Tag: Cat Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the specification for the Work and Health Programme to provide specialist support for long-term unemployed and claimants with health conditions and disabilities will require (a) autism and (b) other conditions of claimants to be recorded by both providers and Jobcentre Plus; and what discussions he has had about which conditions will be recorded.

Priti Patel

Development of the Work and Health Programme design is well underway, including engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. The Department has commenced the commercial process for the programme by releasing the Prior Information Notice for potential providers on 28 April.

Decisions on what the information reporting requirements will be for people with a disability or health condition are yet to be made.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what role the Government is playing in UN discussions on improving mechanisms for casualty recording.

James Duddridge

The UK welcomes efforts to improve the UN’s recording of casualties as a means of ensuring UN decision making is better informed and civilians are better protected in conflict. We will continue to support the UN Secretary-General, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and all other relevant parts of the UN system as they take this work forward. We are a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a strong supporter of the Human Rights Up Front Initiative.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people are employed on zero-hours contracts in their main employment in Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the What About YOUth survey, published 8 December 2015, what assessment he has made of the findings of that survey; and if he will commission further research on the health behaviour of young lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

Jane Ellison

We want all young people to have healthy lives, and reducing inequalities is central to our work. We have increased the National Health Service budget by £10 billion and introduced legal duties to ensure inequalities are taken into account when planning health services.

Further research on the health of young lesbian, gay and bisexual people has not been commissioned. The data collected through What About YOUth survey is available on a dedicated tool on the Public Health England (PHE) Public Health Profiles webpage. Key indicators on this page can be viewed partitioned by different factors, such as sexuality, gender, ethnic groups and deprivation deciles.

PHE has developed an action plan to address the health and wellbeing inequalities experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. A strand of this work considers ways to reduce the risk of suicide experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and includes training for nurses in a range of health and community settings and in schools.

The Department is aware of the difficulties experienced by some LGB patients in accessing primary care, in response to this the Department recently funded work by the Lesbian & Gay Foundation to develop a benchmarking tool to identify general practitioner surgeries that are fully committed to assuring that their surgery is fully accessible to lesbian, gay and bisexual people, including their young LGB patients.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of funding to the new northern rail franchise will be provided by (a) subsidies to Northern Rail, (b) investment by Network Rail, (c) passenger revenue and (d) investment by Arriva.

Andrew Jones

We are unable to disaggregate the proportion of funding on the new Northern Rail franchise.

I refer the hon Member to my answer of 11 January to the Hon Member for Nottingham South, Lilian Greenwood, (UIN 21124) where the level of subsidies to the Northern franchise was provided and which gives the biggest transformation in decades. These will achieve an unprecedented package of improvements unlike the last Northern franchise in 2004 which included limited plans to invest in services or meet demand, offers better value for the taxpayer and reduces the amount of annual government subsidy required by the Northern franchise by £160 million over nine years (http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=21124).

Network Rail investment is not allocated per franchise. Investment is made on the infrastructure which multiple franchises use and so it is not possible to ‎disaggregate.

Predicted Passenger revenue and investment by Arriva are commercially confidentially information that we are unable to provide. Actual Passenger revenue is published retrospectively through annual financial statements.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has received any representations from NHS staff who feel they are being harassed outside NHS buildings by protesters.

Ben Gummer

There have been no representations from National Health Service staff who feel they are being harassed outside NHS buildings by protesters.

Although protesters are democratically entitled to make their views known on abortion and other issues and can do so outside NHS hospitals and other NHS buildings, we would condemn any harassment of NHS staff, patients and others. We would expect NHS trusts, as responsible for providing a safe environment for all using their facilities, to work with the Police and other agencies as appropriate to ensure they have adequate arrangements in place to prevent harassment of staff and patients. If staff are subject to criminal activity such as physical assaults, these should be reported so that employers can take appropriate action.

Currently, NHS trusts have access to Security Incident Reporting Systems which helps NHS Protect measure the nature and scale of security incidents across the NHS, not just those involving physical assaults on staff but also those involving non-physical abuse and theft of/damage to NHS assets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many tonsillectomy operations were carried out in England in the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The information is not available in the form requested.

A count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) with a primary or secondary procedure of tonsillectomy from 2010-11 to 2014-15 is below. Equivalent data for 2015-16 is not yet available, and a small number of tonsillectomy procedures are performed in outpatient settings which are not included in these figures.

Year	FCEs
2010-11	48,073
2011-12	47,342
2012-13	48,808
2013-14	52,536
2014-15	52,595

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Note:

An FCE is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that GPs are able to routinely to offer 15 minute, or longer, consultations where necessary for patients with greater needs.

Alistair Burt

It is important that practices are free to meet the needs of individual patients according to clinical need. Therefore there is no requirement on general practitioner practices to offer appointments of a specific length or a specific mix of workforce to meet population need.

However, in recognition of the increased demands being placed on general practice, NHS England has:

1. Placed a requirement on clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the NHS Planning Guidance for 2016/17 to develop and implement a local plan to address the sustainability and quality of general practice, including workforce and workload issues. This is the first time specific requirements have been placed on local commissioners to support and develop general practice.

2. Provided advice about specific ways to invest in general practice for National Health Service leaders as they prepare Sustainability and Transformation Plans for the future. In both of these, there is a dual focus on maintaining quality and access to care in existing services, while also supporting the introduction of new ways of working. Areas where support is required include increased funding, growth and diversification in the workforce, development of premises and information technology, and specific help to develop networks and federations with patient benefit at their heart.

The ‘General Practice Forward View’ released in April 2016, announced a major new programme of development and improvement support for practices over the next three years. This will help groups of practices to redesign care in order to simultaneously release staff time and improve care for patients. As part of the development programme, support and advice will be provided to federations and CCGs on ways to engage patients and voluntary and community sector groups as partners. This will help local people shape priorities, contribute to the co-design of improved services and build assets in the community.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what account was taken of the results of the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey on workplace union representatives in the healthcare sector in bringing forward proposals to cap union facility time in the Trade Union Bill.

Matthew Hancock

There are no current proposals to cap facility time. The reserve powers in the Trade Union Bill, which allow Ministers to set a cap on the time and money spent on facility time, would be used only as a last resort.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many companies which comprised a single person were paid for services by NHS trusts in 2014-15.

George Freeman

The information is not held centrally by the Department.