Tag: Keith Vaz

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with which public and private sector stakeholders her Department has (a) engaged and (b) plans to engage in the implementation of the Government’s proposed improvements to the SARs IT infrastructure.

Mr John Hayes

The Home Office ran a Call for Information on the operation of the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) regime between 25 February and 25 March 2015. We received more than 60 responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, the financial sector, and the legal and accountancy sectors. Subsequently, further discussions were held with private and public sector bodies through a series of workshops.

The Government published the Action Plan for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist finance on 21 April 2016. The Action Plan sets out the Government’s programme to deliver a significantly improved anti-money laundering regime for the UK. This includes the replacement of the SARs IT infrastructure. A summary of the submissions received following the Call for Information is set out in the Action Plan at Annex B.

In the Action Plan, we announced our commitment to develop a stronger public private partnership to tackle money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and as part of that we will engage with public and private stakeholders to develop the replacement.

The stakeholders will include law enforcement agencies, government departments, and businesses in the ‘regulated sector’ including banks, the legal and accountancy sectors, and estate agents. We will also include regulatory and supervisory bodies, and public bodies for whom SARs are of value.

This engagement will enable us to ensure that the replacement of the SARs IT architecture will deliver significant benefits for all of the sectors involved in the SARs regime. As we set out in the Action Plan, we will reform the SARs regime, making the necessary legislative, operational and technical changes, by October 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on reducing required variations in the care provided to people with diabetes.

Nicola Blackwood

This Government is working hard to improve outcomes and quality of life for those already living with diabetes and those who will develop it in the coming years. One of our key goals in the mandate to the National Health Service is a measurable reduction in variation in the management and care of people with the condition within the lifetime of this Parliament. Funding has been secured through the spending review to help achieve this and NHS England is developing a programme to ensure that those clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which need extra investment in this area, accompanied by sound plans for delivery, receive it.

In addition, the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework will play a key role in delivering this as it contains two recognised evidence based measures of whether patients with diabetes are being supported to successfully manage their condition (achievement of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence treatment targets and participation in structured education programmes).

Using data from the NHS Atlas of Variation, NHS Right Care is also working with CCGs and other local partners to make improvements in diabetes care and reduce variation by providing hands on practical support.

Since 2009/10, there has been an almost 70% increase in the proportion of people newly diagnosed with diabetes recorded as being referred to structured education courses, designed to help them manage their condition in the long term. However, whilst we know that the data on take up needs improving, there is still much further to go in enabling people with diabetes to access these programmes.

The Department, NHS England and Diabetes UK are working on ways to improve the take up of structured education including exploring how more diversity of provision might be delivered through digital and web based approaches. The Department recently held a seminar with key stakeholders to identify actions that would facilitate improved access.

CCGs are primarily responsible for commissioning diabetes services to meet the requirements of their population. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population, are based on the available evidence, taking into account national guidelines. This should include consideration of access to continuous glucose monitoring for people with Type 1 diabetes who might benefit from it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are currently subject to immigration restrictions which require that they report to an immigration reporting centre.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The number of people with immigration restrictions required to report to an immigration reporting centre fluctuates on a daily basis. We therefore cannot produce a number which would accurately reflect the current population.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve children’s oral health in England through (a) diet and (b) other methods.

Jane Ellison

Our comprehensive childhood obesity strategy, due to be published in the new year, will be looking at areas for potential action including diet and sugar consumption which are risk factors in poor oral health and tooth decay.

The Department is working with NHS England to test a possible new dental contract which will increase access and improve oral health. Building on earlier pilots we are about to move to a new stage of testing by establishing prototypes. The new dental prototypes will continue to test a clinical care pathway focussed on preventing future dental disease. This approach includes offering patients personalised care plans and advice to both patients and parents on diet and good oral hygiene.

In 2014 Public Health England (PHE) published an evidence informed toolkit for local authorities to support their work on oral health improvement among children and young people. PHE also published an evidence based toolkit for dental teams to support preventive advice and treatment for their patients. These toolkits include oral health improvement programmes and advice focussing on a healthier diet and reducing the consumption of free sugars.

In addition these toolkits include other methods to improve oral health, for example tooth brushing programmes and fluoride varnish application.

The PHE report Local authorities improving oral health: commissioning better oral health for children and young people: An evidence-informed toolkit for local authorities is attached and can be found at:

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/321503/CBOHMaindocumentJUNE2014.pdf

The PHE report Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention is attached and can be found at:

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367563/DBOHv32014OCTMainDocument_3.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times in (a) the East Midlands and (b) England.

Jane Ellison

Ambulance services are facing unprecedented demand, delivering over 2,800 more emergency journeys every day compared to 2010 and still continue to respond to the majority of life-threatening cases in under eight minutes.

