Tag: Andrew Gwynne

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many veterans have bought a house through the Forces Help to Buy Scheme since its establishment in April 2014.

Anna Soubry

The Forces Help to Buy Scheme launched on 1 April 2014 is designed to assist members of the Armed Forces in purchasing a home. The scheme is for serving personnel, but those being made redundant will be eligible.

For details on the support available to veterans, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 April 2014 (Official Report, column 442W) to the hon. Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are taken to verify the competence of (a) doctors and nurses and (b) staff of pharmaceutical companies involved in the conduct of clinical trials.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) expect everyone involved in a clinical trial to be qualified and trained to perform their tasks (as per Schedule 1, part 2 (2) of the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations(SI 2004/1031).

Staff of pharmaceutical companies are not “conducting” a trial as defined in the clinical trial regulation (SI 2004/1031 Reg 2 “interpretation”). However, the same Good Clinical Practice principles apply to those involved in clinical trial activities; i.e. they should be qualified and trained to perform their tasks. At sponsor site inspection, inspectors will verify the training records, CV, and job description of selected employees to confirm adequate training has been given.

Sponsors are expected to carry out checks in audits or monitoring to ensure that on completion of training, staff are indeed carrying out their duties according to requirements and/or procedures (these checks should be documented in monitoring/audit reports). Inspectors check the monitoring visit reports to determine non-compliances are adequately followed up and re-training is given to site personnel when necessary.

The voluntary MHRA Phase 1 Accreditation Scheme requires that a Principal Investigator (PI) for a First in Human study has relevant experience and a post graduate qualification in pharmaceutical medicine (such as a Diploma in Pharmaceutical medicine, Diploma in Human Pharmacology, MSc in Clinical Pharmacology or equivalent). An exemption to this requirement has been issued for PI’s that do not have a post graduate qualification but are able to demonstrate that they have a significant amount of experience in this field (and are often involved in teaching the post-graduate courses). An application for an exemption is assessed independently by the Faculty of Medicine.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which GP practices have been identified by NHS England as potentially losing more than £3 per patient in 2014-15 following the withdrawal of the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee.

Dr Daniel Poulter

NHS England has published an anonymised list of ‘outliers’ which can be found at:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/gp-gms-practices.pdf

Because the information is commercially sensitive, details that could identify individual practices have not been released.

The Minimum Practice Income Guarantee is being phased out over a period of seven years because it is inequitable, and the money released will be reinvested into basic payments made to all General Medical Services practices.

NHS England is supporting the most affected practices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of being able to access a GP appointment within 48 hours on levels of patient satisfaction.

Dr Daniel Poulter

Overall patient satisfaction is driven by a range of factors, including accessing a general practitioner (GP) appointment at a convenient time, ability to see a preferred GP and the quality of the conversation with the GP.

The Government recognises the importance of timely access to general practice. The PM Challenge Fund has allocated £50 million to pilot ways to improve access around the country, to give GPs the flexibility to meet the needs of the local population.

In addition, the new GP contract introduced a new Enhanced Service, which includes a commitment to same day phone consultations with a professional in the GP surgery, where necessary, for the most at risk in the population.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that clinical research is carried out by suitably qualified professionals.

Norman Lamb

The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for the enforcement of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and ensuring that “risks to people’s health and safety from work activities are properly controlled”.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) ensures that ethically-approved clinical research is carried out by suitably qualified professionals through its arrangements for research ethics committee review. Research ethics committee review includes scrutiny of researchers’ suitability to conduct the research they are proposing. This review is required by Departmental guidance, which applies to all health and adult social care research, and by legislation, for instance, in the case of clinical trials, by Schedule 1 part 2(2) of the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/1031).

The HRA publishes a register of research summaries, including a contact name (usually that of the chief investigator) and the research ethics committee’s opinion. The register is publicly available on line at:

www.nres.nhs.uk/researchsummaries

From September 2013, registration of clinical trials in a publicly accessible database is a condition of the favourable ethical opinion given by a research ethics committee.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if the Health and Safety Executive will create a register of qualified professionals to ensure that clinical research is carried out safely.

Norman Lamb

The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for the enforcement of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and ensuring that “risks to people’s health and safety from work activities are properly controlled”.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) ensures that ethically-approved clinical research is carried out by suitably qualified professionals through its arrangements for research ethics committee review. Research ethics committee review includes scrutiny of researchers’ suitability to conduct the research they are proposing. This review is required by Departmental guidance, which applies to all health and adult social care research, and by legislation, for instance, in the case of clinical trials, by Schedule 1 part 2(2) of the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/1031).

The HRA publishes a register of research summaries, including a contact name (usually that of the chief investigator) and the research ethics committee’s opinion. The register is publicly available on line at:

www.nres.nhs.uk/researchsummaries

From September 2013, registration of clinical trials in a publicly accessible database is a condition of the favourable ethical opinion given by a research ethics committee.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much and what proportion of national cancer spend was spent on radiotherapy in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The information is shown in the following table:

Estimated expenditure on cancer services and radiotherapy, 2008-09 to 2012-13, £ millions in 2012-13 prices

Year	Cancers and tumours	Radiotherapy
2008-09	5,281	401
2009-10	5,908	435
2010-11	5,685	467
2011-12	5,565	473
2012-13	5,681	485

Sources:

Programme budgeting data, NHS England

Reference costs, Department of Health

It is not appropriate for a given service to present reference costs as a proportion of programme budgeting expenditure. This is because radiotherapy data are calculated from reference costs, which are the unit costs to National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients. Reference costs do not represent all expenditure in the NHS, and are costs to NHS providers whereas programme budgeting data are expenditure by NHS commissioners.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much in real-terms was spent on cancer services in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The information is shown in the following table:

Estimated expenditure on cancer services and radiotherapy, 2008-09 to 2012-13, £ millions in 2012-13 prices

Year	Cancers and tumours	Radiotherapy
2008-09	5,281	401
2009-10	5,908	435
2010-11	5,685	467
2011-12	5,565	473
2012-13	5,681	485

Sources:

Programme budgeting data, NHS England

Reference costs, Department of Health

It is not appropriate for a given service to present reference costs as a proportion of programme budgeting expenditure. This is because radiotherapy data are calculated from reference costs, which are the unit costs to National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients. Reference costs do not represent all expenditure in the NHS, and are costs to NHS providers whereas programme budgeting data are expenditure by NHS commissioners.