The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department plans to publish a list of its special advisers in post.
Ben Gummer
A full list of Government special advisers will be published in due course, in the usual way.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GPs in England have a specialism in mental health.
David Mowat
This information is not collected by the Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-11-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to increase the proportion of people with atrial fibrillation who are treated with anticoagulation therapy in order to prevent stroke.
Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has identified improved management of atrial fibrillation as a priority for reducing premature mortality.
NHS Improving Quality (NHS IQ) is taking action on atrial fibrillation. It is promoting the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within GP practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the NHS, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with atrial fibrillation who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. NHS IQ is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.
To support this work, NHS IQ recently published an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF. A copy of this analysis is attached.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) also published a Quality Standard on atrial fibrillation in July 2015, which sets out what a high quality atrial fibrillation service should look like and will help drive improvement locally. A copy is attached. The Quality and Outcomes Framework contains indicators for the management of AF which cover the use of anticoagulation therapy. This provides a further incentive for doctors to ensure AF patients receive anticoagulation where appropriate to manage their risk of stroke.
Public Health England (PHE) has recently published their Atlas of Variation which includes data on atrial fibrillation. Full data for all 216 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) cannot be included in this reply due to its large size, but a map giving an overview of the results is attached. PHE have also collaborated with the Stroke Association to produce individualised CCG level reports on current performance in the detection and management of patients with atrial fibrillation to try and encourage poorly performing areas to improve.
The majority of the Strategic Clinical Networks (SCNs) have made atrial fibrillation management a priority, and in London the three Academic Health Science Networks and the SCN have identified atrial fibrillation as being the first area where there is a collaborative effort to improve performance.
One of the options now available for clinicians managing patients with atrial fibrillation is the novel oral anticoagulants. These drugs are useful when patients are unable or unwilling to tolerate warfarin and should result in a greater proportion of the population with atrial fibrillation being effectively treated. Additionally, NICE have now approved the use of devices to self-monitor warfarin, reducing the need for patients to attend health centres for blood testing. Again this should make anticoagulation easier and more acceptable for some patients.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-12-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the economic benefits to the Calder Valley of the award of the new Northern rail franchise.
Andrew Jones
The Calder Valley route between Manchester and Bradford will see more trains and faster journeys, with the weekday service frequency between Bradford and Manchester being enhanced by 50% (from two to three trains per hour), a significant increase in evening services, a doubling of Sunday service frequency from one to two trains per hour, and new direct links from Bradford to Manchester Airport and from Bradford to Liverpool.
Add this to the withdrawal of all Pacers by the end of 2019, an investment of £400 million in 281 brand newcarriages (some of which will operate on the new Bradford-Manchester Airport and Bradford-Liverpool services), and the refurbishment of the rest of the Northern fleet, we expect these enhancements to result in very substantial economic benefits for the area.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether borough councils which provide sandbags to all residents to protect their properties during incidents of flooding are able to recover the costs of those sandbags under the Bellwin Scheme.
James Wharton
To date, 35 local authorities have registered an intention to claim under the activated Bellwin scheme but no final claims have yet been received.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK armed forces personnel in (a) the Army, (b) the RAF and (c) the Royal Navy are classed as level 3 or higher linguists in (i) Arabic, (ii) Polish, (iii) Russian, (iv) Ukrainian, (v) Estonian, (vi) German, (vii) French, (viii) Pashto, (ix) Dari, (x) Farsi and (xi) Spanish.
Penny Mordaunt
The numbers of personnel in the UK Armed Forces in the Army, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy classed as level 3 or higher linguists in Arabic, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Estonian, German, French, Pashto, Dari, Farsi and Spanish is as follows:
|
Army |
RAF |
Navy |
Total |
|
|
Arabic |
31 |
16 |
4 |
51 |
|
Polish |
1 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
|
Russian |
6 |
4 |
5 |
15 |
|
Ukrainian |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Estonian |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
German |
16 |
4 |
3 |
23 |
|
French |
96 |
28 |
22 |
146 |
|
Pashto |
48 |
42 |
8 |
98 |
|
Dari |
30 |
4 |
8 |
42 |
|
Farsi |
21 |
12 |
6 |
39 |
|
Spanish |
21 |
11 |
15 |
47 |
|
Total |
270 |
123 |
71 |
464 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to encourage local authorities to offer apprenticeships.
Mr Marcus Jones
My Department is working closely across Government and with the Local Government Association to encourage local authorities to start planning now so they can take advantage of the opportunities both the apprenticeship levy and targets offer to meet skills shortages and increase apprenticeship numbers. The Department has already jointly hosted, with BIS and the Local Government Association, two successful round table events with local authorities to support them in meeting the challenge of significantly increasing the numbers of apprenticeships in the wider public sector.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support the Government provides to research into the causes and treatment of brain tumours.
George Freeman
The Department funds the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to increase the volume of applied health research for the benefit of patients and the public, drive faster translation of basic science discoveries into tangible benefits for patients and the economy, and develop and support the people who conduct and contribute to applied health research. NIHR cancer research expenditure has risen from £101 million in 2010/11 to £135 million in 2014/15 (the latest available figure). Most of this investment (£111 million in 2014/15) is in cancer research infrastructure where spend on specific disease areas such as brain tumours cannot be separated from total infrastructure expenditure. This infrastructure including NIHR biomedical research centres and the NIHR Clinical Research Network.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the main agencies through which the Government support medical and clinical research. It is an independent research funding body which receives its grant in aid from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The MRC supports research through a range of grants and personal awards to scientists in universities, medical schools and other research institutes and welcomes investigator-initiated research proposals in all areas of research relevant to human health. Between 2010/11 to 2014/15 the MRC spent £10.9 million supporting research into brain and pituitary tumours, spanning basic discovery science, translational projects to progress treatments to clinics and early clinical trials.
More brain tumour research is needed and, as announced on 18 April, Official Report, columns 258-59WH, I will be convening a working group of clinicians, charities and officials to discuss how working together with our research funding partners, we can address this.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the press release, PM hosts major summit as part of global drive to expose, publish and drive out corruption, published on 12 May 2016, whether he plans to publish information on the ownership of property in the UK owned by foreign companies.
Anna Soubry
At the International Anti-Corruption Summit in London on 12 May, my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister announced that we will require foreign companies that own or purchase UK properties or bid on UK government procurement contracts to provide details of their beneficial owners to a public central register. This will be the first register of its kind in the world.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will consult on the detail of the policy later this year. The Prime Minister has committed to a publicly accessible register of foreign company beneficial ownership on which we plan to consult in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to recruit specialist staff to facilitate the re-opening of the Antelope Centre in Southampton; by what date he plans for those staff to be recruited; and if he will make a statement.
Alistair Burt
These are matters for the National Health Service. NHS Improvement advises that the majority of patients requiring Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) care during the period of closure of the PICU at Antelope House will receive this at the Huntercombe unit in Roehampton, London.
The Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which provides services at Antelope House, is working with partners to provide PICU bed capacity on another site for an interim period of eight months by redistributing staff from the PICU to the hospital’s other two wards. NHS Improvement further advises that the recruitment focus will be on addressing the root causes of staffing issues.
The Antelope House team has begun talking to patients, carers and family members to make sure they are fully aware of decisions that affect them.