The Government has recently published the Fair Funding Review 2.0 consultation document setting out detailed proposals to update and reform the local government funding system through the 2026–27 Local Government Finance Settlement. As part of these proposals, we are considering how best to reflect the impact of student populations on local authorities’ ability to generate council tax revenue.

Specifically, we are proposing to account for the presence of student-exempt properties within the Resource Adjustment element of the funding formula. This would mean that authorities with a higher number of student-exempt properties would receive a smaller resource adjustment, thereby recognising their reduced capacity to generate income locally through council tax.

The Department has fully reviewed the Port of Sunderland Byelaws 1978 and is optimistic that this can be finalised and confirmed by all parties concerned in the coming weeks.

Since 2016-17 councils with responsibility for adult social care services have been given additional flexibility to increase their council tax without a referendum, provided this revenue is spent exclusively on these services. This flexibility is known as the adult social care precept.

From 2025-26 the council tax charge of social care authorities must be displayed as a single line on council tax bills. The change provides a consistent approach between how levels are displayed for social care authorities and non-social care authorities. This will simplify bills and provide greater clarity on the total annual increases set by these councils.

The Progress 8 accountability measure is designed to take pupils’ prior attainment into account and shows the progress made by pupils in a school compared to progress made by pupils nationally with similar starting points.

The department publishes breakdowns of Progress 8 for different pupil groups, such as disadvantaged pupils, to show the progress made by disadvantaged pupils at school level. It also shows the proportion of pupils in a school eligible for free school meals in the last six years, compared to the national average. This enables parents, and those working with schools, to view a school’s results alongside information about its cohort. The government will continue to keep this under review.

There are no plans to require London North Eastern Railway to run direct services between Sunderland and London Kings Cross beyond December 2024. Sunderland will continue to have direct London services provided by Open Access operators. Additionally, improvements to the Metro network will improve connectivity in the north east.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates all health and social care services including dental services in England. CQC carries out assessments of primary dental services to determine if they are compliant with regulations. CQC inspects 10% of dental services each year, as they are considered to pose a lower risk to patient safety than other regulated sectors, though they can, and do, inspect more frequently if concerns are raised. Instead of a single rating, CQC displays ticks and crosses against each of their five key questions to show if any enforcement or improvement actions are required.This results in a ‘regulations met’ or ‘regulations not met’ judgement. The availability of NHS dental appointments is not a condition of registration, nor is it a regulated activity, and so is not something that would be inspected. CQC does not currently look at wider areas, such as access to dental services, equity of access, efficiency of care provision, or the effectiveness of dental services. The ongoing review of the CQC by Penny Dash – and the broader regulatory landscape – will consider wider issues of how to assess, and improve, access to care, innovation in care delivery and use of resources – for all health and care services.

Integrated Care Boards took control of commissioning NHS dental activity in April 2023.

Activity in NHS dentistry is measured by the number of Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) commissioned and delivered and by the number of courses of treatment delivered. The number of appointments delivered are not used as a measurement of dental activity. Data on the number of UDAs commissioned and delivered is published each month on the NHS Business Services Authority Open Data Portal in an online format only.

By law, the chair of a foundation trust is also the chair of the council of governors. This requirement is set out in paragraph 12 of Schedule 7 to the National Health Service Act 2006.

The rationale is to ensure that the chair, who oversees the foundation trust’s board, which is itself comprised of executives and non-executives and is responsible for the trust’s operation and plan development, serves as the link between this board and the council of governors, who are elected by the foundation trust’s members and represent the local population.

The Department has not carried out an assessment of the effectiveness of scrutiny into the dual-chair role.

The Department does not hold the information requested. National Health Service organisations are independent employers and have their own policies and procedures in resolving workplace disputes, which should be aligned to current employment law and good human resources practice. Whistleblowers cannot waive their rights to make a protected disclosure, regardless of whether they sign an out-of-court settlement agreement. The Government is committed to ensuring we genuinely protect whistleblowers and create a culture of honesty and openness, which will include a review of current enforcement measures, to give a clear message that any misuse of confidentiality clauses will not be tolerated in the NHS.

