Tag: George Howarth

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what representations his Department has received from Ofcom on that body’s powers to mandate a gaining provider-led switching regime in the mobile sector.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government is committed to working with Ofcom to support quick and easy switching in communications markets and we will do all we can to move towards a system of gaining provider-led (GPL) switching across the board. Ofcom is currently consulting on process reforms for switching mobile services, including proposals for a GPL model. Under its existing powers, it has already introduced GPL processes for customers switching broadband and fixed-line services. It is apparent from my officials’ ongoing discussions with Ofcom – and from its recent work and current proposals to improve switching processes – that Ofcom has powers to introduce a GPL switching regime for mobile services, should it determine following its consultation that such a reform would be proportionate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what projections his Department has made for the number of people who will have diabetes by 2050.

Jane Ellison

The Department has made no such estimate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the NHS was of treating patients with glaucoma in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014.

Alistair Burt

Cost information is shown in the following table from reference costs, which are the average unit cost to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year. The table shows the costs of a surgical procedure covering one episode of care under one consultant in an admitted patient or outpatient setting and does not include other elements of the patient pathway such as general practitioner consultations or outpatient appointments. It is not possible to separately identify the costs of glaucoma in non-surgical appointments.

Costs associated with glaucoma procedures, 2011/12 – 2013/14

Healthcare Resource Group (HRG)	Activity	National average unit cost £	Estimated total cost £million
2011/12
Major Glaucoma Procedures	2,248	£1,440	£3.2m
Intermediate Glaucoma Procedures	33,842	£387	£13.1m
Minor Glaucoma Procedures	17,194	£293	£5.0m

Total			£21.3m
2012/13
Major Glaucoma Procedures, with CC Score 1+	1,206	£1,665	£2.0m
Major Glaucoma Procedures, with CC Score 0	2,622	£885	£2.3m
Intermediate Glaucoma Procedures, with CC Score 1+	3,167	£1,250	£4.0m
Intermediate Glaucoma Procedures, with CC Score 0	17,410	£451	£7.9m
Minor Glaucoma Procedures, with CC Score 1+	2,014	£773	£1.6m
Minor Glaucoma Procedures, with CC Score 0	19,243	£198	£3.8m
Total			£21.6m
2013/14
Major Glaucoma Procedures with CC Score 1+	1,709	£1,689	£2.9m
Major Glaucoma Procedures with CC Score 0	3,129	£884	£2.8m
Intermediate Glaucoma Procedures with CC Score 1+	3,384	£1,236	£4.2m
Intermediate Glaucoma Procedures with CC Score 0	9,297	£772	£7.2m
Minor Glaucoma Procedures with CC Score 1+	2,142	£680	£1.5m
Minor Glaucoma Procedures with CC Score 0	24,688	£181	£4.5m
Total			£23.1m

Source: Reference costs, Department of Health

Notes:

1. The HRG classification groups procedures into categories such as major, intermediate and minor, according to their complexity.
2. Complication and comorbidity scores describe the illness severity and complexity of patients, and the additional resources required for their treatment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of people with sight loss in the UK and (b) likely number of people who will have sight loss in 2050.

Alistair Burt

The Department has made no recent estimate of the number of people with sight loss, the likely number who will have sight loss in the future, or of the costs in treating sight loss and eye health issues.

Information on the number of patients who are blind or have sight loss is not collected centrally. However information is available on the number of people who are registered by local authorities as blind or partially sighted. At March 2014, the number of people on the register of blind people was 143,000 and on the register of partially sighted people 147,700.

Registration as blind or partially sighted is voluntary so the numbers registered are likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss. Research funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, published in 2009¹, estimated there were almost 2 million people in the United Kingdom living with sight loss and that this number would double to 4 million by 2050.

Information is collected centrally and published on NHS expenditure on `problems of vision’ across both primary and secondary care. In the latest year for which data has been published² for both primary and secondary care, 2012/13, primary care trust expenditure was £2.3 billion. The Department expects NHS England to commission services for eye health to meet any increased demand, as it would in any other area of healthcare. The ‘Five Year Forward View’³ sets out the vision for how services may be organised going forward.

¹ http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/FSUK_Report.pdf

² http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

³ http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the average annual cost to the NHS of the effects of sight loss; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

The Department has made no recent estimate of the number of people with sight loss, the likely number who will have sight loss in the future, or of the costs in treating sight loss and eye health issues.

