Written questions by Maskell.

What estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of providing a universal palliative care service.

No estimate has been made of the cost to the public purse of providing a universal palliative care service. It is difficult to quantify the total provision of, or spend on, palliative and end of life care at either a national or local integrated care board (ICB) level in England, because it is delivered every day by a wide range of specialist and generalist health and care workers in multiple settings, including in primary care, community care, in hospitals, in hospices, in care homes, and in people’s own homes. So not all palliative and end of life care will be recorded or coded as such.Palliative care services are included in the list of services an ICB must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure that patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift.

What steps his Department is taking to tackle inequalities in access to end of life care services.

The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure that patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift.Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of those their local population, including the ability to filter the available information, such as by deprivation or ethnicity, thereby enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities.Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Department is investing £3 million in a new Policy Research Unit in Palliative and End of Life Care. This unit launched in January 2024 and will build the evidence base on palliative and end of life care, with a specific focus on inequalities.I recently met NHS England and discussions have begun on how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care.

Whether he plans to publish an evaluation of the effectiveness of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust community health service pilot at assisting users with employment matters.

NHS England has advised that an external evaluation of the pilots will be procured that includes early feedback to pilot sites to enable them to respond in a timely manner to early findings and learning. No decisions have yet been made on when the outcomes of this evaluation might be made available.

What his planned timescale is for reforming the NHS dental contract.

We are working at pace with the British Dental Association and the dental sector to improve and reform the dental contract.

What steps she is taking to help tackle food insecurity; and if she will make an assessment with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the potential impact of these steps on (a) physical and (b) mental health.

This government is committed to tackling poverty and reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of people falling into poverty so this will be the foundation of our approach. The Get Britain Working White Paper, to be set out in the Autumn, will develop measures to reduce inactivity and help people to find better paid and more secure jobs. Alongside this, we have committed to reviewing Universal Credit by listening to the full range of views on potential changes, so that our social security system is fit for purpose. Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce, which includes the Department for Health and Social Care, has started urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025 and will explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty. We will also take initial steps to tackle poverty by introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, so children don’t go hungry, protecting renters from arbitrary eviction and banning exploitative zero hours contracts. For those most in need, we have extended the Household Support Fund for a further 6 months, from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025. An additional £421 million will be provided to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England, plus funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion, as usual. As has been done for previous schemes, the Fund is available to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England to provide discretionary support to those most in need with the cost of essentials. The Fund can be used to provide support with food, energy, water and wider essentials.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to fund the scale up of research in the life sciences sector.

We are actively supporting the life sciences sector to ensure that businesses investing in research can access the capital they need to scale up in the UK.Through initiatives like the £400 million VPAG investment programme, we will expand the UK's capacity for commercial clinical trials and manufacturing, enabling research to have the impact that it deserves.In addition, UKRI's £118m fund will create five new research hubs across the country, from Glasgow to Bristol, to develop new health technologies in partnership with the life sciences sector.

What progress his department has made on reducing deaths from stroke and heart disease by a quarter within ten years.

Reducing avoidable disability and death from heart disease and stroke is a priority for the Government. This is why the Government has set a goal for fewer lives being lost to the biggest killers, including from cardiovascular disease (CVD), and why the NHS England's Long Term Plan (2019) sets out a number of actions that aim to help prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases by 2029.The Government continues to support the delivery of the NHS Health Check programme, England’s CVD prevention programme, to people aged 40 to 74 years old. This programme identifies people at risk of CVD, supports people in reducing their risk, and prevents approximately 400 heart attacks or strokes each year. To improve access and engagement with the life-saving programme, we are developing a digital NHS Health Check which will be ready for testing in early 2025 and will enable people to undertake a check at home. We are also trialling the delivery of heart health checks to over 130,000 people in workplaces across the country.Community pharmacies also provide a free blood pressure check service for anyone over 40 years old. In cases where this results in a high reading, pharmacists can make sure people receive the right National Health Service support to reduce their blood pressure and risk of death or serious disability.We know there is more to do. The Department and NHS England are working together to achieve the Government’s ambition for fewer lives lost to the biggest killers, including CVD, and we will share more in due course.

What non-custodial steps she is taking to help divert people away from retail crime.

