Category: Speeches

Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the rollout of superfast broadband in the B91 1 postcode area.

Matt Hancock

Nine out of ten UK homes and businesses can now access superfast broadband and we’re on track to reach 95 per cent of the UK by the end of next year. We’re committed to a Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband.

We want a USO at a speed of 10Mbps as an absolute minimum, enough to meet the needs of a typical family or small business so no-one is left behind.

We estimate that approximately 98% of premises in the Solihull constituency now have access to superfast broadband. We do not hold data specific to each postcode.

January 1, 2023
Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been banned from attending Premiership and Championship matches in England over the last five years.

Brandon Lewis

The Home Office annually publishes statistics on football banning orders imposed in England and Wales. The table below contains published statistics for the last five football seasons, detailing the total number of extant football banning orders and the number of new football banning orders imposed. A football banning order imposed in England and Wales prevents the individual from attending all matches in the Premier League and Football League. The statistics for season 2015-16 will be published on 24 November. Please refer to the table attached for detailed statistics.

January 1, 2023
Alan Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Campbell on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to amend the licensing schedule under the Pet Animals Act 1951 to make it species specific.

George Eustice

Defra is reviewing the Pet Animals Act 1951 as part of a wider review of some of the animal related licensing schemes. We are aiming to consult on a set of proposals shortly.

January 1, 2023
Lord Freyberg – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of stage 2b cancer or higher patients in (1) tertiary, and (2) secondary, care centres were tested by NHS England in 2014 for genetic mutations that can confer resistance to targeted cancer therapies, in particular (a) AR amplification mutations, (b) ESR1 activation mutations, (c) PIK3CA mutations, (d) KRAS activation mutations, (e) EGFR amplification and activation mutations, (f) KRAS activation mutations, and (g) EGFR amplification and activation mutations.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has not, to date, undertaken a direct comparison of the English and French health systems in respect of genetic testing practice for cancer.

NHS England does not hold data on the percentage of stage 2b, or higher, cancer patients in secondary and tertiary centres who were genetically tested. Detailed information on the clinical circumstances, or reasons, for referral for genetic testing for individual patients is not currently collated on a national basis.

NHS England does not consider business cases from individual National Health Service trusts in relation to the adoption of new genetic tests. Instead, NHS England considers national clinical commissioning policy proposals on the eligibility of a particular test, or treatments to be made available in the presence of particular genetic markers. These are considered and where agreed, funded consistently across England for services falling within NHS England’s direct commissioning responsibilities.

Examples include the separate policies (published in July 2015) confirming eligibility for Ivacaftor for the treatment of cystic fibrosis in the presence of certain gene mutations, and confirming eligibility for testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, respectively. Copies of the policies are attached.

In addition, the UK Genetic Testing Network currently presents new genetic testing proposals to NHS England for funding consideration based on the conclusions of their assurance programme. These are considered, alongside other new policy proposals, as part of the annual funding prioritisation process, where there is a net annual investment to be made to support their adoption.

Information on the average turnaround time for cancer genetic tests is not currently collated, or analysed, nationally. However, NHS England will be undertaking a procurement exercise in the coming months to support the strengthened provision of genetic testing across England. This includes more consistent reporting of activity and other performance indicators, including the timeliness of reporting on receipt on referrals. The supporting national service specification, setting out the standards required of commissioned providers, has been the subject of a recent public consultation.

January 1, 2023
Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of recipients of their first universal credit payment received an advance payment of that credit in 2015.

Priti Patel

The information you have requested is not currently available.

During 2016 we will be increasing the range of statistics on Universal Credit which will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

January 1, 2023
Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department has issued to officials in his Department to support the implementation of the Family Test.

Mr Oliver Letwin

Family Test guidance was published online in October 2014, and is available to all officials. The guidance can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/368894/family-test-guidance.pdf

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January 1, 2023
Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil law suits have been brought against his Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.

Dominic Raab

It is not possible to provide the information requested. Litigants in civil cases can rely on arguments based wholly or partly on the Human Rights Act 1998. In some cases, the Act is relied on in addition to other claims. When the Human Rights Act came into force, no specific arrangements were put in place by the then government to record cases in the way requested. As a result, there are not currently data published which distinguish between cases where the Human Rights Act was or was not invoked.

January 1, 2023
Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 22159, on mental illness and A&E departments, if he will publish that data for each month of 2015 and 2016.

Alistair Burt

There are no plans to routinely publish the number of accident and emergency attendances with a duration to departure of more than four hours, for patients with a primary diagnosis of psychosis, by age group.

January 1, 2023

Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work capability assessments have been cancelled or rearranged in each of the last five years; and what the (a) shortest, (b) average and (c) longest period of time was before such an appointment was rearranged.

Priti Patel

Around 55% of all cancelled appointments are customer instigated cancellations.

On 1 March 2015, a new provider took over the Work Capability Assessment contract in which the Department had set a far higher target for face-to-face assessments than that for the previous contract holder. In order to achieve its target the new provider increased the number of assessments undertaken by 29% over that undertaken in the previous year. This led to more people being seen more quickly but with a subsequent rise in the number of cancellations.

Cancelled/Re-arranged Work Capability Assessments in the last five years are shown in the table below:

Period	Number of Cancelled Appointments
1 May 2011 to 30 Apr 2012	377,122
1 May 2012 to 30 Apr 2013	509,653
1 May 2013 to 30 Apr 2014	398,133
1 May 2014 to 30 Apr 2015	333,990
1 May 2015 to 30 Apr 2016	505,950

(Source: Centre for Health Disability Assessments)

Information on the shortest, average and longest period of time before appointments are re-arranged is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

January 1, 2023

Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has had discussions with the West London Mental Health Trust on future funding of the Corsellis Brain Collection.

George Freeman

The Department has not made any specific assessment of the importance of the collection for promoting research into brain diseases.

The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. Every effort is being made to ensure as much of the collection as possible is available to researchers and the West London Mental Health Trust has been working with BRAIN UK (an initiative funded by the Medical Research Council which co-ordinates the distribution of tissue across the country) to support this.

As part of this strategy the Trust has therefore decided to publicise the decision to close the collection and invite requests from appropriate academic departments for tissue relevant to their research and teaching programmes, and to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some 7,500 out of 8,500 specimens have identified destinations as a result of this process, to departments across the United K and in the Netherlands, in Canada and in Hong Kong. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.

The UK Brain Bank Network, which is funded by Government through the Medical Research Council, has established a national network of UK brain tissue resources (banks) for researchers to access. The Network currently involves 10 brain banks across the UK which now hold over 14,000 well characterised brains.

January 1, 2023