Author: admin

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to refer Hewlett-Packard Co (Ltd) to the Competition and Markets Authority for making their printers incompatible with non-HP printer cartridges.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Government does not have the power to direct the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to undertake investigations into breaches of competition law. The CMA is an independent authority which decides on which cases to investigate based on available evidence.

    If there is evidence that Hewlett-Packard is acting in an anti-competitive manner, this should be provided to the CMA which will assess it against its published prioritisation principles.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of NHS England having secured lower prices for the latest Hepatitis C drugs, whether they expect that progressively more patients will be treated in 2016–17 and future years.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Department’s Commercial Medicines Unit has recently concluded a tender which has resulted in some reductions in the cost of new hepatitis C drugs. These, and future reductions, support NHS England’s plans to increase treatment rates. NHS England has funded providers to treat 10,000 patients in the financial year 2016-17, and is expecting to treat more patients in the second half of the financial year. NHS England is already planning to increase treatment in 2017-18 to 12,500 patients, and is working with stakeholders to develop plans for a Strategic Multi-Year Procurement which aims to further improve the cost of these treatments and the opportunity to roll out treatment further.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure that Clinical Commissioning Groups do not arbitrarily restrict treatments for obese people and smokers.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Arbitrary restrictions on treatment by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are unacceptable. Treatment decisions should always be made by doctors based on a patient’s individual clinical needs. For instance, major surgery poses much higher risks for severely overweight patients and those who smoke. So, where it is clinically appropriate, local general practitioner-led CCGs are right to ensure these patients first get support to lose weight and try to stop smoking before their operation.

    NHS England must ensure that CCGs are not breaching their statutory responsibility to provide services that meet the reasonable needs of the local population, including obese people and smokers. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population and are based on the available evidence and take into account national guidelines.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking in regard to those Clinical Commissioning Groups which plan to cut the proportion of their budget spent on mental health services for 2016–17.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England has set a clear requirement of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that spending on mental health should increase year-on-year by an amount at least as great as the growth in their baseline allocations. CCGs are required through the NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-2019 to increase their baseline spend on mental health. A copy of this guidance is attached. From this year, NHS England’s budget and financial reporting will be aligned to specific mental health priorities, increasing transparency and allowing additional resources to be tracked at CCG level.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in their discussions with French ministers, they plan to ask that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees be fully represented at camps near Calais and Dunkirk; and whether they plan to press the case for competent interpreters and child advocates.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The management of the migrant camp in Calais, including any decision to dismantle it, is the responsibility of the French Government. The UK continues to work closely with the French Government at both a political and operational level on every aspect of the migrant situation in northern France.

    Although the primary responsibility for unaccompanied children in France lies with the French authorities, the Home Secretary made clear on 10 October that we will transfer as many minors as possible to the UK who are eligible under the Dublin Regulation before the camp clearance starts. The Home Secretary further emphasised that the remaining children who may be eligible to come to the UK under the Dubs amendment must be moved to safe facilities where there best interests can be properly considered

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to ask the government of France to defer demolition of the Jungle camp at Calais, until all the children there have been moved to places of safety.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The management of the migrant camp in Calais, including any decision to dismantle it, is the responsibility of the French Government. The UK continues to work closely with the French Government at both a political and operational level on every aspect of the migrant situation in northern France.

    Although the primary responsibility for unaccompanied children in France lies with the French authorities, the Home Secretary made clear on 10 October that we will transfer as many minors as possible to the UK who are eligible under the Dublin Regulation before the camp clearance starts. The Home Secretary further emphasised that the remaining children who may be eligible to come to the UK under the Dubs amendment must be moved to safe facilities where there best interests can be properly considered.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to the six steps towards peace in Syria proposed by Lord Williams of Baglan in the October and November edition of the Chatham House publication The World Today.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The issues suggested by the noble Lord Williams of Baglan are being addressed through the UK’s work to tackle the Syria crisis. The International Syria Support Group meets weekly at official level and is supported by the team of the UN Special Envoy for Syria. At UK urging, the UN has established a Working Group with a small secretariat to lead on stabilisation planning for when a political settlement is reached, which the UK is helping fund. Clearly, Russia must be a part of any solution and we support engagement but Russia must stop bombing civilian areas and encourage the regime to do the same if it is genuinely interested in finding a political solution to the conflict.

  • Lord Inglewood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Inglewood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Inglewood on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the average number of British citizens who are in other EU countries, either temporarily or permanently, at any one time.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    United Nation migration statistics from 2015 estimate that there are around 1.2 million British nationals living in the EU.

  • Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much is paid to GP practices for (1) advising a person to have a flu jab, and (2) giving a person the flu jab.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Under the General Medical Services contract, general practitioners (GPs) are paid £9.80 for each dose of influenza vaccination that they administer to patients who are eligible for the vaccination. GPs are not paid for advising patients to have the influenza vaccination.

  • Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in October 2014 that they were planning to pay off some debts from World War One, how much has been paid off to date, and how much is still outstanding.

    Lord Young of Cookham

    The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on 3 December 2014 that the government would adopt a strategy to remove the remaining undated gilts in the government’s debt portfolio, thus repaying all the nation’s First World War debt.

    Three of the eight undated gilts that remained in the government’s portfolio in 2014 were issued to fund the First World War: the 4% Consolidated Loan, 3½% War Loan and 3½% Conversion Loan. These were redeemed in 2015, on 1 February, 9 March and 1 April respectively.

    Almost 99% of the amount due has been repaid to date. Due to the age of the records relating to undated gilts, the registrar has not been able to contact all holders. However, the government has thus repaid the vast majority of the nation’s First World War debt.