Tag: Lord Black of Brentwood

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the number of people in the UK who suffer from Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Lord Prior of Brampton

No assessment has been made of the number of people in the United Kingdom who suffer from Charles Bonnet syndrome.

However, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) estimate there are more than 100,000 cases of Charles Bonnet Syndrome in the UK.

To raise awareness, the NHS Choices website provides information on Charles Bonnet Syndrome. This can be found at:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/charles-bonnet-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx.

A copy of this web page is attached.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action NHS Improving Quality is taking to increase the number of general practitioner practices using the GRASP-AF tool.

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the National Institute for Health Research expects project HTA-14/141/01 on screening strategies for atrial fibrillation to be published.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The final report from this project is expected to be published in spring 2017 at the earliest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to amend road traffic legislation to make it compulsory for drivers who run over a cat to report it to the police.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government has no plans to amend the legislation.

The Highway Code advises drivers to report any accident involving an animal to the police, which I hope would lead to domestic animal owners whose animals are killed in road accidents being made aware of their loss.

The police also advise drivers that, if possible, they should make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals, such as cats, and advise them of the situation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 23 July 2015 (HL1549), when they expect to publish proposals regarding the repeal of section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 in the light of the consultation on the balance of payments between television platforms and public service broadcasters, and what is the reason for the delay in publication.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Government intends to publish its response to the Balance of Payments consultation in the coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will introduce an indicator on the use of manual pulse checks to screen for atrial fibrillation.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The decision on which indicators should be included in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is decided through annual negotiations. In England, NHS Employers on behalf of NHS England, and the General Practitioners’ Committee on behalf of the British Medical Association, decide which indicators are included within the QOF.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for producing a menu of indicators suitable for inclusion in the QOF.

NICE has advised that, in February 2016, it consulted on potential new indicators for the NICE indicators menu, including two new indicators on the use of manual pulse checks for atrial fibrillation. The NICE indicators advisory committee will review feedback to the consultation at its next meeting on 13 June 2016 and the outcome of this review will determine future work in this area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made any assessment of the impact of the criminalisation of homosexuality by Commonwealth countries on economic development and business investment in those countries.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We have not carried out a specific assessment of the impact of the criminalisation of homosexuality on economic development and business investment in Commonwealth countries. However, we welcomed the reports of the Williams Institute of November 2014 and the recent report from the Human Dignity Trust of November 2015 which clearly set out the economic case for the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

We are committed to combating discrimination and violence against Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) throughout the Commonwealth. We utilised every opportunity at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to highlight our belief that the Commonwealth must stand up for human rights, including LGB&T rights, around the world. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), made this clear during an intervention at the retreat and subsequently in his press statement. Additionally, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International Development, the noble Baroness Verma, also spoke in favour of addressing LGB&T issues while chairing a session at the People’s Forum. We look forward to working with the new Commonwealth Secretary-General on this issue when she takes up her position in April 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will make representations to the government of Slovenia about the case of Bostjan Bozic and the issues it raises under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We are aware of the case of Slovenian photo journalist Jani Bozic who was given a five month suspended prison sentence by a Slovenian court in March 2015 for invasion of privacy of then Slovenian Prime Minister Bratusek. In all cases, we would expect the Slovenian government to meet its international obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the life-time cost of providing medication and care for an individual diagnosed with HIV at the age of 35.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This information is not available as data is not held on the differential cost of patients based on their disease severity or age. In 2014/15, NHS England provided over £553 million of funding for the care and treatment of around 78,000 diagnosed HIV patients.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-12-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made any assessment of the cost of energy bills to people served by District Heating Networks.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

In March 2015 DECC published a report by AECOM titled ‘An Assessment of the Costs, Performance, and Characteristics of UK Heat Networks’. The report included a review of the prices charged to final customers by a representative sample of heat networks (7 in total). The average heat price was found to be 6.43p/kWh but with a wide range of 4.64 to 9.88 p/kWh reflecting differences in network design, construction, commissioning and operation. On average this is less than the modelled cost of gas central heating in flats and terraced houses when boiler ownership costs are included (7.22 to 10.24p/kWh).

The Government is aware that costs to the consumer can vary and achieving cost savings is dependent on the quality of the individual network. DECC has supported industry development of a technical code of practice for heat networks, and worked closely with industry and consumer groups on the development of Heat Trust, an independent consumer protection scheme that launched in November 2015. There are also plans to launch an on-line cost comparator tool in 2016 to allow a consumer to assess their charges against gas central heating. This greater transparency of heat charges is complemented by the billing information requirements in the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014.