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
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department is developing programmes to tackle the (a) interconnectivity of domestic abuse and disability and (b) interconnections between other vulnerable groups.
Mr Desmond Swayne
My Department recognises that those with disabilities may be more at risk of experiencing violence, and our work to prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) takes into account issues of violence, including domestic abuse, against those with disabilities. We recognise the importance of considering disability in our programming, through for example the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (to which we contributed £2 million in 2015, a £6 million investment over 3 years), which has this year made a grant to a project focused specifically on access to justice of girls and women with disabilities who have experienced VAWG in Zimbabwe.
DFID supports a comprehensive social inclusion approach to leaving no one behind and to understanding the interconnections between other vulnerable groups including people with disabilities, older people, youth, children, marginalised girls and women, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities, indigenous people, different faith groups, refugees and internally displaced persons and migrants. Many face multiple forms of discrimination and disadvantage with women and girls with disabilities particularly at risk as they live with double discrimination. DFID’s programming investments are based on an extensive poverty analysis at the country level which includes an assessment of the level of access, opportunity and influence of different geographic and social groups. DFID is currently engaging in a Bilateral and Multilateral Aid Review where country offices and partners are being asked to increase their work on ensuring we reach the most disadvantaged groups such as those experiencing multiple discrimination.
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 improve the care of, and better respond to, NHS patients with chronic pain.
Jane Ellison
Health Education England is responsible for providing national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service in England. The professional regulators, such as the General Medical Council, set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula. Higher Education Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow students to meet these standards and outcomes. Royal colleges, such as the Royal College of General Practitioners also have responsibility for developing curricula for doctors and nurses, in particular postgraduate curricula. This process ensures that healthcare professionals have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care, including in pain management, which is a required competency of all healthcare professionals.
Many patients with chronic pain can be successfully supported and managed through routine primary and secondary care pain management services. It is important that patients with the most serious pain management issues are able to access specialist care. A patient whose pain is particularly difficult to manage may be referred to a specialised pain management service. Under the care of an expert multidisciplinary team, patients may be offered specialised pain management programmes specifically and more complex drug treatments.
To support clinicians in the management of pain, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published several clinical guidelines on the treatment and management of different types of pain, such as migraine and back pain, as well as technical guidance on specific treatments, such as the use of opiates in palliative care and deep brain stimulation for chronic pain.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she is taking to ensure that farmers receive fair pricing for their dairy produce.
George Eustice
The £26.2 million aid package we secured from the European Commission has helped to provide some immediate relief. A number of supermarkets have also pledged to pay a premium over and above the current market price.
Longer term, we are working to develop futures markets in the dairy sector to help farmers manage risk.
At the most recent council meeting in the EU, the UK supported a package of new measures to try to help the dairy sector recover.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to ensure that the level of functional impairment is adequately assessed to provide appropriate support for a claimant to obtain employment.
Penny Mordaunt
The Department introduced the independent audit of Work Capability Assessments in March 2015 in line with the start of the new Health and Disability Assessment Service contract.
Audit has a central role in confirming that independent health professional advice complies with the required standards and that it is clear and medically reasonable. It also provides assurance that any approach to assessment and opinion given is consistent so that, irrespective of where or by whom the assessment is carried out, claimants with conditions that have the same functional effect will ultimately receive the same benefit outcome.
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 findings of the Westminster Commission on Autism, A Spectrum of Obstacles: an inquiry into access to healthcare for autistic people, published in July 2016, if he will take steps to ensure that autism awareness training is available for health professionals in the manner recommended in that report.
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.