Tag: Oliver Colvile

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the level of drugs in prisons.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Justice Secretary is clear that safety is fundamental to the proper functioning of our justice system and a vital part of our reform plans. There are a number of factors, including the availability of drugs in prisons, which must be tackled in order to make our prisons safe and places of rehabilitation.

We have introduced tough new laws which will see those who smuggle packages over prison walls, including new psychoactive substances, face up to two years in prison. Those who involve themselves in the distribution of drugs in our prisons should know that they could face prosecution and extra time behind bars. We have a range of security measures and searching techniques in place to detect drugs, and to prevent smuggling into prisons.

I am looking closely at this important issue, and will be setting our further plans in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support lottery regulations permit to be given to gaming, live digital and other features of cultural technology.

Tracey Crouch

National Lottery funding supports projects within the four good causes – arts; sport; heritage; voluntary and community. The arts good cause covers a broad range of arts and media forms and there are no specific regulations against funding gaming, live digital and other features of cultural technology. Decisions on which individual projects to fund are made by the twelve Lottery distribution bodies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to create a specialist centre for severe asthma in the South West of England.

Jane Ellison

Services for people with severe asthma are commissioned by NHS England in line with a national specification to ensure patient numbers are sufficient to support safe services. NHS England has no plans to change the way it commissions these services in south west England.

Nationally, there are 27 trusts that have identified themselves as providing severe asthma services. NHS England is revising the national service specification to assist local teams in verifying and redefining the local service model to confirm the severe asthma services within each region.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department is doing to narrow the 12 year difference in life expectancy between council wards in Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport constituency.

Nicola Blackwood

Addressing health inequalities is a Government priority. This was clearly set out in the Prime Minister’s inaugural speech in July. Key to this message was the importance of addressing the gap in life expectancy.

Achieving measurable and sustained reductions in health inequalities by 2020 and reducing the gaps in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy are priority objectives in the Department’s Shared Delivery Plan: 2015 – 2020. Action is largely led locally to ensure that the solutions put in place reflect the needs of individual communities.

To address the differences in life expectancy across Plymouth, Plymouth Clinical Commissioning Group and health services have introduced the ‘Thrive’ initiative. This aims to tackle the four lifestyle choices (inactivity, diet, alcohol consumption and smoking) that lead to respiratory diseases, cancer, stroke and heart disease. The work, currently in its second year, is the start of the long term drive to improve health and reduce inequalities in Plymouth. Health organisations such as Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Livewell Southwest and general practitioner Practices have signed up in support of the Thrive initiative.

In order to ensure that health services are supporting those communities with the highest need, the ‘Success Regime’ has been introduced across Devon, which aims to protect and promote services for patients in local health and care systems that are struggling with financial or quality problems. Additionally, the Sustainability and Transformation Plan for Wider Devon includes a requirement to ensure that sustainable general practice is in place for all populations with equitable access times for routine and urgent treatment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress her Department is making on research on the production of diverse forage mixtures to optimise animal production.

George Eustice

Innovate UK, Defra and BBSRC are co-funding the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform (SAFIP), worth £90 million over five years with match funding by industry. There are a number of projects funded under SAFIP on the development of alternative and diverse forages to optimise the sustainability of animal production in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what geological assessment his Department has made to ensure the stability of (a) the sea wall at Dawlish, (b) the cliff at Teignmouth and (c) the line between Newton Abbott and Plymouth.

Claire Perry

Network Rail is carrying out a further study to look at options to increase the long term geo-environmental resilience of the existing main line from Exeter to Newton Abbot. The study looks at the coastal and sea wall elements and the cliffs. It is due to be fully complete in April 2016 with an options assessment report available by the end of 2015. There has been no geological assessment of the rail route from Newton Abbot to Plymouth.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to promote tenant management.

Brandon Lewis

We have allocated funding of £1million in 2015/16 (through the Tenant Empowerment Programme) to support social housing tenants’ involvement in their local communities. This includes support to those who wish to manage delivery of services to their homes and estates by taking up their Statutory Right To Manage.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been diagnosed with chest infections in 2014.

Jane Ellison

There is no national system currently for collecting data relating to diagnoses of chest infections specifically. However, we are able to provide the latest data on patients admitted to hospital with two of the infections that are relevant, namely upper respiratory tract infections and lower respiratory tract infections. These are provided in the table below. The data do not include infections treated by general practitioner practices.

In terms of information on chest infections in Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, data collections systems do not exist to provide the requested data at constituency level.

Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for England. Inpatient Statistics 2012/13 for England.

Summary code	Primary diagnosis and description	Finished consultant episodes
J00-J06	Acute upper respiratory infections	138,673
J20-J22	Other acute lower respiratory infections	192,271

Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre. HES.

Note:

A “finished consultant episode” is an inpatient or day case episode where the patient has completed a period of care under a consultant and is either transferred to another consultant or discharged.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to increase capacity on the railway between Exeter and Plymouth.

Claire Perry

Future rail proposals are being developed with local stakeholders the department and Network Rail, this group will be deliver a local plan for rail investment covering the next 10-20 years. The first step in this process is a meeting of interested parties which is being organised by the South West Peninsular Group, and is due to take place early February. This meeting will work through what is required to provide the South West with greater accessibility and to examine wider issues surrounding connectivity to and within the South West Peninsula.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 3 July 2014, Official Report, column 710W, on pharmacy, what progress his Department has made on the introduction of data-sharing between GPs and pharmacists.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Proof of Concept (POC) project is making good progress. The project has completed the implementation stage of providing Summary Care Record (SCR) access for community pharmacies.

By the end of 2014, 135 pharmacies across all five areas (West Yorkshire, Sheffield, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire and Somerset), have been enabled to have access to the SCR. The pharmacies involved include independent pharmacies, national multiple providers, and representatives from the major supermarkets. Over 1,300 patient SCRs have been accessed to date to support direct patient care.

The POC project team are now working on the findings and associated recommendations. Initial analysis is promising and the final report is due in the coming months.