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  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department’s policies of the Report, Nicotine without smoke: tobacco harm reduction, published by the Royal College of Physicians in April 2016.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department has and will continue to keep abreast of all evidence and consider it in developing policy. The report published by the Royal College of Physicians is consistent with the Government’s current policy that the best thing a smoker can do for their health is to quit smoking and quit for good but that e-cigarettes have a role to play in helping some people quit.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve hospital standards in Essex.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission and NHS England are working together to improve hospital standards in Essex. Three hospital trusts – Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust and Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – are part of the Success Regime and are working closely together with the aim of improving outcomes for patients.

    At Colchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, a long-term partnership has been agreed with Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust to bring about sustainable improvement for patients.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for autism diagnosis.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, supported by the Department, undertook a series of visits to clinical commissioning groups and local authorities recently. These visits aimed to develop a better strategic oversight of the challenges in securing timely diagnosis across all ages and to share good practice. NHS England will report to the Cross Government Autism Programme Board in June on its findings and that report and discussion will be made public.

    As recommended by the independent Mental Health Taskforce, the Department is undertaking a five year plan for the development of mental health data to be published by the end of this year. The plan will set out future data requirements and timings for developing data to inform pathways of care which will include data requirements for autism.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ask NHS England to collect data on autism diagnosis waiting times.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, supported by the Department, undertook a series of visits to clinical commissioning groups and local authorities recently. These visits aimed to develop a better strategic oversight of the challenges in securing timely diagnosis across all ages and to share good practice. NHS England will report to the Cross Government Autism Programme Board in June on its findings and that report and discussion will be made public.

    As recommended by the independent Mental Health Taskforce, the Department is undertaking a five year plan for the development of mental health data to be published by the end of this year. The plan will set out future data requirements and timings for developing data to inform pathways of care which will include data requirements for autism.

  • 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 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35736, when he expects the qualitative analysis on key themes to become available.

    Alistair Burt

    The qualitative analysis of the Local Transformation Plans will be published by NHS England as soon as possible.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what advice he received from senior nurses before the decision to replace NHS bursaries with student loans was announced in the Autumn Statement.

    Ben Gummer

    The Government received and considered a broad range of representations from a number of stakeholders during the Spending Review process including discussions with leading nursing professionals in the Department and its arm’s length bodies.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of hospital shifts breaching the national price caps for NHS agency staff occurred on patient safety grounds in the last year for which figures are available.

    Alistair Burt

    Last year the Government introduced a series of tough financial controls to help the National Health Service tackle overspending on agency staff, including an hourly price cap. These controls include a provision for any trusts that need to override the price caps on exceptional patient safety grounds. Trusts report any such overrides on a weekly basis to NHS Improvement.

    The latest information released by NHS Improvement on the number of trusts reporting using shifts in excess of the price caps from 23 November 2015 to 7 March 2016 is available here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-agency-shifts-exceeding-the-price-caps-by-trust

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  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which immigration removal centres were inspected by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners related to the use of property interference by immigration officers in each of the last five years.

    James Brokenshire

    There has been no change in Immigration Rules in relation to the use of property interference by immigration officers. Part III Sections 55(1) and (2) of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 amended the Police Act 1997 and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) in 2013 to empower officials within the Home Office exercising immigration functions to seek authority for property interference solely for the purpose of preventing and detecting serious crime. Immigration removal centres themselves cannot seek property interference authorisations.

    The Office of Surveillance Commissioners (OSC) scrutinise every application for property interference made by immigration officers upon authorisation and also retrospectively oversee any use of the power to ensure compliance. The OSC publish an annual report, which refers to the overall use of these powers by public authorities including the Home Office.

    The Home Office does not provide information on individual Immigration Removal Centres visited by the OSC, or investigations carried out within them.

    The Investigatory Powers Bill will replace the current oversight regime with a powerful In-vestigatory Powers Commissioner who will have the support, powers, resources and tech-nical expertise to continue to ensure that these powers are being used fully in accordance with the law.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people on the dangerous persons database are (a) missing and (b) wanted; and for what offence or reason those people are on that database.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office does not hold this data. Statistical information from the ViSOR dangerous persons database is owned by the police, and the Home Office does not have access to this information.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts on 3 May 2016, on confiscation orders: progress review, how many outages of the Semaphore computer system have occurred since 2010; and how long each such outage lasted.

    James Brokenshire

    For national security reasons, we do not comment on operational issues such as performance and functionality of border security systems.