The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many sexual offences were recorded by police in (a) Lancashire and (b) Burnley in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.
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 Julie Cooper on 2016-05-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students studying allied health professions in Lancashire are in receipt of an NHS bursary.
Ben Gummer
The total cost of NHS bursaries paid to medical, nursing and midwifery and allied health professional (AHP) students in financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15, the latest year for which figures are available, is shown in the following table.
|
2010-11 £000 |
2011-12 £000 |
2012-13 £000 |
2013-14 £000 |
2014-15 £000 |
|
|
Medical |
19,826 |
19,530 |
20,573 |
21,001 |
20,909 |
|
Nursing and Midwifery |
399,366 |
385,371 |
349,453 |
320,586 |
301,307 |
|
Allied Health Professions |
50,296 |
50,275 |
52,759 |
55,697 |
58,129 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
Notes:
The figures include all bursary elements (Basic Award, allowances and one-off payments) paid directly to students or to 3rd party providers of services for disabled students. Excludes tuition fees paid directly to Higher Education Institutions to meet the tuition fee liability of students studying medicine.
During the financial year of 2014-15 there were a total of 90 students studying an AHP course at the University of Central Lancashire who were in receipt of an NHS bursary. It is not possible to separately identify the number of bursary recipients at other AHP course providers in Lancashire, as these are campus based, with information captured as part of the figures for the main site, all of which fall outside of Lancashire. These figures are therefore excluded.
During the financial year 2014-15 there were a total of 773 students studying social work at the University of Central Lancashire and at Lancaster University who were in receipt of a social work bursary.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of proposed changes to pharmacy funding on (a) patients accessing services distant from where they live and (b) working age adults who travel considerable distance to work.
David Mowat
The Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond, on which we have consulted, are being considered against the public sector equality duty, the family test and the relevant duties of my Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health, under the National Health Service Act 2006.
Our assessments include consideration of the potential impacts on the adequate provision of NHS pharmaceutical services, including the supply of medicines, access to NHS pharmaceutical services, supplementary hours, non-commissioned services, individuals with protected characteristics, impacts on other NHS services, health inequalities, individuals with restricted mobility and access to healthcare for deprived communities.
An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.
Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. We believe these efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or public access to them.
Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive. We are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared with others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.
We want a clinically focussed community pharmacy service that is better integrated with primary care and public health in line with the Five Year Forward View. This will help relieve the pressure on general practitioners and accident and emergency departments, ensure better use of medicines and better patient outcomes, and contribute to delivering seven day health and care services.
The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, Dr Keith Ridge has commissioned an independent review of community pharmacy clinical services. The review is being led by Richard Murray, Director of Policy at The King’s Fund. The final recommendations will be considered as part of the development of clinical and cost effective patient care by pharmacists and their teams.
NHS England is also setting up a Pharmacy Integration Fund to support the development of clinical pharmacy practice in a wider range of primary care settings, resulting in a more integrated and effective NHS primary care patient pathway.
The rollout of the additional 1,500 clinical pharmacists announced by NHS England will help to ease current pressures in general practice by working with patients who have long term conditions and others with multiple medications. Having a pharmacist on site will mean that patients who receive care from their general practice will be able to benefit from the expertise in medicines that these pharmacists provide.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to extend the hours of social workers and other professionals required to support doctors in their new working arrangements to meet the Government’s aspiration for a seven day a week NHS.
Alistair Burt
Local authorities are already working with their local health service partners towards ensuring appropriate 7 day 24 hour social work cover. Out of hours social services and emergency duty services are already in place and some local authorities are employing social workers along with occupational therapists to work at weekends to manage safe hospital discharge and other requirements such as equipment provision, to ensure people have appropriate and timely support to leave hospital.
We recognise that providing high quality urgent and emergency services seven days a week requires far more than just doctors to be present, and that nurses, diagnostic staff, and other allied health professionals all play an invaluable role in caring for patients. It will be for local providers and their Local Education and Training Boards to develop workforce plans for delivering seven day services in hospitals which will make the best use of staff skills and expertise. While there may be additional staff needed, we are working with NHS England to make sure we have the workforce we need, including looking at new working patterns and roles such as physician associates.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Burnley receive housing benefit.
Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is published and available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started—SuperWEB2.html
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage schools and students to use Public Health England’s Sugar Smart app.
Mr Sam Gyimah
The Department for Education fully supports Public Health England’s current campaign to encourage children to reduce the amount of sugar they eat.
The Department’s considerable social media reach has been mobilised in support of the campaign. We have been using numerous channels to promote the Sugar Smart app and other materials related to this year’s Change4Life campaign, including the teacher toolkits distributed directly to 16,500 primary schools in England.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures and regulations are in place to ensure that clinical drug tests are low-risk and safe.
