Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of NHS provision for the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in Suffolk.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to assessment and treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. The NICE guideline on ADHD does not recommend a maximum waiting time from referral for an assessment of ADHD to the point of assessment or diagnosis.
Whilst the Department has not made a specific assessment, Suffolk and North East Essex ICB advises that it has undertaken a review of children’s ADHD and autism services. As a result of the review, and current demand, the ICB has agreed additional funding of £3.3 million to support the services to not only reduce the time children are waiting for assessment but also increase the service provision to meet future demand. The ICB is also looking at potential new models of delivery and at the current pathways to see how it can utilise them more efficiently to ensure a smoother process for families.
In respect of adult ADHD and autism services, the ICB has worked closely with its local National Health Service provider, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, to closely monitor and respond to increases in demand. In March 2024, the ICB agreed to invest £300,000 to support those patients on the waiting list with additional advice and support.
In respect of the adequacy of ADHD service provision nationally, in December 2023, NHS England initiated a rapid piece of work to consider ADHD service provision within the NHS. The initial phase of work identified challenges, including with current service models and the ability to keep pace with demand. Following this initial review, NHS England is establishing a new ADHD taskforce alongside the government, to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The new taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD and help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England has announced that it will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2024 to Question 25469 on Mineworkers' Pension Scheme, how many recipients there are in each region of the UK.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The number of scheme members by region, as at July 2023, is as follows:
Name of Region | Number of members |
Channel Islands | 8 |
East Midlands | 29641 |
East of England | 490 |
Isle of Man | 4 |
London | 194 |
North East | 15917 |
North West | 4901 |
Scotland | 8269 |
South East | 1791 |
South West | 908 |
Wales | 13838 |
West Midlands | 9461 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 30510 |
A breakdown by region of former miners and dependants is not available.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending levelling up premium payments to teachers in training with initial teacher training providers in disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing secondary school teachers in the first five years of their career who work in eligible schools have been able to claim Levelling Up Premium (LUP) payments of up to £3,000 after tax since September 2022. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the LUP payments to eligible school teachers to up to £6,000 per year after tax and extending the offer to key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical subject teachers in all further education colleges for the first time.
A new school teacher receiving a £6,000 LUP will have an income equivalent of at least a £38,570 starting salary next year, even before accounting for the next pay award.
The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by region are below:
| Sum of claims by academic year | |
Region | 2022/23 | 2023/2024 |
East of England | 337 | 371 |
East Midlands | 421 | 401 |
London | 1112 | 1170 |
North East | 238 | 251 |
North West | 762 | 790 |
South East | 304 | 314 |
South West | 241 | 246 |
West Midlands | 603 | 594 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 597 | 603 |
Total | 4615 | 4740 |
The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by subject are below:
| Sum of claims by academic year | |
Subject | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Mathematics | 2518 | 2609 |
Physics | 459 | 456 |
Chemistry | 1044 | 1101 |
Computing | 595 | 574 |
Total | 4615 | 4740 |
The LUP is primarily designed to incentivise the retention of specialist teachers in the disadvantaged schools it targets, but it may also support recruitment by encouraging teachers to take up posts in these schools.
It is too early to fully evaluate the impact of the LUP, but it is possible to draw on evidence from the predecessor pilots which informed it. For example, a University College London (UCL) evaluation of the Mathematics and Physics Teacher Retention Payments pilot found that teachers who received these £2,000 after tax payments were 23% less likely to leave teaching. Furthermore, an evaluation of Early Career Payments assessed they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.
Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainees starting school initial teacher teaching (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year can already benefit from tax free bursaries worth £28,000 and scholarships worth £30,000. These ITT incentives are a national offer and are not differentiated sub-nationally. This is because teachers often teach in a different school or area to that they trained in. The Levelling Up Premium is paid to school teachers once they are qualified and is therefore targeted sub-nationally to incentivise them to work in the schools most in need.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the levelling up premium payments for school teachers on recruitment of teachers in shortage subjects.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing secondary school teachers in the first five years of their career who work in eligible schools have been able to claim Levelling Up Premium (LUP) payments of up to £3,000 after tax since September 2022. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the LUP payments to eligible school teachers to up to £6,000 per year after tax and extending the offer to key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical subject teachers in all further education colleges for the first time.
