Tag: Jim Shannon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what restrictions are in place to monitor mobile pubs on bicycles.

Mike Penning

Licensing authorities make decisions about the sale of alcohol which is governed by the Licensing Act 2003.

Under the Licensing Act 2003, there is a prohibition on the sale of alcohol from a moving vehicle. A person would only be able to buy alcohol if the vehicle were stationary and the operator would need a premises licence at every place the vehicle stopped to sell alcohol. There is nothing to prevent the consumption of alcohol by passengers on such vehicles.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with the Royal College of Nursing on the treatment of prostate cancer by high doses of radiotherapy on the first 20 days of that treatment.

Jane Ellison

There have been no discussions with the Royal College of Nursing on this matter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to monitor and control eye surgery.

Alistair Burt

There are currently no plans to bring forward new legislative proposals for regulating refractive laser eye surgery.

Providers of laser eye surgery are required to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as this is a regulated activity. All providers of regulated activities under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 must be registered with the CQC and meet the new fundamental standards of safety and quality that came onto force on 1 April this year. The CQC has a range of enforcement actions that it can take if providers do not meet the fundamental standards.

Doctors performing laser eye surgery in the United Kingdom must also be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). All registered doctors are expected to be familiar with the GMC’s publication Good medical practice and supporting guidance, which describes what is expected of them. This document makes clear that medical doctors must recognise and work within the limits of their competence

Further work is underway to improve the delivery, safety and standards for patient information regarding these procedures and this is being led by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of depression among new mothers.

Alistair Burt

Reducing the incidence of depression among new mothers is a high priority for the Government.

The Mandate from the Government for the National Health Service includes an objective for NHS England to work with partner organisations to reduce the incidence and impact of postnatal depression through earlier diagnosis, and better intervention and support.

The NHS Mandate also includes an objective that every woman has a named midwife who is responsible for ensuring she has personalised care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and during the postnatal period. This will help clinicians to identify perinatal mental health problems as early as possible and to give women the support they need.

To help achieve this we have increased the number of midwives by over 1,800 and the number of health visitors by over 3,500 since May 2010. In addition, 6,400 midwifery students and an extra 1,000 health visitors are in training respectively.

We are also working to improve the provision of perinatal mental health services which is why it was announced in the March budget that the Government would invest an additional £75 million over the next five years, £15 million per year, to support women with mental ill health in the perinatal period. NHS England is leading a work programme to ensure that this extra money is spent in the right way, at the right time and in the right places. This work is being carried out collaboratively with partner organisations, including the Department and Public Health England, clinical experts and service users.

Health Education England (HEE) has committed to ensure that the right knowledge and training is available so that the NHS is skilled in how it looks after women’s mental as well as physical health. The HEE Mandate includes an objective that there will be specialist perinatal mental health staff available for every birthing unit by 2017. HEE is also committed to working with the medical royal colleges to support specific perinatal mental health training being incorporated into the syllabus for doctors in postgraduate training by 2017.

The Department has funded the Institute of Health Visitors which has trained over 600 perinatal mental health visitor champions to enable health visitors to identify and manage perinatal depression and other maternal mental health conditions.

The Department has also funded the Maternal Health Care Policy Research Unit to undertake a project to develop and pilot test a perinatal mental health indicator which would reflect the mental health care a woman receives at certain critical perinatal time-points; the antenatal booking, the early postnatal period, and approximately one year postnatally.

In line with the approach on other access and waiting time standards, NHS England appointed the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to run expert engagement and produce implementation outputs, for example commissioning guidance and model pathways. An Expert Reference Group has been formed to oversee this work. NHS England plan to be able to make the recommendations of the group public as soon as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful cataract operations in each age group there were in each of the last three years.

Alistair Burt

Data is not collected on the number of successful or unsuccessful cataract operations. The table below shows the number of finished consultant episodes with a main or secondary procedure of a cataract operation by age group between 2012-13 and 2014-15.

Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector

Age	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
0-4	383	423	332
5-9	187	188	168
10-14	128	138	102
15-19	147	153	156
20-24	235	266	255
25-29	331	315	348
30-34	525	542	510
35-39	788	822	820
40-44	1,911	1,883	1,905
45-49	3,803	4,166	4,208
50-54	7,437	7,923	8,554
55-59	13,118	14,283	15,223
60-64	23,605	24,919	26,860
65-69	39,796	43,535	47,591
70-74	53,676	58,908	65,216
75-79	68,836	77,081	85,126
80-84	65,744	72,303	78,833
85-89	39,255	42,602	45,938
90+	13,575	14,883	15,740
Unknown	125	137	213

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Note:

The figures in the table do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the level of staff turnover in his Department was in each of the last five years; and what steps he is taking to reduce such turnover.

Justin Tomlinson

Departmental turnover rates at the end of the last 5 financial years are summarised in the table below:

Year End	Annual Turnover (%)
March 11	6.1
March 12	5.2
March 13	4.4
March 14	5.2
March 15	6.1

Turnover is an important lever in enabling the Department to achieve the overall efficiencies required over the last and current parliaments whilst continuing to deliver and transform the services the Department provides. DWP’s turnover rate is assessed to be manageable and sustainable, and is consistent with current planning assumptions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the UK’s coal resources are used in the most effective manner.

Andrea Leadsom

The UK’s coal mining sector continues to meet a significant proportion of UK demand – in 2014, this was around 20%. In recent years, a number of domestic mining companies have struggled to remain profitable as a result of changes in the global coal market, and the Government has provided substantial financial support to avert the insolvent and unmanaged closure of these mines.

The Government continues to engage regularly with the coal sector to discuss the role of coal as we transition to a low carbon economy.

My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced recently that we will look to limit our use of coal from 2023, with an end date of 2025 and we will consult on this in the New Year. However, security of supply remains non-negotiable and no decisions will be taken which puts this at risk.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that funding is made available to treat prostate cancer with olaparib.

George Freeman

Olaparib (Lynparza) is not licensed for use in the treatment of prostate cancer. It is currently undergoing Phase II clinical trials for this condition.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to control the number of polecats.

Rory Stewart

Wildlife management is a devolved matter, so I can only respond on behalf of England.

Defra’s general policy is that individuals should be free to manage wildlife within the law. In the first instance controlling polecats is the responsibility of the owner or occupier of the property where the problem occurs.

Polecats are protected by the Bern Convention, which means the UK is obliged to protect their populations from unsustainable management and methods of control which are indiscriminate or capable of causing their local disappearance or serious disturbance. We meet our obligations through the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Whilst polecats are not protected from killing or taking, those who wish to kill or take polecats may not use methods prohibited by those pieces of legislation (for example poisons, traps, snares or nets), unless they acquire a licence from Natural England permitting them to do so.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the reasons in the discrepancy between the proportion of granted asylum claims which are made to people from Pakistan and the proportion of applicants under the detained fast-track procedure who are from that country.

James Brokenshire

The basis of an individual’s asylum claim is not recorded on Home Office systems. It is not therefore possible to differentiate Pakistani applicants claiming for reasons of religious persecution and discrimination from Pakistani applicants claiming for one or more other reasons in the Detained Fast Track (DFT) or the non-detained process.

Certification under section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 is not requested by an applicant. It is applied by the Secretary of State in circumstances where the applicant’s claim is refused and considered to be so lacking in merit as to be clearly unfounded.

The number of initial certified refusals for Pakistan main asylum applicants, from year ending September 2013 to year ending September 2015, was 604. The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications and decisions on a quarterly and annual basis. The information supplied on certified refusals is based on initial decisions which do not necessarily relate to applications made in the same period.

No assessment has been made of any difference that might exist between grant rates in respect of Pakistani applicants in the DFT process when it operated, and cases entering the non-detained process at the same time. However, as the DFT process avoided claims involving particular complexity and/or vulnerability, and prioritised cases which appeared to be late or opportunistic, it is to be expected that the DFT would have fewer grants than the non-detained process.