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  • Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group takes account of evidence from (a) patients, (b) clinicians and (c) patient groups when making decisions on the availability of treatments for progressive conditions.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England has advised that the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) is an advisory group and not a decision making body. It considers policy and makes recommendations to the Directly Commissioned Services Committee who make the final decisions on NHS England’s commissioning position.

    The Group’s membership includes four Patient and Public Voice members and senior clinicians from NHS England. The policies that are presented to CPAG for consideration are developed by Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs) who are made up of patients, clinicians, and key stakeholders including patient groups. These members are involved in the development of policies.

    Prior to submission of any documents to CPAG, a two week stakeholder testing phase is undertaken where registered CRG stakeholders including clinicians, patients, and patient groups, as well as industry, have an opportunity to make comments. These are considered as well as the evidence base for the policy by CPAG.

  • Aidan Burley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Aidan Burley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Aidan Burley on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment he has made of the current eligibility criteria for higher education maintenance loans.

    Mr David Willetts

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will continue to require students seeking maintenance loans to meet criteria includeing residency, type of course and place of study.

  • Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on devolved NHS services of changes to the way temporary migrants and visitors access the NHS in England.

    Jane Ellison

    The intention of the relevant powers in the Immigration Act 2014 is to ensure that temporary migrants and visitors make a fair contribution towards the cost of any National Health Service healthcare they receive in the United Kingdom. Under the Act, temporary migrants will be required to pay a health surcharge when applying for a visa to reside in the UK for more than six months. The Devolved Administrations will receive a proportion of funds received from the surcharge. It will be for the Devolved Administrations to decide whether they spend this on health services and whether they amend their health service charging regulations for other visitors to the UK.

    If charges for some primary care services in England are introduced to visitors to the UK, those services will continue to be free of charge to people who are ordinarily resident in the UK. Therefore, residents of the Devolved Administrations will continue to be treated on the same basis as an English resident if they access primary care services in England.

    However, introducing charging for visitors may influence behaviour near the borders if visitors from overseas in England choose to travel to the other countries to access primary care services that they would have to pay for in England.

    The proposed new process for registering with the NHS in England is unlikely to affect the healthcare systems in the devolved administrations but it may mean that residents from the Devolved Administrations who access NHS care in England are asked more often to demonstrate that they are ordinarily resident in the UK, or otherwise entitled to free NHS care in England.

    We will continue our discussions with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations on all of these issues.

  • Richard Burden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of mandatory display of passed plates by all novice drivers for a minimum period.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    None. There is no probationary period for new drivers and no requirement to display a ‘P’ plate. However, the Transport Research Laboratory Report on "Novice Drivers: Evidence review and Evaluation Pre-Driver Training, Graduated Driver Licensing" made a number of recommendations on novice driver safety. One recommendation was that on successful completion of the driving test a driver would be permitted to progress to a probationary licence from age 18. During the 12 month (minimum) probationary licence the driver would be required to display a green ‘P’ plate to identify their licence status and aid enforcement of other recommended restrictions.

  • Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support will be available for deaf people whose support was reduced as a result of the 30 hour rule in the access to work grant.

    Mike Penning

    Customers can request a full review of their Access to work claim at any time.

  • Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Egyptian counterpart on the likely date for parliamentary elections in Egypt.

    Mr William Hague

    I met Egyptian Foreign Minister Fahmy during his visit to the UK on 14 May and discussed a range of issues, including the timing of parliamentary elections. We believe the best way for the Egyptians to achieve goals of the 25 January revolution of 2011 is through free and fair elections and an inclusive political process in which all groups can participate.

  • Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the prospects of achieving a UN Security Council resolution referring Syria to the International Criminal Court.

    Mr William Hague

    On 22 May Russia and China vetoed a resolution that would have referred the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, despite it having overwhelming international support, including from 13 members of the UN Security Council, 65 co-sponsors, over 100 Non-governmental organisations from across the world and the Syrian National Coalition.

    Nonetheless, we need to ensure that those responsible for atrocities in Syria are held to account. Russia and China cannot indefinitely shield those responsible for horrific crimes. The UK is funding efforts to document war crimes and crimes against humanity, and we are pressing for an expansion of EU sanctions to cover those responsible.

  • Thérèse Coffey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Thérèse Coffey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thérèse Coffey on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the performance of Public Health England in reducing inequalities of health outcomes by making improvements in (a) housing conditions and (b) employment capability.

    Jane Ellison

    Housing and work are two areas that influence health outcomes. In his strategic review of health inequalities, Professor Sir Michael Marmot reminded us all of the link between people’s health and “the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work and age”.

    Public Health England (PHE) has a key role in highlighting the health impact of these issues on health outcomes and health inequalities. It is undertaking a range of work on housing, homelessness and health issues to support and inform national and local stakeholders, including its National Conversation on Health Inequalities, which will help focus future work in this area.

    PHE also launched the Healthy People, Healthy Places programme in November 2013 – helping to improve the nation’s health through better planning and design to reduce the impact of a poor physical and natural environment is a PHE priority.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Stephenson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve respite care provisions in Pendle constituency.

    Norman Lamb

    We have provided £400 million to the National Health Service over four years from 2011 for carers to have breaks from their caring responsibilities.

    In the 2013 Spending Review, we announced the £3.8 billion Better Care Fund, which includes £130 millionfunding for carers’ breaks for 2015-16.

    In 2015-16, East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group will receive £8.1 million from the Better Care Fund.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons the planned out-of-service date for HMS Illustrious has been brought forward; what the new date is; and who took the decision to change that date.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    As first announced on 15 December 2010 (Official Report, column 102WS), HMS ILLUSTRIOUS will retire from service this year. No final decision has been made on the specific date.

    HMS OCEAN will shortly finish her extensive refit and take over as the Royal Navy’s Landing Platform Helicopter ship.