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Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2015 to Question 12246, how many criminal operations have been smashed by the Organised Immigration Crime Task Force to date.

James Brokenshire

It would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing operations.

The Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce is designed to increase the resources required to build on existing extensive law enforcement capability in the UK and overseas to tackle OIC and target criminal networks in source and transit countries.

The UK has been successfully disrupting the gangs behind all forms of organised immigration crime for a number of years. UK law enforcement disrupted over 170 organised crime groups involved in organised immigration crime last year (April 14 – March 15).

01/01/2023
Toby Perkins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that at least 1,000 refugees are resettled in the UK before Christmas 2015.

Richard Harrington

The Government has committed to resettling 20,000 Syrian Refugees in the lifetime of this Parliament. The Prime Minister has said that we want to see 1,000 brought to the UK by Christmas.

The Government is working closely with local authorities; international delivery partners and the voluntary sector, putting in place the plans and structures to deliver this and ensuring the system is scaled up in a way that protects the interests of all concerned.

Details on numbers will be published in the regular quarterly immigration statistics.

01/01/2023
Tom Pursglove – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many historic crimes will feature in this year’s crime figures.

Mike Penning

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) are responsible for crime statistics. Any historical crime that is brought to the attention of and recorded by the police will be included in the quarterly statistics for the period it was recorded in.

The Home Office (via the Home Office Data Hub) collects limited information on the date of offence for some crime types and some forces. For example, for sexual offences, the Home Office was able to supply data for the ONS to use in their quarterly Crime in England and Wales publications to highlight the impact of Operation Yewtree and the large number of historical offences that were reported to the police.

The Home Office is also unable to provide prior information of statistics in upcoming publications.

01/01/2023
Robert Neill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Neill on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 21 of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulations Scheme, what steps he is taking to encourage academic health science networks to translate research into practice.

George Freeman

Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) have been set up to support local health economies to improve health outcomes in their communities, and maximise the National Health Service’s contribution to economic growth by enabling change through collaboration, and the spread of innovation and best practice. To do this, they bring together local NHS partners, academia and industry by acting as catalysts, brokers, coordinators, sponsors and knowledge-sharers.

Speeding up adoption of innovation into practice to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience has been one of the four core contractual objectives for AHSN since their establishment in 2013. As well as directly supporting partners to diffuse specific innovations and best practice, AHSNs also work to create an infrastructure and environment that enables the development, identification and adoption of innovation. This work encompasses the establishment of partnerships and networking opportunities, as well as investment in infrastructure.

AHSNs are supporting over 150 active programmes and projects across a range of clinical and cross-cutting themes. These have been selected in response to the priorities of their local populations and health economies. In addition to their individual programmes, AHSNs also work collectively to support national priorities which include a Medicine’s Optimisation programme. AHSNs are working with NHS England and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry among others to promote best practice that ensures patients, the public and society more broadly get the best outcomes from medicines. This includes programmes to encourage access to innovative medicines and to ensure safer use of medicines.

AHSNs have taken a range of approaches in delivering their objectives. Case studies and exemplars of some their work can be found in the resources section of the AHSNs Network website: www.ahsnnetwork.com

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01/01/2023

Robert Neill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Neill on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what payments have been made to the devolved administrations under the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme to date; on which date each such payment was made; what methodology is used to calculate the level of such payments; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The Government recognises that the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) payments that companies make under the 2014 scheme in respect of the United Kingdom need to be allocated to each of the devolved administrations in a fair way.

The PPRS payments that companies make under the scheme in respect of the UK are allocated to each of the four countries on an agreed basis each year. Apportionment is not covered by the terms of the PPRS. However, the four countries agreed the current method for apportioning income received under the 2014 PPRS which is based on primary care data for spend on licensed branded medicines, as the most consistent data set available across the UK. Income is apportioned using prescribing data for the same period as the income relates.

The attached table includes the quarterly PPRS income paid to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from Q1 2014 to Q2 2015. It should be noted that as well as PPRS payments this income also includes historic cash payments made by companies that were members of the 2009 PPRS.

As requested, the following table contains information regarding the dates PPRS payments were made to the devolved administrations:

	PPRS Payment	Historic Cash Payment
2014 Q1	21 August 2014	10 October 2014
2014 Q2 and Q3	20 February 2015	20 February 2015
2014 Q4	8 April 2015	8 April 2015
2015 Q1	3 July 2015	24 July 2015
2015 Q2	13 October 2015	16 October 2015

01/01/2023

Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of funding special guide dogs for children with autism.

Alistair Burt

There has been no assessment made centrally of this; it would be for individual charities to explore the potential for assistance dogs to support children and young people with autism.

