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Tag: 2014

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014 to Question 196742, what progress his Department has made on assessing the effectiveness of existing arrangements for reporting complications relating to transvaginal mesh implants; and if he will make a statement.

    George Freeman

    The working group on vaginal tapes and mesh is now finalising its interim recommendations which NHS England expects to publish in November 2015, subject to its internal governance processes.

    However in the meantime the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has unified and simplified reporting under the Yellowcard reporting brand- All reporting under one page, promoted Yellow card reporting at conferences to increase awareness e.g. RCN Congress, NICE Annual Conference; created the role of Medical Device Safety Officers in conjunction with NHS England to promote local reporting and learning.

    As a result we have seen an increase in Member of Public reports relating to transvaginal mesh of 350% over 2014 so far (Table 2).

    The data below is taken from the Adverse Incident Tracking System

    Table 1: Adverse events reported to MHRA by health professionals concerning vaginal tape and mesh implants are as follows:

    Vaginal tapes for stress urinary incontinence 64/25

    Vaginal mesh for pelvic organ prolapse 64/25

    Vaginal mesh for unknown1 indication

    2011

    3

    1

    0

    2012

    23

    31

    2

    2013

    27

    20

    0

    2014

    87

    47

    1

    Up to September 2015

    50

    48

    4

    1 The reporter did not provide enough information on what type of mesh it was.

    Table 2: Adverse events reported to MHRA by patients/members of the public concerning vaginal tape and mesh implants are as follows:

    Vaginal tapes for stress urinary incontinence

    Vaginal mesh for pelvic organ prolapse

    Vaginal mesh for unknown1 indication

    2011

    33

    7

    3

    2012

    26

    2

    0

    2013

    30

    10

    3

    2014

    22

    3

    0

    Up to September 2015

    68

    17

    6

    1 The reporter did not provide enough information on what type of mesh it was.

    “

  • Tom Pursglove – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tom Pursglove – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil servants of her Department are members of trades unions; how many working hours of facility time are taken by such civil servants; and what estimate she has made of the cost of that facility time to her Department.

    Karen Bradley

    Trade union membership is a matter between the individual member and their trade union. We do not hold current details of the number of staff within the Home Office who subscribe to a trade union.

    We provide quarterly returns to the Cabinet Office on the number of staff who are trade union representatives and who take paid facility time and the associated cost to the Department. These are then published as transparency data on Gov.uk. The last published data, covering the quarter from 1 October 2014 to 31 December 2014, shows that the cost to the Department of facility time for 334 union representatives was 0.08% of the total paybill, which is within the Cabinet Office guideline of 0.1% of paybill.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications to county courts have been made by tenants against landlords for failure to comply with their Tenancy Deposit Scheme obligations under Part 6, Chapter 4, Sections 212-213 of the Housing Act 2004 in each year since those provisions came into force; how many such cases were found in favour of the (a) landlord and (b) tenant; and of those such cases found in favour of the tenant, how many landlords were fined the full amount of three times the amount of the deposit.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with airline companies on seat accommodation for larger people travelling on aeroplanes.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    There have been no discussions between the Department and the airline industry on the specific issue of seat accommodation for larger people travelling on aeroplanes.

  • Karen Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Karen Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karen Buck on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employment support allowance claimants in the City of Westminster have been referred to Maximus and the Work Programme since that company took over that contract.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested (up to June 2015) is published and available at:

    http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/WorkProg/tabtool.html

    Guidance for users can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance

    “

  • Peter Grant – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Peter Grant – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Grant on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the monthly running costs of administering benefit sanctions.

    Priti Patel

    The department does not hold information on the monthly running costs of administering benefit sanctions.

    This information cannot be captured at this level even at disproportionate cost.

  • Baroness Berridge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Berridge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Berridge on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the security situation in the Central African Republic.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The security situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) is grave. Outside the capital Bangui, violence, looting, road-blocks, hostage-taking and human rights abuses continue to occur with relative impunity.

    The security situation in Bangui is more stable than the rest of the country, having improved following the surge in violence in late September, but tensions still run high and we continue to advise against all travel to CAR.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have amended the Ministerial Code to remove the duty to comply with international law and treaty obligations.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    I refer the Noble Lord to the answer given to the Noble Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 5 November 2015 to HL3046,HL3047,HL3048,which I have attached for ease of reference.

    The Ministerial Code is normally updated and reissued after a General Election. The updated Code makes clear that Ministers must abide by the law. The obligations of Ministers under the law including international law remain unchanged.

    Information relating to internal discussions and advice is not disclosed.

  • Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider extending the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator in order to deliver fair prices for dairy farmers.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The jurisdiction of the Groceries Code Adjudicator is defined by the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. The Code governs the commercial relationships between the ten largest UK supermarkets and their direct suppliers, and reflects the findings of the Competition Commission’s market investigation into the supermarket sector conducted between 2006 and 2008.

    The Government has no plans to extend the powers of the Adjudicator at this time. There will, however, be a statutory review of the performance of the Adjudicator next year in accordance with section 15 of the Groceries Code Adjudicator Act 2013.

  • Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been their response to calls from UNICEF for the United Kingdom to allow refugees to apply for humanitarian visas in countries of origin and transit at United Kingdom embassies.

    Lord Bates

    There is no provision in our Immigration Rules for someone to be given permission to travel to the UK to seek asylum or humanitarian protection and Her Majesty’s Government has no plans to extend the Immigration Rules to allow refugees to apply for humanitarian visas at any UK embassies.

    We are focusing our efforts on resettling vulnerable people in need of international protection from the region, including 20,000 Syrians by the end of the Parliament. This provides refugees with a direct and safe route to the UK and uses established UNHCR processes. This is of course in addition to the £1.12 billion in humanitarian aid provided by the UK for those most in need in the region – more than any other country in the world except the United States.