Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the preparedness of intensive care services for a future pandemic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department continues to plan and prepare for a range of pandemic and emerging infectious disease scenarios, including those caused by respiratory contact, both influenza and non-influenza, and vector-borne pathogens, building on lessons learned from exercises and incidents, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department working with health and care partners is strengthening pandemic preparedness by considering the flexible and scalable response capabilities that can be adapted to any threat that the health and social care system needs.
This includes intensive care capacity that will continue to be an integral part of National Health Service resilience and pandemic planning. The urgent and emergency care recovery plan this year sought to strengthen capacity within the acute bed base, with 5,000 additional permanent staffed core general and acute beds delivered, compared to planned 2022/23 levels. Our preparedness also includes considering the medicines and other supporting products for intensive care services in a pandemic.
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 assessment his Department has made of the impact of ending government support for the UK Recovery programme on the UK's preparedness for future pandemics.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded the RECOVERY trial in March 2020, initially for 18 months, before progressively extending the study to March 2024. It was a highly successful trial that, by recruiting patients at a faster rate than any previous trial, was able to rapidly identify the first drugs that reduce COVID-19 mortality. At the end of an NIHR award, including any extensions, researchers can apply through a competitive process for new funding.
The NIHR continues to fund research into infectious diseases, which could be utilised in the event of another pandemic. For example, the NIHR has allocated £2.9 million to Imperial College London and Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust to adapt their COVID-19 trial for severe flu patients. The NIHR is open to applications on any health and care-related topic.
More widely, the UK Biological Security Strategy, published in June 2023, reaffirms our ambition to scale up discovery, development, and manufacturing of therapeutics and vaccines within 100 days of a pandemic being declared. This aligns with our ongoing work to ensure a flexible and capabilities-based approach to pandemic preparedness, which will see emergency planners develop and maintain a generic suite of adaptable response capabilities across the Government. This will enable an approach that can be flexibly deployed to meet the demands of any future pandemic, and support a whole-system response.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the film and television industry in England, including the freelance workforce, and to encourage investment from the US, following the industrial action by Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 2023.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government has set out a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and to add another 1 million jobs in the sector by 2030. That includes supporting the growth of the television and film industry.
Since 2010, HM Government has introduced a range of tax reliefs across the creative industries, including expanded relief for film and high-end television. Our screen sector tax relief is estimated to be worth more than £13 billion in Gross Value Added to the UK economy.
We have taken a number of additional steps to ensure that British film and television companies are able to invest in production, expand their businesses, and offer opportunities for cast and crew across the UK, in spite of production disruption resulting from the pandemic and the recent strike action in the United States of America.
This includes the £500 million Film and TV Production Restart Scheme and the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas. To build on this, and support the industry not only to survive but to thrive, the Government has taken further actions. This includes our support for the British Film Institute and British Film Commission, which has helped drive a near doubling of UK studio capacity, and the £28 million UK Global Screen Fund, which is expanding the global reach of UK independent content. The sector also benefits from the continued success of our screen sector tax reliefs (for film, high-end TV, animation and children’s TV), which in 2021–22 provided £792 million of support for over 1,000 projects.
We recognise the impact of the American strikes on the film and TV workforce. HMRC has a ‘Time to Pay’ policy which may provide some support to affected cast and crew. This policy allows people experiencing temporary financial difficulty to schedule their tax debts in affordable, sustainable, and tailored instalments with no maximum repayment period. These arrangements can be applied to any tax debt and are flexible, so they can be amended if circumstances change.
In the Creative Industries Sector Vision, the Government set out an ambition to improve the job quality and working practices of the sector, including supporting the high proportion of freelancers in the sector. This includes promoting fair treatment and working practices, enhancing support networks and resources for creative freelancers through Creative UK's Redesigning Freelancing initiative. DCMS and the industry will also continue to work together to produce an action plan in response to the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre’s Good Work Review, and proposals include the recent launch of the British Film Institute’s £1.5 million Good Work Programme for screen. The Government will continue to work with the BFI and the newly established screen sector Skills Task Force to support a strong skills pipeline in the sector and attractive careers pathways into the industry.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 30 November 2023 and (b) 10 January 2024 from the hon. Member for Lewisham East, case reference JD39544.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The department has received the correspondence from the hon. Member and has provided a response in PO-1484241. With apologies, this case was delayed as part of our continued backlog of cases following the pandemic and we are currently working through an urgent recovery plan to resolve this.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help mitigate the potential impact of the delay in finalising the contract with the Nuffield Foundation for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) project on the (a) implementation and (b) continuity of the NELI programme in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, which is part of the department’s education recovery response, has played an important role in improving children’s language and communication skills following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September 2023, the Education Endowment Foundation published an independent evaluation of the programme’s impacts in 2021/22. This demonstrated that children who received the programme made the equivalent of four months’ progress in language skills, on average, compared to children who did not receive NELI. Pupils eligible for free school meals made additional progress on average of seven months. It is rare to see this sort of impact from an educational programme on a national level, and fantastic testament to all those involved in delivering it to children over the last three years.
Since the programme was launched in 2020, just over 11,100 schools, over two thirds of all primaries, have signed up to deliver NELI. To increase the reach of the programme, the department has confirmed it will be funding all registered schools to continue delivering the programme in the 2023/24 academic year. The funding for the 2023/24 academic year will be paid according to the grant payment schedule agreed with the Nuffield Foundation. The next payment is due March 2024.
