Tag: Andrew Percy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to reduce loneliness and isolation for elderly people through increased contact during transitional care.

Alistair Burt

Prevention is core to the Government’s approach to people managing their health and care needs. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health set out in his speech to the Local Government Association on 1 July that we all have a responsibility at an individual, family, and community level to identify people with care needs such as loneliness and provide support and improve their wellbeing.

Through the Care Act 2014 the Department has required local authorities to have measures in place to identify people in their area who would benefit from universal services to help reduce, delay or prevent needs for care and support. This includes needs that may arise from social isolation.

Given the complexity of loneliness and the different ways that people are affected there is no single solution that can tackle loneliness and having a range of interventions and solutions is helpful, and commissioners can consider how loneliness can be tackled when a person is transitioning between services.

The Department has supported a ‘digital toolkit’ for local commissioners, which was developed by the Campaign to End Loneliness, and is now incorporated in their guidance Loneliness and Isolation: Guidance for Local Authorities and Commissioners. This supports commissioners in understanding, mapping and commissioning for loneliness and social isolation in their communities, and includes promising approaches to tackling loneliness.

The Department has funded the Social Care Institute for Excellence to develop and run the Prevention Library which includes examples of emerging practice to prevent, reduce or delay peoples care and support needs from deteriorating. This includes examples of integrated working such as the Social Prescribing Scheme in Rotherham.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 27 February 2015 to Question 225126, what steps he is taking to ensure growth in investment to increase endoscopy unit capacity in line with the recommendations of Professor Sir Mike Richards, Gateway Reference 16973, of 8 December 2011; and what assessment he has made of progress with planning for 10 to 15 per cent year-on-year increase in lower gastro intestinal endoscopy actively in reducing waiting times and ensuring high quality care.

Jane Ellison

Health Education England has pledged to fund the training of 200 non-medical endoscopists, which will significantly increase endoscopy capacity in England. The first cohort will begin training in January 2016. NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team (formerly NHS Improving Quality) is working intensively with trusts that have significant endoscopy waiting lists, in order to improve performance. NHS England is also exploring ways to improve endoscopy performance through pricing changes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Leader of the House, how many defibrillators are provided in each building his Office manages.

Chris Grayling

The Office of the Leader of the House of Commons does not directly manage any buildings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many defibrillators are provided in each building her Department manages.

George Eustice

The Department currently manages a combined estate with the Environment Agency. Across a total of 163 occupied buildings, there are currently 47 with Automated External Defibrillators (AED) installed. Some buildings have more than one AED providing a total of 54 AEDs currently available across the combined estate. 23 further buildings are due to have an AED installed shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of self-harm and self-inflicted deaths among young people in custody.

Andrew Selous

The safety and welfare of young people in custody is vital and we are clear that reducing the level of self-inflicted deaths is of utmost importance.

We have improved the assessment of young people’s risks and needs when they enter custody. We have also improved the specifications for Secure Training Centre and Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) to place an increased emphasis on the management of self-harm and suicide including ensuring the appropriate skills and training of staff are in place to meet the needs of young people.

In YOIs we have introduced new psychological services to better inform risk management and support those detained.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to Surrogacy in the UK: Myth Busting and Reform, published in November 2015, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to reform the law governing surrogacy to better balance the rights of those involved and the welfare of children born via surrogacy.

Jane Ellison

A search of the Department’s central correspondence system shows that the Department received 22 representations that made direct or indirect reference to the report `Surrogacy in the UK: Myth Busting and Reform’ since it was published in November 2015.

The Government has no current plans to change the legislation in respect of surrogacy arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the (a) effectiveness of Flood Re and (b) whether her Department’s long-term strategy fund for flood defences has been distributed fairly.

Rory Stewart

Flood Re began its operational testing phase in July 2015. The Flood Re Board expect to be ready to accept policies from April 2016, once it is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Once operational, Flood Re will be accountable directly to Parliament and be reviewed at least every five years.

The allocation of Government Grant in Aid for projects in the long term capital programme uses Defra’s Partnership Funding approach which ensures a fair allocation for projects throughout the country. Funding is potentially available for any project where the benefits of the scheme are greater than the cost and are allocated based on outcomes (economic damages avoided and number of households protected), rather than a percentage of the costs. This approach secures value for money for the taxpayer, ensures that a fair share is available for all projects over time and that flood management is not limited to what central Government alone can afford.

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.

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 telephone providers reasons to make it easier for people to identify direct marketing calls and choose whether to accept them.

Mr Edward Vaizey

This Government is taking forward a range of measures to tackle nuisance calls, which will increase consumer protection and choice by strengthening the Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) ability to take enforcement action against organisations that break the law. This includes lowering the threshold under the the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003 (PECR) to make it easier for the ICO to take action against organisations that break the law, resulting in £3,420,000 worth of fines issued.

The Government also recently made an amendment to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), requiring direct marketing companies registered in the UK, to display Calling Line Identification. This new measure will both improve consumer choice, by making it easier for people to refuse and report unwanted marketing calls; and make it easier for the Information Commissioner’s Office to investigate and take enforcement action against organisations who breach the rules.

The Department has held conversations with telephone providers on the identification of direct marketing callers and will continue do so as part of its strategy to tackle nuisance calls.

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 cases of online abuse on (a) Facebook, (b) Twitter and (c) all other social media have been reported to the police since 2010.

Mr John Hayes

The Home Office do not hold the information requested.

However, we have introduced an ‘online flag’ as part of the police recorded crime data collection. This allows police forces to record online instances of abuse and other crimes such as stalking, harassment, sexual offences and others. These offences could have taken place solely online, or had an online element to them. These data are currently still in development but will be published in due course. However, it will not be possible to split the data according to type of social media used (if any).