Tag: 2016

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) hospitals and (b) GPs release medical records required in clinical negligence cases within appropriate time limits.

    Ben Gummer

    The timetable for the release of medical records in clinical negligence cases is determined by the Pre Action Protocol for clinical negligence claims. This prescribes 40 days for the release of the records, or the ability to request an extension to that time.

    The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) works with National Health Service trusts to ensure prompt release of medical records and other information which will inform the outcome of a claim for compensation. Often expert evidence will be required to give conclusive evidence as to whether there was negligence and if so, whether that caused injury to the claimant. As claims are often resolved in-house by the NHSLA, any costs which arise as a result of delays in receiving medical records are not recorded separately as they will fall within overall administration costs.

    46% of claims were resolved without payment of damages in 2014/15; however, as above, it is often necessary to obtain expert medical advice to determine whether compensation is due.

  • Lord Lexden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Lexden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lexden on 2016-06-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to continue the Official History Programme; and if so, how.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    I refer the Noble Lord to the statement given by my Noble Friend Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 10 December 2015.

  • Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-09-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether consultants working for HS2 Ltd will be prevented from participating in any tender for main contractor roles in the design and delivery of HS2 in order to avoid any conflict of interest and to ensure a fair tender process.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    HS2 Ltd has a Conflicts of Interest Panel that considers actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest on a case-by-case basis. This Panel is chaired by HS2 Ltd’s General Counsel. This Panel is supported by an in-house Compliance team.

  • Baroness Walmsley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Walmsley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Walmsley on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action is being taken to increase diagnosis of patients with atrial fibrillation.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team is taking action to promote the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within general practitioner (GP) practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the National Health Service which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF) who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke.

    The Sustainable Improvement Team is also working with NHS RightCare, a programme committed to improving people’s health and outcomes, to help promote the use of GRASP-AF in the programme’s 65 first wave clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). NHS RightCare’s ‘Commissioning for Value’ packs help CCGs identify priority areas such as AF, and the GRASP AF tool provides a practical method of addressing any inequalities. NHS England’s intention is that the work with NHS RightCare will increase the number of CCGs using GRASP-AF in a systematic way.

    Anonymised data from GRASP-AF can be uploaded to CHART Online, a secure web enabled tool that helps practices improve performance through comparative data analysis. This allows practices and CCGs to benchmark their management of AF with other practices across England and so help identify and reduce any variation in practice.

    The use of GRASP-AF is voluntary and its use therefore varies across CCGs. Currently 2,248 GP practices have uploaded data from GRASP-AF to CHART online across 151 out of the 209 CCGs. Of these, 19 CCGs have all GP practices in their area uploading data.

    In addition to the NHS action outlined above, all local authorities in England are required to offer the NHS Health Check programme, with the large majority commissioning general practice to provide them on their behalf. More than 15 million people aged 40-74 are, have been or will be eligible for an NHS Health Check between 2014 and 2018. The programme’s best practice guidance recommends that a pulse check is carried out as part of the process of taking a blood pressure reading and those individuals who are found to have an irregular pulse rhythm should be referred for further investigation.

  • Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of his Department’s planned £8.4 million expenditure on armed forces veterans’ mental health services will be spent in Scotland in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17, (c) 2017-18, (d) 2018-19 and (e) 2019-20; and in which areas of mental health services that funding will be spent in each of those years.

    Alistair Burt

    The funding and provision of healthcare in Scotland is a matter for the Scottish Government. The additional £8.4 million announced in the 2015 Budget will be used by the National Health Service across England to enhance mental health and support services for vulnerable veterans.

  • Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development on the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, 12 January 2016, Official Report, column 248WH, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the Global Fund is addressing concentrated epidemics among key populations in middle income countries.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UK is a key supporter of the Global Fund and pledged up to £1 billion between 2014 and 2016, subject to a 10% donor share cap. Approximately 50% of Global Fund resources are directed to Middle Income Countries (MICs) and the UK has asked the Global Fund to focus more heavily on marginalised groups in MICs where they do invest.

    The UK is working with the Global Fund and other partners to encourage MICs to develop their own self-financed programmes to combat concentrated epidemics, ensuring that investments are effectively reaching key populations and holding national governments to account so that vulnerable groups are not left behind.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of the powers available to the devolved administrations and local authorities in England to tackle homelessness.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government has committed to work with local authorities, homelessness organisations and across government departments to consider options, including legislation, to prevent more households becoming homeless. We will look to learn from other countries who have innovated in the way they deal with homelessness.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many emergency landings there have been at Heathrow Airport in the last five years.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department does not collect data on how many emergency landings there have been at Heathrow Airport. However if serious enough, such incidents would be counted amongst data for safety related events. These are defined as an event which endanger or which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person. They have to be reported to the Civil Aviation Authority as part of the Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Scheme (MORS).

    Occurrence reporting is now covered by (EU) Regulation No 376/2014. The Regulation requires that the reporting, analysis and follow-up to such occurrences remain confidential. However, the Regulation does permit information to be released on request to interested parties that have a genuine safety related need for the information. An application can be made at www.caa.co.uk.

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  • Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office of 26 April 2016, Official Report, column 1363, on the Policing and Crime Bill, what steps she is taking to ensure that cybercrime is included in the crime statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics.

    Mike Penning

    In April 2012, the Home Secretary transferred the responsibility for the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and the publication of crime statistics to the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS) – to ensure the public had confidence in the statistics after years of poor data management.

    A major strength of the CSEW has been its ability to compare crime types over time back to the 1980s. As ONS have acknowledged, over a period of time, new technologies such as the internet have expanded the scope of existing crime types and developed new ones, particularly in fraud and cybercrime. Therefore, following a period of extensive development work, ONS introduced new questions to the CSEW in October 2015. ONS have said that they will release estimates of fraud and cyber crime based on the first six months data (October 2015 to March 2016) alongside the main statistical bulletin in July 2016 and will label them as experimental statistics.

    It is important to recognise that these data are not simply uncovering new crimes, but finding better ways of capturing existing crimes which were not measured as well in the past.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Health Education England will have a budget to commission training for clinical psychology, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies and child psychotherapy in 2017-18 at the same levels as in 2016-17.

    Ben Gummer

    As with all arm’s length bodies, Health Education England’s (HEE) programme budget for 2017-18 is subject to business planning and cannot be confirmed at this stage. HEE will set out its plans for future workforce training commissions in its Workforce Plan for England which is expected to be published by the end of December 2016.