Tag: Andrew Percy

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many defibrillators are provided in each building his Department manages.

Brandon Lewis

The Department for Communities and Local Government provides the following number of defibrillators in each of its buildings:

Building	No. of defibrillators
5 St. Philips Place, Birmingham,	1
2 Rivergate, Bristol,	1
Temple Quay House, Bristol,	1
Citygate, Newcastle upon Tyne,	0
High Trees, Hemel Hempstead,	1
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre , London,	1

The building that houses the Department’s headquarters is not managed by DCLG but, we are aware that there are no defibrillators on site.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take with insurance companies to ensure that savings from Flood Re are passed on to consumers in flood-risk areas.

Rory Stewart

Through the prices it charges insurers that cede policies to it, Flood Re will enable insurers to offer subsidised premiums, set by council Tax bands or equivalent, and reduced excesses to those at the highest risk of flooding. This is a competitive market and insurers are confident there will be a wide range of products available to consumers under Flood Re. It will remain important that households continue to shop around to ensure they can access the best prices.

Flood Re will regularly monitor the accessibility and affordability of insurance for those at high flood risk. Defra and Flood Re will evaluate the success of the scheme at least every five years.

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 assessment he has made of recent trends in apprenticeship start-ups.

Nick Boles

There were 2.4 million apprenticeship starts over the previous parliament, and 499,900 apprenticeship starts in the 2014/15 academic year – an increase of 13.5 per cent on 2013/14.

The number of under-19 apprenticeships starts in 2014/15 was 125,900, this was up 5.1 percent on 2013/14. There were 19,800 starts on Higher and Degree Apprenticeships in 2014/15, an increase of 115 per cent on 2013/14 (9,200 starts).

We are taking action to support and encourage the growth of apprenticeships to meet our commitment to reaching 3 million starts by 2020.

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 discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on improving (a) business and (b) personal access to broadband.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government recognises the importance of broadband access throughout the UK for both businesses and individuals. I have regular discussions with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on how the UK can become a world leader in broadband, and on 24 February my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced a joint BIS/DCMS Review into Business Broadband to ensure that businesses are able to access the affordable, high-speed broadband they need.

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 has taken to encourage the use of faecal calprotectin in primary care to facilitate prompt and appropriate referral of people with suspected inflammation of the bowel.

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 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the extent of access to biological treatments for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

George Freeman

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended four different biological drugs for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the collective term for Crohn’s disease and colitis, for use after the failure of conventional therapies or in patients for whom such therapies are not appropriate. The National Health Service is legally obliged to fund medicines and treatments recommended by NICE’s technology appraisals.

Although information concerning the exact number of people with IBD who have been treated with biological drugs in each of the last five years is not available, and no specific assessment of access has been made, some data are collected as part of the IBD audit. The IBD audit programme is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership on behalf of NHS England and Wales (with additional funding from Healthcare Improvement Scotland), as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, and carried out by the Royal College of Physicians.

The biological therapies part of the IBD audit aims to assess nationally: the efficacy of biological therapies in the treatment of IBD; the safety of biological therapies in the treatment of IBD; and IBD patients’ views on their quality of life at defined intervals throughout their use of biological therapies. The latest round of audit findings, published in September 2015, showed treatment continued to be effective and that patients were receiving treatment with biological therapies at earlier stages of disease. More information can be found at the following link:

www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/ibd-biological-therapy-audit

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce poor nutrition among elderly people (a) in general and (b) in nursing and care homes.

Alistair Burt

Public Health England (PHE) advocates a healthy food provision for all regardless of age, including those who are undernourished. This is a selection of food and drink which meets daily nutrient needs in a healthier more sustainable way.

PHE has published a range of catering guidance and supporting tools offering practical advice to support healthier and more sustainable food provision across a range of settings. This includes a toolkit for serving food to older people (including those in residential settings or community settings where older people may receive support, such as “meals on wheels” and take part in social activity such as lunch clubs).

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, all providers of regulated activities have to register with the CQC and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality, below which care should never fall. Regulation 14 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, requires registered providers to meet nutritional and hydration needs.

This fundamental standard requires that a service user receives suitable and nutritious food and hydration which is adequate to sustain life and good health. Care providers need to take into account the service users preferences or their religious or cultural background. Service users should also receive support to eat and drink if necessary.

The CQC inspects providers to see if they are meeting these fundamental standards and provides clear direction on areas that require improvement. The CQC has a wide range of enforcement powers if a provider fails to meet the fundamental standards.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to the number of people in the work-related activity group on people with restrictive medical conditions; and what alternative measures he plans to put in place to assist such people.

Priti Patel

The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in Bill on 20th July and Ministers have considered impacts with regard to all relevant legal obligations when formulating the welfare policies announced in the Bill.

This change includes new funding for additional practical support for claimants with limited capability for work from April 2017, when the removal of the work-related activity component will come into effect, rising from £60m in 2017/18 to £100m a year in 2020/21.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many defibrillators are provided in each building his Department manages.

Jane Ellison

One defibrillator is provided in each of the buildings managed by the Department which includes Blenheim House in Leeds, Premier House in Reading and Skipton House, Richmond House and Wellington House in London.