Tag: 2014

  • Tessa Munt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tessa Munt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tessa Munt on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress NHS England is making on improving access to stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for patients suffering with cancer of the prostate, liver, pancreas, spinal tumours and cancer of the head and neck.

    Jane Ellison

    The business case for the gamma-knife centre at Oxford was originally agreed with the primary care trust (PCT) prior to April 2013, with an assumption that the PCT would stop sending patients to other centres elsewhere, and start sending them to the new centre once it was completed.

    As of April 2013, commissioning of these services transferred to the specialist commissioning team in NHS England.

    NHS England is currently undertaking a review of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) (e.g. Gamma Knife) and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR, e.g. Cyber-knife) for intracranial conditions to establish what the national demand is in line with its national clinical commissioning policies on SRS and SABR, and what the national capacity requirements are for this specialised treatment.

    Until the capacity requirements are clear, NHS England has said that it would be inappropriate to encourage new market entrants to provide this service as it cannot be clear what the potential consequential impacts on service quality, sustainability (financial and clinical) and potential unintended changes to patient pathways will be. Until the review is complete NHS England has said no substantive changes will be made to the current provision.

    As part of the transition of this service to NHS England, it developed, consulted upon and published a series of national clinical commissioning policies for intracranial SRS and SRT treatment.

    A report setting out the emerging findings of this review has been shared with clinical reference groups to seek their views and help NHS England develop a final draft. Once the views of stakeholders have been gathered, this will then go to Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group (SCOG) to agree a preferred option. Once the SCOG has a preferred option, NHS England will consult with patients and professionals and take account of those views when taking a final decision. If it is concluded there are to be significant changes in the provision of services, there will be a full public consultation before any changes are made.

    NHS England is expecting that the draft report will be ready for consideration at SCOG in June and then it would commence a public consultation on the draft report and preferred option during July to September. The report and recommendations will then be finalised after taking account of the views expressed during the consultation stage and a final decision taken by SCOG in September 2014.

    NHS England inherited the range of gamma knife providers currently in place, of which University College London Hospitals (UCLH) was not one. NHS England is currently undertaking a review of stereotactic radiosurgery provision and will consult widely with stakeholders and providers prior to making changes to service provision. There are two long established providers of gamma knife surgery commissioned by NHS England located in central London to whom patients from all six London specialist neurosurgical centres have been referred for gamma knife treatment for a number of years, including patients from UCLH.

    Finally, there was no contract in place with UCLH to provide gamma knife surgery for any PCT prior to 1 April 2013. Any activity that may have been undertaken there would have been done on an ad-hoc, non-contracted basis and NHS England does not hold this information.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many turbines of capacity of sub-15KW were installed in (a) 2012 and (b) 2013.

    Michael Fallon

    The number of sub-15kW wind turbines accredited under the Feed-in Tariff scheme during 2012 and 2013, were 1,747 and 327 respectively.

    Installations are grouped into years based on their ‘commissioning date’ i.e. the date the technology was physically installed and deemed to be up and running.

  • Mike Weatherley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Mike Weatherley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Weatherley on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure a smooth and effective transitional period for the repeal of section 52 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

    Mr David Willetts

    The Government is committed to consulting on how and when to introduce the repeal of section 52 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to ensure a fair and proportionate transitional period.

    The first stage of this consultation process was a Call for Evidence which was launched in October 2013. The Government has reviewed the responses and is preparing an Impact Assessment and consultation document that will allow the Government to make proposals on transitional provisions and consult on these.

  • Richard Burden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Burden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he plans to take in response to the withdrawal of the Israeli government from US-sponsored peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

    Hugh Robertson

    We remain fully committed to supporting efforts for peace and I will visit the region to that end in the near future. We urge the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to use the coming weeks to find the common ground and political strength needed to resume the peace negotiations and encourage other countries to maintain support for that objective.

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of premature deaths per year attributable to air pollution from diesel-fuelled vehicles; and what discussions he has had with the Royal Colleges about ways of reducing such deaths.

    Jane Ellison

    My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no discussions with the Royal Colleges on actions to reduce the health impacts of air pollution. The actions the Government is taking to reduce the health impacts of air pollution have been given in a previous reply to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) on 28 April 2014, Official Reply, columns 474-75W.

