Tag: Barry Sheerman

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the proportion of children entering secondary education who are unable to read.

Nick Gibb

The Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests provide information about the proportion of pupils entering secondary education who have reached the national expected standard in reading. The latest Key Stage 2 results are published in table N2 of the the “National curriculum assessments at key stage 2 in England, 2016 (provisional)” statistical first release (SFR)[1].

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-curriculum-assessments-key-stage-2-2016-provisional (Table N2)

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to improve the provision of education for and support offered to dyslexic students in higher education outwith the provision of disabled students’ allowances.

Joseph Johnson

Higher education institutions are responsible for meeting their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010, including for students with dyslexia.

The legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments applies to all disabled students. In addition Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) are available where the needs of the student cannot be met by the institution by way of such a reasonable adjustment. A consultation on DSAs closed on 24 September and the Government response will be published in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on allowing female prisoners with young children access to those children.

Caroline Dinenage

The policy and guidance on the treatment of female offenders is contained in Prison Service Order 4800, which can be found at: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj8yJvt2N3JAhVFuBQKHTxXAwcQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.justice.gov.uk%2Fdownloads%2Foffenders%2Fpsipso%2Fpso%2FPSO_4800_women_prisoners.doc&usg=AFQjCNHEKdUSQ34oce66F47zApSRhF35Iw

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of current and past students who it expects will be able to pay off their student loans in full.

Joseph Johnson

The student loan system is progressive, with income contingent repayments protecting those on the lowest incomes and loans that have not been fully repaid being cancelled after 30 years. Therefore only a proportion of students are expected to fully repay their loans within this repayment term, although almost all students will repay at least part of their loan.

The BIS Student Loan Repayment Model forecasts that around 45% of current full time students will fully repay their student loan. The majority of these students have Plan 2 student loans.

It is forecast that around 75% of all past students with student loans since 1998 that are still making repayments will fully repay their student loan. This includes all full time students that finished their courses in the 2015/16 financial year or earlier, the majority of whom have Plan 1 student loans.

The above figure for past students does not include those borrowers who have already fully repaid their student loan or had it cancelled. The Student Loan Company publication ‘Student Loans in England: financial year 2014-15’ published in June 2015 shows statistics on the number of borrowers that had fully repaid their loans or had them cancelled up to the end of April 2015. This can be found at the following link:

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/england.aspx

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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.