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  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) baselines and (b) targets are used to measure the performance of the Care Quality Commission.

    Ben Gummer

    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has developed baseline performance indicators across its functions which are included in the Business Plan for 2016-17 together with the relevant indicators and targets to measure progress. The CQC will publish the business plan on its website shortly.

  • Simon Hoare – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Simon Hoare – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Hoare on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26606, whether it is his Department’s intention that all patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis will have access to the drugs previously covered by the Risk Sharing Scheme (a) until and (b) beyond the conclusion of the NICE Multiple Sclerosis MTA in 2017.

    George Freeman

    The Multiple Sclerosis Risk-Sharing Scheme will remain in place until the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) final updated technology appraisal guidance on disease modifying therapies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

    As long as they are clinically eligible, new and existing patients can continue to access these therapies as part of the Scheme.

    Once NICE’s appraisal has been completed, the normal access arrangements will apply. National Health Service commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and treatments recommended by NICE within three months of NICE’s guidance being published. In the absence of a positive recommendation from NICE, it is for commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund treatments based on an assessment of the available evidence.

  • Wes Streeting – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Wes Streeting – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wes Streeting on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the impact assessment of reforms to funding and financial support to nursing, midwifery and AHP bursary students, dated 7 April 2016, considered the costs to higher education institutions of access agreement contributions approved by the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education.

    Ben Gummer

    The impact assessment for the health education funding reforms estimates the combined income to higher education institutions from tuition fees and teaching grant, including an average reduction for the cost of access agreements.

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures he has put in place to monitor how the £1.25 billion allocated to children and adolescent mental health services in the March 2015 Budget is spent; and if he will take steps to ring-fence the remainder of that funding.

    Alistair Burt

    In total the Government has made available an additional £1.4 billion over the course of this Parliament to improve children and young people’s mental health. In addition to the £1.25 billion made available in the March 2015 budget, a further £150 million was made available in the 2014 Autumn Statement to develop evidence based community eating disorder services for children and young people.

    NHS England’s Local Transformation Planning guidance issued, in August 2015, and the robust assurance process around it, backed by a programme of regional and national support, ensure that the additional money will be spent for the purposes intended and that locally determined key performance indicators will be met. No funding was allocated without full assurance in place.

    The intention from 2016-17 is to monitor children and young people’s mental health services transformation as part of mainstream NHS England planning processes and through the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Improvement and Assessment Framework. As part of the 2016-17 financial reporting planning process, programme level spend including children and young people’s mental health spend will be monitored routinely throughout the year

    While there is no legal power for the Department to ring-fence funding allocated to CCGs, we have introduced other means to ensure CCGs spend the additional investment where it is intended. The Department set objectives for NHS England in the annual mandate, which reflects the priorities for the health and care system. The mandate for 2016-17 sets objectives to 2020 and it makes it clear that the Government expects to see a transformation of children and young people’s mental health services.

  • Melanie Onn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Melanie Onn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which branch of the NHS has responsibility for funding the diagnosing of (a) autism and (b) Asperger’s syndrome.

    Alistair Burt

    Clinical diagnosis of autism and Asperger syndrome would usually be made by National Health Service paediatric, psychiatric or mental health services, commissioned by clinical commissioning groups. The exception would be where a diagnosis was made by a specialised service, which would be commissioned by NHS England. Professionals funded by local authorities (such as educational psychologists) may also make a diagnosis.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects her Department’s updated drugs strategy to be published.

    Karen Bradley

    We are currently developing a new Drug Strategy, working across Government and with key partners. We will continue to build on the 2010 Drug Strategy to take a balanced approach to drugs (reducing demand, restricting supply and building recovery) and tackle drugs as a key driver of crime.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many stroke survivors are in receipt of social care funded by their local authority.

    Alistair Burt

    Information collected as part of the Short and Long Term (SALT) data return indicates that in 76 out of 152 local authorities in England 10,545 people who have a reported health condition of stroke received support from their local authority in 2014/15. However, recovering from having a stroke might not be the reason people are receiving this support from their local authority as they might have other conditions as well. The reason for the partial data return is that this is a voluntary data collection by local authorities.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information he holds on the numbers of clinical commissioning groups in England which have reconfigured acute stroke services since the publication of the National Stroke Strategy in December 2007.

    Jane Ellison

    Information is not collected centrally on the numbers of clinical commissioning groups in England which have reconfigured acute stroke services since the publication of the National Stroke Strategy in December 2007.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the Government’s allocation of £1.4 billion mental health funding for children and young people will be spent in 2016-17; and if he will provide a detailed breakdown of that expenditure.

    Alistair Burt

    Of the £1.4 billion additional funding made available over the course of this parliament to improve children and young people’s mental health, £280 million has been allocated for 2016-17. The breakdown of this investment is as follows:

    – £119 million has been allocated to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to transform local services through delivery of their local transformation plans;

    – £30 million has been allocated to CCGs to develop community based eating disorder services for children and young people; and

    – £131 million has been allocated centrally on workforce and system development to support local transformation plans.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received on the future funding of research into mesothelioma.

    George Freeman

    The Government agrees that more mesothelioma research is needed and has taken measures to stimulate an increase in the level of research activity.

    Patients, carers, clinicians and funders have worked in partnership to identify what the priorities in research are. Following a survey and a workshop, the top 10 mesothelioma research priorities were announced in December 2014. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) published a final report from the Priority Setting Partnership in July 2015. In advance of the identification of research questions by this partnership, the NIHR highlighted to the research community that it wanted to encourage research applications in mesothelioma.

    The NIHR subsequently invited researchers to apply for mesothelioma research funding, in particular to address the research questions identified through the partnership. Eight NIHR programmes participated in this themed call. Fifteen individual applications were received, of which two have been approved for funding.

    In addition, the NIHR Research Design Service continues to be able to help prospective applicants develop competitive research proposals. This service is well-established and has

    10 regional bases across England. It supports researchers to develop and design high-quality proposals for submission to NIHR itself and also to other national, peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research.

    The National Cancer Research Institute is facilitating ongoing dialogue between relevant research funders on the topic of mesothelioma, to discuss what the barriers to research are and what is needed to stimulate research in the field.

    The Chancellor’s Budget Report committed £5 million of LIBOR fines over the next four years for the National Mesothelioma Centre.

    The Department has received recent representations relating to funding of mesothelioma research from the Asbestos Victims Support Groups’ Forum UK and from several hon. Members on behalf of constituents.