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Tag: 2015

  • Crispin Blunt – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Crispin Blunt – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Crispin Blunt on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with veterinary experts on the use of colistin and colistin resistance in animals, food and humans.

    George Eustice

    I discussed the issue of colistin resistance on 1 December with the Chief Executive of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate following the publication of a report on the issue in relation to China.

    In November, the UK Government attended an EU workshop on the impact on public health and animal health of the use of antibiotics in animals, which included the use of colistin. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate has also held initial discussions on the use of colistin and colistin resistance with other experts across government, including the Food Standards Agency, Department of Health and Public Health England, and key industry bodies.

  • Norman Lamb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Chief Executive of NHS England on introducing new access and waiting time standards for mental health services.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England (NHSE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health published on 3 August 2015, a commissioning guide for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that will set out how to implement the access and waiting time standard for children and young people with an eating disorder. The standard will be refined for implementation from 2017–18. From 2017, NHSE will set a minimum proportion of young people referred for assessment or treatment that are expected to receive treatment within the standard’s timeframe.

    We expect that the Mental Health Taskforce report and Mental Health Five Year Forward View will set a plan for developing appropriate pathways and we will work with NHSE to agree next steps.

    Departmental Ministers meet with the Chief Executive of NHS England regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including access and waiting time standards for mental health services.

    CCGs do not receive a specific allocation for mental health services, but are required to allocate funds as appropriate to all the services that they are responsible for commissioning. For 2015/16, CCGs received increases in allocations in total of 3.7%, though the increase varied for each CCG.

    In the planning guidance for 2015/16, NHS England asked that all CCGs increase their spend on mental health by at least as much as their overall increase in allocation.

    In total, CCGs have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure which exceeds the increase in their allocation.

  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what arrangements his Department plans to put in place for new patients who wish to access drugs included in the Risk Sharing Scheme for the supply of disease modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis, glatiramer acetate and beta interferon after funding for that scheme ceases.

    George Freeman

    Colleagues are in discussion with NHS England colleagues to plan for a smooth transition from the end of the Scheme in England, and with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations in respect of Multiple Sclerosis services in their countries.

  • David T. C. Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David T. C. Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for judicial review against decisions on asylum applications made by UK Visas and Immigration have been brought in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

    James Brokenshire

    Whilst data relating to judicial reviews is available, I am unable to provide the information requested. Due to the way in which such data is captured, we are unable to separate the data relating solely to judicial reviews lodged against asylum decisions.

  • Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure the outcome of the consultation on the future of the Cancer Drugs Fund is co-ordinated with and complements the recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review to ensure improved patient access to innovative treatments.

    George Freeman

    NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence are currently consulting on draft proposals on the future direction of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). The consultation is open until 11 February 2016 and further information is available at:

    www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/cdf-consultation

    The Accelerated Access Review independently chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, is working with key stakeholders on a range of options for accelerating patient access to innovative products, as set out in the interim report. This includes consideration of the impact of managed access schemes such as proposed in the CDF consultation.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons Network Rail has not yet published a timetable to close 73 dangerous level crossings on the East Cost Main Line; and what recent discussions he has had with Network Rail over the East Coast Main Line level crossing closure programme.

    Claire Perry

    Network Rail has already closed over 900 level crossings since 2009 and the Department is supporting this work through a dedicated £109 million level crossing risk reduction fund during 2014-19. There are currently around 6,200 level crossings remaining on the main line network. Network Rail’s feasibility study, completed in June 2015, has identified preferred options for the closure of all 73 level crossings on the East Coast Main Line.

    The Secretary of State has not had any recent discussions with Network Rail on this matter since the programme is an operational issue for the company.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been made redundant by HM Courts and Tribunals Service since 31 May 2014; and what the cost to the public purse of such redundancies has been.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    There have been no compulsory redundancies in HMCTS since 31 May 2014. There have been voluntary departures agreed in HMCTS, as detailed in the HMCTS Financial Statement of Accounts. Since 31 May 2014 there have been 231 voluntary departures at a combined cost of £8,696,728.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many self-employed people in receipt of universal credit reported earnings lower than the minimum income floor in the most recent month for which figures are available.

    Priti Patel

    The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

    The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

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  • Ian Mearns – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ian Mearns – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Mearns on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what each of the flag registers of vessels owned by company groups that qualified for inclusion in the tonnage scheme in 2014-15 was; and how many vessels in that scheme were registered under each of those flags.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The ships which company groups anticipated would be included in the tonnage tax at the beginning of the 2014-15 training commitment year were under the following flags: United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Marshall Islands, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Singapore. The identity of tonnage tax groups is tax confidential, and that confidentiality could be compromised by giving a detailed breakdown by flag of the numbers of vessels entered in tonnage tax. I am therefore unable to disclose the numbers of vessels registered under each flag.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of universal credit lost their entire entitlement as a result of (a) taking up paid work and (b) increasing the number of hours they worked in the most recent month for which figures are available.

    Priti Patel

    The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

    The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

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