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  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of hospitals have a policy of charging (a) blue badge holders and (b) carers for parking.

    Alistair Burt

    Data is not collected centrally in the exact format requested. Data on car parking is collected annually through two collections.

    The Estates Return Information Collection asks whether organisations charge for the use of designated disabled parking spaces. Of the 1,038 sites that have designated disabled car parking spaces 87% do not charge.

    The Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment asks about the number of sites that offer car parking charge concessions in accordance with the National Health Service patient, visitor and staff car parking principles. Of the 372 sites that charge for car parking, 86% offer concessions, which include either free car parking or reduced charges or caps.

  • Byron Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    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, whether he plans to adopt the recommendations made by the Chief Medical Officer on the consumption of alcohol.

    Jane Ellison

    The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ alcohol guidelines give the public the latest and most up to date scientific information so that they can make informed decisions about their own drinking.

  • Byron Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    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, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Chief Medical Officer’s revised guidelines on alcohol consumption on consumer behaviour.

    Jane Ellison

    The National Institute for Health Research has awarded funding to The University of Sheffield Alcohol Research Group to evaluate the new drinking guidelines. The details will be worked through once the conclusions of the consultation are published.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    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 the implications for his policies are of the findings in The Lancet Series on breastfeeding, published in January 2016; and what steps his Department is taking to increase breastfeeding rates.

    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.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the average waiting time for therapy referrals and appointments for children with special needs (a) nationally and (b) in Gloucestershire in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    This information is not held centrally.

    Currently in Gloucestershire, 94% of patients are accessing Speech and Language therapy and 99% of patients are accessing Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy within eight weeks of referral.

  • Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on patient confidentiality of the decision by NHS Royal Free Foundation Trust to grant DeepMind access to NHS patient records; and if he will make a statement.

    George Freeman

    Individual organisations providing National Health Service care are the data controllers for the information that they hold, and are responsible for ensuring that there is a legal basis for sharing confidential patient information with a third party.

    Individual organisations must ensure that where patient consent is the basis for information sharing that patients are fully informed about the purposes for which personal information might be processed and with whom they might share information. Where a NHS organisation has contracted a third party to process personal information on its behalf to support the provision of direct care to patients the individual organisation must ensure that it has contractual safeguards in place to prevent the third party from using the data for purposes other than those determined by the NHS organisation.

    NHS organisations should not share confidential patient information where the patient has objected – except in cases where there is a legal requirement to share data or an overriding public interest.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been treated with adult stem cells in the UK in each of the last 10 years.

    George Freeman

    The Department does not hold data on the number of patients receiving stem cell treatments.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of embryonic stem cell research for the development of treatments for patients.

    George Freeman

    Treatments based on the use of stem cells including those obtained by embryos must be demonstrated to be both safe and effective before they can receive authorisation.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent progress has been made on Public Health England’s study into the health impact of incinerators.

    Jane Ellison

    The Public Health England funded study by the Small Area Health Statistics Unit (SAHSU) at Imperial College and the Environmental Research Group at King’s College, London, investigating the potential link between emissions from municipal waste incinerators and health outcomes is ongoing. It is expected that papers from the project will be submitted by SAHSU to peer reviewed journals later in 2016.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 11 March 2016 to Question 29747, whether any of the correspondence cited in the oral contribution of the Lord Patel on 24 February 2015 had been given unredacted to concurrently serving members of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority executive.

    Jane Ellison

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that wider disclosure of the content of the personal email exchange between Professor Grifo and a member of the expert panel convened by the Authority would not breach patient confidentiality. The HFEA has previously advised that the relevant expert panel member contacted Professor Grifo in a personal capacity following the third Scientific Review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease in 2014.

    The HFEA has also advised that the information in question was provided in confidence to the expert panel convened by the Authority. Members of the HFEA Executive who provided administrative support to the work of the panel have seen this information.