    In 2010, the Department’s expert advisory Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants published an estimate of the mortality effect in 2008 of long term exposure to particulate air pollution arising from human activities. The mortality burden for the United Kingdom was estimated as an effect equivalent to nearly 29,000 deaths. Whilst this includes mortality attributable to particulate matter arising from diesel engines, separate figures for the impact of diesel-fuelled vehicles have not been produced by the Department.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Craig Whittaker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the ability of non-registered medical professionals to gauge mental or physical health risks posed by a pregnancy for the purpose of judging whether or not the criteria of the Abortion Act 1967 are met.

    Jane Ellison

    The Abortion Act 1967 sets out that two doctors must certify that in their opinion, which must be formed in good faith, a request for an abortion meets at least one (and the same) of the grounds set out in the Act.

    The Department’s view that registered medical practitioners should be able to show how they have considered the particular facts of a case when forming their opinion, for example by making notes in the patient record. They should be able to defend how their decision was reached if asked to justify it at a later date.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Emily Thornberry – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2014-04-30.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) inspections, (b) findings of non-compliance, (c) prosecutions and (d) convictions have been handled by HM Revenue and Customs to non-payment of the minimum wage in each region in each year since 2008.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government take the enforcement of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) very seriously and HMRC reviews every complaint that is referred to it, investigating the complaint and, in addition, carrying out targeted enforcement where we identify a high risk of non-payment of NMW.

    The information for the time period requested is detailed in the table below. HMRC does not keep statistics at regional level for the purposes of completed inspections and non-compliance. However, the location of the employers prosecuted is included.

    Financial

    Year

    Completed

    Inspections

    Non-

    Compliance

    Prosecutions

    Employer

    Location

    2009-10

    3643

    1256

    0

    2010-11

    2904

    1140

    1

    Liverpool

    2011-12

    2534

    968

    0

    2012-13

    1693

    736

    1

    London

    2013-14

    1455

    680

    0

    The majority of employers identified as paying below the NMW will pay arrears on receipt of a formal Notice of Underpayment. Where they don’t, HMRC will pursue recovery through the civil courts. For deliberate non-compliance or obstructive behaviour, HMRC operates a policy of selective and exemplary criminal investigation action to bolster our overall enforcement strategy. Criminal investigations rarely result in arrears being paid to workers and are reserved only for the most serious cases. All of the prosecutions noted in the table above were successful.

  • Karen Lumley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Karen Lumley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karen Lumley on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information later than 2003 his Department has on the relative emissions from motor vehicles powered by road fuel gases.

    Stephen Hammond

    The Department commissioned testing of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in 2006 which concluded that the air pollutant emissions performance of LPG vehicles is similar to that of petrol vehicles. The Department is also aware of other studies which showed similar results that engines running on road fuel gases broadly emit less oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) than a comparable diesel engine, whilst producing CO2 emissions between those of equivalent diesel and petrol engines.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms are in place to allow families of patients in care homes to report concerns about standards of care.

    Norman Lamb

    Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 requires all care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to “have an effective system in place for identifying, receiving, handling and responding appropriately to complaints and comments made by service users, or persons acting on their behalf”.

    Where a person’s care is provided or arranged by their local authority, complaints and concerns should be directed initially to the local authority, which remains responsible for the quality of care. If a person has arranged their own care, they should pursue the matter directly with the provider in the first instance.

    In both cases, should complainants not be satisfied with the response, they are entitled to ask the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate.

    People may also raise concerns with the CQC, as regulator of health and adult social care services. Under the 2008 Act, the CQC does not have the responsibility for investigating specific complaints about social care providers. However, where there are concerns about a provider which is registered with the CQC, such concerns should be brought to its attention. The CQC will use this information, together with local information from partners and the public, to help it decide when, where and what to inspect.

    The CQC is currently introducing a new system of inspection of social care providers. This new system of inspection will be structured around five key questions that matter most to people – are the services safe, caring, effective, well-led, and responsive to people’s needs. The new inspections will make more use of people’s views and will use expert inspection teams involving people who have personal experience of care. The CQC has been piloting this new approach in 252 of social care providers since April 2014.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what advice the Electoral Commission has given to electoral registration officers on the necessity of conducting local government data matching for the purposes of transition to individual electoral registration.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that it has published comprehensive guidance for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) on their duties to maintain the electoral registers under Individual Electoral Registration (IER), including on using local data to identify and target potential electors and to verify and validate data held on the registers.

    The Commission also informs me that the Lord President of the Council has issued Ministerial guidance on IER which EROs must, by law, have regard to. This includes guidance on using local data as part of the confirmation process of data-matching existing electors’ details and the verification process for verifying applicants’ identity.

    The Commission’s guidance, which incorporates the Ministerial guidance, is available on its website at:

    http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/electoral-administrator/running-electoral-registration

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