A new school teacher receiving a £6,000 LUP will have an income equivalent of at least a £38,570 starting salary next year, even before accounting for the next pay award.
The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by region are below:
| Sum of claims by academic year | |
Region | 2022/23 | 2023/2024 |
East of England | 337 | 371 |
East Midlands | 421 | 401 |
London | 1112 | 1170 |
North East | 238 | 251 |
North West | 762 | 790 |
South East | 304 | 314 |
South West | 241 | 246 |
West Midlands | 603 | 594 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 597 | 603 |
Total | 4615 | 4740 |
The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by subject are below:
| Sum of claims by academic year | |
Subject | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Mathematics | 2518 | 2609 |
Physics | 459 | 456 |
Chemistry | 1044 | 1101 |
Computing | 595 | 574 |
Total | 4615 | 4740 |
The LUP is primarily designed to incentivise the retention of specialist teachers in the disadvantaged schools it targets, but it may also support recruitment by encouraging teachers to take up posts in these schools.
It is too early to fully evaluate the impact of the LUP, but it is possible to draw on evidence from the predecessor pilots which informed it. For example, a University College London (UCL) evaluation of the Mathematics and Physics Teacher Retention Payments pilot found that teachers who received these £2,000 after tax payments were 23% less likely to leave teaching. Furthermore, an evaluation of Early Career Payments assessed they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.
Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainees starting school initial teacher teaching (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year can already benefit from tax free bursaries worth £28,000 and scholarships worth £30,000. These ITT incentives are a national offer and are not differentiated sub-nationally. This is because teachers often teach in a different school or area to that they trained in. The Levelling Up Premium is paid to school teachers once they are qualified and is therefore targeted sub-nationally to incentivise them to work in the schools most in need.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of teachers who have received levelling up premium payments for school teachers since May 2022 by (a) region and (b) subject.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing secondary school teachers in the first five years of their career who work in eligible schools have been able to claim Levelling Up Premium (LUP) payments of up to £3,000 after tax since September 2022. For the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years, the department is doubling the LUP payments to eligible school teachers to up to £6,000 per year after tax and extending the offer to key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical subject teachers in all further education colleges for the first time.
A new school teacher receiving a £6,000 LUP will have an income equivalent of at least a £38,570 starting salary next year, even before accounting for the next pay award.
The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by region are below:
| Sum of claims by academic year | |
Region | 2022/23 | 2023/2024 |
East of England | 337 | 371 |
East Midlands | 421 | 401 |
London | 1112 | 1170 |
North East | 238 | 251 |
North West | 762 | 790 |
South East | 304 | 314 |
South West | 241 | 246 |
West Midlands | 603 | 594 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 597 | 603 |
Total | 4615 | 4740 |
The number of teachers that have received LUP payments by subject are below:
| Sum of claims by academic year | |
Subject | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Mathematics | 2518 | 2609 |
Physics | 459 | 456 |
Chemistry | 1044 | 1101 |
Computing | 595 | 574 |
Total | 4615 | 4740 |
The LUP is primarily designed to incentivise the retention of specialist teachers in the disadvantaged schools it targets, but it may also support recruitment by encouraging teachers to take up posts in these schools.
It is too early to fully evaluate the impact of the LUP, but it is possible to draw on evidence from the predecessor pilots which informed it. For example, a University College London (UCL) evaluation of the Mathematics and Physics Teacher Retention Payments pilot found that teachers who received these £2,000 after tax payments were 23% less likely to leave teaching. Furthermore, an evaluation of Early Career Payments assessed they reduced the likelihood of teachers leaving by 37% for the £5,000 payments, and 58% for the £7,500 payments.
Mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing trainees starting school initial teacher teaching (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year can already benefit from tax free bursaries worth £28,000 and scholarships worth £30,000. These ITT incentives are a national offer and are not differentiated sub-nationally. This is because teachers often teach in a different school or area to that they trained in. The Levelling Up Premium is paid to school teachers once they are qualified and is therefore targeted sub-nationally to incentivise them to work in the schools most in need.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many vacancies there are in the probation service by region.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The workforce position, at 31 March 2024, was 20,758 FTE Staff in Post working in Probation Service grades (including those working in Approved Premises). This is an increase of 728 FTE (3.6%) since 31 March 2023.
