The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with (a) pharmaceutical companies and (b) the Royal Colleges on making colchicine available on the NHS for the treatment of cancer.
George Freeman
No such discussions have taken place. We understand that a potential treatment for cancer derived from colchicine is currently in development and clinical trials are due to start in 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the local government public health grant will be in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
No decisions have yet been made on the public health grant for future years. This is being considered as part of the Spending Review.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his plans are for Just Solutions International; and if he will make a statement.
Andrew Selous
I refer the hon member to the Secretary of State’s statement of 13 October 2015 at the following link: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmhansrd/cm151013/debtext/151013-0001.htm#15101362000003
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the operation of the procurement process in the Highways Agency.
Andrew Jones
Highways England complies with the Public Procurement Regulations. Each procurement exercise is led by a professional Procurement Officer who oversees the process to ensure that best procurement practice is followed.
Highways England is continually looking to improve its procurement processes. For example, when a contract is being renewed, a contract working group (CWG) is established to consider lessons learnt from the previous contract and to look at opportunities to improve.
Highways England is corporately accredited by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) which is an external endorsement of its procurement processes. CIPS Corporate Certification is an independent, comprehensive and procurement-specific assessment and signifies that Highways England has all the procurement governance mechanisms in place for effective and efficient procurement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to reintroduce National Road Safety targets.
Andrew Jones
The Conservative Manifesto 2015 had a commitment to reduce the number of cyclists and other road users killed or injured on our roads every year. We are working closely with road safety groups to consider what more can be done and we believe that every death is a tragedy and is one too many.
The Government has not set road safety targets for local authorities or the police, and is not considering reinstating them. We do not believe that further persuasion is needed on the importance of road safety through “Whitehall knows best” diktats. However, local authorities and the police are free to set their own targets if they find this useful.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2015-10-27.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people claimed tax credits in each lower super output area in (a) Wrexham County Borough Council and (b) Wrexham constituency.
Damian Hinds
A geographical breakdown of tax credits claimants can be found in the 2013-14 finalised award published statistics, at this link:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-10-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they offer to youth-led civil society initiatives countering hate speech and promoting religious tolerance in Burma.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We remain deeply concerned about the rise in Burma of hate speech and religious intolerance. We have raised this with the Burmese authorities and will continue to do so, both publicly and in private. We have supported inter-faith dialogue in Burma in recent years through a number of projects to help build relationships and understanding. These have included projects to develop relationships between Burmese youth and different religious communities, and to forge exchanges between activists on religious freedom in Burma and Indonesia.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-10-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the report of the Herbal Medicines and Practitioners Working Group on the regulation of herbal practitioners was signed off by all members of that group.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The independent Report on the Regulation of Herbal Medicines and Practitioners is Professor Walker’s and so, although the Herbal Medicines and Practitioners Working Group informed the development the Report, it was not signed off by the Group.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Donaghy on 2015-10-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they have taken to ensure that the increase in school-centred initial teacher training and School Direct initial teacher training does not undermine existing programmes delivered by mainstream school-university partnerships.
Lord Nash
The government is committed to the ongoing expansion of school-led initial teacher training (ITT). The move towards school-led ITT has created new opportunities for universities to grow their business: engaging directly with schools to become their chosen partner; and working with school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) to offer academic awards. In addition, the university sector as a whole has the opportunity to recruit trainees up to the same overall level as they have for the 2015/16 academic year. It is, therefore, not expected that this change of approach will have a substantial impact on the higher education sector.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-10-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what research they are planning to fund in West Africa into the persistence of the Ebola virus in survivors, and into post-Ebola syndrome.
Baroness Verma
DFID is making UK-funded treatment facilities and laboratories available for research into Ebola survivors and existing DFID-funded research may provide relevant evidence. For example the Anthropology Platform is conducting research into survivors, and the WHO vaccine trial in Guinea is following up participants for three months.
To mitigate any risk of potential Ebola transmission, the UK is also helping the Government of Sierra Leone to assist survivors with access to healthcare, safe sex education and condoms, counselling and stigma reduction activities.