The Royal Mail Group has confirmed that there are no delays in Wolverhampton Mail Handling site. All DWP post that is received at Wolverhampton Mail Handling site is actioned, cleared and sent to the DWP Mail Opening Unit on the same day of receipt and there are currently no backlogs.

It is the responsibility of National Health Service trusts to have staffing arrangements in place that deliver safe and effective care. This includes recruiting the appropriate professionals needed to support these levels and meet local needs.

Dermatology is a highly competitive specialty training pathway and often oversubscribed. Nationally and locally there has been a 100% fill rate in dermatology training for the past four years. Since 2010, the number of full-time equivalent dermatologists (doctors at the consultant grade) has increased by 26% rising from 464 in May 2010 to 584 in May 2019.

The interim NHS People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, puts the workforce at the heart of the NHS and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. In advance of publishing the final People Plan, the NHS will establish a national programme board to address geographical and specialty shortages in medicine.

The latest update on suicide prevention from the health scrutiny panel at City of Wolverhampton Council (June 2019), shows that 66 deaths were registered as suicides for the period of 2015-17 and 54 of these (82%) were male.

In ‘Making Wolverhampton a Suicide Safer Community: Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Strategy 2016–2020’, City of Wolverhampton Council has set the following aims to reduce suicides:

- provide a multi-agency approach to suicide prevention across Wolverhampton;

- raise awareness of suicide, compelling organisations and the community to take positive action;

- upskill workforces through information and knowledge enabling them to better understand and respond to poor mental wellbeing and suicide ideation;

- influence services and policies so that suicide prevention is robustly considered and embedded in routine business; and

- provide a coordinated suicide support offer which can be accessed by services and communities.

The commissioning and configuration of dermatology services in England is a local matter. The local National Health Service is best placed to make decisions that ensure services meet the needs of resident populations in the most appropriate way.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning the vast majority of dermatology services. The majority of patients with dermatological disorders are managed in primary and community care. Wolverhampton CCG is currently re-procuring its community dermatology service which will encompass an extended range of services. This procurement has been undertaken with the knowledge and co-operation of Royal Wolverhampton Trust. The Royal Wolverhampton Trust is also exploring with other trusts how to make the best use of scarce dermatology staff by working with each other more closely.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

To provide context, we have provided figures for increases in rail fares since 2005. Since 2005, the fares for a peak time return ticket (an Anytime Day Return) between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street, set by the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, have risen as shown in the below table:

Since 2005, the fares for a peak time return ticket (an Anytime Return) between Wolverhampton and London Euston, set by Virgin Trains West Coast, have risen as shown in the below table:

The figures show that over the five years between 2 January 2005 and 2 January 2010, the peak time return ticket between Wolverhampton and London Euston rose by 39%. By comparison, over nearly double the time period, in the nine years between 2 January 2010 and 2 January 2019, the peak time return ticket rose by only 25%.