Tag: David Amess

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how NHS England’s specialised commissioning taskforce intends to incorporate work submitted by (a) clinical reference groups and (b) other stakeholders in response to its requests for A3 change proposals to inform the development of its five year strategy for specialised services; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

NHS England established the specialised commissioning taskforce to make some immediate improvements to the way in which NHS England commissions specialised services, and to put commissioning arrangements on a stronger footing for the longer-term. The task force is not conducting a complete review of specialised commissioning, although there are some aspects of this work which will require some specific services or arrangements to be reviewed. The life of the task force was originally three months running from May to July 2014: this has now been extended to the end of October 2014.

The publication and application of the specialised services strategy have been paused while the task force undertakes its work. At this stage, NHS England is yet to confirm when the strategy will be published. However, many aspects of the work of the taskforce will contribute to taking the strategy work forward later in the year.

Information on the work on development of the mission and vision and service-level planning elements of the specialised services strategy, prior to the pause, is available on the following webpages:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/commissioning/spec-services/five-year-strat/mission-vision/

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/commissioning/spec-services/five-year-strat/service-level-plan/

NHS England has advised that the A3 change proposals were a pilot process to establish how NHS England might be able to achieve multiple stakeholder involvement on future service change. Proposals that demonstrate good opportunities to increase value and contain cost have moved into the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme for specialised services. Other proposals which support strategic service planning continue to be considered. Authors with proposals that do not meet the objectives of QIPP or strategic services planning will be informed within the next few weeks.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department (a) spent in each of the last 10 years and (b) plans to spend in each of the next three years on maintaining national memorials; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Helen Grant

DCMS has spent the following amounts in each of the last 10 years maintaining national memorials:

Year	Spend (£)
2013/14	529,000
2012/13	269,000
2011/12	334,000
2010/11	229,000
2009/10	230,000
2008/09	391,000
2007/08	854,000
2006/07	714,000
2005/06	130,000
2004/05	N/A

The DCMS-run Memorial Grant Scheme has a budget of £543,000 for this financial year. Grants are available to charities and faith groups, and can be used to repair and maintain war memorials. The Government has today announced that it will give the War Memorials Trust up to £3 million over the First World War centenary period to boost the funds available to local communities for the repair and conservation of war memorials. English Heritage, Imperial War Museums and Civic Voice will together be given £1.5 million over the same period to deliver better protection through Listing, a greater pool of specialist skills, a national register of war memorials, and a network of trained volunteers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle abuse of the immigration system.

James Brokenshire

The Immigration Act 2014 has expedited the removal of over 1,400 foreign national offenders from this country and stopped illegal migrants having access to services such as, bank accounts, driving licences and rented accommodation.

The Immigration Bill will go further, enabling the seizure of earnings from illegal workers, further penalising rogue employers, and extend the deport first, appeal later principle to more cases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department gave to the Memorials Grant Scheme in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Helen Grant

DCMS has given the amounts set out from the Memorial Grant Scheme in each of the last 10 years:

Year	Funding MGS (£)
2013/14	529,000
2012/13	269,000
2011/12	334,000
2010/11	229,000
2009/10	230,000
2008/09	391,000
2007/08	854,000
2006/07	714,000
2005/06	130,000
2004/05	N/A

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will provide funding to refurbish war graves and war memorials (a) in the UK and (b) overseas as part of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry

Following the very successful commemorations to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day we will now be focusing in more detail across Government on how the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 2015 might be marked in an appropriate manner. I expect an announcement to be made later in the year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how he plans to mark the 70th anniversary of Raoul Wallenberg’s arrival in Hungary; what recent discussions he has had with the government of (a) Sweden and (b) Hungary on this anniversary; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Lidington

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK continues to play a leading international role in Holocaust education, remembrance and research. This includes recalling and paying tribute to the bravery, and often sacrifices, of individuals such as Raoul Wallenberg – which includes a monument of him outside our Embassy in Budapest. There are no current plans to mark the anniversary of his arrival in Budapest, nor have there been specific discussions with the Swedish or Hungarian governments on the anniversary. However, we remain committed including in our role as current chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, to working with the Hungarian government to help them strengthen international co-operation to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten. Hungary is currently observing a Holocaust Memorial Year, concluding a programme of remembrance which began in 2012 with a commemoration of Raoul Wallenberg.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time and resources that clinicians spend on administering individual funding requests for treatments of Parkinson’s disease and other progressive conditions; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb

We have made no such assessment.

From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.

NHS England has advised that it does not routinely fund Duodopa (co-careldopa) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and is currently considering its clinical policy.

Clinicians can submit individual funding requests for this treatment on behalf of their patients as per NHS England’s individual funding requests standard operating procedure, which is at:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cp-04.pdf

This process is monitored against the standard operating procedure to ensure that referring clinicians are informed of outcomes in a timely manner.

Once the commissioning position relating to this service area is agreed and service access criteria published, NHS England has advised that the number of individual funding requests from clinicians may reduce.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) males and (b) females of what age group and in which police force area found guilty of an offence under section 14(3) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 opted to attend a driving safety course paid for by the offender that includes instruction on the benefits of wearing seat belts in lieu of a fine in the last 12 months for which information is available.

Jeremy Wright

The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales. However, not all offences are individually reported within the centrally held data. Data for offences under Section 14 (3) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 are reported as part of a miscellaneous group of offences, and it is not possible to separately identify prosecutions for these specific offences from other offences under the Act. Nor does centrally held data indicate the number of offenders who opted to attend a driving safety course. This information may be held by the individual courts in England and Wales and as such it can only be obtained at disproportionate cost