The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has assigned to providing mental health services for patients with stroke diagnoses for 2015-16.
Alistair Burt
We do not hold this information centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Bahraini government on the provision of medical treatment to Mr Hassam Mushiema.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We are aware of the case of Hassam Mushiema and we have raised it with the Government of Bahrain. We continue to encourage the Government of Bahrain to deliver on its international and domestic human rights commitments and to appropriately address all reports of ill-treatment of detainees. In parallel, we encourage all those with concerns about their treatment in detention to report these directly to the Ombudsman.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to provide additional support for educational studies to young carers.
Edward Timpson
Schools play an important part in identifying pupils who are young carers and in offering them appropriate support. That is why my Department works with Carers Trust and The Children’s Society to share tools, good practice and increase awareness in schools of young carers’ issues. Ofsted inspectors will also pay particular attention to the outcomes achieved by young carers in schools.
We have changed the law so that, since April 2015, all young carers are entitled to an assessment of their needs for support, regardless of who they care for, what type of care they provide or how much time they spend caring.
The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund enables students from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in further education by helping them to overcome any financial barriers they face. With the help of Carers Trust, we have recently improved our guidance to the schools, colleges and training providers that administer the bursary on how they can better identify and support eligible young carers. We also have strong links with the National Association of Managers of Student Services, a network of college staff who have direct responsibility for providing appropriate support for students. We have provided Carers Trust with access to this network so they can agree in partnership how they can better raise awareness of young carers’ circumstances and support requirements.
Around 60%, of young carers are thought to be eligible for free school meals, and those who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years will be attracting pupil premium funding to the schools that they attend.
Additionally, all young people who have not achieved their full potential at age 16 in terms of achieving a grade C in English and maths GCSE at the age of 16 attract extra funding to provide the educational support they need to achieve and progress. Any young carer who finds themselves in this situation will be able to access additional educational support from their school or college.
We also funded Suffolk Family Carers over £111,000 in 2015-16 to run a local project to raise awareness of young carers amongst teachers, non-teaching staff and school nurses, including a focus on young carers’ mental health, supporting Suffolk County Council’s strategy on young carers. We are now evaluating that project.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-05-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department took to raise public awareness of changes to national insurance contributions that will take effect from 2016-17.
Justin Tomlinson
The introduction of the new State Pension means that contracting-out of the additional State Pension ended on 5 April 2016. This changed National Insurance contributions for people in Defined Benefit pension schemes who were previously contracted-out, as these employees paid a lower rate of National Insurance in exchange for contributing towards a workplace pension. These changes have been a part of our significant communications effort around the new State Pension.
Proposals to end contracting-out were first published in a 2011 Green Paper “A State Pension for the 21st century” and then in a January 2013 White Paper “The single-tier pension: a simple foundation for saving”. Proposals went through consultation with employers, pension schemes and their representatives before the Pensions Act was passed in 2014.
In November 2014, we launched a public information campaign “Know the Facts” which included specific contracting-out press advertorials, blogs, fact sheets and digital communications. Our new State Pension resource pack has been issued to over 350 organisations and many more employers, to help support them explain the changes to their members and staff, including the change in contracting-out status for their workplace pensions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-09-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will put in place standardised data collection and reporting measures on autism better to address the clinical needs of people diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder.
David Mowat
NHS England has been working with NHS Digital to develop reporting from the new Mental Health Services Data Set. This mandatory data set includes provision for the diagnosis of autism to be recorded, and reporting on these data has been prioritised. Experimental data reports on the number of people diagnosed with autism are expected to be published by the end of 2016.
The National Health Service is taking action to increase the health checks and cancer screening programmes for people with learning disabilities, including those who also have autism. In 2015, NHS England commissioned the world’s first Learning Disability Mortality Review Programme to support local areas to review deaths of people with learning disabilities and to use the information to improve service provision so that physical and mental health problems can be identified and addressed. Information from the programme will help with what more can be done to support regular health monitoring to address the health care needs of people diagnosed with autism.
In 2015, the Department reviewed and updated the autism statutory guidance for the NHS and local authorities in England. In line with this statutory guidance, local authorities and the NHS should be providing autism awareness training to all frontline staff in contact with adults with autism.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complainants have agreed to special measures applied in court in cases of (a) childhood and (b) domestic abuse in the last five years.
Mike Penning
Please refer to previous PQ 13673. Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service does not collect this data.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to raise public awareness of the risk factors for chest, heart and stroke illness.
Jane Ellison
Responsibility for raising such public awareness in Scotland rests with the Scottish Government. In England, Public Health England (PHE) runs a range of national social marketing campaigns to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of certain life-threatening illnesses and to therefore improve rates of early diagnosis. These campaigns include the Be Clear on Cancer, Act FAST and a regional pilot on breathlessness as a symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure, raising awareness on lung cancer and heart and lung disease.
PHE also runs a tobacco marketing programme with a range of activity that highlights the health harms of smoking, including demonstrating the link between smoking and cancer, and heart and lung disease. As well as encouraging smokers to make quit attempts the activity signposts to proven National Health Service tools/service to help them. These programmes have been shown to have a positive impact on reducing adult smoking prevalence.
PHE works closely with the Department and NHS England to ensure that health care professionals are also targeted with campaign information to encourage earlier diagnoses and referrals.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will estimate the proportion of rebel ground forces in Syria which could be considered moderate.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The Prime Minister, the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) stated in Parliament in December 2015 that we assessed at that time that there were around 70,000 non-extremist fighters in Syria, standing up to both the tyranny of the Asad regime and the poisonous and murderous ideology of Daesh. Since the time of that assessment, there have been significant shifts on the ground, particularly as a result of Russia’s military escalation, the majority of which has directly targeted the moderate opposition.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Crown dependencies on the Government’s plans to introduce a British Bill of Rights.
Dominic Raab
The government was elected with a mandate to reform the UK’s human rights framework. The Crown Dependencies are not part of the UK but are self-governing dependencies of the Crown. This means they have their own directly elected legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal and legal systems and their own courts of law. Although the Bill of Rights will not apply to the Crown Dependencies we have undertaken to fully engage with them.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-09-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Government’s recently-published childhood obesity action plan, how he plans to work with the public health community to ensure that approaches to reduce child obesity are evidence-based.
Nicola Blackwood
The policies in the plan are informed by the latest research and evidence, including from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition report Carbohydrates and Health, Public Health England’s evidence package Sugar reduction: the evidence for action, other government departments, debates in this House and various reports from key stakeholders including the Health Select Committee.
In delivering the plan, we will continue to work with the public health community and other partners to ensure implementation is aligned to our proposals.
Copies of Carbohydrates and Health and Sugar reduction: the evidence for action are attached and are available at:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445503/SACN_Carbohydrates_and_Health.pdf
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470179/Sugar_reduction_The_evidence_for_action.pdf