Tag: Jim Shannon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to encourage school children to participate in rifle shooting (a) sports and (b) as part of armed forces cadet activities.

Edward Timpson

Physical education (PE) is a compulsory subject at all four key stages in the national curriculum for maintained schools in England. It sets out the expectation that pupils should be provided with opportunities to engage in a broad range of competitive sports and activities. Teachers have the flexibility to organise and deliver a range of activities; this can include rifle shooting where teachers have the specific expertise.

The government announced in the summer that it was allocating £50m from LIBOR fines to support the cadet expansion programme. This will deliver the Prime Minister’s commitment to expand the number of cadet units to 500 across the UK by 2020.

The Cadet Expansion programme is a joint MOD/DfE initiative. Cadet units aim to build character, discipline and leadership skills, particularly among disadvantaged young people, through military themed activities. Cadets will have the opportunity to experience rifle shooting as part of the cadet syllabus under the supervision of fully trained Cadet Force Adult Volunteers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups improve (a) screening, (b) vaccination and (b) symptom awareness in order to address geographical inequalities in cancer outcomes.

Jane Ellison

The NHS public health functions agreement, between the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England, enables NHS England to commission certain public health services, including national immunisation and screening programmes that will drive improvements in population health.

Through this agreement, NHS England commissions services from a variety of providers across England. It strives to reduce variation in local levels of performance between different geographical areas using contracting and commissioning levers, while national and local levels of performance are improved or maintained.

The Independent Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, in July this year, and recognised the importance of early diagnosis and symptom awareness to improve both patient outcomes and experience. NHS England has appointed Cally Palmer as NHS National Cancer Director. She will lead the implementation of the strategy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the UK has provided to interfaith peace-building initiatives in Nigeria; and what assessment he has made of the outcomes of such initiatives.

James Duddridge

We recognise the important role that interfaith understanding has to play in peace building in Nigeria.

The Department for International Development (DFID) supports a range of initiatives and economic projects to build bridges between Muslim and Christian communities across Nigeria and break the cycle of conflict. For example, through DFID’s Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP) religious, traditional and community leaders meet monthly with NGOs, the police, security services and civil society actors to discuss and act on conflict issues.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of when lens implants to prevent age-related macular degeneration will be available on the NHS.

Alistair Burt

No such estimate has been made. Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for the commissioning of ophthalmic services in secondary care. Where National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance does not exist on a particular treatment, it is for commissioners to make funding decisions based on an assessment of the available evidence and on the basis of an individual patient’s clinical circumstances.

NHS Commissioners are required to have in place clear and transparent arrangements for local decision-making on the funding of treatments and for considering exceptional funding requests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with both TB and HIV receive joined-up care.

Jane Ellison

The Department recognises that joined up care for people with tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, as with other areas of comorbidity or coinfection management, is important. In NHS England’s specialised services, service specifications exist for HIV and for infectious diseases and both make reference to the importance of referral pathways and network arrangements to meet the needs of patients.

Separate to NHS England’s commissioning of joined up care for people with TB and HIV, treatment and care services for co-infected sufferers take account of the reference guideline, “British HIV Association guidelines for the treatment of TB/HIV coinfection 2011”, which recommends that patients with both HIV and TB are managed by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in both TB and HIV. A link to this guideline is at:

http://www.bhiva.org/documents/Guidelines/TB/hiv_954_online_final.pdf

The role of a TB specialist nurse and multidisciplinary team is essential in the management of co-infected patients.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of when Tolvaptan will be available through the NHS to treat autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

George Freeman

Tolvaptan (Jinarc) became available through the National Health Service following its launch in the United Kingdom in June 2015.

In October, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published technology appraisal guidance recommending tolvaptan as a treatment for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease where certain conditions are met.

NHS commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisals within three months of the NICE technology appraisal guidance being published.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people were diagnosed with primary refractory acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia in each of the last five years.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions she has had with her counterpart in the Northern Ireland Executive on implementing the conclusions of the COP21 climate conference in Paris.

Andrea Leadsom

My rt hon Friend, the Secretary of State regularly engages her colleagues in the Devolved Administrations on UK energy and climate change policies and supported the attendance of Ministers from each Devolved Administration at the UN Conference of Parties in Paris last year as part of the UK delegation, including the Northern Ireland minister for the environment, Mark Durkan.

The Agreement reached in Paris is an historic step forward, committing almost 200 countries to action to which they will be held to account for the first time ever.

In line with the obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008, the Government is committed to tackling climate change in line with our carbon budgets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to regulate advertising by payday loan companies; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government has fundamentally reformed the regulation of the consumer credit market, including payday lending, transferring regulatory responsibility from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the FCA on 1 April 2014. The Government is concerned about consumer detriment in the payday market and believes the FCA’s, more robust regulatory system is helping to improve protections for consumers. It is important that consumers are protected from unfair costs. The Government therefore legislated to require the FCA to introduce a cap on the cost of payday loans – which came into force on the 2 January 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been diagnosed with meningitis in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England (PHE) collects data on laboratory confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) which is a major cause of bacterial meningitis in England. The data do not distinguish between IMD presentation as meningitis or septicaemia. National data on the number of cases of IMD in England are published by PHE based on the number of laboratory confirmed cases.

Table 1: Number of laboratory confirmed cases of IMD in England by epidemiological year: 2010/11 to 2014/15.

	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
Cases of IMD	1,009	730	769	636	724

Source: PHE Health Protection Report, 2015