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Tag: 2015

  • Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many suicide attempts were recorded by health bodies in England for each year from 1995 to 2015; what that number was as a proportion of the population; what the ethnic backgrounds were of those people attempting suicide; and how many of those people were previously known to mental health services.

    Alistair Burt

    In 2012 the Department announced investment of over £1.5 million over three years on suicide prevention research and development.

    Data on the funding allocated to suicide prevention is not available from 1995. The tables below show the funding that was allocated from Department of Health programme budgets to suicide prevention between 2011/12 and 2015/16 and self-harm prevention from 2012/13 – 2015/16. Prior to this, funding allocated to suicide prevention was held within broader mental health strategy budgets.

    Funding allocated to suicide prevention between 2011/12 and 2015/16

    Year

    Funding allocation

    2011/12

    £75,000

    2012/13

    £100,000

    2013/14

    £100,000

    2014/15

    £130,000 *

    2015/16

    £90,000

    Total

    £495,000

    * Includes £70,000 allocated by the Department to Public Health England to publish Help is at Hand, suicide bereavement support document.

    Funding allocated to self-harm prevention between 2012/13 and 2015/16

    Year

    Funding allocation

    2012/13

    £330,000

    2013/14

    £330,000

    2014/15

    £330,000

    2015/16

    £330,000

    Total

    £1,320,000

    Source: Department of Health

    Information on the number of suicide attempts recorded by health bodies in England is not held centrally.

  • Lord Moynihan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Moynihan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Moynihan on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 19 November (HL Deb, col 331), whether the investigation into the email exchange between the Chief Executive of the UK Anti-Doping Agency and the Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association is complete, and if so,what action has been taken on the findings.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Viscount Younger’s comment referred to the investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Independent Commission into the Sunday Times allegations on blood doping, which remain ongoing -not to the comments made by the Chief Executive of UK Anti-Doping.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he was made aware of the project undertaken by South East Coast Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust in winter 2014-15 relating to prioritisation of NHS 111 calls.

    Jane Ellison

    Departmental officials were first notified of a project which was run between December 2014 and February 2015 in the south of England on 23 October 2015 by Monitor, the independent health sector regulator.

    We are advised that Monitor is taking action with South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust regarding concerns about the project and the regulator is working with the Trust now to identify the negative impact this project could have had on patients. It is Monitor’s function to undertaken such investigations independently of the Department where there are no immediate patient safety issues. Monitor and Departmental officials regularly discuss such issues on a routine basis.

    As part of regulatory action, Monitor advises it has asked the trust to carry out a detailed independent review of the impact the project had on patients. Monitor has asked the Trust to do this with the help of an external expert, who the regulator will select. The full details of what the review will look at and how long it will take are being worked on by the trust and Monitor, including consideration of publication of the review finding.

    In March, NHS England convened a risk summit meeting involving all partners following the suspension by South East Coast Ambulance Service of their unofficial call-handling project. It was agreed that NHS England would undertake an external investigation. The report of the investigation was published by NHS England today and is attached.

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the phasing out of Revenue Support Grant to local authorities includes, or otherwise affects, the New Homes Bonus.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Government is considering the detailed impacts of the changes to local government funding announced as part of the recent Spending Review. A full consultation exercise on reforms to the New Homes Bonus, reflecting the changes that have been announced and including reforms to improve its impact in incentivising housing growth, will be issued later this month.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Scottish Qualifications Authority on accreditation of its English for Speakers of other Languages qualifications.

    James Brokenshire

    Home Office officials held discussions with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in 2013 when the former English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) option for settlement and nationality was replaced with a general requirement for intermediate level English.