The following table shows the total number of Freedom to Speak Up cases reported to the National Guardian’s Office (NGO), and the number and proportion raised by workers in independent organisations and National Health Service trusts, each year from 2019 to 2024:

Notes:

1. organisations categorised as independent include private hospitals, ambulances, and hospices; and
2. cases from NHS organisations do not make up all of the remaining cases as the total cases will also include cases from other organisation types supported by Freedom to Speak Up guardians, for example, non-providers, such as regulators and Arm’s Length Bodies, defence military services, and charities.

Speaking up cases brought to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians may include whistleblowing, however they may also be issues for improvement or wider matters which would not meet a formal definition of whistleblowing. Whistleblowing is when someone who works for an employer raises a concern by making a disclosure in the public interest via provisions in the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Speaking up is about encouraging a positive culture where people feel they can speak up about anything that gets in the way of providing good care, that their voices will be heard, and their suggestions acted upon.

The above data is collected anonymously from individual organisations and provided voluntarily to the NGO by Guardians, and as such may represent an incomplete picture. Guardians are one of many routes to speaking up internally within an organisation. Employees may also speak up to regulators, some of which may be captured as whistleblowing.

The following table shows the data reported to the National Guardian’s Office (NGO) on the total number of workers that provided feedback about their experience of speaking up to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, and the proportion of those workers who said they would speak up again, each year from 2019 to 2024:

Note: feedback received may be about cases that were raised in a previous financial year

Speaking up cases brought to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians may include whistleblowing, however they may also be issues for improvement or wider matters which would not meet a formal definition of whistleblowing. Whistleblowing is when someone who works for an employer raises a concern by making a disclosure in the public interest via provisions in the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Speaking up is about encouraging a positive culture where people feel they can speak up about anything that gets in the way of providing good care, that their voices will be heard, and their suggestions acted upon.

The above data is collected anonymously from individual organisations and provided voluntarily to the NGO by Guardians, and as such could represent an incomplete picture. Guardians are one of many routes to speaking up internally within an organisation. Employees may also speak up to regulators, some of which may be captured as whistleblowing.

We have no immediate plans to introduce a statutory right for patients to be registered as a National Health Service patient. The Government will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments, and to recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.

Healthy soil underpins a range of ecosystem services including food production, biodiversity, carbon storage and flood risk mitigation. Addressing contaminants in soil, including microplastic pollution, is vital for protecting and improving soil health. We are working to build an understanding of the impact of microplastics to soil and to develop mitigation capabilities.

The plastic problem is one of management not eradication, to reduce, reuse, and recycle the material we have and not let it escape into, and damage, our environment. We have focused our efforts in tackling the most commonly used and littered plastic items, but we are aware of concerns with the use of agri-plastics too, particularly with single-use types such as mulch films.

We are concerned about the potential for oxo-degradable plastic to release microplastics. In 2021, we published our response to a call for evidence which also covered oxo-degradable plastics. Most respondents objected to their use and supported introducing a ban. A review by the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (HSAC) showed there is no environmental benefit to oxo-degradable plastic, and they are likely to be harmful when released into the environment. This year, Defra has commissioned a second HSAC review and are minded to introduce a ban on this material pending evidence from the review.

The UK Government continues to take a cautious approach to biodegradable plastics. The UK standard for biodegradable plastics (EN13432) allows for contaminants in the final output: “no more than 10% contaminants to pass through a 2mm sieve”. This means that microplastics less than 2mm could be produced by a biodegradable plastic mulch film that meets the standard and be spread to land. Additionally, while we are not aware of any biodegradable plastic that can reach levels of 100% biodegradation, evidence used to inform the European Union’s legislation around biodegradable plastics in agricultural applications may not apply to the UK. The UK has differing conditions, such as temperatures and humidity levels, which affect biodegradability.

We will continue to review the evidence around both types of plastic to take a systematic approach to reducing the use of unnecessary and harmful single-use plastics.

