Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care when he plans to provide a substantive answer to Question 97476, tabled by the Rt hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury on 28 November for answer on 1 December.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question 97476.
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, what percentage of instances of replies to written parliamentary questions does his department issue a holding answer indicating that it will not be possible to answer the question asked within the usual time period.
Answered by Will Quince
In the current Parliamentary session, 1,123 of 2,441 or 46% of written questions for answer on a Named Day tabled to the Department have received a holding reply. After unprecedented volumes of written questions during the pandemic, the Department has been increasing capacity to improve our performance in answering written questions in a timely way. In November 2022, 69.8% of written questions were answered on time by the Department.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
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 publish a White Paper on health disparities.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd MP) on 7 November to Question 74729.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to Answer of 21 November to Question 83584, how many people in his Department are working on matters relating to covid-19.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 21 November 2022 to Question 83584.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plan to publish its review of the NHS Long Term Plan.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 25 November 2022 to Question 92396.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage Black people to donate blood in the context of rising rates of sickle cell disease.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne MP) on 20 October to Question 60975.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
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 reduce the time taken to respond to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of written parliamentary questions and correspondence and officials remain committed to providing the highest level of service.
The Department's performance in answering written parliamentary questions on time fell during the COVID-19 pandemic and we continue to receive significantly more written questions than any other Government department. In order to improve performance, we have been delivering against our Written Parliamentary Question Recovery Plan and answered 71% of written parliamentary questions from hon. Members on time between May and July 2022.
The Department aims to reply to all correspondence within 20 working days. From May to September 2022, we answered more than 50% of correspondence within 20 working days. This doubled our previous response rate in 2021 and we are committed to making further improvements.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to answer Question 63059 on General Practitioners: Bradford South, tabled by the Hon. Member for Bradford South on 12 October 2022, on what steps his Department is taking to help support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Bradford South constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 27 October to Question 63059.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to answer Question 61956 on General Practitioners: Bradford South, tabled by the hon. Member for Bradford South on 12 October 2022, on whether his Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Bradford South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 26 October to Question 61956.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she will answer Question 61785 from the hon. Member for Hammersmith constituency as previously requested.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 October to Question 61785.