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  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of NHS treatment options for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    The two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis only affects the large intestine whereas Crohn’s disease affects the whole of the digestive system.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance indicates that ulcerative colitis has an incidence in the United Kingdom of approximately 10 per 100,000 people annually, and a prevalence of approximately 240 per 100,000. This amounts to around 146,000 people in the UK with a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. In addition to this, there are currently at least 115,000 people in the UK with Crohn’s disease.

    The Department does not hold information on diagnosis levels in Wales specifically; this is a matter for the devolved administration.

    NICE published Crohn’s Disease Management in Adults, Children and Young People in October 2012 and Ulcerative Colitis Management in Adults, Children and Young People in June 2013. These set out best practice in the management of these conditions.

    Treatment for both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis is largely directed at symptom relief to improve quality of life, rather than cure. Management options include drug therapy, dietary and lifestyle advice and, in severe or chronic active disease, surgery. The aims of drug treatment are to reduce symptoms and maintain or improve quality of life.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many members of staff his Department plans will be employed by each of his Department’s three success regimes; and what the job titles and salary level will be of each member of such staff.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department is not responsible for the operational delivery of the Success Regime, which is delivered by NHS England and NHS improvement.

    The information is not available in the format requested. However, information is available on the transformation funding allocation to establish each of the success regime sites, and the expectation set by NHS England and NHS Improvement to recruit individuals to lead each regime.

    Each of the first three sites that are part of the Success Regime has received an initial £700,000 from NHS England’s transformation fund for start-up costs. Further funds will be released on a case-by-case basis and allocated in-line with local requirements. The precise make-up of the local teams will vary, but the key central appointments in Success Regime sites will be the programme directors and/or programme chairs. NHS England and NHS Improvement have set the expectation that programme directors will be paid in line with the National Health Service contract for Very Senior Managers unless in exceptional circumstances. The programme chairs are likely to be provided by third party suppliers as part of a wider package of support.

  • Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the healthcare chapter of the Armed Forces Covenant has been implemented.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department and NHS England are committed to meeting the health commitments of the Armed Forces Covenant and have established a number of services specifically tailored to meet the needs and requirements of the armed forces community. There are regular communications on the Covenant commitment to National Health Service trusts, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and health professionals.

    As set out in the NHS Mandate for England CCGsare responsible for general healthcare for veterans and for the delivery of the health commitments of the Armed Forces Covenant. NHS England assuresCCGs’ delivery of their commitments and many CCGs are joint signatories to their local community covenants.

    The NHS Constitution has recently been updated to strengthen this accountability by stating that ‘the NHS will ensure that in line with the Armed Forces Covenant, those in the armed forces, reservists, their families and veterans are not disadvantaged in accessing health services in the area they reside.’

    The Department and the NHS in England are held to account by the Ministry of Defence and UK Departments of Health Partnership Board and the Armed Forces Covenant Reference Group.

  • Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital admissions occurred due to consumption of legal highs in (a) Copeland constituency, (b) Cumbria and (c) England in each of the last five years.

    Jane Ellison

    There is no separate classification for this type of drug, so it is not possible to separate out admissions from new psychoactive substances from other types of drugs.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to monitor the cost to nursing homes of employing agency nurses; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government has no plans to monitor agency costs to nursing homes.

    Care providers are independent businesses and agreements with agency staffing providers are commercial contractual arrangements.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to make bisphosphonates routinely available on the NHS to prevent the spread of breast cancer to bones.

    George Freeman

    Where there is a clinical need to do so for a patient, clinicians are legally able to prescribe bisphosphonates for breast cancer prevention.

    NHS England’s Breast Cancer Clinical Reference Group (CRG) has included the use of bisphosphonates in their draft service guidance for breast cancer. The CRG has highlighted bisphosphonates as a key issue for potential improvement in survival outcomes.

    NHS England expects the draft service guidance to be finalised and available for dissemination in the autumn of 2015. It will then be up to clinical commissioning groups to consider how they adopt this in to their local commissioning activities.

  • Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions did the National Crime Agency received notice of suspicion of terrorist financing from private sector institutions, under Part III of the Terrorism Act 2000, in the last 12 months for which information is available.

    Mr John Hayes

    In total, between 1 October 2014 and 30 September 2015 the National Crime Agency received 1,216 Suspicious Activity Reports under the provisions of the Terrorism Act 2000.

  • Bill Wiggin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Bill Wiggin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2015-10-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether estate agents who hold no client money fall under the scope of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.

    Harriett Baldwin

    In 2014-15 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued 677 penalties to the total value of £768,000 across all the sectors it regulates. HMRC considers that releasing the number of investigations and visits made to businesses in different sectors could enable opportunists to identify where resource is being focussed, allowing criminals to arrange their activities accordingly to escape challenge. HMRC must protect information which could be used by criminals in this way and therefore is not able to release numbers on how many investigations are conducted in the Estate Agency Businesses (EAB) sector. HMRC took on supervision of Estate Agency Businesses under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on 1 April 2014. Since becoming supervisor HMRC has used a range of interventions such as face to face visits, telephone interventions and webinars to reach hundreds of businesses in the EAB sector, and test and challenge their compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations. In addition to direct interventions, as supervisor, HMRC conducts risking work which involves using a range of sophisticated data exploitation tools – including their state-of-the-art Connect system – to identify cases which warrant further investigation. It is not possible to quantify how many businesses have been looked at in this way, as it is a routine aspect of supervision for HMRC. Where cases require criminal investigation, they are passed to HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service. HMRC is unable to disclose details of cases which are currently under criminal investigation for operational reasons.

    I can confirm that estate agents that do not hold client money fall within the scope of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.

  • John Pugh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    John Pugh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the number of police in different forces who are suspended or not on active duty as a result of investigations or complaint procedures.

    Mike Penning

    The Home Office does not hold data on the number of police within different forces who are suspended or are not on active duty as a result of investigation or complaint procedure.

    From 2015/16, forces will be asked to provide returns that will include data on officer misconduct and whistle-blowing. This collection will include the number of recorded allegations of misconduct and gross misconduct; outcomes of disciplinary proceedings arising from those allegations; and the number of criminal investigations against those serving with the police. The Home Office intends to publish these data in due course once they are available.

  • John Pugh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    John Pugh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the reasons for the recent reduction in the number of prosecutions for mobile telephone use while driving.

    Mike Penning

    No assessment has been made of the reasons for the recent reduction in the number of prosecutions for mobile telephone use while driving. Enforcement of this offence is an operational matter for the police. However, there may be a number of reasons, including drivers being more aware of the law, police deciding to prosecute drivers under more serious offences and officers choosing alternative methods of law enforcement, such as fixed penalties.