drugs Fund supports patient access to the most promising new cancer medicines while further evidence is collected, including for ovarian cancer.
On ovarian cancer awareness, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Twickenham on 9 May 2023 to Question 183186.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
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 implications for his policies of the results of the Special School Eye Care Service trial; and what steps he is taking to support the long-term commissioning of that service.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
I refer the hon. Member to the written statement HCWS861 that I gave to the House on 19 June 2023 regarding Sight Testing in Special Schools. The Department will continue to support NHS England with implementation, including considering whether any regulatory changes may be necessary. The written statement is available at the following link:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-06-19/hcws861