Tag: Debbie Abrahams

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the (a) Competition Commission and (b) Office of Fair Trading spent on assessing mergers in the NHS in (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14.

Jo Swinson

The Competition Commission’s (CC’s) inquiry into the proposed merger between Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals Foundation Trust and Poole Hospital Foundation Trust, which was concluded in 2013/14, was the Commission’s only assessment of an NHS Foundation Trust merger. The cost of this inquiry was £710,000, which includes the cost of the staff on the inquiry amounting to £639,000 and direct costs of £71,000 (including survey costs).

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) did not collect specific information on the resources used in considering mergers involving NHS Foundation Trusts. However, the average approximate cost involved in scrutiny of a merger by the OFT was £20,000; in total, the OFT considered four mergers involving NHS Foundation Trusts in 2012-13 and 2013-14, of which only one was referred for further scrutiny by the CC.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to promote access to justice.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Government’s overall reform programme to promote access to justice aims to deliver a simpler justice system that is more accessible to the public; limit the scope for inappropriate litigation and the involvement of lawyers in issues which do not need legal input; and support people in resolving their disputes through simpler, more informal remedies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-05-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff are employed in (a) his Department, (b) NHS England and (c) Monitor to undertake work on or relating to competition issues; and what the cost of employing such staff was in each of the last five years.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The following table lists the number of staff currently employed to work on competition issues in the Department, NHS England and Monitor.

The level of spend on employing staff to work on competition issues in each of the last five years could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Organisation	Number of Staff Employed	Cost of employing such staff in 2013-14
Department of Health	2	£98,760-£121,8141
NHS England	0 full time posts	n/a
Monitor2	30	£1,588,554

Notes:

¹ The figures shown are the combined cost of the paybands for the 2 staff.

²Monitor’s competition functions were established by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. In the transition year 2012-13 Monitor hosted the Cooperation and Competition Panel at a cost of £1,068,099

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions his Department has had with the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust on its emergency ambulance cover.

Jane Ellison

There have been no recent discussions between the Department and the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust on these matters. Decisions about ambulance services are a local matter and it is for clinical commissioning groups to ensure appropriate services are provided to their populations.

Patients have a right to high quality and reliable urgent and emergency care, whenever they call on it, and we expect all ambulance trusts to provide this.

The North West Ambulance Service met the three ambulance performance standards for 2013-14 and in April 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions his Department has had with the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust on its ability to meet emergency 999 calls in the Greater Manchester area.

Jane Ellison

There have been no recent discussions between the Department and the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust on these matters. Decisions about ambulance services are a local matter and it is for clinical commissioning groups to ensure appropriate services are provided to their populations.

Patients have a right to high quality and reliable urgent and emergency care, whenever they call on it, and we expect all ambulance trusts to provide this.

The North West Ambulance Service met the three ambulance performance standards for 2013-14 and in April 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the quality of emergency ambulance cover in the North West.

Jane Ellison

There have been no recent discussions between the Department and the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust on these matters. Decisions about ambulance services are a local matter and it is for clinical commissioning groups to ensure appropriate services are provided to their populations.

Patients have a right to high quality and reliable urgent and emergency care, whenever they call on it, and we expect all ambulance trusts to provide this.

The North West Ambulance Service met the three ambulance performance standards for 2013-14 and in April 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many full-time equivalent employees of his Department are engaged in forward planning to 2030 for end-of-life care.

Norman Lamb

There are currently 2.9 full time equivalent staff in the Department working exclusively on policy areas in Domain 2 of the NHS Outcomes Framework, which includes end of life care.

Since April 2013, NHS England has been responsible for delivering improvements in end of life care, with Public Health England responsible for providing information and data on this policy area.

Forward planning for future end of life care needs is considered by all three organisations as part of their responsibility for policy development.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with train operating companies in Greater Manchester on last minute reductions in train configurations.

Stephen Hammond

The franchise agreement between the Government and each individual train operator includes benchmarks in key performance areas. The Department monitors each train operator’s overall performance against these areas every four weeks and there are clear actions set out in the franchise agreement should performance drop below what is expected. This regular monitoring includes monthly meetings with their senior management where performance figures are scrutinised and challenged.

Short-forming (last minute reductions in train configurations) is included in this monitoring, and therefore in the monthly meetings. It is the train operator that decides on whether a service is to be short-formed, and if contractual benchmark figures are breached, the Department does take enforcement action.

Some services in Greater Manchester are sponsored and specified by Transport for Greater Manchester, who also monitor the performance of the operators concerned.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many redundancy payments have been recovered from NHS staff who have been made redundant and subsequently re-employed by an NHS organisation in each of the last three years.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Department does not hold information relating to the recovery of payments from National Health Service staff made redundant and subsequently re-employed by an NHS organisation.

This information will be held locally by NHS organisations.

The NHS is set to save £5.5 billion this Parliament and £1.5 billion each year thereafter, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and freeing up extra resources for patient care.