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Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to continue monitoring breastfeeding rates following the abolition of the infant feeding survey; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

Following the discontinuation of the Infant Feeding Survey, the Department has been exploring with Public Health England (PHE) and other key stakeholders alternative methods and sources of information to monitor the impact of its policy on infant feeding.

In future, the Maternity and Children’s Dataset will regularly capture data on breastfeeding initiation and prevalence from all women using NHS services rather than using a survey sample. This means that local service providers and commissioners can have up-to-date (e.g. quarterly) information about outcomes for their local populations, enabling service provision to be more agile, responsive and targeted.

The Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding through the Healthy Child Programme. Breastfeeding is also included in the Public Health Outcomes Framework so that the improvements can be tracked, and action taken as needed.

Since 2010, we have recruited more than 2,100 additional midwives who will provide women with the information, advice and support they need with breastfeeding. A further 6,000 midwives are in training. There are also 3,400 more health visitors than in 2010.

The Department is working with PHE, NHS England and UNICEF to try and encourage women to breastfeed for the first six months, although we recognise that not all mothers choose to or are able to breastfeed.

Support and information is currently available to health professionals and parents through NHS Choices, the National Breastfeeding Helpline, UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, the Start4Life Information Service for Parents and local peer support programmes.

The Department has not retained a record of how many full-time equivalent staff there were with a specific focus on breastfeeding between 2010 and 2016; breastfeeding policy has always formed part of the larger maternity policy for which the Department has the policy lead. Resources to cover this policy area would have fluctuated according the level of work required at any one time.

01/01/2023
Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) financial and (b) other support his Department provided for research into treating motor neurone disease in each of the last three years.

George Freeman

Spend by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in the Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health category ‘neurological’ has increased from £29.9 million in 2010/11 to £46.7 million in 2014/15 (the latest year for which data is available). There are no HRCS health sub-categories such as for motor neurone disease or other specific neurological conditions, and information on total annual NIHR spend on research into treating motor neurone disease is not held.

01/01/2023
Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust’s proposal for collaboration between the NHS and Vertex to widen access to the treatment Orkambi on the treatment of the patients with that disease.

George Freeman

The Department has received the Cystic Fibrosis Trust’s proposals for an arrangement that would potentially allow access to Orkambi (lumacaftor in combination with ivacaftor) as part of a Managed Access Scheme in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) appraisal of Orkambi.

I have encouraged the Trust and the manufacturer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, to engage with NICE to consider whether there remains scope for this, or any other, proposal to be taken into account in its appraisal and the Department is also engaging with the manufacturer directly on this matter.

01/01/2023
Byron Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Byron Davies on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many consumers and organisations have made representations on the Chief Medical Officer’s revised guidelines on alcohol consumption.

Jane Ellison

We have received 1,017 responses to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ alcohol guidelines consultation, including responses as part of a campaign and responses that did not answer some or any of the specific consultation questions.

01/01/2023
Byron Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Byron Davies on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many EU member states have adopted guidance recommending the same level of weekly alcohol consumption for men and women.

Jane Ellison

No other European country has carried out a full scientific review of their alcohol guidelines at least in the last ten years.

01/01/2023
Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will take steps to ensure that the proposals to more closely align the approval process for the new cancer drugs fund with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence do not limit access to potential life-saving treatments such as Avastin for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

George Freeman

Since October 2010, the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) has helped over 84,000 people in England in accessing life-extending cancer drugs that would not otherwise have been available to them.

NHS England is responsible for the operational management of the Fund and has consulted, jointly with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, on new arrangements for the CDF which will go live on 1 July 2016.

NHS England has advised that, under these new arrangements, it envisages that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.

01/01/2023
Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will take steps to ensure that the medical exemption criteria for determining prescription charges is suitable to allow for the changing nature and improving prognosis of many medical conditions.

Alistair Burt

The process for determining entitlement to a medical exemption is suitable for purpose, and takes account of whether someone continues to meet the criteria. We do not have any plans to make any amendments to the list of medical conditions which provide exemption from the prescription charge.

01/01/2023
Byron Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Byron Davies on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish all responses received to the Chief Medical Officer’s consultation on the revised alcohol guidelines.

Jane Ellison

As with all consultations of this sort, individual responses to consultations are treated as confidential so not usually published.

However, the Department will provide a summary of all the responses for each of the consultation questions in the Government response to the advice that the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guidance.

01/01/2023
Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients are registered at each GP surgery in Manchester, Withington constituency; what the capacity of each of those surgeries is; and how many of those surgeries are oversubscribed.

Alistair Burt

These data are not collected centrally.

Data on numbers of patients registered with general practitioner (GP) practices is published quarterly by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) in a report entitled ‘Number of Patients Registered at a GP Practice’. The latest available version is April 2016 and is available from the HSCIC website at:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB20480

“

01/01/2023

Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many fines have been issued for claiming free prescriptions without a valid exemption certificate in each (a) month and (b) year since the NHS Business Services Authority began checking eligibility for free prescriptions in September 2014.

Alistair Burt

Since September 2014, when the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took on responsibility for the service, a total of 747,790 penalty charge notices have been issued where someone claimed exemption on the basis that they held a valid exemption certificate but this could not be verified by the NHSBSA. A further 278,053 surcharge letters have been issued to follow up on penalty charge notices which have not been resolved through payment, cancellation (due to correction of erroneous information, for example) or waiving of the penalty charge. The annual and monthly breakdown is set out below.

Annual breakdown of Penalty Charges Notices and Surcharge letters

	Penalty Charge Notices	Surcharge letters
September 2014 – December 2014	59,564	20,562
January 2015 – December 2015	430,971	171,065
January 2016 – April 2016	257,255	86,426
Total	757,790	278,053

Monthly breakdown of Penalty Charge Notices and Surcharge letters

	Penalty Charge Notices	Surcharge letter
September 2014	5,298	1,733
October 2014	5,007	1,697
November 2014	23,511	8,344
December 2014	25,748	8,788
January 2015	53,668	11,445
February 2015	21,706	7,969
March 2015	15,316	6,182
April 2015	12,687	5,032
May 2015	20,122	8,189
June 2015	22,472	8,984
July 2015	18,249	6,550
August 2015	39,626	17,282
September 2015	57,661	24,634
October 2015	56,952	25,075
November 2015	64,573	28,655
December 2015	47,939	21,068
January 2016	82,881	36,766
February 2016	55,650	24,079
March 2016	49,767	20,340
April 2016	68,957	5,241
Total	747,790	278,053

01/01/2023