The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress the Government has made on increasing the level of employment in (a) North Lincolnshire, (b) East Yorkshire and (c) England since 2010.
Mr Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department is encouraging the use of medical nutrition as a integral part of healthcare where there is an identified clinical need; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
Doctors are able to advise patients on any aspect of diet relevant to the treatment and management of a medical condition as part of their normal practise.
The Government also takes active steps to support healthy eating and vitamin supplementation as a protective measure. The Healthy Start scheme is a United Kingdom wide government scheme to improve the health of low income pregnant women and families on benefits and tax credits. Women who are at least 10 weeks pregnant and families with children under four years old get vouchers to spend on milk, plain fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables (with nothing added). They also receive a voucher to swap, free of charge, for Healthy Start vitamins. Healthy start vitamins contain the supplements recommended by the Department to prevent deficiency; Vitamins D and C and folic acid for pregnant women and vitamins A, C and D for children.
Hospital food standards for the National Health Service are written into the NHS Standard Contract 2015/16 which is the key document governing the purchase and provision of NHS services. Providers are obliged under the terms of their legally-binding contracts with commissioners to adhere to these requirements. The five food standards are:
For patient catering:
– The 10 Key Characteristics of Good Nutritional Care, NHS England
– Nutrition and Hydration Digest, British Dietetic Association
– Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool or equivalent, British Association for Parental and Enteral Nutrition.
For staff and visitor catering:
– Healthier and More Sustainable Catering – Nutrition Principles (for staff and visitor catering), Public Health England.
For all catering:
– Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services, Defra.
For patients whose dietary requirements are not represented by the ‘eatwell plate’, a personal nutritional care plan should be implemented and tailored dietetic advice sought. The specific nutritional needs of individual patients should always supersede the application of blanket principles.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many defibrillators are provided in each building her Department manages.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
My Department is based at two locations; one in Belfast and one in London. There is no defibrillator on site in Belfast. The London office is situated in a building which is shared between several Government departments and there are 10 defibrillators on site.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the National Dementia Research Institute will conduct research into Parkinson’s dementia as part of its core work.
Joseph Johnson
I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 18130
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to support the British Heart Foundations’ Wear It Beat It campaign.
Jane Ellison
We congratulate the British Heart Foundation (BHF) on its Wear It Beat It campaign, which aims to raise funds for research into heart disease.
Heart disease is a vital area of research. The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds a wide range of research relating to these conditions, spending £49 million on cardiovascular disease research in 2014/15. The NIHR works in partnership with the BHF and other medical research charities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effects on children and families of the parental orders procedure following surrogacy arrangements.
Caroline Dinenage
The Government has made no such assessment. Parental orders provide a mechanism to enable a couple who have entered into a surrogacy arrangement to become that child’s legal parents. There is no obligation to obtain a parental order but a couple who commission a surrogacy arrangement are advised and encouraged to do so in order to achieve a recognisable transfer of parenthood in the UK. In deciding whether to exercise its discretion and award a Parental order, the court has regard to all the facts of the case and the overriding importance of the welfare of the child throughout their life.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to provide more information to people potentially affected by floods to enable them to access grant schemes from local authorities.
James Wharton
Our immediate priority remains doing everything we can to help local communities repair and recover from floods. This means ensuring all those affected can benefit from the £200 million grant schemes offered by the Government and know that they can do so.
We have provided information on the Gov.uk website and have worked with local authorities to ensure their websites are up to date. We have also developed a simple fact sheet for individual property owners explaining the Property Level Resilience grant scheme and how to apply for it.
We are in regular contact with local areas and are continuing to look at ways to help support their residents and businesses take full advantage of the grants available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to use the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) registry to get an accurate number of people living with IBD.
Jane Ellison
The IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) Registry provides a United Kingdom-wide repository of anonymised IBD adult and paediatric patient data for prospective audit and research purposes. Patients must consent for their data to be added to the registry. The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) has allocated transitional funding this year to incorporate IBD audit data collection into the IBD Registry, providing an enhanced system for data capture and quality improvement that will be available to every hospital in the UK. This will allow the entry of data locally and support service improvement. Initially the focus will be for IBD patients receiving biologic treatments, but the system will address other key aspects of IBD care in the future.
The second step of data collection will be to focus on new patients with IBD to begin to understand the incidence of IBD in the UK. This picture will build up over a number of years and be dependent on the engagement of clinicians.
No specific assessment of the potential effects on healthcare due to the introduction of a registry of patients with IBD in England has been made. However, the data provided through the register can support National Health Service services in areas such as the assessment of local IBD populations as well as in measuring incidence and outcomes with services in other parts of the UK.
Although there is no direct Department funding, HQIP have given £290,000 for a year’s transition funding to join the audit data with the registry.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends faecal calprotectin testing as an option to help doctors distinguish between inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and non-inflammatory bowel diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome.
The NICE IBD Quality Standard states that general practitioners (GP) and GP practices should ensure that testing is offered and clinical commissioning groups should ensure the diagnostic services are in place to support this.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will discuss with the Information Commissioner’s Office reasons to refer consumer complaints to equivalent bodies overseas in addressing nuisance telephone calls from abroad.
Mr Edward Vaizey
This Government recently made an amendment to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), requiring direct marketing companies registered in the UK and those making calls on behalf of UK companies from outside the UK, to display Calling Line Identification. This measure will make it easier for the ICO to investigate and take enforcement action against callers who persistently and deliberately flout the rules.
In addtion, both the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Ofcom engage with the Do Not Call Forum of the London Action Plan, which includes overseas regulators with responsibility for tackling nuisance calls. The ICO is joint secretariat and works with other members, including the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, to target organisations, share investigation methods and drive forward coordinated actions. The group are drafting an operational plan to strengthen cooperation at international level
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been convicted of offences of online abuse on (a) Facebook and (b) Twitter under the Communications Act 2003 since 2010.
Karen Bradley
The Home Office do not hold the information requested. The Ministry of Justice hold data on the number of offenders found guilty at all courts in England and Wales.