The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he has taken to engage with (a) coal generators and (b) the biomass sector on whether a future biomass auction will take place.
Jesse Norman
We plan to hold the next Contracts for Difference allocation round in due course We will announce further details about the allocation round and engage with stakeholders in good time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of Ofcom’s programme to monitor and enforce the cancellation and termination arrangements of different providers; and what steps he is taking to ensure that consumers can easily leave their communications contracts in future.
Mr Edward Vaizey
In June 2015, Ofcom launched a monitoring and enforcement programme to assess the cancellation and termination arrangements of communications providers, and the impact these have on consumers’ ability to exit their communications service contract quickly, conveniently and without error. We will discuss with Ofcom any findings from its programme that show consumers have difficulty ending contracts, and work with them to identify whether action needs to be taken.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2015 to Question 6371, whether he plans to reform the planning process to improve the ability of mobile network operators to deploy taller infrastructure in areas where connectivity is needed; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Yes. Extensive and reliable mobile connectivity is vital for our modern economy, particularly in rural areas. The Government has undertaken a review of the planning system to assess what improvements should be made to support the deployment of mobile infrastructure. The outcome of that review will be announced shortly, I hope.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average response time was for a 101 call in each year since that service’s launch; and what the average response time was for 101 calls made to the Humberside Police from (a) North Lincolnshire and (b) East Yorkshire in the last 12 months.
Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the average response times for 999 calls. Information on average 101 call waiting times since April 2014, provided by forces, including Humberside Police, can be found at: www.Police.uk
The Home Office does not hold information on call waiting times for individual forces which pre-dates April 2014 or about calls made to forces from local areas. This information is held by forces.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Attorney General, how many defibrillators are provided in each building the Law Officers’ Departments manage.
Robert Buckland
Staff in the Government Legal Department (GLD) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate who are based at One Kemble Street, have access to two defibrillators which are held by the landlord in their reception areas. GLD client based staff have access to whatever provision is made by those who manage the buildings occupied by their host Department.
The Attorney General’s Office does not currently have access to a defibrillator in its 20 Victoria Street office.
The Serious Fraud Office has access to two automated external defibrillators at their offices in Cockspur Street.
The Crown Prosecution Service does not provide defibrillators in any of its buildings. However, some staff may have access to defibrillators provided by other tenants or the buildings managing agent in buildings that they occupy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure that all mental health practitioners and providers receive training on the revised Code of Practice relating to the Mental Health Act 1983 in all 57 mental health NHS trusts as recommended by the Care Quality Commission’s sixth annual report, HC483, published on 14 October 2015.
Alistair Burt
The Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice, which came into force in April 2015, provides statutory guidance on how functions under the Mental Health Act 1983 (the Act) should be carried out. All providers of mental health services under the Act have a duty to abide by both the provisions of the Act and the detailed guidance on how implement those provisions contained in the Code of Practice. That includes the duty of all such mental health providers to ensure their staff know and understand their responsibilities under the Act.
Empowerment and the involvement of patients are key principles underpinning the Act, and the Code of Practice is clear that detained patients must be informed of their rights; that it is the responsibility of those treating them to ensure that patients understand their rights; and that patients are aware that they are entitled to ask for the assistance of an Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) to help them understand this information.
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) annual report Monitoring the Mental Health Act 2014/15 indicates that CQC have already taken action where providers are failing to effectively monitor the Act, train staff and support patients and recommends that services use the findings of that report to make sure staff have the right skills and knowledge and decide what action needs to be taken to improve the care and support available for patients.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effects of proposed changes to the way in which drugs are assessed for inclusion in the Cancer Drugs Fund on cancer drug patients.
George Freeman
NHS England has advised that it envisages, under the new arrangements for the Cancer Drugs Fund, that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to maintain a strong commercial bus market in northern regions of the UK.
Andrew Jones
The forthcoming Buses Bill will provide local transport authorities, including those in the North, with a range of tools that will enable them to improve their bus services by introducing new franchising powers and stronger partnership arrangements, as well as a step change in the information available to passengers.
The Government is also supporting bus services outside London – including in the North – with some £250 million a year of funding through the Bus Service Operators Grant system.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent steps he has taken to promote regional growth in (a) East Yorkshire and (b) North Lincolnshire.
Anna Soubry
We are promoting growth in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire by investing £240m through the Humber and Greater Lincolnshire Growth Deals. This includes up to £19m available to support growth projects in my hon. Friend’s constituency. We also announced at Spending Review 2015 an expansion to the Humber Enterprise Zone programme, including accelerating the development of employment land around the Port of Goole.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that every patient with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is recorded on (a) a local searchable database and (b) the UK registry for IBD patients.
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.