Information on the number of patients who are blind or have sight loss is not collected centrally. However information is available on the number of people who are registered by local authorities as blind or partially sighted. At March 2014, the number of people on the register of blind people was 143,000 and on the register of partially sighted people 147,700.

Registration as blind or partially sighted is voluntary so the numbers registered are likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss. Research funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, published in 2009¹, estimated there were almost 2 million people in the United Kingdom living with sight loss and that this number would double to 4 million by 2050.

Information is collected centrally and published on NHS expenditure on `problems of vision’ across both primary and secondary care. In the latest year for which data has been published² for both primary and secondary care, 2012/13, primary care trust expenditure was £2.3 billion. The Department expects NHS England to commission services for eye health to meet any increased demand, as it would in any other area of healthcare. The ‘Five Year Forward View’³ sets out the vision for how services may be organised going forward.

¹ http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/FSUK_Report.pdf

² http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

³ http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the likely effects of the ageing population on the costs of treating sight loss and eye health issues.

Alistair Burt

The Department has made no recent estimate of the number of people with sight loss, the likely number who will have sight loss in the future, or of the costs in treating sight loss and eye health issues.

Information on the number of patients who are blind or have sight loss is not collected centrally. However information is available on the number of people who are registered by local authorities as blind or partially sighted. At March 2014, the number of people on the register of blind people was 143,000 and on the register of partially sighted people 147,700.

Registration as blind or partially sighted is voluntary so the numbers registered are likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss. Research funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, published in 2009¹, estimated there were almost 2 million people in the United Kingdom living with sight loss and that this number would double to 4 million by 2050.

Information is collected centrally and published on NHS expenditure on `problems of vision’ across both primary and secondary care. In the latest year for which data has been published² for both primary and secondary care, 2012/13, primary care trust expenditure was £2.3 billion. The Department expects NHS England to commission services for eye health to meet any increased demand, as it would in any other area of healthcare. The ‘Five Year Forward View’³ sets out the vision for how services may be organised going forward.

¹ http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/FSUK_Report.pdf

² http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

³ http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the NHS was of treating patients with diabetic retinopathy in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014.

Jane Ellison

We do not hold this information in the format requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to ensure that the forthcoming single pot funding and new round of European Regional Development Funding encourages economic development potential through science discovery collaborations planned between research-intensive universities and zoos.

Michael Fallon

The Local Growth Fund will be awarded to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) on a competitive basis, on the strength of the Strategic Economic Plans they submitted to Government at the end of March. It is for LEPs and other local partners to put forward the proposals that, based on their local knowledge, they consider will have the greatest impact on economic growth. Discussions between Government and LEPs are continuing, with the aim of announcing Growth Deals in the summer.

For the 2014-2020 EU funding period the Government has asked Local Enterprise Partnerships to work with local partners to determine the investment priorities in their areas. Support to strengthen research, technological development and innovation will be a key objective for the European Regional Development Fund. The next stage is for local partners to work together to help develop a pipeline of projects that will meet the local investment priorities. BIS will advise the national stakeholder group which oversees the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund on whether these investments are meeting local, national and EU innovation objectives.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on allegations that some Turkish Cypriots were denied the right to vote in the recent European elections in the Republic of Cyprus.

Mr David Lidington

We are aware of difficulties experienced by some eligible Turkish Cypriots in the recent European elections in the Republic of Cyprus.

The enfranchisement of eligible Turkish Cypriots in those elections was a positive step towards building confidence between the two communities. It is unfortunate that some Turkish Cypriots then found that they could not vote on the day due to problems in the registration procedure.

Although these problems led to understandable frustrations on polling day, we do not believe that they were due to a deliberate obstruction by the Republic of Cyprus authorities. Indeed, some 58,000 Turkish Cypriots were registered and able to vote.

Ultimately, Turkish Cypriots’ access to the full rights of EU membership, including participation in European elections, will best be achieved through a comprehensive settlement. We continue to fully support the leaders of the Cypriot communities in their goal of achieving this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that reparations will be paid to HM Treasury as a result of damage caused by discharges in the Diego Garcia lagoon in the British Indian Overseas Territory by US vessels and those responsible for causing that damage are prosecuted.

Mark Simmonds

It is not clear what if any damage has been caused by the discharges by US vessels in the Diego Garcia lagoon, and the Government looks forward to the conclusions of a joint UK-US study of the lagoon water and its coral which will conclude this summer. The US have already committed to spending several million dollars over 2014-2016 to ensure that they comply with our no-discharge policy.