Tag: Justin Madders

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) key stakeholders on ensuring that researchers who are EU nationals and who are in the UK or due to arrive in the UK to work at leading research institutions are supported through any changes to their ability to remain and work in the UK when the UK leaves the EU.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Prime Minister has been clear that she wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living and working in the UK, and the only circumstances in which that wouldn’t be possible is if British citizens’ rights in other EU Member States were not protected in return.

As part of this process, the Home Secretary will continue to work closely with colleagues across Whitehall and the Government will engage with relevant stakeholders.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions Ministers of his Department have had with Ministers of the Department for Justice on the investigation of stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

Mr Philip Dunne

No recent meetings have been held with colleagues at the Ministry of Justice to discuss this subject.

By law coroners can only investigate deaths of a baby when they have lived independently of their mother. Coroners have no role in investigating stillbirths, and there are no plans to change this. If there is doubt as to whether a baby was stillborn or lived independently of their mother the loss should be reported to the coroner to consider whether an investigation should be carried out.

We are providing £500,000 of funding, via the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, for the development of a new system – the Standardised Perinatal Mortality Review Tool – which once complete will be used across the National Health Service to enable maternity services to review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death. We have also asked the new independent Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, established in April 2016, to consider a particular focus on maternity services in its first year.

On 17 October my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced a comprehensive package of measures designed dramatically to improve the safety of maternity care in the NHS, with a particular focus on learning and supporting the NHS to become the world’s largest learning organisation. The announcement introduced the commitment to consult on a new voluntary alternative to litigation for families affected by severe birth injury (Rapid Resolution and Redress (RRR)).

RRR will provide an independent and thorough investigation of all instances of severe avoidable birth injury (around 500 cases per year), and for eligible cases the option to join an alternative system of compensation that offers support and regular payments without the need to bring a claim through the courts. We will be consulting to ensure the policy design best meets the needs of families.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure that weekday services to the NHS are not compromised as a result of a seven day service.

Ben Gummer

It is for local providers and commissioners to develop plans for delivering more seven day services in hospitals, whilst maintaining standards of care on weekdays. The Care Quality Commission will continue to monitor, inspect and regulate hospitals to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety on all seven days of the week.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that Health Education England implements the recommendations on the training of workforce contained in the report of the Independent Cancer Taskforce, Achieving World Class Cancer Outcomes.

Jane Ellison

NHS England is currently working with partners across the health system to determine how best to take forward the recommendations in the independent Cancer Taskforce’s report, Achieving world-class cancer outcomes: a strategy for England 2015 to 2020, and has appointed Cally Palmer CBE as NHS National Cancer Director to lead on managing implementation. She is currently setting up a new Cancer Transformation Board to lead the roll-out of the recommendations of the new strategy, including on workforce, and a Cancer Advisory Group, chaired by Dr Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, will oversee and scrutinise their work.

We announced in September that Health Education England (HEE) is developing a new national training programme for an additional 200 staff to get the skills and expertise to carry out endoscopies by 2018. The content of the next mandate from the Government to HEE is currently being determined.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the financial monitoring and accounts returns submitted to his Department, which NHS (a) trusts and (b) foundation trusts have reported that their planned agency nursing spend (i) will and (ii) will not exceed the ceiling trajectory set by Monitor.

Alistair Burt

Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority have confirmed that they plan to publish data on the implementation of the agency caps in coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of staff retention in the NHS of his decision to impose a new contract on junior doctors.

Ben Gummer

Senior National Health Service leaders have advised that the new contract, 90% of which was agreed with the British Medical Association, will be fair and reasonable for doctors in training and for the service and will be safer for patients. We believe that this, and the fact that the new contract will better support training, will be clear to individual junior doctors from the details that have been sent to them all. The contract includes specific provisions to ensure recruitment and retention in hard-to-fill training programmes, and the groups to which this applies will be kept under review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 24 of the interim report of the Accelerated Access Review, published in October 2015, what steps he is taking to ensure that drugs that target the genetically validated targets (a) PCSK9 and (b) BCL2 are introduced into routine NHS care; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The Accelerated Access Review, chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, will make recommendations to government on reforms to accelerate access for National Health Service patients to innovative medicines and medical technologies making our country the best place in the world to design, develop and deploy these products. The terms of the reference for the review focus on faster access to innovations, which may include drugs that target genetically validated targets such as PCSK9 and BCL2.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve recruitment and retention in the ambulance service.

Jane Ellison

Recruitment and retention of ambulance service staff is the responsibility of individual ambulance trusts. Many are taking direct action in this area now with national and international recruitment campaigns.

There are almost 2,000 additional paramedics in the system now than in 2010 and we are training another 1,900 over the next five years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the sources of public finance will be for Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints; whether each such footprint will have separate accounts; and whether such footprints will have the ability to borrow.

George Freeman

Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprints are not statutory entities and therefore will not have the ability to borrow. As set out in the NHS England Board paper in December 2015, organisations covered by the STP footprints may collectively apply to operate using a system control total.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish his review of employment tribunal fees.

Dominic Raab

We will announce the conclusions of our review of fees in the Employment Tribunals in due course.