Tag: Andrew Gwynne

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many instances were recorded in which a young person was restrained physically by placing their face on the floor in a children’s mental health ward in each year from 2012.

Nicola Blackwood

Prone restraint data for years since 2012 is not available. NHS Digital began collecting the number of incidents of prone restraint on mental health wards for adults and for children and young people in January 2016. In line with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice, this data is undergoing evaluation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families in (a) England, (b) Greater Manchester, (c) Tameside and (d) Stockport have been identified as challenging and are subject to persistent visits under the Troubled Families programme.

Mr Marcus Jones

In Stockport, the local authority achieved outcomes with 565 families in the first Troubled Families Programme; in Tameside with 620 families; in Greater Manchester with 8,090 families. Across England local authorities achieved outcomes overall with 116,654 families. We expected that local authorities would work with more families than they claimed results for in order to achieve their targets.

In the new programme, Greater Manchester, including Stockport and Tameside, is delivering the programme as a whole. Greater Manchester has engaged 13,228 families in the new programme so far; across England, 164,481 families have been engaged.

The programme promoted but did not mandate a whole family intervention approach. It was not appropriate to do so: all local authorities are different, and the problems faced by each local authority and each family are different. The intensity of the intervention, and the number of visits made by key workers to each family, was dependent on the particular needs of each family and the approach agreed by the family and the key worker.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the value of stationery that has been (a) lost and (b) stolen from her Department in each of the last five fiscal years; and what the cost was of replacing such stationery.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department has made no estimate on the value of any stationery (a) lost or (b) stolen in any of the last five fiscal years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how the findings of its Innovation, Health and Wealth report, published in December 2011, were taken into account in the terms of reference of the Accelerated Access Review.

George Freeman

The Accelerated Access Review (AAR), chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, will make recommendations to government on reforms to accelerate access for National Health Service patients to innovative medicines and medical technologies making our country the best place in the world to design, develop and deploy these products. The terms of the reference for the review focus on faster access to innovations, which may include certain off-patent repurposed drugs, as opposed to the routine availability of medicines or medical technologies.

Prior to establishing the terms of reference for the AAR, the Department reviewed evaluation reports and met with officials from previous initiatives on the uptake of innovation in the NHS including the Innovation, Health and Wealth report. As a result, building upon the lessons of previous reviews is explicit with the terms of reference of the AAR.

The AAR has regular meetings with senior officials from NHS England via a steering group as recommendations are being developed. In addition, some staff from NHS England have been assigned to support the review team.

Sir Hugh is still in the process of developing final recommendations which will be published in spring 2016. In his Interim Report published in October, Sir Hugh sets out a proposition on “galvanising the NHS”. This involves supporting the NHS to adopt innovation, more rapidly through better practical support, stronger incentives and the potential streamlining of local structures.

The Department reviewed evaluation reports and met with officials from previous initiatives on the uptake of innovation in the NHS prior to establishing the terms of reference for the AAR. It was clear that whilst progress has been made on the uptake of innovation in the NHS there is still much to do. Sir Hugh and the head of the External Advisory Group, Professor Sir John Bell, set out the case for uptake of innovation in the recently published AAR Interim Report.

The AAR has senior level contact with officials working on Lord Carter’s review of NHS efficiency to ensure that information is shared between the two teams.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department and each of its agencies and non-departmental public bodies plans to spend on (a) Christmas cards, (b) postage of Christmas cards, (c) Christmas parties and (d) Christmas decorations and trees in 2015.

Jane Ellison

A search of the Department’s Business Management System database for 2015 has identified there is no planned spend to fund Christmas cards, postage of Christmas cards and parties. As separately identified from our facilities management suppliers, EMCOR, the Department has no plans currently to purchase Christmas decorations or trees from them.

The Civil Service Code sets out the principles and standards of behaviour expected of civil servants, including their fiduciary obligation to make sure public money and other resources are used properly and efficiently. Public money is not used by the Department, Public Health England or the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to fund occasions such as internal social gatherings or office parties. Any social events are funded by the staff themselves.

Arm’s length bodies have systems in place to ensure public funds are used appropriately and standards of propriety are met, in line with their responsibilities as public bodies

Spend as requested from all the Departments non-departmental public bodies and its agencies are separately reported below:

NHS England have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

Monitor have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

The Care Quality Commission have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

Public Health England have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

Health Education England have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence 2015 expenditure is contained in the table below.

	£
Christmas cards	0
Postage	0
Parties	£1615.32
Decorations and trees	0
Total	£1615.32

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 2015 expenditure is contained in the table below.

	£
Christmas cards	£0.00
Postage	£0.00
Parties	£0.00
Decorations and trees	£630+£126 VAT
Total	£756

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

The Human Tissue Authority have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

The Health Research Authority have confirmed they hold no planned expenditure for all these categories.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of aseptic pharmaceutical medication error within the NHS.

George Freeman

Neither the Department nor NHS England has made any such assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2016 to Question 21778, on genito-urinary medicine, what questions it is planned will be asked of local commissioners as part of Public Health England’s survey of local commissioning arrangements for sexual health; when that survey is planned to be completed; and when he plans to make publicly available the results of that survey.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England, supported by the Association of Directors of Public Health, is undertaking a review of Sexual Health, Reproductive Health and HIV Commissioning services; the survey was first published on the 19 January 2016. The closing date for the survey is 8 February 2016. Results of the survey, including responses and analysis of the questions, will be published this summer.

A range of tailored commissioning questions have been selected for local authorities, NHS England and clinical commissioning groups. Each survey is slightly adapted for its audience. The survey questions focus on 11 key areas; commissioning support structures, services commissioned, needs assessments, service specifications, access to services, tendering, changes to investment, tariffs and payments, outcomes and performance, resources and top challenges.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Prime Minister, what discussions (a) he, (b) Edward Llewellyn, (c) Camilla Cavendish and (d) staff of the Number 10 Policy Unit have had with representatives of (i) the Food and Drink Federation, (ii) Coca-Cola, (iii) PepsiCo and (iv) the British Soft Drinks Association in each of the last 18 months; and what the subject was of each such meeting.

Mr David Cameron

Details of my meetings with external organisations are released on a quarterly basis and can be accessed via the gov.uk website.

My officials and special advisers have meetings with a wide range of organisations and individuals on a range of subjects.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost was of residential training for officials in his Department in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The Department is committed to developing its staff and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to carry out their work.

In 2011, the Department became a full subscriber to Civil Service Learning (CSL). CSL is responsible for providing a managed service for all learning and development across the Civil Service.

Learning and development activity is typically arranged by individual teams or individuals in the Department.

Therefore, no central records of these events are kept. To collect this information from the Department’s directorates and match this with CSL data would incur disproportionate costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he expects to publish the reformed Electronic Communications Code.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government remains committed to delivering a reformed Electronic Communications Code that is clear, fit for purpose, and supports network coverage which provides consumers with a choice of high quality telecommunications services. We are considering the interests of all stakeholders. We will update Parliament on plans in due course.