Shoplifting has increased at an unacceptable level in recent years, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this. We will not stand for this. Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job.To that end, this Government will end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low level shoplifting of goods under £200.We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.We encourage closer local partnerships between police and retailers ensuring action can be taken, including reporting crime and considering what appropriate action, including non-custodial interventions, can be taken. We urge retailers to join their local Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) or Business Improvement District (BID) to support local community efforts to reduce retail crime.The Home Office supports Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, that is improving the way retailers share intelligence with policing, to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. There have been approximately 1.5 million shoplifting offences recorded in England in the last 5 years, of which 7737 were for the York area.We are committed to preventing young people being lured into crime, drugs and criminal gangs and the Government has made clear its commitment to introduce a new offence to tackle child criminal exploitation.County Lines is the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of Child Criminal Exploitation. The County Lines Programme is funded by the Home Office to tackle this, resulting in over 5,600 county line closures, 16,500 arrests and 8,800 safeguarding referrals

What steps her Department is taking to reduce delays in families accessing therapeutic support through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.

What assessment her Department has made of adequacy of the time it takes families to receive therapeutic support through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of ringfenced crisis funding within the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund to enable families facing an urgent crisis to access therapeutic interventions more quickly.

Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.

What assessment has she made of the potential links of retail crime to County Lines.

Shoplifting has increased at an unacceptable level in recent years, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this. We will not stand for this. Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job.To that end, this Government will end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low level shoplifting of goods under £200.We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.We encourage closer local partnerships between police and retailers ensuring action can be taken, including reporting crime and considering what appropriate action, including non-custodial interventions, can be taken. We urge retailers to join their local Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) or Business Improvement District (BID) to support local community efforts to reduce retail crime.The Home Office supports Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, that is improving the way retailers share intelligence with policing, to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. There have been approximately 1.5 million shoplifting offences recorded in England in the last 5 years, of which 7737 were for the York area.We are committed to preventing young people being lured into crime, drugs and criminal gangs and the Government has made clear its commitment to introduce a new offence to tackle child criminal exploitation.County Lines is the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of Child Criminal Exploitation. The County Lines Programme is funded by the Home Office to tackle this, resulting in over 5,600 county line closures, 16,500 arrests and 8,800 safeguarding referrals

What assessment her Department has made of potential merits of the recommendation in the report entitled the Adoption Barometer, published by Adoption UK in May 2024, that the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund be made permanent.

Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.

What her planned timetable is for bringing forward legislative proposals to tackle retail crime.

Shoplifting has increased at an unacceptable level in recent years, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this. We will not stand for this. Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job.To that end, this Government will end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low level shoplifting of goods under £200.We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.We encourage closer local partnerships between police and retailers ensuring action can be taken, including reporting crime and considering what appropriate action, including non-custodial interventions, can be taken. We urge retailers to join their local Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) or Business Improvement District (BID) to support local community efforts to reduce retail crime.The Home Office supports Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, that is improving the way retailers share intelligence with policing, to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. There have been approximately 1.5 million shoplifting offences recorded in England in the last 5 years, of which 7737 were for the York area.We are committed to preventing young people being lured into crime, drugs and criminal gangs and the Government has made clear its commitment to introduce a new offence to tackle child criminal exploitation.County Lines is the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of Child Criminal Exploitation. The County Lines Programme is funded by the Home Office to tackle this, resulting in over 5,600 county line closures, 16,500 arrests and 8,800 safeguarding referrals

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the therapeutic modalities available within the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.

Funding for Children’s Social Care, which includes the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), is being considered as part of the current spending review.The department has been making a range of changes to improve the timeliness of the ASGSF application process. For example, we will be streamlining the online application process to reduce administration for local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs), and have already changed systems to ensure that application outcomes are delivered more swiftly. We have also introduced a direct communication link with therapy providers to give early updates on any changes and advice on submitting applications.These changes should help to reduce delays within local authorities and RAAs before applications are received. The additional support to providers, with better sharing of information about the ASGSF, should also help families to receive support more quickly.One of the main aims of the ASGSF is to support families whose adoption or special guardianship order is at risk of breakdown, with children being at risk of being returned to care, without the specialist therapy linked to trauma and attachment we fund. For this reason, all funding for the ASGSF can be considered crisis funding, and efforts are made to get that support to those in need as soon as possible. The adequacy of the therapies available within the ASGSF is currently being assessed from multiple angles. The National Institute for Health Research is currently conducting a randomised control trial into Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP). This research is currently in the third and final phase and will give robust evidence into the effectiveness of DDP. Moreover, the collection of data from Outcomes Measurement Tools for ASGSF-funded therapies began in December 2023. This data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of ASGSF-funded therapies.

How many cases of retail crime have been reported in (a) York and (b) England in each of the last five years.

