Tag: Carol Monaghan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what funding his Department has provided for research on pancreatic cancer in each of the last three years.

Nicola Blackwood

The information requested is not available. Spend on research funded directly by the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is categorised by Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health categories including ‘cancer’. There are no HRCS health sub-categories, such as for pancreatic cancer or other cancer sites.

Investment in cancer research by the NIHR has risen from £101 million in 2010/11 to £135 million in 2014/15 (the latest available figure). The NIHR works closely with patients, charities and our world-leading life sciences industry to support further research into pancreatic cancer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her French counterpart on French authorities’ use of tear gas in the refugee camp in Calais.

James Brokenshire

The UK Government is in regular contact with French counterparts on the migrant situation in Calais.

Steps taken by French authorities to clear sections of the migrant camp in Calais are consistent with the shared strategy to encourage those in need of protection to claim asylum in France and to return those not in need to their home country. The French Government, with support from the UK, has made huge efforts to provide decent accommodation in France for all those that need it, including for women and children.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to assist Medicins Sans Frontieres in offering medical assistance in Yemen.

Rory Stewart

The Department for International Development has helped humanitarian organisations, including Médécins Sans Frontières, engage with the Government of Saudi Arabia on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. However, we do not fund MSF’s activities inside Yemen. We do fund medical assistance in Yemen through UNICEF and the United Nations Humanitarian Pooled Fund.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to improve the availability of off-patent drugs for novel uses through non-legislative measures.

George Freeman

Clinicians can already prescribe off-patent drugs off-label on clinical grounds if they judge this is the right thing to do to meet the individual clinical needs of their patients.

The Government is keen to accelerate the adoption of innovative medicines and increase the innovative use of existing medicines where the evidence reports clinical benefits and cost effectiveness to patients. To that end, we are seeking a number of initiatives to provide innovation but whilst supporting the aims of the Private Member’s Bill on this subject, we do not believe the proposed mechanism is either practicable and desirable.

We are working with NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the General Medical Council and the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency to ensure that there is better information available to support clinicians who wish to prescribe off-patent drugs for off-label indications, and to ensure that new evidence is picked up more quickly and reliably and translated into clinical practice and can be fed through into licensing applications.

A huge amount of work is also going on in the Accelerated Access Review which will support the “pull” of innovation through to clinical practice.

As part of the debate on the Access to Medical Treatments Bill, we are working with officials in the Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and the Health and Social Care Information Centre to see how the power in the Bill, if it were to pass, could address the lack of provision of information on new uses for existing medicines via the power to create a database of innovations in order to support evidence-based prescribing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to relax the Government’s position on the settlement of refugees in Calais to allow the settlement of unaccompanied children in the UK.

James Brokenshire

Individuals in France in need of international protection should claim asylum there in line with established EU and international principles. Once asylum has been claimed in France or in any other European country participating in the Dublin Regulation the UK will uphold all obligations to consider requests to take charge of an application on the grounds of family unity. Asylum must be claimed in France to begin this process and we have no plans to change our position on this.

The UK-France Joint Declaration of 20 August has committed our two governments to establishing a permanent official contact group focused on ensuring that the efficient and effective use of the Dublin Regulation, including the provisions on family unity.

A senior Home Office official has been seconded to the Interior Ministry’s Dublin Unit in Paris in part to assist with the identification of potential requests for the UK to take charge of asylum seeking children in France and to bring them into the Dublin Regulation procedure without delay.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has conducted on the disincentives to prescribing off-patent repurposed drugs.

George Freeman

The Department has conducted no such research. Current arrangements already allow off-patent drugs to be prescribed for new purposes where this is the most appropriate clinical treatment course for a patient. Prescribing decisions are a matter for the clinical judgement of the prescriber concerned.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her French counterpart on that country’s current policy of dismantling the refugee camp in Calais.

James Brokenshire

The UK Government is in regular contact with French counterparts on the migrant situation in Calais.

Steps taken by French authorities to clear sections of the migrant camp in Calais are consistent with the shared strategy to encourage those in need of protection to claim asylum in France and to return those not in need to their home country. The French Government, with support from the UK, has made huge efforts to provide decent accommodation in France for all those that need it, including for women and children.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the contribution of 6 November 2015 by the Minister for Community and Social Care, Official Report, column 1307, what the evidential basis is for his statement that the provisions of the Off-patent Drugs Bill would be potentially harmful.

George Freeman

The current legal framework allows a clinician to prescribe drugs outside their licensed indication where that will best meet the clinical needs of their patient. This clinical freedom is crucial in delivering appropriate healthcare to groups of patients for whom medicines have not historically been licensed, e.g. children. It is also helpful in enabling prescribers to quickly pick up and apply new evidence that will help patients with particular clinical needs. The Off-Patent Drugs Bill would introduce a legal duty to apply for a licence for off-patent drugs where evidence of effectiveness for a new indication becomes available. This will create an expectation that only licensed uses of drugs are acceptable and therefore that off-label use is not appropriate. This would cause unnecessary delays in patients getting the medicines they need by slowing the rapid uptake of new evidence in clinical practice. This is why we believe the proposed legislation could potentially be harmful.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her French counterpart on steps to resettle people who have been displaced by the dismantling of sections of the refugee camp in Calais.

James Brokenshire

The UK Government is in regular contact with French counterparts on the migrant situation in Calais.

Steps taken by French authorities to clear sections of the migrant camp in Calais are consistent with the shared strategy to encourage those in need of protection to claim asylum in France and to return those not in need to their home country. The French Government, with support from the UK, has made huge efforts to provide decent accommodation in France for all those that need it, including for women and children.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to amend the three month rule for the habitual residence test to allow access to income based jobseeker’s allowance for UK nationals returning to the UK after a period away who have retained financial commitments at home.

Priti Patel

It has always been the case that any UK national who returns to this country after an extended period must demonstrate they are habitually resident to be eligible for income-related benefits. Since 1 January 2014, most jobseekers must also have been living in the UK for three months before any consideration can be given to whether they are habitually resident to be eligible to receive income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Regulations were amended from 9 November 2014 to exempt from the three month residence requirement members of the Armed Forces and Crown servants who were serving abroad and others who had paid certain types of UK national insurance contributions during their absence abroad. We have no plans to introduce further exemptions from the three month requirement.