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1696199

	registered interest
	date	14/03/2024
	answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
	answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
	hansard heading	Nurses: Mental Health
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the mental health and wellbeing of student nurses in England.
	tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
	tabling member printed	Cat Smith
	uin	18729
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>The health and wellbeing of all National Health Service staff is taken seriously, and there is a wide range of support in place to aid the health and wellbeing of NHS staff. This includes a Health and Wellbeing Guardian role to ensure board level scrutiny, and that there are tools and resources to support line managers in holding meaningful conversations with staff to discuss their emotional and psychological health and wellbeing. The support package also includes access to regional mental health and wellbeing hubs.</p><p>In 2023, NHS England published a strategy to grow occupational health and wellbeing, setting out a roadmap for the NHS and partner organisations to work together to develop and invest in occupational health and wellbeing services for staff over the next five years. To ensure there is a long term sustainable approach to supporting staff, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has tasked integrated care boards with developing and implementing plans to invest in occupational health and wellbeing services.</p> answering member constituency Pendle answering member printed Andrew Stephenson question first answered 21/03/2024 17:58:13 answering member 4044 label Biography information for Andrew Stephenson
	tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

1695787

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept id	216
	answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	hansard heading	Digital Technology
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how she measures digital inclusion.
	tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
	tabling member printed	Cat Smith
	uin	18498
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>Digital inclusion is a cross-cutting issue that spans social engagement, education, employment, access to services and many more elements of everyday life. Responsibility for relevant policies and activities, including monitoring and evaluation, sit across government.</p><p>Government draws on evidence from a variety of sources including the Office for National Statistics, regulators, and trusted partners and stakeholders from across the sector. Importantly, we seek to use such data and evidence to better understand the impact on day to day lives.</p><p>DSIT will continue to work with Government colleagues and with key external stakeholders from across the sector to better understand the impacts of overcoming digital exclusion and ensure that policy interventions are evidence driven. DSIT has also committed to exploring options for funding research to improve the Government’s evidence base on digital exclusion.</p> answering member constituency Meriden answering member printed Saqib Bhatti question first answered 21/03/2024 12:57:52 answering member 4818 label Biography information for Saqib Bhatti
	tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

1695788

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept id	216
	answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	hansard heading	Broadband: Social Tariffs
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to increase the take up of social tariff broadband packages.
	tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
	tabling member printed	Cat Smith
	uin	18499
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government continues to work closely with Ofcom on the issue of affordability of telecoms services, including social tariffs.</p><p> </p><p>In December 2023, Ofcom’s Pricing Trends report showed that 380,000 UK households now take up a social tariff, an almost 160% increase from September 2022.</p><p> </p><p>Social tariffs are low-cost, commercial products, but it is important to recognise that they may not represent the best value for money in every circumstance and should be considered alongside other commercial offers and bundled services.</p><p> </p><p>The Government and Ofcom continue to press operators to do more to raise awareness of social tariffs so that eligible households make use of them. Ofcom’s report also showed that just 45% of eligible households were aware of low-cost broadband offers. In July 2023, Ofcom’s Chief Executive wrote to the sector to set out the regulator’s expectation that they should do more to promote awareness, such as by highlighting tariffs on bills and end-of-contract notifications.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 21/03/2024 09:31:31 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
	tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

1695790

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept id	216
	answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	hansard heading	Broadband: Lancashire
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help connect rural communities in Lancashire to broadband.
	tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
	tabling member printed	Cat Smith
	uin	18500
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government is committed to improving broadband coverage in rural areas, with gigabit broadband coverage delivered through the £5 billion Project Gigabit. Alternative connectivity solutions are being investigated for very hard to reach premises.</p><p> </p><p>According to the independent website thinkbroadband.com, 98% of premises in Lancashire have access to a superfast broadband connection, while 88% of premises can access a gigabit-capable connection. To further extend gigabit-capable coverage, Lancashire is included in Project Gigabit’s cross regional framework tender, launched in July 2023. We expect to announce this contract in the summer.</p><p> </p><p>Less than 1% of premises are unable to access a decent broadband connection of 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload and may be able to get an improved connection through the Broadband USO, which gives consumers the right to request a decent broadband connection if their current connection falls below these speeds.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 21/03/2024 09:33:27 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
	tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

1695791

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept id	216
	answering dept short name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	answering dept sort name	Science, Innovation and Technology
	hansard heading	Broadband
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether broadband access is classed as an essential utility.
	tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
	tabling member printed	Cat Smith
	uin	18501
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/03/2024 answer text <p>There is no standard definition of what constitutes a utility, with gas, water, electricity, and telecoms all regulated differently. The UK telecoms market features strong competition both at wholesale and retail levels which sets it apart from gas, water and electricity, which are regulated in such a way as to address competition concerns. However, the Government recognises that access to the internet is increasingly essential for full participation in society.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has taken action to ensure as many people as possible are able to access the internet. Since 2021, we have worked closely with telecoms operators to ensure social tariffs are available across 99% of the UK. Available to nearly 5 million households on Universal Credit as well as other means tested benefits, social tariffs are available from 28 individual providers (including BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone) and start at £10 per month.</p><p> </p><p>Over 80% of the UK can now access gigabit-capable broadband from at least one provider, and the Government is investing £5 billion via Project Gigabit to bring fast, secure and resilient connections to those parts of the country unlikely to be reached by commercial roll-out.</p><p> </p><p>In March 2020, The Broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) came into effect, giving consumers the right to request a decent broadband connection of at least 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload. The USO is applicable in situations where access to decent broadband will cost more than £54 per month, the property isn’t due to be connected by an existing government scheme within 12 months and the cost of connection does not exceed a reasonable threshold of £3,400.</p> answering member constituency Hornchurch and Upminster answering member printed Julia Lopez question first answered 21/03/2024 09:35:40 answering member 4647 label Biography information for Julia Lopez
	tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith