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Tag: 2015

  • George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department gives to mental health trusts on (a) reducing did not attend cases and (b) ensuring risk assessments are carried out when young people fail to attend.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England has issued guidance through the Local Transformation Plans for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing: Guidance and Support for local areas (published August 2015) that states that services should set out a clear plan to transform the design and delivery of a local offer of services for children and young people with mental health needs in line with the Future in mind report.

    Future in mind was clear that services should monitor attendance and actively follow up families and young people who miss appointments, and that it may be necessary to find alternative ways to engage the child, young person or family. The Local Transformation Plans present an opportunity to make a step change in how agencies support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, especially the most vulnerable. This includes those who – for whatever reason – find it more difficult to engage with traditional models of service delivery and would instead benefit from seeing a clinician in a less conventional setting. Missed appointments should not lead to a family or young person being discharged from services, but instead be considered as an indicator of need and actively followed up, where necessary finding alternative ways to engage the child, young person or family.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Barry Sheerman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the value to tourism and to the national economy of the UK coastline.

    Tracey Crouch

    There were more than 23 million overnight visits to the English, Scottish and Welsh seaside by GB residents in 2014, which resulted in spending of £4.9 billion, according to the Great Britain Tourism Survey. Additionally, therewere 144 million day visits by GB residents where the seaside was the main place visited in 2014 which resulted in spending of almost £5 billion.

  • Stephen Pound – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Stephen Pound – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Pound on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the effect of the proposed British Bill of Rights on Northern Ireland.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    My most recent discussion with the Secretary of State for Justice took place on 1 December. The Government was elected with a mandate to implement its manifesto commitment to replace Labour’s flawed Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights. The Government believes this can be done in a way that is consistent with the provisions of the Belfast Agreement.

  • Michael Dugher – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Michael Dugher – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the former Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, is a diplomat at Minister-Counsellor rank in the Qatari embassy to the UK; and if he will make a statement.

    James Duddridge

    According to our records Hamad bin Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-Thani holds the rank of Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of Qatar in London.

  • John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many 16 to 19 year olds are being educated in elite sports academies provided in conjunction with existing sports clubs in each (a) sport and (b) local authority area; how many such academies have received Ofsted inspections; and how many such inspections are planned for 2016.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department for Education does not hold information on elite sports academies.

  • John Baron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Baron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Baron on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, in what way his Department will hold clinical commissioning groups responsible for making improvements along the cancer pathway including (a) early diagnosis and (b) supporting people beyond treatment.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England is committed to reworking the clinical commission group (CCG) assurance framework for 2016-17 to reflect the triple aim of closing the gap on health inequalities, improving the quality of care and achieving financial sustainability, in addition to the themes of the Five Year Forward View: prevention; patient and community engagement; clinical priorities; and development of new care models.

    Cancer has been identified as one of these clinical priorities, and metrics will be selected which reflect the strategic priorities laid out by the independent Cancer Taskforce, including early diagnosis and supporting people to live well, with, and, beyond cancer.

    The assessment framework brings together the assurance framework and key metrics, and will incorporate future transformation as well as current performance. It will drive improvement rather than just assure and assess.

    CCGs will receive an overall annual rating and, within the framework, will be rated for six clinical priorities of: cancer, dementia, diabetes, mental health, maternity, and learning difficulties.

    CCGs will be rated on the same four point scale used by the Care Quality Commission: outstanding, good, requires improvement, or inadequate. The ratings for the clinical priority areas will be made by independent expert committees.

    The metrics are currently in development and NHS England expects to publish a set for consultation in December 2015, at around the same time as the planning guidance, with a final version in March 2016. The assessment framework will come in to operational effect from 1 April 2016 and initial ratings in the six clinical priority areas will be published in June 2016.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Bridget Phillipson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure a level transition for people moving from tax credits to universal credit in terms of the amount of benefits received; and if he will make a statement.

    Priti Patel

    We have put transitional protections in place to ensure that people on existing tax credits whose circumstances remain the same do not lose out in cash terms when they are transferred on to Universal Credit.

    We will introduce regulations to give effect to these provisions in due course.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Tier 4 visas have been issued to students entering the UK to study English as a foreign language as their principal area of study in each of the last five years.

    James Brokenshire

    Acquiring this information would involve examining each individual case record held by UKVI for the category. To do so would incur a disproportionate cost.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people aged 65 and over suffered a hip fracture as a result of a fall in each year since 2009-10.

    Alistair Burt

    The information is not available in the request format.

    Data within the Hospital Episode Statistics database is not recorded at patient level i.e. we are unable to provide a count of how many people suffered a hip fracture as required as the data relates to admissions. It is possible for a single person to have more than one admission in any given time period.

    Admissions data with a primary diagnosis of hip fracture, and where there was an external cause of fall, for patients aged 65 and over is below:

    Year

    Finished admission episodes

    2009-10

    36,006

    2010-11

    35,734

    2011-12

    35,826

    2012-13

    35,669

    2013-14

    37,310

    2014-15

    36,993

    Source: The Health and Social Care Information Centre, Hospital Episode Statistics

  • Andrew Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Andrew Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to improve the reliability and collection of data on nutrition in countries in Asia and Africa.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID has been taking a range of steps to improve the reliability and collection of data on nutrition. These include organising an informal expert consultation on nutrition data gaps in June this year; working with the European Commission to establish National Information Platforms for Nutrition; developing innovative metrics and methods for agriculture for nutrition; continuing to fund the Global Nutrition Report, which gives particular focus to data quality and availability and continues to undertake analysis to identify priority areas for investment; funding the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) programme; and continuing to work with other donors to coordinate our funding on nutrition.

    In addition, the UK and US jointly announced that they will partner with the GODAN Secretariat to organise a 2016 GODAN Summit. We will also commission research in early 2016 to test innovative and feasible approaches to collect data, with sufficient frequency in more fragile settings, which should enable better management of malnutrition when shocks and disasters arise.

    The UK will continue to provide strong leadership to maintain global momentum on nutrition and will continue to work hard to deliver its promises to scale up its work on nutrition between now and 2020.