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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-10-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the prevalence of giant hogweed.

George Eustice

Giant hogweed has been present in the UK for over a century and is widespread. Biocontrol methods have been considered in the past but suitable candidates from the plant’s native range have not been found.

Giant hogweed is, however, listed on schedule 9 and subject to section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to plant, or cause this species to grow, in the wild. In addition, Local Authorities and the Police now have powers to issue Community Protection Notices under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, requiring landowners to take action to control species like giant hogweed where they are having a detrimental effect on local people’s quality of life.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-10-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department intends to establish or encourage national training schemes for care providers to ensure consistency in care provision across the sector.

Ben Gummer

The introduction of the Care Certificate, a recommendation of the Cavendish Review, will help to improve the consistency of training in the sector. As of 1 April 2015, all new social care support workers and healthcare assistants are expected to attain the new Care Certificate within their first twelve weeks of employment.

The Department funds Skills for Care, the partner in the sector skills council for social care, to produce a range of resources for workers to develop the knowledge to support people who use the services. This includes the apprenticeships programme which is important in growing a consistently skilled workforce providing high quality care for the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-10-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that carers are able to give each patient an appropriate amount of time on visits.

Alistair Burt

In most cases, very short visits from care workers are incompatible with high quality care. However, short visits may be appropriate in certain circumstances. For instance, checking medication has been taken.

Local authorities are responsible for the commissioning of services, not the Government but both Government and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) agree that inappropriately short home care visits are unacceptable.The Care Act sends a clear message that commissioning services without properly considering the impact on people’s wellbeing is unacceptable.

In September 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidelines on homecare which state that homecare visits should not normally be less than 30 minutes long. The Department published statutory guidance to the Care Act which directs local authorities when commissioning to consider national standards including NICE guidelines.

Further, the Department worked with ADASS and the Local Government Association (LGA) to produce a framework of standards, ‘Commissioning for Better Outcomes’ which explicitly states that inappropriate use of short visits is not compatible with best practice. The framework is designed to support local authorities to improve their commissioning practices using self-assessment and peer challenge through the LGA’s programme of sector-led improvement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-10-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will roll out a national breathlessness campaign to follow the pilots in the North and East of England.

Jane Ellison

The regional pilot of the breathlessness campaign was carried out in the East of England 2 February – 1 March 2015. The evaluation of the campaign is ongoing.