The Department are continuously reviewing and improving the services for vulnerable people who need to claim Universal Credit to ensure that it is supportive and responsive to their needs. Where claimants are unable to make or manage their claim on-line, telephone and face to face support is available. Where appropriate, home visits can be arranged for claimants when it is the most appropriate method of providing relevant support.

Detailed arrangements for delivering healthcare between the National Health Service in England and the NHS in Wales across the England-Wales border are set out in the new ‘Statement of Values and Principles’ which can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/part-rel/x-border-health/

Liverpool University Hospital Trust contacted Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in March 2019 to outline its position regarding urology services for residents of North Wales. This position was twofold:

The Trust and the Health Board agreed that new referrals of bladder cancer patients for radical cystectomy would cease from 5 April 2019. This was due to reduced specialist surgical cover following a 12 month period of maternity leave from June 2019. Despite rigorous attempts, the Trust had been unable to provide short term cover in this area of national staff shortage. Whilst the Trust committed to treating all patients referred prior to 5 April, the acceptance of new referrals ended after this date. It was therefore considered that the best course of action for patients was for the Health Board to make alternative arrangements for new referrals.

The Trust informed the health board that it would be enacting Trust policy ensuring that specialist urological cancer surgery was prioritised for patients within its immediate locality.

The attached table contains the number of patients that have been treated from English and Welsh postcode at Liverpool Royal Hospital for urinary tract care in each of the last five years.

The Urinary Tract Outpatient number of patients will give the overall number of patients from Wales receiving treatment or review.

Liverpool University Hospital Trust contacted Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in March 2019 to outline its position regarding urology services for residents of North Wales. This position was twofold:

The Trust and the Health Board agreed that new referrals of bladder cancer patients for radical cystectomy would cease from 5 April 2019. This was due to reduced specialist surgical cover following a 12 month period of maternity leave from June 2019. Despite rigorous attempts, the Trust had been unable to provide short term cover in this area of national staff shortage. Whilst the Trust committed to treating all patients referred prior to 5 April, the acceptance of new referrals ended after this date. It was therefore considered that the best course of action for patients was for the Health Board to make alternative arrangements for new referrals.

The Trust informed the health board that it would be enacting Trust policy ensuring that specialist urological cancer surgery was prioritised for patients within its immediate locality.

The attached table contains the number of patients that have been treated from English and Welsh postcode at Liverpool Royal Hospital for urinary tract care in each of the last five years.

The Urinary Tract Outpatient number of patients will give the overall number of patients from Wales receiving treatment or review.

No estimate has been made of the total costs of the prorogation litigation, which only recently concluded. We expect to know the final figures in November.

High streets are changing and this government is committed to helping communities adapt. The Prime Minister recently announced a £3.6 billion Towns Fund as part of government’s vision to unite and level up cities, towns, coastal and rural areas, including small towns and villages, across our country. This Fund includes £1 billion for the Future High Streets Fund to support transformation on our high streets, and it will support local places to identify investment opportunities to support adaptation of the high street in response to changing technology.

In addition, we are providing support  for local leadership on our high streets and town centres with a High Streets Task Force. This will provide high streets and town centres with expert advice to adapt and thrive to changes in the market, providing support to local areas to develop data-driven strategies and connecting local areas to relevant experts.

Digitisation of high streets also forms a part of judging criteria of the Great British High Street Awards 2019, with one of the four aspects of the judging criteria focusing on digital transformation. High streets have been asked to showcase how they have used innovative new technologies or digital connectivity to transform their high street community.

To support deployment of 5G and further improve mobile coverage, we launched a joint consultation with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 27 August, on proposals to reform the planning regime in England. We are seeking views on the principle of amending or creating new permitted development rights for operators so that communities can benefit from extended coverage.

The Digital Skills Partnership also seeks to improve digital capability across the whole skills spectrum - from the essential skills that help reduce digital exclusion, to the skills workers need in an increasingly digital economy, and through to the advanced skills required for specialist roles. The government is working with Local Enterprise Partnerships and combined authorities to help establish Local Digital Skills Partnerships across the country to tackle local digital skills challenges and build thriving and inclusive local economies.

