Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's response to the Work Capability Assessment: Activities and Descriptors Consultation, published in November 2023, what his planned timetable is for publishing an equality impact assessment on proposals for changes to the eligibility criteria for the (a) Limited Capability for Work and Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity categories within universal credit and (b) Work-Related Activity Group and Support Group within Employment Support Allowance.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We published our response to the consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment criteria on 22 November, having carefully considered feedback from disabled people, and people with health conditions, as well as the organisations that represent and support them.
The consultation was open from 5 September to 30 October 2023. This gave ample time for people to share their views. We undertook extensive engagement during the consultation period and received over 1,300 responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding about which changes to take forward.
We also did a lot of work to make sure disabled people could share their views. We provided the consultation document in a range of accessible formats, including large print, Easy Read, Braille, Audio, BSL and hard copy versions. We ran a programme of in-person and virtual public events, so that people could share their views verbally and offered a range of methods to enable people to respond in writing, including online, by email or by post.
We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.
The OBR have said that they expect these changes to mean that 371,000 fewer people will be declared as having Limited Capability for Work Related Activity by 2028/29 than otherwise would be the case. HMT have published the impacts in their policy costing note that accompanies the Autumn Statement.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 monitor the effectiveness of hybrid closed loop technology implementation on (i) glycaemic control, (ii) quality of life and (iii) reduction in complications for patients.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published their draft guidance on hybrid closed loop (HCL) technology for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes.
HCL technology represents a step change in care for patients living with type one diabetes, which is why NICE has agreed a five-year roll out of this technology with NHS England. This is to ensure the National Health Service has the staff training and patient support in place to safely roll out this new technology.
Access to medical devices should be determined by clinical need. It is our priority to ensure that all patients have access to the most innovative treatment options, wherever they live in the country.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for developing a plan for meeting the health needs of their population, managing the NHS budget, and arranging for the provision of health services in the integrated care systems.
For HCL, NHS England will make clinicians aware of priority patients to help ensure equality of access and will keep this under review as it rolled out expands to other groups over the implementation period. NHS England will engage with patient representative groups, ICB leads, trust clinical leads working within children, young people and adult services, and professional bodies as part of the implementation strategy’s development.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to (a) involve patients with and (b) raise awareness of the (i) potential merits and (ii) availability of hybrid closed loop technology.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published their draft guidance on hybrid closed loop (HCL) technology for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes.
HCL technology represents a step change in care for patients living with type one diabetes, which is why NICE has agreed a five-year roll out of this technology with NHS England. This is to ensure the National Health Service has the staff training and patient support in place to safely roll out this new technology.
Access to medical devices should be determined by clinical need. It is our priority to ensure that all patients have access to the most innovative treatment options, wherever they live in the country.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for developing a plan for meeting the health needs of their population, managing the NHS budget, and arranging for the provision of health services in the integrated care systems.
For HCL, NHS England will make clinicians aware of priority patients to help ensure equality of access and will keep this under review as it rolled out expands to other groups over the implementation period. NHS England will engage with patient representative groups, ICB leads, trust clinical leads working within children, young people and adult services, and professional bodies as part of the implementation strategy’s development.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 support equal access to (a) hybrid closed loop and (b) other new medical technologies.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published their draft guidance on hybrid closed loop (HCL) technology for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes.
HCL technology represents a step change in care for patients living with type one diabetes, which is why NICE has agreed a five-year roll out of this technology with NHS England. This is to ensure the National Health Service has the staff training and patient support in place to safely roll out this new technology.
Access to medical devices should be determined by clinical need. It is our priority to ensure that all patients have access to the most innovative treatment options, wherever they live in the country.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for developing a plan for meeting the health needs of their population, managing the NHS budget, and arranging for the provision of health services in the integrated care systems.
For HCL, NHS England will make clinicians aware of priority patients to help ensure equality of access and will keep this under review as it rolled out expands to other groups over the implementation period. NHS England will engage with patient representative groups, ICB leads, trust clinical leads working within children, young people and adult services, and professional bodies as part of the implementation strategy’s development.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 help ensure access to hybrid closed loop technology.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published their draft guidance on hybrid closed loop (HCL) technology for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes.
HCL technology represents a step change in care for patients living with type one diabetes, which is why NICE has agreed a five-year roll out of this technology with NHS England. This is to ensure the National Health Service has the staff training and patient support in place to safely roll out this new technology.
Access to medical devices should be determined by clinical need. It is our priority to ensure that all patients have access to the most innovative treatment options, wherever they live in the country.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for developing a plan for meeting the health needs of their population, managing the NHS budget, and arranging for the provision of health services in the integrated care systems.
For HCL, NHS England will make clinicians aware of priority patients to help ensure equality of access and will keep this under review as it rolled out expands to other groups over the implementation period. NHS England will engage with patient representative groups, ICB leads, trust clinical leads working within children, young people and adult services, and professional bodies as part of the implementation strategy’s development.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the Equality Impact Assessments undertaken by his Department on the recently proposed closures of rail ticket offices in England.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Government has asked operators to withdraw their proposals and for no ticket office closures to occur. These were industry led proposals to provide more help and advice in customer-focussed roles and operators made their Equality Impact Assessment’s (EIA) available online during the consultation period.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much the Civil Aviation Authority spent on equality and diversity training in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Civil Aviation Authority is not able to disaggregate fully the total amount spent on equality and diversity training in 2022-23.
It has identified £8,350 in specific expenditure on equality and diversity training. Any additional spend that may have been made on such training during that period would be included in the aggregate Corporate Training budget, which covers a wide range of training activities and had a total spend of £239,364
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of closing train station ticket offices on passengers in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are now in a period where the independent passenger bodies (Transport Focus and London TravelWatch) are engaging with train operators on the basis of the consultation responses they have received and the criteria they have set out. We expect train operators, including Greater Anglia, who manage several stations in the Enfield North area, to work collaboratively with the passenger bodies in the coming weeks, to listen to the concerns raised and to refine their proposals accordingly.
When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, as set out in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, train operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of passengers who are disabled, and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. All operators prepared Equality Impact Assessments and published these on their websites.
Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station should be unstaffed as a result of industry changes.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish the impact assessment on the closure of rail ticket offices.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours – including closures – train operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of passengers who are disabled, and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. When consulting, operators should have also clearly considered other equality-related needs. Operators prepared Equality Impact Assessments, and these were available on their websites during the consultation.
Together with the industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. The consultation period has now closed, and we now expect train operators to work collaboratively with the passenger bodies in the coming weeks, to listen to the concerns raised and to refine their proposals accordingly.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of closing train station ticket offices in (a) Leeds, (b) Burley Park and (c) Horsforth rail stations on the (i) safety and (ii) accessibility of passenger rail travel in the North West.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
We are now in a period where the independent passenger bodies (Transport Focus and London TravelWatch) are engaging with train operators on the basis of the consultation responses they have received and the criteria they have set out. We expect train operators to work collaboratively with the passenger bodies in the coming weeks, to listen to the concerns raised and to refine their proposals accordingly.
When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators were required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of all passengers; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. All operators prepared Equality Impact Assessments and published these on their websites.
Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station will be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and train operators will ensure staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future.