    On 27th June 2014, the Home Office wrote to the SQA detailing of the tender exercise for Secure English Language Testing (SELT) which included details of an open industry day on 18th July 2014 which any interested party was welcome to attend. SQA did not attend. On 23rd July 2014, the Home Office emailed SQA to invite a representative to a further stakeholder forum on 6th August 2014 but, despite several further attempts to make contact, SQA did not respond and did not attend the forum.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of NHS secondary care centres provide in-house tumour genetic testing in (1) breast cancer, (2) colorectal cancer, (3) lung cancer, and (4) melanoma.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    All NHS England commissioned secondary and tertiary hospitals will be able to collect blood and/or tissue samples for the purpose of genetic testing, depending on the sampling technique required. The testing itself is however usually undertaken by commissioned genetic laboratories, which will typically serve a catchment area much greater than the hospital in which they are based. There will usually be recommended criteria in place to guide National Health Service referrals for genetic testing.

    In a small number of cases, usually for very rare conditions, a test may need to be sent away to a non commissioned laboratory, including some abroad and some falling within the private sector, to access expertise. Funding will, however, continue to be provided from NHS budgets.

    The United Kingdom is also leading the world by using cutting edge technology in the form of whole genome sequencing to transform healthcare and health research. The Prime Minister launched the 100,000 Genomes Project to bring the benefits of genome sequencing to NHS patients. The Project will sequence 100,000 whole human genomes of NHS patients with cancer or a rare disease by the end of 2017. Eleven Genomic Medicine Centres have been established across the country and are recruiting patients to this landmark project. Otherwise, NHS England does not hold data on private or self-funded care or testing commissioned from either NHS or third party laboratories.

    Information on the percentage of eligible patients who received access to genetic testing is not held by NHS England. Due to data protection requirements, detailed data on the reasons for referral for specific tests are not currently aggregated at national level.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many convictions there have been relating to forced marriage under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

    Karen Bradley

    We made forced marriage a criminal offence last year to better protect victims and send a clear message that this abhorrent practice is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the UK.

    Data on convictions is not collated centrally. However, the first successful prosecution under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 was secured in June 2015, and the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) most recent violence against women and girls report shows that the volume of forced marriage prosecutions completed in 2014-15 rose to 46 from 45 in 2013-14, the highest volume ever. 63% of those prosecutions were successful.

    In addition, to date, over 800 civil Forced Marriage Protection Orders have been made to prevent people from being forced into a marriage and to assist in repatriating victims.

  • Rehman Chishti – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Rehman Chishti – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rehman Chishti on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the Government is doing to assist small businesses to recover debts.

    Anna Soubry

    Late payment remains an important issue for small businesses in the UK. The Government is taking significant steps to assist small businesses to recover late payment debts.

    Through the Enterprise Bill, currently before Parliament, we will legislate to establish a Small Business Commissioner to help small business resolve disputes with large companies, tackling, in particular, late payment. The Commissioner will act as a disincentive to unfavourable payment practices, and build the confidence and capabilities of small businesses to help them to assert themselves in contractual disputes and negotiate more effectively with larger businesses.

    This is part of a package of measures to tackle late payment. We have also legislated for new transparency measures in the public and private sectors. This will allow full public scrutiny of payment performance.

    We have also strengthened the Prompt Payment Code to ensure it is a recognised and demonstrated beacon of best practice, and we recently consulted on proposals to give representative bodies wider powers to challenge grossly unfair payment practices.

    Tackling late payment is about creating a responsible payment culture where larger companies recognise the benefit of having a sustainable and robust supply chain, and smaller businesses feel able to challenge poor behaviour. Once implemented, the Government is confident that these measures will lead to significant changes in the UK’s payment culture.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will ensure that the bidding process for the Great Eastern Main Line franchise includes increased service frequency and improved train capacity.

    Claire Perry

    As with all competitions, after running a public consultation to help specify services, we have published the Invitation To Tender which sets out the minimum service specifications for the next East Anglia franchise. This asks bidders to set out detailed proposals on what improvements for passengers they will deliver. This approach allowsbidders the flexibility to design the best way of delivering or exceeding those specifications.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times he has met (a) insurance companies and (b) personal injury law firms in the last five years.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Treasury Ministers and officials meet with a wide range of companies and organisations to discuss relevant issues.

    As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such discussions.