Author: admin

Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2016 to Question 28689, how many staff in his Department received overtime pay in each of the last 24 months.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The number of FCO staff who have received overtime payments in each of the last 24 months is:

2014
April	326
May	219
June	226
July	352
August	363
September	271
October	429
November	213
December	191
2015
January	188
February	208
March	278
April	294
May	220
June	320
July	200
August	241
September	477
October	309
November	247
December	258
2016
January	167
February	255
March	197

Staff can only claim overtime when required by management to work more than their conditioned hours. In the majority of cases claims are made after exceptional demands on Foreign Office staff during times of global crises.

01/01/2023

Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of introducing non-invasive prenatal testing on the prevalence of sex-selective abortions.

Ben Gummer

The UK National Screening Committee which advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy has conducted a full review of the published scientific and cost evidence relating to Non-Invasive Pre-Natal Testing (NIPT) as a screening test for Down’s, Edwards’ and Patau’s syndromes. On 15 January 2016, the Committee announced its recommendation that NIPT should be introduced as an additional test into NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme as part of an evaluation. This is because the evidence suggests that NIPT is much more accurate than the current testing used in screening and can substantially reduce the number of pregnant women needing an invasive test, which carries a high risk of miscarriage. Ministers are currently considering this recommendation.

The possible introduction of NIPT into the NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme does not fundamentally alter the choices presented to prospective parents, or the options and choices available when testing identifies a feotus with a syndrome. Therefore, no assessment has been made of the impact of NIPT on the number of abortions.

NIPT testing as part of the NHS Foetal Anomaly Screening Programme will not be used to determine the sex of the foetus. Abortion on the grounds of gender alone is illegal.

01/01/2023
Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on the number of abortions related to disability of the introduction of non-invasive prenatal testing.

Ben Gummer

The UK National Screening Committee which advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy has conducted a full review of the published scientific and cost evidence relating to Non-Invasive Pre-Natal Testing (NIPT) as a screening test for Down’s, Edwards’ and Patau’s syndromes. On 15 January 2016, the Committee announced its recommendation that NIPT should be introduced as an additional test into NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme as part of an evaluation. This is because the evidence suggests that NIPT is much more accurate than the current testing used in screening and can substantially reduce the number of pregnant women needing an invasive test, which carries a high risk of miscarriage. Ministers are currently considering this recommendation.

The possible introduction of NIPT into the NHS Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme does not fundamentally alter the choices presented to prospective parents, or the options and choices available when testing identifies a feotus with a syndrome. Therefore, no assessment has been made of the impact of NIPT on the number of abortions.

NIPT testing as part of the NHS Foetal Anomaly Screening Programme will not be used to determine the sex of the foetus. Abortion on the grounds of gender alone is illegal.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total cost to the public purse has been of establishing the Sustainability and Transformation Plan Footprints Leadership Teams.

George Freeman

The Department does not hold this information centrally.

However, as far as NHS England is aware, in the overwhelming majority of cases, leaders are not being paid over and above the remuneration they receive for their existing roles. Many Sustainability and Transformation Plans are supported by local programme teams which are funded by the constituent local organisations.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the posts of NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan Footprints Leaders are remunerated; and how long appointments to those posts are for.

George Freeman

Being a Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) leader is a voluntary, non-statutory role. As far as NHS England is aware, in the overwhelming majority of cases, leaders are not being paid over and above the remuneration they receive for their existing roles.

The role of the STP leaders is to support the development of STPs which are expected to be submitted in July 2016.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether appointments to the posts of NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan Footprint Leaders were subject to open selection.

George Freeman

Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas have been determined by local health and care services coming together in ways that make sense for their local areas, in order to transform the way that health and care is planned and delivered for their populations.

Following local discussions about who is best placed to play the role of footprint leaders, together with discussions with national bodies, 41 of the 44 planning areas have identified and agreed leaders.

They are mostly a mix of trust chief executive officers, clinical commissioning group leaders and local government executives.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the recruitment process was for the appointment of NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan Footprint Leaders; and what criteria were used to appoint to those posts.

George Freeman

Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas have been determined by local health and care services coming together in ways that make sense for their local areas, in order to transform the way that health and care is planned and delivered for their populations.

Following local discussions about who is best placed to play the role of footprint leaders, together with discussions with national bodies, 41 of the 44 planning areas have identified and agreed leaders.

They are mostly a mix of trust chief executive officers, clinical commissioning group leaders and local government executives.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, who was responsible for appointing the NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan Footprint Leaders.

George Freeman

Sustainability and Transformation Plan areas have been determined by local health and care services coming together in ways that make sense for their local areas, in order to transform the way that health and care is planned and delivered for their populations.

Following local discussions about who is best placed to play the role of footprint leaders, together with discussions with national bodies, 41 of the 44 planning areas have identified and agreed leaders.

They are mostly a mix of trust chief executive officers, clinical commissioning group leaders and local government executives.

01/01/2023
Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of the officials of his Department he expects to be made redundant by the end of 2016.

Jane Ellison

The Department has begun its DH2020 programme which, amongst other things, aims to reduce the size of the Department by about one third over the course of this parliament. As a result the Department is anticipating moving from around 2,000 roles to around 1,300-1,400 over this time period.

To deliver the reductions, the Department will offer Voluntary Exits and a three month redeployment period for displaced staff, prior to moving to Voluntary Redundancy and Compulsory Redundancy, if necessary. Taking this into account, numbers of redundancies are expected to be lower than the headline numbers given above.

01/01/2023
Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was spent by clinical commissioning groups on palliative care for (a) children and young people and (b) adults in each of the last three years.

Ben Gummer

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.

Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Expenditure on End of Life Care, 2013/14 (£ millions)

All CCGs in England

472.75

Source: Programme Budgeting Collection, NHS England

Notes:
1. CCG expenditure on end of life care was collected for the first time on an experimental basis as part of the 2013/14 Programme Budgeting Collection. The data is published in the Programme Budgeting benchmarking tool on the NHS England website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/ Data for 2014/15 is currently being collected and is not yet available.
2. “End of life care” expenditure in this data collection refers to expenditure on specialist palliative care and hospice care only and does not include a breakdown between palliative care spend on children and young people’s care and palliative care spend for adult care.
3. Data quality: The Programme Budgeting Collection currently contains experimental data. The quality of the data included in the Programme budgeting collection varies by CCG and certain CCGs’ data quality issues may have an impact on the ability to benchmark expenditure with other CCGs. Full details of data quality for each CCG are available on the NHS England website at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/
4. Data on palliative care spend was not collected in 2011/12 and 2012/13 or previous programme budgeting data collections.
“
01/01/2023