The Department continues to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to monitor and support performance across all ambulance trusts in 2015-16. In the longer term, NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Review will aim to tackle the root causes of the increasing demand on urgent and emergency care services.

East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust has put measures in place with local partners to address performance issues, including rapid handover protocols with hospitals, a significant recruitment drive, a sickness reduction plan for staff, and working with local NHS 111 providers to ensure that patients are sent the most appropriate response at the right time.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total value is of the contracts Atos holds with the Home Office.

Karen Bradley

The Home Office holds three contracts with Atos.

The first is “IND Procurement of Infrastructure Development and Support” (IPIDS), which provides application management supporting and hosting for major immigration IT systems. This contract expired on 31st January 2016, and a six-month transition period was invoked to provide support for a smaller subset of applications not covered by the replacement programme.

The whole life cost of IPIDS was circa £220 million (exclusive of any additional project charges) until 31st January 2016. The maximum cost of the six-month transition period will be £642,000 (excluding VAT).

The Department’s second contract with Atos is “Contain,” which is a direct replacement for IPIDS. The programme provides continuity for seven major Immigration IT systems, whilst work continues on the Immigration Platform Technology (IPT) platform. The Contain contract allows legacy immigration applications to be phased out whilst service continuity is preserved, and enables new applications delivered by the IPT programme to be brought in without disruption. The contract will run for a maximum of two years, and the total contract value is £18.1 million (excl VAT), which includes run and decommission costs.

The third contract with Atos Worldline is a small G-Cloud Call-Off Agreement to enable passport application payments to be made online; the total contract value is £183,000.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many diabetes specialist nurses there are in (a) Leicester General Hospital, (b) Leicester Royal Infirmary, (c) Glenfield Hospital and (d) Leicestershire.

Ben Gummer

The Health and Social Care Information Centre provides information on the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the National Health Service in England but it does not separately identify diabetes specialist nurses.

It is for local NHS organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many fraudulently-obtained genuine passports HM Passport Office has detected in each year from 2010 to date.

James Brokenshire

The number of detections over the last 6 years is provided in the table below. This data is drawn from management information and includes the detection of current and expired documents. We are continuing to invest in passport counter fraud techniques. For example, we are in the process on introducing new facial matching technology and new data analytics tools to enhance the security of our processes and support fraud investigations.

Financial Year	Fraudulently Obtained Genuine Document Detections
2010/11	825
2011/12	1,096
2012/13	956
2013/14	1,223
2014/15	548
2015/16	1,013

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to make continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump technology available to diabetics on the NHS.

Nicola Blackwood

This Government is working hard to improve outcomes and quality of life for those already living with diabetes and those who will develop it in the coming years. One of our key goals in the mandate to the National Health Service is a measurable reduction in variation in the management and care of people with the condition within the lifetime of this Parliament. Funding has been secured through the spending review to help achieve this and NHS England is developing a programme to ensure that those clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which need extra investment in this area, accompanied by sound plans for delivery, receive it.

In addition, the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework will play a key role in delivering this as it contains two recognised evidence based measures of whether patients with diabetes are being supported to successfully manage their condition (achievement of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence treatment targets and participation in structured education programmes).

Using data from the NHS Atlas of Variation, NHS Right Care is also working with CCGs and other local partners to make improvements in diabetes care and reduce variation by providing hands on practical support.

Since 2009/10, there has been an almost 70% increase in the proportion of people newly diagnosed with diabetes recorded as being referred to structured education courses, designed to help them manage their condition in the long term. However, whilst we know that the data on take up needs improving, there is still much further to go in enabling people with diabetes to access these programmes.

The Department, NHS England and Diabetes UK are working on ways to improve the take up of structured education including exploring how more diversity of provision might be delivered through digital and web based approaches. The Department recently held a seminar with key stakeholders to identify actions that would facilitate improved access.

CCGs are primarily responsible for commissioning diabetes services to meet the requirements of their population. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population, are based on the available evidence, taking into account national guidelines. This should include consideration of access to continuous glucose monitoring for people with Type 1 diabetes who might benefit from it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what type of reception institution suspected people traffickers and illegal migrants who are intercepted by Border Force or other UK government bodies are taken to.

Mr Robert Goodwill

In all cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a person of trafficking, they would be arrested and processed in accordance with the provisions of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 ;at sea, Customs and Excise Management Act 1979; in Scotland Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

Border Force, along with operational partners, carries out a range of activity to prevent migrants from entering the UK through clandestine and illegal means.

Border Force has specific policy, guidance, operating procedures and referral mechanisms to other government departments in order to carry out the appropriate action when an illegal migrant is encountered at a port or other location. Illegal migrants who are intercepted at the Border are processed in accordance with their individual circumstances and where appropriate detained in accommodation based on these circumstances.