The department took steps to ensure all delivery partners were content to continue delivering the offer whilst the grant arrangements were being made, in order to ensure continuity of the NELI programme in schools. Therefore, there should have been no impact on provision of the offer to schools this academic year.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the funding for the 2023-24 academic year will be paid to the Nuffield Early Language Intervention project.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, which is part of the department’s education recovery response, has played an important role in improving children’s language and communication skills following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September 2023, the Education Endowment Foundation published an independent evaluation of the programme’s impacts in 2021/22. This demonstrated that children who received the programme made the equivalent of four months’ progress in language skills, on average, compared to children who did not receive NELI. Pupils eligible for free school meals made additional progress on average of seven months. It is rare to see this sort of impact from an educational programme on a national level, and fantastic testament to all those involved in delivering it to children over the last three years.
Since the programme was launched in 2020, just over 11,100 schools, over two thirds of all primaries, have signed up to deliver NELI. To increase the reach of the programme, the department has confirmed it will be funding all registered schools to continue delivering the programme in the 2023/24 academic year. The funding for the 2023/24 academic year will be paid according to the grant payment schedule agreed with the Nuffield Foundation. The next payment is due March 2024.
The department took steps to ensure all delivery partners were content to continue delivering the offer whilst the grant arrangements were being made, in order to ensure continuity of the NELI programme in schools. Therefore, there should have been no impact on provision of the offer to schools this academic year.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the take-up of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme by schools in the most disadvantaged areas.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, which is part of the department’s education recovery response, has played an important role in improving children’s language and communication skills following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September 2023, the Education Endowment Foundation published an independent evaluation of the programme’s impacts in 2021/22. This demonstrated that children who received the programme made on average the equivalent of four months’ progress in language skills, compared to children who did not receive NELI. Pupils eligible for free school meals made additional progress on average of seven months. It is rare to see this sort of impact from an educational programme on a national level, which is a fantastic testament to all those involved in delivering it to children over the last three years.
Since the programme was launched in 2020, just over 11,100 schools, over two thirds of all primaries, have signed up to deliver NELI. To increase the reach of the programme, the department has confirmed it will be funding all registered schools to continue delivering the programme in the 2023/24 academic year. To promote awareness and encourage uptake, the delivery partner will be engaging all registered schools through a mixture of regular communications, support, and targeted outreach. Furthermore, the department is working with the supplier on steps to engage and promote NELI to all schools this academic year and currently scoping activity for the 2024/25 academic year and beyond.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) promote awareness among headteachers and (b) increase the uptake of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, which is part of the department’s education recovery response, has played an important role in improving children’s language and communication skills following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September 2023, the Education Endowment Foundation published an independent evaluation of the programme’s impacts in 2021/22. This demonstrated that children who received the programme made on average the equivalent of four months’ progress in language skills, compared to children who did not receive NELI. Pupils eligible for free school meals made additional progress on average of seven months. It is rare to see this sort of impact from an educational programme on a national level, which is a fantastic testament to all those involved in delivering it to children over the last three years.
Since the programme was launched in 2020, just over 11,100 schools, over two thirds of all primaries, have signed up to deliver NELI. To increase the reach of the programme, the department has confirmed it will be funding all registered schools to continue delivering the programme in the 2023/24 academic year. To promote awareness and encourage uptake, the delivery partner will be engaging all registered schools through a mixture of regular communications, support, and targeted outreach. Furthermore, the department is working with the supplier on steps to engage and promote NELI to all schools this academic year and currently scoping activity for the 2024/25 academic year and beyond.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to provide (a) support and (b) incentives to state schools to use the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, which is part of the department’s education recovery response, has played an important role in improving children’s language and communication skills following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September 2023, the Education Endowment Foundation published an independent evaluation of the programme’s impacts in 2021/22. This demonstrated that children who received the programme made on average the equivalent of four months’ progress in language skills, compared to children who did not receive NELI. Pupils eligible for free school meals made additional progress on average of seven months. It is rare to see this sort of impact from an educational programme on a national level, which is a fantastic testament to all those involved in delivering it to children over the last three years.
Since the programme was launched in 2020, just over 11,100 schools, over two thirds of all primaries, have signed up to deliver NELI. To increase the reach of the programme, the department has confirmed it will be funding all registered schools to continue delivering the programme in the 2023/24 academic year. To promote awareness and encourage uptake, the delivery partner will be engaging all registered schools through a mixture of regular communications, support, and targeted outreach. Furthermore, the department is working with the supplier on steps to engage and promote NELI to all schools this academic year and currently scoping activity for the 2024/25 academic year and beyond.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage the adoption of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme in all state schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, which is part of the department’s education recovery response, has played an important role in improving children’s language and communication skills following the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September 2023, the Education Endowment Foundation published an independent evaluation of the programme’s impacts in 2021/22. This demonstrated that children who received the programme made on average the equivalent of four months’ progress in language skills, compared to children who did not receive NELI. Pupils eligible for free school meals made additional progress on average of seven months. It is rare to see this sort of impact from an educational programme on a national level, which is a fantastic testament to all those involved in delivering it to children over the last three years.
Since the programme was launched in 2020, just over 11,100 schools, over two thirds of all primaries, have signed up to deliver NELI. To increase the reach of the programme, the department has confirmed it will be funding all registered schools to continue delivering the programme in the 2023/24 academic year. To promote awareness and encourage uptake, the delivery partner will be engaging all registered schools through a mixture of regular communications, support, and targeted outreach. Furthermore, the department is working with the supplier on steps to engage and promote NELI to all schools this academic year and currently scoping activity for the 2024/25 academic year and beyond.