Tag: Greg Mulholland

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on patient access to medicines of planned reductions to the community pharmacy budget.

Alistair Burt

Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services including public access to medicines. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim.

We are not able to assess which pharmacies may close or the number of people who may lose their jobs, because we do not know the financial viability of individual businesses or the extent to which they derive income from services commissioned locally by the NHS or local authorities or have non-NHS related income.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with police authorities on tackling stone theft.

Karen Bradley

Stone theft has a detrimental effect on towns and communities across England and Wales. The impact of these crimes includes both the economic cost to the victim, but there are also wider costs to the community, for example where schools, churches or heritage items are targeted by criminals.

We have received no recent representations from local authorities on this issue, nor have we had recent discussions with the police on stone theft specifically. However, the police are working with Historic England, the Crown Prosecution Service and others to share intelligence and shape good practice in tackling and preventing heritage crime, such as stone theft.

We would encourage all victims of stone theft, whether individuals or organisations, to report instances of these crimes to their local police, so that the crimes can be properly recorded and investigated. The local response is a matter for individual chief officers of police and Police and Crime Commissioners, taking into account the specific local issues and demands that they face.

We are satisfied that the existing legislation provides the police and courts with sufficient powers to respond to stone theft.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what role Ministers played in the recruitment process for the Pubs Code Adjudicator.

Anna Soubry

The process was conducted in accordance with the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies.

Ministers at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills took active involvement in overseeing the recruitment process for the Pubs Code Adjudicator.

The Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise met the candidates judged by the panel as appointable. In accordance with the Code of Practice, a senior representative of OCPA was present at those meetings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department provides to medical practitioners on the similarities between Kawasaki disease and scarlet fever.

George Freeman

The Government published the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in November 2013. The strategy contains over 50 commitments to ensure people living with a rare disease, such as Kawasaki disease, have access to the best evidence-based care and treatment that health and social services, working with charities, researchers and industry can provide.

It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricular to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in both scarlet fever and Kawasaki disease.

Health Education England works with bodies that set curricula such as the General Medical Council and the Royal Colleges to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.

The Department and its arm’s length bodies have not published any specific guidance on the similarities between Kawasaki disease and scarlet fever.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline on the assessment and initial management of fever in under 5s sets out the circumstances in which a diagnosis of Kawasaki disease should be considered, and Public Health England (PHE) has endeavoured to keep healthcare professionals, schools and the general public informed of the increased incidence of scarlet fever through timely information, news stories and updates on the PHE website and by using social and other media. These awareness raising measures assist general practitioners and other frontline healthcare professionals in reaching a correct diagnosis more quickly and encourage patients to seek medical advice early so that suspected cases receive prompt antibiotic treatment to reduce the risk of complications and limit further transmission.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of councils in England that provide doorstep glass collection.

Rory Stewart

Estimates on the number of kerbside collections of glass in the dry recycling stream are collated by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Data for 2014/15 shows that in England the number of authorities providing a kerbside collection for glass was 290 (89% of English authorities). This represented 19,768,943 (85%) of all households within England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 2.256 of Budget 2016, when he plans to take a decision on the details of the Government’s support for the UK bid to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup; and if he will do so in time for the Rugby Football League to meet the deadline of 30 June 2016.

David Evennett

Pursuant to my answer of 13 April 2016, my officials have been working closely with the Rugby Football League and the government is aware of the deadline for submitting the bid to the Rugby League International Federation. The government will make a decision in due course, ahead of this deadline.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what the average hourly earnings were of his Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.

David Mundell

The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly. All staff that join, do so on assignment, loan or secondment from other government bodies, principally the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Government, who remain the employer. Detailed information in relation to average hourly earnings of BME and non-BME staff would be a matter for these bodies. The Scotland office does not hold the information requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with Network Rail on delays to the Sheffield to Rotherham tram-train scheme.

Andrew Jones

The Department for Transport and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, the joint funders of the tram train pilot project, have been advised that Network Rail has initiated a review of the current programme of works needed to adapt their infrastructure to operate the tram train vehicles between Meadowhall South and Rotherham Parkgate.

The Department understands that Network Rail has encountered significant issues with the approval of new bespoke electrification equipment needed to operate the tram train vehicles. The joint funders are clearly disappointed by this further delay.

The current programme showed delivery of these works by early spring 2017, however until the outcome of the Network Rail review is known, no further details can be provided.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps she has taken to support local authorities which are preparing bids for the title of European Capital of Culture 2023.

Matt Hancock

Until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the European Union and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the fall in the DVLA’s revenue from vehicle excise duty between 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Andrew Jones

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) collects around £6billion in vehicle excise duty annually and also recovers almost £30million from enforcement activities. The DVLA annual audited accounts showed a reduction in the amount of vehicle excise duty collected of £93million for 2015-16, a decrease of around 1.5% of total revenue raised the previous year. However, this figure was better than the Office of Budget Responsibility forecasts.

It is widely recognised that the amount of vehicle tax collected varies year on year. The decrease in revenue for the last financial year has been attributed to three main causes; more efficient vehicles emitting less carbon dioxide resulting in lower tax bands, over 10 million direct debits which moves the revenue across months rather than being collected up front as before and a small increase in evasion.