The Ministry of Justice has published information on the number of adult females sentenced to immediate custody broken down by custodial sentence length, by Police Force Area and by offence group in the Court Outcomes by Police Force area data tool available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804509/court-outcomes-by-PFA-2018.xlsx

Select ‘All’ in the Court Type filter.

Select ’02: Female’ in the Sex filter and ’03: Adults’ in the Age Group filter.

Select ’15: Immediate Custody’ in the Outcome filter.

In the pivot table, filter Police Force Area to Dyfed-Powys, Gwent, North Wales and South Wales.

In the pivot table field list, drag ‘Offence Group’ from Filters to Rows, beneath ‘Police Force Area’.

Custodial sentence lengths can be selected using the Custodial Sentence Length filter.

Police Force Areas provide breakdowns of where offences were dealt with (not where they were committed).

First, I would like to pay tribute to the outgoing Foreign Secretary for having the vision to commission a report on the support that the Foreign Office provides for persecuted Christians. It was warmly welcomed by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church, and I sincerely hope that the new Foreign Secretary will follow through on the its recommendations.

Applications for visit visas are considered against Appendix V of the Immigration Rules and on a case by case basis. Detailed information on how UK Visas and Immigration makes decisions on visitor cases is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visit-guidance.

Information on total entry clearance visas (the majority of which are visitor visas) broken down by nationality and outcome (grants, refusals, withdrawals, lapsed) is published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics Visas volume 1 table vi_02_q at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2019-data-tables.

Please note that the large majority of US nationals coming to the UK as visitors do not require an entry clearance visa, as shown in the Immigration Rules at (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-v-visitor-rules).

Information on performance against service standards for UKVI international operations is published in the Migration transparency data, the latest publication of which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-may-2019.

These indicate that the large majority of straightforward non-settlement visas (the large majority of which are visitor visas), 98.7%, are completed within the service standard of 15 working days.

Under our published customer service standards we aim to process straightforward non-settlement applications within 15 working days.

The information for the latest quarter available is published online.

Data on entry clearance visa processing times, including the percentage and number of visas that are processed within service standards, is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data (then listed by publication date under ‘UK Visas & Immigration’).

The Ministry of Justice has responsibility for ensuring people are released from prison with a valid photo ID and a bank account. We recognise the importance of this support and have made changes so that Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) are clearly responsible for the provision of identification documents and bank accounts, as part of Through the Gate support to prisoners on release. We have invested an additional £22 million per annum to improve delivery of these vital services for the remainder of the CRC contracts.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has responsibility for Universal Credit and Jobcentre appointments. We are working closely with the DWP to agree a National Partnership Agreement which sets out how the two Departments work together to support ex-offenders into employment. We are also working with DWP to help support these work coaches, and to further ensure they have the tools and support to do their jobs effectively.

We are completing the roll-out of the New Futures Network, with 13 of the 15 geographical prison groups across England and Wales now covered.

The New Futures Network is responsible for three things:

1. The availability and quality of work for prisoners in commercial workshops.
2. Brokering partnerships with employers that produce workplace ROTL opportunities.
3. Brokering partnerships that generate employment opportunities on release.

It will be assessed against those criteria at the end of this financial year, as part of the annual HMPPS reporting cycle.

The Department has dedicated Prison Work Coaches, who will support prisoners to complete their benefit claims and proceed to payment as quickly as possible. Our aim is to ensure claimants can access Universal Credit on the day of release in a bid to cut re-offending.

At this time I am unable to confirm when the response to the Prison Service Pay Review Body recommendations will be published.

The Government recognises that there may be some claimants who will be unable or unwilling to access the new IT Service. As a result, the new platform is being designed to include specific support from a bespoke contact centre service to support those claimants who do not have access to, or cannot use, the digital service.