Tag: Helen Jones

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is from referral to the commencement of a talking therapy course in (a) the North West and (b) Warrington.

Alistair Burt

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) dataset contains information on referrals to IAPT services which provide talking therapies. Information is provided both for Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and for all 33 North West CCGs combined for the year 2014/15.

Table: The number of referrals entering treatment¹ in the year, with mean and median waiting times to first treatment (days), for IAPT services in 2014/15. Data shown for NHS Warrington CCG and all North West CCGs combined².

	Total number of referrals entering treatment3	Average (mean) waiting time to first treatment appointment (days)4	Median5 waiting time to first treatment appointment (days)
Organisation name
NHS Warrington CCG	3,265	31	28
All North West CCGs combined	123,445	44	24

Notes:

¹In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment (an appointment with a therapy type recorded) in the year.

²CCG is based on GP Practice. Where GP Practice is not recorded, or cannot be assigned to a CCG, the referral is categorised as ‘Unknown’.

³In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment in the year. Referral received date not necessarily in the year.

⁴The mean was used as the average.

⁵Means and medians have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

Waiting time is measured by counting the number of days between a referral being received and the first treatment appointment. For 2014/15, the presence of a valid therapy type is used as an indicator of whether treatment was provided in the course of the appointment.

Entering treatment figures are rounded to the nearest 5

Please note: It is generally advised that the median is used as the more reliable measure of average waiting time, as this accounts better for any outliers in the data

Source: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Dataset

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many claims the NHS Litigation Authority has spent on defending claims in which liability is admitted before trial in each of the last five years.

Ben Gummer

The Department does not hold the information requested. This data has been supplied by the National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHS LA).

The NHS LA aims to resolve claims promptly and fairly without court proceedings or going to trial wherever possible. It does not record cases which resolve within one week of trial separately.

The table below shows the number of claims the NHS LA has defended where (a) the claim has been resolved in favour of the claimant and (b) judgement has been given in favour of the claimant in each of the last five years.

Year of trial	Number of claims resolved in favour of claimant	Number of claims resolved in favour of defendant
2011-12	11	22
2012-13	9	32
2013-14	9	34
2014-15	21	39
Total	50	127

Source: NHS LA

Date: May 2016

We understand that the hon. Member maybe asking for the number claims in which liability is admitted before trial.

The table below shows the number of cases in which liability is admitted before trial.

Year resolved for damages payment	Pre trial
2011-12	5,306
2012-13	5,262
2013-14	5,354
2014-15	5,801

Source: NHS LA

Date: May 2016

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to review the health impact of prescribing from online pharmacies; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

As health professionals, online prescribers are regulated by their respective professional regulator. The General Medical Council (GMC) expects all doctors to take account of its guidance on remote prescribing and relevant clinical and other guidelines, regardless of how they prescribe.

Doctors working independently or in private practice, including on-line prescribers, with a business based in England, are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), if they provide a regulated activity and are within scope of the CQC registration. They are required to provide people with safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care.

Online pharmacies, like other registered pharmacies, are regulated by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and are required to comply with the GPhC’s standards for registered pharmacies. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, working in online pharmacies, are also regulated by the GPhC and must comply with the GPhC’s standards of conduct, ethics and performance.

The Department has not recently reviewed on-line prescribing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been paid to accountancy firms for work on sustainability and transformation plans in the NHS in (a) total and (b) each footprint area.

David Mowat

Sustainability and Transformation Plans are local plans and have been developed locally. Neither the Department nor NHS England collects data on whether these plans have been developed with outside advice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2015-12-07.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on its investigations into the operation of the Connaught Income Fund; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin

Treasury Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of whiplash claims each year which are fraudulent; and if he will place in the Library the evidence used to produce this estimate.

Dominic Raab

Information on prosecutions for fraudulent whiplash claims is not held centrally, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Government remains concerned about the number and cost of personal injury claims and the impact they have on motor insurance premiums. At 760,000 (of which 690,000 were for whiplash) in 2014/15, personal injury motor claims volumes are still at historically high levels, being some 50% higher than in 2006 when there were around 520,000 such claims.

The Insurance Fraud Taskforce published their final report on 18 January which was supportive of the Government’s proposals to tackle fraudulent and unnecessary claims. The Government will consider their recommendations closely.

The Association of British Insurers regularly publishes data on the number of detected fraudulent claims made, and the most recent published data can be found here: https://www.abi.org.uk/News/News-releases/2015/07/You-could-not-make-up-Savings-honest-customers-insurers-expose-3-6-million-worth-insurance-frauds

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has made available for training teachers to undertake the new key stage 1 and key stage 2 tests.

Nick Gibb

Schools are provided with general funding to teach the programmes of study, as set out in the national curriculum, to their pupils and to administer the statutory tests. Teaching the curriculum provides the best possible preparation for pupils to undertake the new key stage 1 and key stage 2 tests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the costs to the NHS Litigation Authority of late release of medical records where those records reveal a case to be unfounded; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

The timetable for the release of medical records in clinical negligence cases is determined by the Pre Action Protocol for clinical negligence claims. This prescribes 40 days for the release of the records, or the ability to request an extension to that time.

The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) works with National Health Service trusts to ensure prompt release of medical records and other information which will inform the outcome of a claim for compensation. Often expert evidence will be required to give conclusive evidence as to whether there was negligence and if so, whether that caused injury to the claimant. As claims are often resolved in-house by the NHSLA, any costs which arise as a result of delays in receiving medical records are not recorded separately as they will fall within overall administration costs.

46% of claims were resolved without payment of damages in 2014/15; however, as above, it is often necessary to obtain expert medical advice to determine whether compensation is due.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many coroners’ reports in the last five years have cited over-prescribing by online pharmacies as a (a) cause and (b) contributory cause of death; and what action the Government has taken as a result of those reports.

Caroline Dinenage

Until 31 March 2013 the Ministry of Justice published twice yearly updates on coroners’ reports to prevent future deaths. The relevant information can be found in the links below to the four reports which cover the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2013:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-reports-and-responses-under-rule-43-of-the-coroners-rules

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-reports-and-responses-under-rule-43-of-the-coroners-rules–10

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-reports-and-responses-under-rule-43-of-the-coroners-rules-1984

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-reports-and-responses-under-rule-43-of-the-coroners-rules–12

Reports since 1 April 2013 are posted on the Chief Coroner’s website at https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/related-offices-and-bodies/office-chief-coroner/pfd-reports/

Any review of the law relating to the operation of on-line prescribing would be the responsibility of the Department of Health.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason employees at Sellafield Ltd are treated as being in the private sector for pension purposes and are regarded as being in the public sector for the purposes of a cap on exit payments.

Jesse Norman

The Government has legislated for a cap on public sector exit payments via the Enterprise Act 2016, as promised in the manifesto. The cap will apply to public sector organisations in line with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) classifications; Sellafield Limited is classified as part of the public sector by the ONS. Sellafield Limited receives the majority of its funding from the Exchequer; it is therefore important to ensure that any exit payments are fair, proportionate and represent value for money for the taxpayer.

The specific pension arrangements for Sellafield Limited employees are a matter for Sellafield Limited and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Government policy on public service pension schemes, as set out in Public Service Pensions: Good Pensions that Last (2011), is to move away from final-salary based schemes. The Government is therefore considering how best to apply public service pension reform policy to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority estate whilst being mindful of the particular circumstances of the workforce, in particular at Sellafield Limited.