Tag: Lord Mawson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for healthcare services provided within police custody being considered healthcare facilities, and being funded, inspected, and regulated accordingly, in the light of the number of vulnerable individuals with complex health-related issues who are brought into police custody.

Lord Bates

The primary function of a police custody suite is to provide safe detention whilst investigating officers gather evidence, statements and conduct necessary interviews relating to any alleged offence. The provision of custody facilities, including healthcare services within police custody suites is the responsibility of individual police forces, and Police and Crime Commissioners have flexibility to prioritise resources according to local need.

Both College of Policing and NHS guidance is available to Police and Crime Commissioners to inform their commissioning of healthcare services. Regulation and inspection of police custody including healthcare provision is performed jointly by the three appropriate inspectorate bodies; Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, and the Care Quality Commission.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of their planned pharmacy cuts on patients and health services in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review, the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020-21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services or public access to them. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

The Government’s vision is for a more efficient, modern system that will free up pharmacists to spend more time delivering clinical and public health services to the benefit of patients and the public.

We are consulting the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, other pharmacy bodies and patient and public representatives on our proposals. An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.

NHS England has a statutory duty to ensure the adequate provision of NHS pharmaceutical services across England and will ensure that duty continues to be met, including in respect of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2014-06-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many full-time equivalent general practitioners have been employed by the National Health Service in each of the last five years.

Earl Howe

General Practitioners (GPs) are independent contractors who hold contracts with NHS England to provide primary healthcare services for the National Health Service.

The annual National Health Service General and Personal Medical Services workforce census, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, shows the numbers of GPs working in the NHS in England at 30 September each year. The numbers of full-time equivalent GPs working in the NHS in England from 2009 to 2013 are shown in the following table. The latest available statistics are as at 30 September 2013 and were published on 25 March 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2015-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what impact assessments have been carried out regarding the implementation of the Union Customs Code and its impact on micro and small businesses’ access to simplified procedures, the requirement to provide a six-digit Harmonised Tariff Code and changes to existing transit procedures.

Lord Deighton

HM Revenue and Customs has been formally consulting with UK trade bodies and businesses about the impact of the European Commission’s draft proposals for regulations to enable implementation of the Union Customs Code. Discussions have considered the impact of requirements to provide a six-digit commodity code that is needed for enhanced safety and security purposes and changes to existing transit arrangements which have enabled us to preserve a valuable simplification for movement of goods albeit in a different form. Trade views have been invaluable in informing the UK position, helping us to influence negotiations with the Commission and Member States and in securing agreement to necessary changes where possible. The UCC represents a package of measures to modernise and simplify customs procedures and requirements while also addressing the need to tighten safety and security and fight against fraud measures and its impact is being assessed in this overall context.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2014-05-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how often ministers of the Department of Health visit local communities across the country to verify that the figures in relation to health and social care on which policy is based equate with the facts that people experience on the ground.

Earl Howe

Ministers in the Department frequently undertake visits to a wide range of health and social care settings across the country during which they meet a large numbers of staff, service users and patients.

Since May 2010 Ministers in the Department have undertaken a total of 646 official visits.