We published our Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care in May 2023, which sets out how we are moving toward a Modern General Practice (GP) model. This plan is backed by £240 million of retargeted funding, going to providing digital services, with the goal of increasing access. The plan sets out how, by improving digital access to GPs, we will free up capacity for those patients who want to contact their practice by telephone or in-person. We are also clear that online tools must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels for accessing GPs.

The sole method for GPs to procure these digital services is via NHS England’s procurement frameworks, which list pre-approved suppliers for digital and IT services. This is to ensure consistency in service provisions, as each supplier must meet a set of requirements to be entered into a framework.

As of March 2024, 93% of GPs now have digital telephony systems. This has enabled GP teams to manage multiple calls, helping to end the 8:00am rush for appointments. Trials show that this has increased patients’ ability to get through to their practice by almost a third.

The Government has been clear that the significant backlog of local audits in England is unacceptable. It is taking action to deal with this backlog and put the system on a sustainable footing. On 8 February DLUHC, with local audit system organisations, issued a Joint Statement setting out a clear package of measures to meet these challenges, alongside the launch of DLUHC and National Audit Office consultations.

We proposed a statutory backstop date of 30 September 2024 for the publication of audited accounts for all years up to and including 2022/23. This will enable local authorities and firms to focus on the most recent accounts as quickly as possible. Five years of further backstop dates would allow assurance to be gradually rebuilt. The Government also recognises that important questions concerning systemic challenges must be addressed.

The Government is carefully reviewing consultation responses and will respond in due course.

This Government is committed to tackling homelessness. We are investing over £1billion in the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years to help councils prevent homelessness and provide temporary accommodation, with a further £120 million UK-wide funding announced at Autumn Statement for 2024/25 to help prevent homelessness.

The Local Authority Housing Fund enables councils in England to buy or build housing stock to obtain better quality temporary accommodation for those owed a homelessness duty and provide a lasting affordable housing asset for the future. We recently announced a third round of funding, bringing the total funding to £1.2 billion.

My Lords, the latest available statistics are for April to June 2023; data for December 2023 will be available in the spring. We are providing significant investment to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping—more than £2 billion over three years. This includes more than £1 billion to support local authorities to prevent homelessness, with a further £120 million secured at the Autumn Statement for next year to relieve homelessness pressures.

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

NHS England cannot provide relevant information to these questions without creation of new data and analysis derived from manual clinical review or other processes. Arrangements for future reporting are being worked on and NHS England is undertaking a piece of work to understand the issues in homecare, so as to inform future improvement actions. A project by the National Homecare Medicines Committee to review the national Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set is already underway with consultation due later this summer and final documents expected for approval in December 2023. Publication of performance against the KPIs is part of this project.

To monitor industry trends, the home care providers association, the National Clinical Homecare Association, aggregates all providers’ KPIs and they have provided written evidence to the House of Lords Public Services Committee as part of their current investigation into the Homecare Medicines service which has been published. This includes data on patient safety incidents and duty of candour reports, of which a copy is attached.

The Department publishes an annual release entitled 'Housing supply: Net Additional Dwellings, England', which includes estimates of the components of housing supply, in each year since 2006-07, in Table 120 at this link: live-tables-on net supply of housing.

Data on dwellings suitable for family occupation with a garden or play space are not centrally collected.

NHS England cannot provide relevant information to these questions without creation of new data and analysis derived from manual clinical review or other processes. Arrangements for future reporting are being worked on and NHS England is undertaking a piece of work to understand the issues in homecare, so as to inform future improvement actions. A project by the National Homecare Medicines Committee to review the national Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set is already underway with consultation due later this summer and final documents expected for approval in December 2023. Publication of performance against the KPIs is part of this project.

To monitor industry trends, the home care providers association, the National Clinical Homecare Association, aggregates all providers’ KPIs and they have provided written evidence to the House of Lords Public Services Committee as part of their current investigation into the Homecare Medicines service which has been published. This includes data on patient safety incidents and duty of candour reports, of which a copy is attached.