Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce accident and emergency waiting times at Peterborough City Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to supporting the National Health Service to improve performance and achieve the standards set out in the NHS Constitution, which includes that 95% of patients attending accident and emergency are admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours.
As a first step, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care appointed the Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation of NHS performance. The investigation’s findings were published on 12 September 2024, and will feed into the Government’s work on a 10-year plan to radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce accident and emergency waiting times at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to supporting the National Health Service to improve performance and achieve the standards set out in the NHS Constitution, which includes that 95% of patients attending accident and emergency are admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours.
As a first step, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care appointed the Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation of NHS performance. The investigation’s findings were published on 12 September 2024, and will feed into the Government’s work on a 10-year plan to radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Collins of Highbury on 1 August (HL313), what recent conversations they have had with other states regarding the timelines of replenishment for major global health multilaterals.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We are working closely with other donors, implementing partners, civil society and the private sector on forthcoming replenishments of multilateral global health institutions to advance developing partner countries' priorities and sustainably improve global health security. The replenishments of Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), the Global Fund, the Pandemic Fund, and the World Health Organisation's inaugural Investment Round will all take place over the coming 18 months. The Minister for Development will meet with the CEO of Gavi this week to discuss Gavi's recent Investment Case launch and timings for its replenishment.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the intensification of land confiscation, settlement construction and settlement expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 7 October 2023.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
West Bank settlement expansion and settler violence have reached record levels. The Israeli government has seized more land this year than in the past twenty years combined. This is unacceptable: it runs counter to multiple resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and undermines the viability of a two-state solution. The Foreign Secretary met Palestinians displaced by settlers during his visit in July. The UK condemns settler expansion and the increase in settler violence. We keep all these issues under review and discuss them with our closest allies.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with arm’s-length bodies regarding civil action being taken against their staff due to gender-critical views.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government cannot comment on individual cases of civil action within arm’s length bodies.
Sponsor departments are responsible for maintaining the relationship between the government and its arm’s length bodies. This includes ensuring appropriate discussions about ongoing issues are held.
Asked by: Lord Udny-Lister (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 13 August 2024 (HL548), what is their policy on how often civil servants should work in the office rather than remotely.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Current Civil Service guidance requires Civil Servants to attend the office or work face-to-face with colleagues at least 60% of the time. There are no plans to change those requirements.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether government departments give equal consideration and status to staff sex equality and equity networks as they do to LGBT+ and other diversity groupings.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
All formally recognised cross-government equality, diversity and inclusion networks are given equal consideration. The Cabinet Office oversees cross-government equality, diversity and inclusion networks. Management of departmental equality, diversity and inclusion networks is delegated to departments.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Meriden and Solihull East constituency will be impacted by planned changes to winter fuel payments.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Please note that following boundary changes to Parliamentary Constituencies, data on Meriden and Solihull East constituency is not explicitly available/ published. To obtain the above figure, data on the previous Solihull constituency and previous Meriden constituency have been combined. Therefore, the above figure of 39,091 is likely to be an overestimate as the new Meriden and Solihull East constituency consists of some of the areas of the previous Meriden constituency and the previous Solihull constituency, not all.
It is estimated that around 39,091 people in the previous Meriden and Solihull East constituency will be affected by the change in policy. This is based on Feb-24 Pension Credit statistics and 22-23 Winter Fuel Payments statistics (sources below).
This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of Pension Credit recipients the previous Meriden and Solihull East constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients in the previous Meriden and Solihull East constituency. This is essentially the number of Winter Fuel Payment claimants pre-policy change not claiming Pension Credit, as an estimate of those who will no longer receive Winter fuel payment. The Pension Credit data that is used is based on the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, not 2024, in order to be comparable with the Winter Fuel Payments statistics.
Also, the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up we might see as a result of the policy change (means testing Winter fuel payments to those on Pension Credit and other means tested benefits). We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or local authorities.
The published Pension Credit figures refer to households rather than individuals, so the number of individuals claiming Pension Credit, will be higher. This means that the number of pensioners eligible for Winter Fuel Payment will be higher and that the estimates provided above overstate the number of pensioners not eligible for Winter Fuel Payment following changes in eligibility.
In addition to that, Pension Credit claimants are the majority of those that will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments, not all. There are other pensioners who are eligible for Winter Fuel Payments (as they claim other means tested benefits) but they are not considered in these figures as it is not possible to do so.
Source:
The Winter Fuel Payments statistics are published here:
Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Pension Credit data is published here: Pension Credit – Data from May 2018
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the increasing number of migrant deaths when attempting to cross the English Channel.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Channel crossing attempts by migrants in small boats have always been lethally dangerous, with the Channel being a very busy shipping lane. The first recorded fatalities occurred in August 2019. Since the start of 2024, there have been 12 fatal incidents involving the deaths of 37 people. Crossings are getting more and more dangerous as time goes on, with the danger and the risk rising as quality of boats deteriorates and more people are crammed on board.
The ‘vessels’ used to make these crossings are not of commercial manufacture. They are poorly constructed, from cheap and flimsy materials, are unseaworthy, underpowered, and lack safety equipment. They founder frequently, and for each fatal incident there are plenty of other near misses where boats have begun to deflate and people have gone in the water.
The criminal gangs who facilitate these crossings have no interest in the welfare of their clients, only in the pursuit of profit. It is for this reason that boats are increasingly seen to be overcrowded, with the most vulnerable packed into the middle of the boat where crushing and other injuries, such as fuel burns, become more likely.
We are working closely with the French to reduce the risk to life from these crossings and with partners across Europe to bring the evil people smuggling gangs to justice.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has had recent discussions with the Victims' Commissioner on the potential impact on victims of her Department's scheme to temporarily reduce the proportion of some custodial sentences served in prison from 50% to 40%.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers and officials regularly meet with the Victims’ Commissioner. I can confirm recent meetings have included discussions about the impact on victims of the prison capacity measures announced on 12 July, and the processes in place to ensure that victims have access to information and support they may need.
Victims who are eligible for and have opted into either the Probation Service’s Victim Contact Scheme or Victim Notification Scheme are provided with updates about an offender that perpetrated crimes against them, including when these offenders are due to be released from custody. This includes providing these victims with the opportunity to make representations as to the licence conditions that they would like to be in place on an offender’s release such as an exclusion zone.