Tag: 2016

  • Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 21839, what steps he is taking to ensure that engagement with the National Bowel Screening Programme continues to increase; and what (a) national and (b) local targets his Department has for such engagement.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England, commissioners of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, closely monitor the coverage rates for bowel cancer screening in all eligible age groups and is committed to increasing uptake and reducing variation across England. Local NHS England commissioners analyse coverage rates within their area and seek to improve uptake by sharing best practice.

    The Independent Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes in July last year, and recognised the importance of early diagnosis and screening. The taskforce recommended an ambition that 75% of people participate in bowel screening by 2020. To facilitate this change, they recommended a change to a new test, the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) which is an easier to use test than the current Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) test and improves uptake. On 15 January 2016 the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) announced the recommendations it made at its 19 November 2015 meeting. The UK NSC has recommended that FIT be used as the primary test for bowel cancer instead of the currently used FOB test. Ministers are now considering the UK NSC’s recommendation.

    Information on the average cost to the National Health Service of a colonoscopy performed following a positive screening test for bowel cancer is not held centrally. Information is available in the following table and is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to NHS trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services to patients. Reference costs for acute care are published by healthcare resource group (HRG), which are standard groupings of similar treatments that use similar resources.

    Estimated average unit cost of a diagnostic colonoscopy reported by NHS trusts and foundation trusts, 2014-15

    Procedure

    Average unit cost

    Diagnostic colonoscopy, 19 years and over

    £519

    Diagnostic colonoscopy with biopsy, 19 years and over

    £604

    Source: Reference costs, Department of Health

    Note:

    The unit costs shown are the average of costs reported across a range of settings including elective inpatient, non-elective inpatient, day case and regular day and night attenders.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total cost to Network Rail was of acquiring the ownership of freight sites under Project Mountfield; and what overall revenue received by Network Rail from those sites in 2014-15.

    Claire Perry

    This was a commercial matter for Network Rail. I understand that the total cost to Network Rail of acquiring the ownership of freight sites under Project Mountfield was £220 million.

    The overall revenue figure for 2014/15 was £5.2 million which represents a 5 month period – November to March – given the transfer of sites occurred in October 2014.

    Network Rail is forecasting this to grow to £16 million per annum by 2017 alongside realising significant operational efficiencies.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to increase the skills of nurses relating to treatment of people with learning disabilities.

    Ben Gummer

    It is the responsibility of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified nurses are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in awareness of learning disabilities.

    Higher Education Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow healthcare students to meet the outcomes set out by the NMC upon graduation.

    Health Education England (HEE) has been working with NHS England and other national partners to set out a far-reaching plan to transform services for people with a learning disability, to make significant and lasting improvements to their care and lives. At present, this is particularly focused on supporting the transforming care programme and scaling and spreading the lessons learnt from engagement with fast-track sites.

    The Department has commissioned Skills for Health, Skills for Care and HEE to develop a Learning Disabilities Core Skills Education and Training Framework which will be launched in May and is aimed at all health and social care workers who have not received training in learning disabilities, especially those nurses from other fields of nursing such as adult, children and mental health nurses.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans for local authorities to continue to receive basic need allocations of capital for new school places under her proposals for all schools to become academies.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities will continue to be responsible for ensuring there are enough school places to meet demand and supporting them to do this will remain one of the government’s top priorities for this Parliament. That is why we allocate funding to local authorities based on their own estimates of the number of places they will need and will continue to do so. We have committed to spending £7 billion on school places up to 2021 which, along with our investment in the free schools programme, we expect to deliver 600,000 new places.

    Local authorities have always relied on their strong relationships with local schools to deliver the places needed and this will not change as more schools convert to become academies.

  • Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-05-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of whether the most recent Public Performance Measure figures reported by Govia Thameslink Railway put that company in breach of its franchise agreement.

    Claire Perry

    The Public Performance Measure figure does not put Govia Thameslink Railway in breach of their Franchise Agreement.

    The Franchise Agreement does not include the Public Performance Measure as one of the benchmarks against which their performance is measured. The Department for Transport (DfT) performance benchmarks for Govia Thameslink Railway are for Delay minutes and Cancellations for which GTR are responsible, and Peak Short formation, as specified under Schedule 7.1 of the Franchise Agreement:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/525766/tsgn-franchise-agreement.pdf

    “

  • David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2016-07-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to publish the number of applications for refugee family reunion which were granted outside the rules in its quarterly migration statistics.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Home Office does not currently plan to change the data that is published on this category of applications. The question covers a number of different casework operations and the information is not recorded in a way which can be reported directly.

    The Home Office keeps under review the statistics that are published in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, balancing user needs against burdens on data suppliers.

  • Angela Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Angela Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Eagle on 2016-10-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax credits claims have been reinstated by HM Revenue and Customs as a result of (a) adjustments and (b) cancellations by Concentrix in (i) Wallasey constituency, (ii) Wirral and (iii) Merseyside.

    Jane Ellison

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold data broken down specifically by constituency areas.

    HMRC is currently focussed on resolving the outstanding cases but will be preparing regional analysis, which will be available in due course.

  • Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-12-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have had any discussions with International Cat Care and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association about international feline welfare issues.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Ministers have not been approached by International Cat Care or the World Small Animal Veterinary Association so no such discussions have taken place.

  • Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the announcement by the Prime Minister on enhancing mental health services on 11 January 2016, what the basis is for the figure of £290 million to be invested in perinatal mental health care; how that funding will be allocated; and how the efficacy of that funding will be measured.

    Alistair Burt

    This Government is committed to improving access to perinatal mental health services for women during pregnancy and in the first postnatal year. In January 2016 the Government set out that an additional £290 million will be made available over the next five years to 2020/21, over and above the money identified in the Spring Budget, to invest in perinatal mental health services. This is funded from within the Department’s overall Spending Review settlement and means that in total from 2015/16 to 2020/21 £365 million will be invested in perinatal mental health services.

    We are aware that there is unacceptable variation in the levels of access to high quality, NICE-recommended specialist perinatal mental health care for women across England. A 2014 census identified that 40% of women in England have no access to specialist perinatal mental health services and that is why we have confirmed this additional investment. The funding should enable significant progress towards closing this gap and will help to enable women across the country to access evidence-based specialist support, in the community or through inpatient mother and baby services, closer to their home, when they need it. It is anticipated that, by 2020/21, around 30,000 more women should be able to access appropriate specialist support.

    This new funding, together with the recommendations of the forthcoming report of the independent Mental Health Taskforce, will enable NHS England to work with partners to design a longer-term transformation programme to build capacity and capability in specialist perinatal mental health services over the next five years. This will include setting detailed plans for how the additional investment will be targeted over the period to 2020/21 and setting clear outcome measures and metrics to monitor the impact of the funding on perinatal mental health provision.

    In 2015/16 work is already underway to lay the foundations for this longer-term work programme through targeted funding of activities to build capacity in specialist services. This will include, for example, a £1 million investment in strengthening clinical networks across the country. It is also expected to include the provision of national and regional benchmarking data and analytical support to regions, and work to develop clinical leadership capacity. Work will also continue to support the development of specialist mother and baby units in the regions identified as most in need of new services.

    To ensure the workforce are available and appropriately trained, NHS England is working closely with Health Education England and key stakeholders to better understand the future workforce commissioning requirements and how it is best to meet multi professional education and training needs.

  • David Nuttall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    David Nuttall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Nuttall on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the (a) time taken to introduce and (b) cost of introduction of a system of in-work benefits for newly-arrived EU nationals as envisaged in Section D of the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016.

    Priti Patel

    These are issues to be answered as part of the implementation process.