George Freeman
Clinical trials of medicinal products in the United Kingdom are strictly regulated by European Union and UK legislation in order to ensure that the studies achieve their scientific targets while safeguarding the trial participants. Before any trial of a new medicine is initiated in humans, the medicinal product will have undergone extensive non-clinical testing, both in the laboratory and in animals as appropriate. The organisation responsible for proposing the trial (the Sponsor) will submit a Clinical Trial Authorisation application that will be reviewed by both the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and a research ethics committee.
The MHRA assesses the safety and scientific value of the trial. A team of assessors will review the pharmaceutical quality of the medicinal product, the supporting data from pre-clinical testing and the details of the trial design and methodology, along with all available clinical data. The research ethics committee will ensure that the participant has been fully informed of all the necessary information about the trial, including information on potential risks and side effects.
All Phase I trials in healthy volunteers are assessed taking into account European guidelines on strategies to identify and mitigate risks for first in human (FIH) trials. In the UK, trials that are identified as being higher risk are referred by the MHRA to an Expert Advisory Group of the Commission on Human Medicines for advice.
The MHRA has instituted a Phase I accreditation scheme for organisations conducting phase I trials, in particular for those conducting FIH trials. MHRA Inspectors will grant Phase I accreditation only to those research units that exceed the basic regulatory Good Clinical Practice standards by having additional procedures that include the highest standards for avoiding harm to trial subjects and for handling any medical emergencies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to implement the conclusions of his Department’s report, entitled Future in Mind, published in March 2015, on vulnerable young people’s transitioning from the child and adolescent mental health service to the adult mental health service.
Alistair Burt
Future in mind, the report of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce, recognised that transition at 18 years of age is not always appropriate and that there should be flexibility around age boundaries, in which transition is based on individual circumstances, rather than absolute age, with joint working and shared practice between services to promote continuity of care.
The Government has acknowledged that the transition for young people into adult mental health services can undoubtedly be challenging, particularly if a young person has been receiving support from children’s mental health services for some time. In January 2015, NHS England published new service specifications for commissioners, giving guidance and best practice on transition from children and adolescent mental health services to adult services (or elsewhere). These specifications intentionally do not stipulate an age threshold for transition (for example, 18) but state that transition should be built around the needs of the individual.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what security arrangements are in place to protect patient data.
George Freeman
The Department takes protection of patient data very seriously. It is the role of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to ensure that high quality information is used appropriately to improve patient care. The organisation has legal powers to collect and analyse information from all providers of National Health Service care. It is committed, and legally bound to the very highest standards of privacy, security and confidentiality to ensure that patient confidential information is protected at all times. Access to information is strictly controlled. Under further safeguards introduced by the Care Act 2014, the HSCIC may only use its general dissemination powers for information where there is a clear purpose for the provision of health care or adult social care or the promotion of health.
The Department has recently made considerable investment in conjunction with the HSCIC and strategic partners in order to create the Care Computer Emergency Response Team service (CareCERT).
CareCERT was launched in September 2015 and exists to be a centre of excellence for Cyber Security advice and Security Incident Management.
CareCERT has sent regular alerts and advisories to every NHS organisation and local authority on a range of Cyber Security issues. This specifically helps to protect patient data by ensuring health and care organisations are prepared and implement appropriate security technology to protect information.
To improve health and social care services for everyone patient information is used for purposes beyond direct care, including for commissioning, public health, research and monitoring services. Commissioners need good information about the types of illnesses people have and the treatments they receive, as well as the result of that care or treatment so that they can commission the services that people need. Information also helps researchers to improve medicines and treatments for patients and to find better ways to prevent illness and treat conditions. Health and care information can also be used to identify who is most at risk of particular diseases and conditions.
The NHS Constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. It sets out rights to which patients, public and staff are entitled, and pledges which the NHS is committed to achieve, together with responsibilities, which the public, patients and staff owe to one another to ensure that the NHS operates fairly and effectively. The NHS Constitution states that:
― You have the right of access to your own health records and to have any factual inaccuracies corrected.
― You have the right to privacy and confidentiality and to expect the NHS to keep your confidential information safe and secure.
― You have the right to be informed about how your information is used.
― You have the right to request that your confidential information is not used beyond your own care and treatment and to have your objections considered, and where your wishes cannot be followed, to be told the reasons including the legal basis.
Dame Fiona Caldicott, the National Data Guardian, is taking forward an independent review to develop clear guidelines for the protection of personal data against which every NHS and care organisation will be held to account and will be recommending a new data security standards and a new consent or objections model for health and care information. The Independent Review is expected to report to the Secretary of State for Health shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-03-07.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of raising the state pension age on levels of tax avoidance.
Mr David Gauke
Information on the impacts of State Pension age rises can be found in Annex A of the Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment, and in Annex B of the Pensions Act 2014 at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pensions-act-2011-impact-assessment
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pensions-act-2014-impact-assessments-may-2014
The department has not made an assessment of the impact of raising the State Pension age on tax avoidance.
“