01/01/2023
Chris Heaton-Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Heaton-Harris on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons funding for Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy is due to cease in March 2016.

Jane Ellison

NHS England has commissioned Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) procedures as part of its Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE) programme.

CtE schemes run in areas where the current evidence base on clinical and cost effectiveness of a particular treatment is insufficient to support routine funding, and where further research is unlikely to be forthcoming. In these circumstances, NHS England identifies funding for a CtE scheme to gather and support a review of the national clinical commissioning policy position. Each CtE scheme is funded on a time-limited basis, in just a small number of selected participating centres across England, with strict patient selection criteria.

The CtE programme is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which supports NHS England to identify the total number of patients that need to be treated under the scheme to answer the evaluation questions agreed. Schemes stop once the total planned number of patients has been treated and the data analysis can be concluded. In the case of the SDR scheme it is likely that the last patients will be treated by spring 2016.

The information provided directly by NHS England to stakeholders and participating centres in the SDR scheme has been consistently clear about the time limited nature of CtE and that the funding did not present a change to the current commissioning position of the treatment not being routinely funded by the NHS.

NHS England will continue to work closely with participating centres to ensure that messages are as clear as possible to families who may have wished to consider this treatment option.

01/01/2023
Chris Heaton-Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Heaton-Harris on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the reasons are for the time taken to inform families involved in Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy procedures that funding for those procedures will cease.

Jane Ellison

NHS England has commissioned Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) procedures as part of its Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE) programme.

CtE schemes run in areas where the current evidence base on clinical and cost effectiveness of a particular treatment is insufficient to support routine funding, and where further research is unlikely to be forthcoming. In these circumstances, NHS England identifies funding for a CtE scheme to gather and support a review of the national clinical commissioning policy position. Each CtE scheme is funded on a time-limited basis, in just a small number of selected participating centres across England, with strict patient selection criteria.

The CtE programme is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which supports NHS England to identify the total number of patients that need to be treated under the scheme to answer the evaluation questions agreed. Schemes stop once the total planned number of patients has been treated and the data analysis can be concluded. In the case of the SDR scheme it is likely that the last patients will be treated by spring 2016.

The information provided directly by NHS England to stakeholders and participating centres in the SDR scheme has been consistently clear about the time limited nature of CtE and that the funding did not present a change to the current commissioning position of the treatment not being routinely funded by the NHS.

NHS England will continue to work closely with participating centres to ensure that messages are as clear as possible to families who may have wished to consider this treatment option.

01/01/2023
Guto Bebb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Guto Bebb on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to support prostate cancer awareness campaigns and screening programmes.

Jane Ellison

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. In 2010, the UK NSC recommended against a screening programme for prostate cancer as there was no clear evidence that the benefit to screen for prostate cancer outweighed the harms. The UK NSC re-affirmed this decision in 2012 and is in the process of reviewing this policy currently.

The School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield performed an option appraisal for the UK NSC based on the latest trial evidence for screening for prostate cancer in 2013. A number of screening strategies were considered including annual screening in men aged 50 to 74 years. The overall survival benefit with all strategies was small and outweighed by the harms of over diagnosis and the adverse effects of over treatment.

Public Health England (PHE) ran a local pilot campaign for six weeks in 2014, specifically targeting prostate cancer within Black African-Caribbean men, because of their significantly increased risk of developing prostate cancer. The campaign ran in six London boroughs. In addition, PHE will be running a national campaign on “Blood in Pee” in early 2016. This is primarily aimed at bladder and kidney cancer but blood in the urine can also be a sign of prostate cancer.

01/01/2023
Guto Bebb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Guto Bebb on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of an annual screening programme on early detection of prostate cancer.

Jane Ellison

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. In 2010, the UK NSC recommended against a screening programme for prostate cancer as there was no clear evidence that the benefit to screen for prostate cancer outweighed the harms. The UK NSC re-affirmed this decision in 2012 and is in the process of reviewing this policy currently.

The School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield performed an option appraisal for the UK NSC based on the latest trial evidence for screening for prostate cancer in 2013. A number of screening strategies were considered including annual screening in men aged 50 to 74 years. The overall survival benefit with all strategies was small and outweighed by the harms of over diagnosis and the adverse effects of over treatment.

Public Health England (PHE) ran a local pilot campaign for six weeks in 2014, specifically targeting prostate cancer within Black African-Caribbean men, because of their significantly increased risk of developing prostate cancer. The campaign ran in six London boroughs. In addition, PHE will be running a national campaign on “Blood in Pee” in early 2016. This is primarily aimed at bladder and kidney cancer but blood in the urine can also be a sign of prostate cancer.

01/01/2023