Tag: Barry Sheerman

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in the UK.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England (PHE) and the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) have been carefully monitoring the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas since it was first reported in Brazil during May 2015. PHE has reviewed evidence on the transmission of Zika virus and PHE mosquito experts have provided advice to Government and the public that neither the main vector of Zika virus Aedes aegypti, nor other species of Aedes mosquitoes, including Aedes albopictus, that may have the potential to transmit this virus, are established in the United Kingdom.

The risk to the UK population is related to travel to countries where Zika virus outbreaks are currently ongoing, and NaTHNaC and PHE have published updated advice for travellers to South and Central America and the Caribbean, including specific advice for pregnant women. The risk of onward spread within the UK is very low and PHE has again provided this advice to government, and the public.

PHE has also been working with appropriate professional groups to develop information and guidance on Zika for clinicians. This advice can be accessed through the PHE website and has been cascaded by organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Together with the Royal College of General Practitioners PHE has developed guidance specifically targeted at primary care which will be available shortly. PHE has also produced regular briefing notes for local health protection teams who have been asked to share this with the local National Health Service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken at border controls to prevent the Zika virus entering the UK.

James Brokenshire

Border Force Officers will refer any passengers that require medical attention in accordance with established procedures and advice from Public Health England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what transitional arrangements her Department has made for learners currently on the Youth Contract which is set to come to an end in March 2016.

Nick Boles

Recruitment of new participants to the Youth Contract programme for 16 and 17 year olds closed on 31 March 2015, with the programme ending on 31 March 2016.

In exceptional circumstances, where young people have not achieved this outcome before the programme closes, Youth Contract providers will direct them to other re-engagement provision or to their home local authority for appropriate support.

Overall responsibility for supporting and encouraging young people, including the most vulnerable, rests with local authorities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to (a) review and (b) improve the autism self-assessment framework.

Alistair Burt

Working with the Department, Public Health England regularly undertakes an autism self assessment exercise with local authorities and their partners to gauge progress in implementing the Autism Strategy. The results of the self assessment and the individual returns from areas are made public so that organisations and people can challenge locally if they think that more needs to be done. The assessment questions and the process for local agreement are reviewed each time, taking into account that general continuity is needed in terms of measuring progress. The February meeting of the cross government Autism Programme Board considered the changes proposed for the next exercise which were put forward following discussions with representatives of Government departments, local authorities, the National Health Service, the autism third sector and people with autism and family carers. Further refinement will be undertaken over the next few weeks before the self assessment exercise is launched in the summer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the per pupil value for money of free schools and the effect acquisition of sites (a) in London and (b) outside London has on that value for money.

Edward Timpson

Since 2010, we have opened around 400 new free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools. These schools offer excellent value for money. They are being built significantly quicker and cheaper than previous school building programmes. The National Audit Office found in its report in 2013 that free schools were built 45% cheaper than other school building programmes. Almost 200,000 new places will be provided. 25% of the free schools inspected by Ofsted have been judged outstanding compared to 20% of all other schools. We plan to open at least 500 new schools during this Parliament.

We monitor the programme’s costs to ensure it continues to offer excellent value. A value for money assessment is made prior to a free school application being approved for the pre-opening stage and again before a capital budget is approved. We consider all aspects of the project, including the size of the school and the location of the site. Sites in London tend to cost more to acquire and this is taken into account when considering the value for money offered by London projects.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of people with autism who are in receipt of a personal health budget.

Alistair Burt

Data on recipients of personal health budgets is collected from clinical commissioning groups on a voluntary basis. Numbers are not currently collected for specific conditions so an estimate cannot be made on the number of people with autism who are in receipt of a personal health budget. NHS England is exploring options for formal data collection on personal health budgets and consideration is being given to the cohorts of recipients that will be included in this data collection.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has made an assessment of the (a) mental and (b) physical health risks to young people of social media and technology.

Alistair Burt

The Department has made no formal assessment of the risks to mental or physical health presented to young people by social media and related technologies. However, the Department, working with Xenzone (a provider of online counselling services) has funded the development of an online risk module for health professionals, designed to give them an understanding of the digital world, so that they can learn to distinguish between ‘normal online behaviour’ and potentially dangerous activity.

The Department has commissioned the Health and Social Care Information Centre to carry out a survey of the mental health of children and young people. Public consultation on the content of that survey called for the inclusion of questions on the impact that social media may be having on the mental health of children and young people. A national report on the findings of the survey will be published in 2018, the first such survey since 2004.

The clearest physical health risk arises from the fact that children and young people who spend long periods online are not exercising during that time. The four Home Country Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) published United Kingdom-wide guidelines for the amount of physical activity required across the life-course (including children and young people) in July 2011. The CMOs also included advice to restrict sedentary behaviour (long periods of sitting) including use of computers, for all age groups.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the financial saving to the NHS of the policy to no longer routinely fund second stem cell transplants for blood cancer patients who have relapsed.

David Mowat

Decisions are taken by NHS England’s Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group that leads on the annual prioritisation process. The prioritisation process includes an impact assessment that compared the cost of a second transplant to alternative treatment pathways for relapsed disease.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that prescriptions are affordable for people with long-term medical conditions.

David Mowat

The Department receives numerous representations on prescription charges for people in England with long-term medical conditions. It is not possible to say how many of these were from clinical experts or health economists, though the independent Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England’s report, A new settlement for health and social care, published in 2014, did have health economist input. There have also been representations from the Prescription Charges Coalition, but it is not certain to what extent these were informed by clinical experts or health economists.

Arrangements are in place to ensure that prescriptions are affordable for everyone, including those with a long-term condition. There are exemptions from the prescription charge for people with low income, including through receipt of specific benefits and through application to the NHS Low Income Scheme. For those who do not qualify for exemption, prescription prepayment certificates are also available, which allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost. To support those with high levels of need, the cost of the 12-month and 3-month certificates have been frozen since 2009 and 2011, respectively.

The Department has not undertaken a formal impact assessment on the potential cost of eliminating or reducing prescription charges for people with long-term medical conditions. However, the Prescription Charges Review undertaken by Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, and published in 2010, estimated that extending exemption to all those with a long-term condition would lead to a loss in revenue of between £360 and £430 million.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital-borne cases of sepsis in England were recorded in (a) 2000, (b) 2005, (c) 2010 and (d) 2015.

Mr Philip Dunne

Public Health England and NHS Digital do not collect this data to the level of detail and format as requested.

NHS Digital is unable to identify the source of a sepsis infection. They are only able to provide data on a count of the number of Finished Discharge Episodes with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon MP) to Question 45207 regarding available information on sepsis.