Tag: Lord Black of Brentwood

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many road traffic accidents in which a dog was injured were reported to the police in each of the last three years.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Department for Transport collates information on animals identified as carriageway hazards in reported personal injury road accidents. However, information on the kind of animal involved in accidents is not collected.

The number of reported personal injury road accidents involving animals¹ in the carriageway, in Great Britain, 2012 – 2014², is shown in the following table.

Year		Accidents
2012		804
2013		734
2014		692

1. Excludes ridden horses
2. Data for 2015 is published summer 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the successful tender for the procurement of the human papilloma virus vaccine will be announced.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Following the conclusion of the contract for the human papilloma virus vaccine, information on the award will be placed in the public domain by way of a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, and a copy of the contract published on the Contracts Finder website at: www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. We expect to publish both of these by the end of April 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-09-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent representations they have made to the government of Uganda about its treatment of Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We are in regular dialogue with the Ugandan Government and Parliament on this issue and will continue to raise our concerns about any legislation which could lead to further persecution and discrimination against LGBT people and which is incompatible with Uganda’s international treaty obligations. After the events of Uganda Pride in August, we raised our concerns with the Ugandan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and worked with leading figures in the local LGBT Community and Ugandan Police Force. We remain committed to working with the government of Uganda and with civil society to promote diversity and tolerance, and to prevent violence and discrimination on any grounds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many deceased cats and dogs have been collected and identified by Highways England since the Department for Transport committed in March 2015 to ensure that it is mandatory for all new and existing contractors to collect and identify cats and dogs killed on the strategic road network.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Backbench Business Committee Debate on 2 March 2015, considered legislating collection and identification of pet fatalities on the strategic road network (SRN). During the debate key commitments were made to immediately make the necessary arrangements to ensure it is mandatory for all new contracts to collect and identify dogs and cats killed on the strategic road network and contact their owners, where possible, and to review how to retrofit the requirements to existing contracts.

The review was completed in September 2015. Mandatory instructions were issued to Highways England service providers in October 2015. Since this time there have been the following dog and cat fatalities on the strategic road network:

From October 2015	Number of fatalities	Number identified
Dogs	39	14
Cats	42	2

Service Providers are required to make a search for a collar or disc at the incident sites. Where the owner’s details are found on a collar and/or disc, the remains are bagged, separate from any debris, taken to the depot and the owner notified as soon as possible to be given the option of collecting their pet.

Where no collar/disc is found the entire body is scanned for microchips. Any positive identification is recorded and the appropriate identification body is informed (eg PetLog).

If remains cannot be positively identified they are cold-stored, where facilities are available, for at least seven days or until the cold store is due to be emptied, whichever is sooner. If no owner has come forward at the end of the seven-day period, the remains are disposed of.

Due to the high speed nature of the SRN it is impossible to guarantee that remains can be fully identified e.g. the microchip may have been lost in the collision. In this case, if the remains can be identified as a dog or cat, they are cold stored and as much information as possible is recorded.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government who is responsible for developing and updating clinical guidance on the treatment of men with erectile dysfunction in England.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has included guidance on erectile dysfunction in the following guidelines:

– Chronic heart failure in adults: management (CG108) published in August 2010;
– Type 1 diabetes in adults: diagnosis and management (NG17) published in August 2015; and
– Type 2 diabetes in adults: management (NG28) published in December 2015.

Copies of these documents are attached.

It is for NHS England to commission NICE to develop a specific clinical guideline on the management and treatment of erectile dysfunction.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-09-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications for the Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean of the recent ruling from the Supreme Court in Belize that a law that criminalised homosexuality was unconstitutional.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Tolerance, respect, equality and non-discrimination are all important UK values. I therefore welcome the recent ruling from the Supreme Court in Belize and hope that, following the appeal made by the Belize Catholic Church, the decision will stand. I also hope countries across the Caribbean and the wider Commonwealth which continue to criminalise private consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex will consider this judgment carefully and be encouraged to make similar updates to their own legislation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many local authorities routinely scan pet cats and dogs that are the victims of road traffic accidents on local roads and where possible contact their owners.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government recognises the distress of owners who lose a beloved pet. The main focus for this Government is to continue to ensure we reduce road casualties and improve road safety. By doing this it is hoped that we can make our roads safer for all users, as well as reducing the risks to all animals.

It is the Government position that it is best practice to scan deceased pets found on the local highway. Some local authorities do endeavour to identify the owners if the pet has a collar or microchip and we encourage others to adopt the same practice. On 26 March 2015 the then Minister for Roads, Rt. Hon. John Hayes MP, wrote to all local highway authorities recommending that they consider scanning any deceased cats or dogs found on the public highway for which they are responsible as a matter of standard practice.

It is, however, for each local highway authority to determine how any deceased animals found on the roads are handled and the Department for Transport does not collect information on how many undertake scanning.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria they apply, and what circumstances they take into account, in deciding whether to appoint a Commissioner to take over the running of a local authority’s children’s service.

Lord Nash

Commissioners are appointed where Ofsted find persistent or systemic failure by a council to deliver children’s services to an acceptable quality.

Persistent failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate more than once within a five year period. Systemic failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate across the board on all key Ofsted judgements.

Commissioners are appointed to direct the improvement of children’s social care services; the Council’s leadership and management of them; and, increasingly, to review whether these services should be removed from council control in order to secure more rapid and sustainable improvement.

Since January 2015 the Secretary of State has appointed five Children’s Services Commissioners.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-09-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have undertaken any follow-up work as a result of the MoD study Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region published on 15 May 2006; and if so, what was the nature and status of such work, and what units were involved.

Earl Howe

No.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the East Midlands Strategic Clinical Network is taking to diagnose atrial fibrillation and prevent atrial fibrillation-related strokes.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team, which has taken over the work of NHS Improving Quality, is taking action to promote the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within general practitioner (GP) practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the National Health Service, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. The Sustainable Improvement Team is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

To support this work, an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF was recently published. A copy of this analysis is attached.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also published a Quality Standard on AF in July 2015, which sets out what a high quality AF service should look like and will help drive improvement locally. A copy of this Quality Standard is attached.

There is also a wealth of information available on the detection and management of people who have AF. The NHS Atlas of Variation includes such data and similarly Public Health England (working with stakeholders) has produced information for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to enable them to identify and encourage poorly performing areas to improve their detection and management of people with AF. The Atlas is an online tool and therefore it is not possible to attach a copy.

These resources are available to Strategic Clinical Networks to help them with their work to improve the prevention and diagnosis of AF locally.

AF related stroke prevention has been a significant area of focus for the East Midlands Cardiovascular Strategic Clinical Network in recent years. Actions include:

– providing individual advice to CCGs in the area, supporting CCGs to implement AF training for GPs;

– supporting CCGs to implement GRASP-AF;

– developing a non-valvular AF anticoagulation algorithm which has informed updates to local AF guidelines;

– developing an electronic clinical template for the diagnosis and management of AF; and

– promoting the use of the warfarin patient safety audit tool.

AF is also covered as in the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network’s masterclass programme aimed at all NHS health professionals within CCGs, local authorities and clinical services with an interest in cardiovascular disease data tools and information.