Tag: Chris Leslie

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-03-24.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2016 to Question 30533, for what reasons a separate breakdown for revenue accrued from financial spread betting and other general betting duties is not available; and if he will make a statement.

Damian Hinds

Published information on General Betting Duty receipts is not split down into constituent types of bets (such as financial or other types of spread bets).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will direct West London Mental Health Trust to consider mothballing or other alternatives to dismantling the Corsellis Brain Collection.

George Freeman

Started in the early 1950s by Professor Nick Corsellis at Runwell Hospital, in recent years the Corsellis Collection of brain pathology specimens has been managed and maintained by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT). The excess costs of maintaining the collection can only be supported by WLMHT from funds received for patient care. Therefore WLMHT has decided to dispose of the collection by seeking expressions of interest in the brain tissue of value for research, mainly sub-collections of the less common pathologies, and to respectfully dispose of that tissue for which no scientific purpose could be envisaged.

WLMHT has received expressions of interest, but none in taking the complete collection. The original timescale for closure was by the end of March 2016, but WLMHT will support a further three months activity to meet the additional requests for tissue samples. The collection will close by the end of June.

The Department and NHS England have not made any specific assessment of the contribution of the collection to medical research and health improvement in the United Kingdom, or undertaken any specific analysis of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the collection.

The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the contribution of the Corsellis Brain Collection to medical research and health improvement in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

Started in the early 1950s by Professor Nick Corsellis at Runwell Hospital, in recent years the Corsellis Collection of brain pathology specimens has been managed and maintained by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT). The excess costs of maintaining the collection can only be supported by WLMHT from funds received for patient care. Therefore WLMHT has decided to dispose of the collection by seeking expressions of interest in the brain tissue of value for research, mainly sub-collections of the less common pathologies, and to respectfully dispose of that tissue for which no scientific purpose could be envisaged.

WLMHT has received expressions of interest, but none in taking the complete collection. The original timescale for closure was by the end of March 2016, but WLMHT will support a further three months activity to meet the additional requests for tissue samples. The collection will close by the end of June.

The Department and NHS England have not made any specific assessment of the contribution of the collection to medical research and health improvement in the United Kingdom, or undertaken any specific analysis of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the collection.

The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what analysis his Department or NHS England has undertaken of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the Corsellis Brain Collection; and if he will place any such analysis in the Library.

George Freeman

Started in the early 1950s by Professor Nick Corsellis at Runwell Hospital, in recent years the Corsellis Collection of brain pathology specimens has been managed and maintained by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT). The excess costs of maintaining the collection can only be supported by WLMHT from funds received for patient care. Therefore WLMHT has decided to dispose of the collection by seeking expressions of interest in the brain tissue of value for research, mainly sub-collections of the less common pathologies, and to respectfully dispose of that tissue for which no scientific purpose could be envisaged.

WLMHT has received expressions of interest, but none in taking the complete collection. The original timescale for closure was by the end of March 2016, but WLMHT will support a further three months activity to meet the additional requests for tissue samples. The collection will close by the end of June.

The Department and NHS England have not made any specific assessment of the contribution of the collection to medical research and health improvement in the United Kingdom, or undertaken any specific analysis of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the collection.

The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the future of the Corsellis Brain Collection at the West London Mental Health NHS Trust; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. West London Mental Health Trust has therefore decided – once it has responded to current requests for samples – to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some tissue has also been requested by the University of Hong Kong for training purposes for their neuropathology students, which the Trust is providing as a more appropriate use of such clinical material than respectful disposal. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.

The Trust has provided figures for each of the three years to 2014/15. In each case the cost has been borne by the Trust, offset (to a relatively small extent) by fees received for tissue sample requests and – in 2014/15 – by a donation. The figures are shown in the following table.

Financial Year	Cost	Income	Donation
2012/13	£101,126	Nil	Nil
2013/14	£84,561	£7,016	Nil
2014/15	£80,684	£1,003	£69,316

The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on tackling benefit fraud and error in each of the last five financial years.

Justin Tomlinson

Fraud and error is tackled within a number of areas across the Department. Specifically, the Fraud, Error and Debt Programme which commenced in June 2013 and delivers major change projects.

Spending on the Fraud, Error and Debt Programme for the 5 years between 2010/11 and 2014/15 was £300m, delivering savings of circa £2bn. Further savings in the region of £2.9bn are expected by the end of 2021- 2022.

In addition the Fraud and Error Service is a specialist organisation focused on identifying and correcting benefit fraud and the many Operational teams across the Department also play a critical role in preventing fraud and error occurring. The Department also provides financial incentives to Local Authorities with regard to identifying fresh initiatives to support the reduction of fraud and error in housing benefit.

To provide a breakdown of how much the Department spent in aggregate on tackling benefit fraud and error in the last five years would incur disproportionate costs and we have therefore not provided a breakdown.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the public purse has been of storing, maintaining and facilitating research access to the Corsellis Brain Collection in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. West London Mental Health Trust has therefore decided – once it has responded to current requests for samples – to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some tissue has also been requested by the University of Hong Kong for training purposes for their neuropathology students, which the Trust is providing as a more appropriate use of such clinical material than respectful disposal. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.

The Trust has provided figures for each of the three years to 2014/15. In each case the cost has been borne by the Trust, offset (to a relatively small extent) by fees received for tissue sample requests and – in 2014/15 – by a donation. The figures are shown in the following table.

Financial Year	Cost	Income	Donation
2012/13	£101,126	Nil	Nil
2013/14	£84,561	£7,016	Nil
2014/15	£80,684	£1,003	£69,316

The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to work with credit reference agencies on addressing benefit fraud and error.

Justin Tomlinson

We already use credit reference agency data in the Fraud and Error Service on a case by case basis to support investigations, for example once high suspicion has already been identified which could be via a Hotline allegation or staff referral for example. In debt recovery the use of credit reference agency data enables us to have more informed discussions with the debtor and to reach agreement on rates of repayment that are sustainable for the debtor and meet our needs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-06-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 24 March 2016 to Question 32596, if he will place in the Library the spreadsheet used to calculate the allocation of the 2016-17 transition grant to individual authorities.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Secretary of State has published an explanatory note setting out the method of calculation of the Transition Grant. Copies have been made available in the libraries of both Houses. It is available to view at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf.

The spreadsheet showing individual authority allocations was published on 8 February as part of the Core Spending Power: Supporting Information tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corespending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2016-to-2017.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to transfer housing benefit fraud investigation powers from local authorities to national investigation service.

Justin Tomlinson

The current intention is for Local Authority powers to prosecute Housing Benefit cases to be turned off from 02 April 2016, at which time the Department for Work and Pensions Fraud and Error Service will assume overall responsibility, following the full implementation of the Single Fraud Investigation Service Project.