Shoplifting has increased at an unacceptable level in recent years, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this. We will not stand for this. Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job.To that end, this Government will end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low level shoplifting of goods under £200.We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.We encourage closer local partnerships between police and retailers ensuring action can be taken, including reporting crime and considering what appropriate action, including non-custodial interventions, can be taken. We urge retailers to join their local Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) or Business Improvement District (BID) to support local community efforts to reduce retail crime.The Home Office supports Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, that is improving the way retailers share intelligence with policing, to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. There have been approximately 1.5 million shoplifting offences recorded in England in the last 5 years, of which 7737 were for the York area.We are committed to preventing young people being lured into crime, drugs and criminal gangs and the Government has made clear its commitment to introduce a new offence to tackle child criminal exploitation.County Lines is the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of Child Criminal Exploitation. The County Lines Programme is funded by the Home Office to tackle this, resulting in over 5,600 county line closures, 16,500 arrests and 8,800 safeguarding referrals

If she will take steps to ensure that there are simplified reporting systems for retail crime from business owners.

Shoplifting has increased at an unacceptable level in recent years, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this. We will not stand for this. Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job.To that end, this Government will end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low level shoplifting of goods under £200.We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.We encourage closer local partnerships between police and retailers ensuring action can be taken, including reporting crime and considering what appropriate action, including non-custodial interventions, can be taken. We urge retailers to join their local Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) or Business Improvement District (BID) to support local community efforts to reduce retail crime.The Home Office supports Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, that is improving the way retailers share intelligence with policing, to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. There have been approximately 1.5 million shoplifting offences recorded in England in the last 5 years, of which 7737 were for the York area.We are committed to preventing young people being lured into crime, drugs and criminal gangs and the Government has made clear its commitment to introduce a new offence to tackle child criminal exploitation.County Lines is the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of Child Criminal Exploitation. The County Lines Programme is funded by the Home Office to tackle this, resulting in over 5,600 county line closures, 16,500 arrests and 8,800 safeguarding referrals

What steps she is taking to monitor the adequacy of policing in city centres.

The Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which will include restoring patrols to town centres.This will also involve the addition of thousands more neighbourhood police personnel, as part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission.

What recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of covid-19 on (a) the NHS and (b) mortality rates.

From the week commencing 6 October 2023 to week commencing 20 September 2024, there have been an estimated 9,972 deaths from COVID-19, as measured by death registrations with COVID-19 on death certificates. Further information is available at the following link:https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continues to monitor the ongoing impact of COVID-19 through a variety of surveillance systems, including in general practices, through the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Surveillance Centre, in healthcare settings, and via the testing of patients in National Health Service and public health laboratories. In addition, a selection of these positive tests are sequenced to provide data on circulating variants and to potentially detect the arrival of new variants. This data is published on the data dashboard, and in surveillance reports, which are published weekly during the winter season, and fortnightly otherwise. The dashboard and surveillance reports are available, respectively, at the following two links:https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2024-to-2025-seasonDuring vaccination campaigns, data on the effectiveness of the vaccines are collected and analysed, to inform ongoing discussion for future campaigns, both in terms of clinical and cost effectiveness.Following increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations during the waves that appear throughout the year, there is a proportionate increase in COVID-19 deaths. Based on UKHSA data, there is no evidence that recent waves or variants have shown a disproportionate level of severity or mortality. Further information is available at the following link:https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19NHS England uses Urgent and Emergency Care Daily Situation Reports data to monitor COVID-19 impacts through general and acute bed closure data.

If he will make an estimate of the number of covid-19 related deaths in the last year.

From the week commencing 6 October 2023 to week commencing 20 September 2024, there have been an estimated 9,972 deaths from COVID-19, as measured by death registrations with COVID-19 on death certificates. Further information is available at the following link:https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continues to monitor the ongoing impact of COVID-19 through a variety of surveillance systems, including in general practices, through the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Surveillance Centre, in healthcare settings, and via the testing of patients in National Health Service and public health laboratories. In addition, a selection of these positive tests are sequenced to provide data on circulating variants and to potentially detect the arrival of new variants. This data is published on the data dashboard, and in surveillance reports, which are published weekly during the winter season, and fortnightly otherwise. The dashboard and surveillance reports are available, respectively, at the following two links:https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2024-to-2025-seasonDuring vaccination campaigns, data on the effectiveness of the vaccines are collected and analysed, to inform ongoing discussion for future campaigns, both in terms of clinical and cost effectiveness.Following increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations during the waves that appear throughout the year, there is a proportionate increase in COVID-19 deaths. Based on UKHSA data, there is no evidence that recent waves or variants have shown a disproportionate level of severity or mortality. Further information is available at the following link:https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19NHS England uses Urgent and Emergency Care Daily Situation Reports data to monitor COVID-19 impacts through general and acute bed closure data.