Recruitment and retention remain a priority across the Probation Service and we have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year since 2021 to deliver more robust supervision, recruit more staff and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer.
We have recruited 4,582 trainee Probation Officers between 2020/21 and 2023/24. Many of these trainees have already qualified and taken up Probation Officer posts and we expect the remainder of these intakes to qualify by the end of 2025 and begin to take on Probation Officer caseloads. We will continue to run centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions to help bolster the number of applications.
Table One: Vacancies across Probation Service Regions, March 2024, all Probation Service grades.
Probation Service Region | Vacancies (FTE) |
PS East Midlands | 45 |
PS East of England | 204 |
PS Greater Manchester | 18 |
PS Kent, Surrey & Sussex | 100 |
PS London | 446 |
PS North East | 50 |
PS North West | 89 |
PS South Central | 103 |
PS South West | 71 |
PS Wales | 0 |
PS West Midlands | 67 |
PS Yorkshire & the Humber | 109 |
PS Approved Premises | 0 |
Notes
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
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 18 April 2024 to Question 21490 on Prosthetics, how many prosthetic limbs are produced by the 35 NHS commissioned prosthetic centres; whether the prostheses produced are of the highest market standard; who the NHS commissioned prosthetic centre providers are; and how many patients are waiting for prosthetic limbs from the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The prosthetic centres do not produce limbs. Limbs, and the components thereof, are supplied through the NHS Supply Chain, directly from the manufacturers. The NHS Supply Chain ensures that all regulatory quality assurance requirements are met.
National Health Service prosthetic providers do not hold a waiting list for the provision of limbs. Patients will be assessed and prescribed an appropriate limb, when clinically appropriate, following amputation. This will depend on the time required for the residual limb to heal to allow a prosthesis to be fitted, and will vary between patients. NHS England commissions 35 prosthetic centres, which are listed below:
- Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust;
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust;
- Sussex Community NHS Trust;
- North Bristol NHS Foundation Trust;
- Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust;
- South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust;
- University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust;
- Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust;
- Kent and Medway NHS Social Care Partnership Trust;
- North East London NHS Foundation Trust;
- Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Isle of Wight NHS Trust;
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust;
- Leicester Specialist Mobility Centre;
- Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust;
- St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust;
- Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust;
- Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust;
- Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust;
- Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust;
- Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Livewell Plymouth;
- Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust;
- Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust;
- Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; and
- The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
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 reduce ambulance waiting times in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to achieve our ambition of reducing average Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes across 2024/25, including in Suffolk. A summary of the progress made, and actions taken in 2024/25 is set out in Urgent and emergency care recovery plan year 2: building on learning from 2023/24, which is available at the following link:
Nationally, ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to increase deployed hours and reduce response times, and this service capacity is being maintained in 2024/25. This is alongside the delivery of new ambulances, and action to reduce handover delays. With more ambulances on the roads, patients will receive the treatment they need more swiftly.
Since we published our plan, there has been significant improvement in ambulance response times, including in Suffolk. In 2023/24, average Category 2 ambulance response time in the East of England was over 23 minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of over 34%.
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: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to reduce shoplifting in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the significant impact shoplifting has on businesses, communities and consumers. The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 48% compared to findings from the year ending March 2010.
However, Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 37% in the 12 months to December 2023. Statistics also show the number of people charged with shoplifting offences has risen by 46% in the year ending December 2023, showing that police are taking action.
We have recently taken significant steps nationally to improve the police response to retail crime, including shoplifting, and these are being implemented in all police forces across England and Wales.
The Government’s plan – "Fighting retail crime: more action" was launched on 10 April, which highlights five areas of work this Government will drive forward to tackle retail crime:
We will bring forward legislative changes to introduce a presumption towards electronic monitoring as part of a sentence served in the community for those who repeatedly steal from shops. This legislative change will provide that on the third sentencing occasion, an offender would be electronically monitored as part of any community sentence or post-release for the duration of any licence period.
The Government’s plan builds on the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all forces across England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals.
This builds on the NPCC commitment that police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.
October also saw the launch of Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, which involves retailers providing data, intelligence and evidence to Opal, the national police intelligence unit on organised acquisitive crime, to develop a better strategic picture and help forces crack down on serious offenders.
We are continuing to work closely with retail businesses, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG), which meets on a quarterly basis, to ensure the response to retail crime, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be.