Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Moynihan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Moynihan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Moynihan on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the reported exchange of emails between the President of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Russian Anti-Doping Commission, what assessment they have made of whether the composition of World Anti-Doping Agency could lead to conflicts of interest which a reasonable person would consider might jeopardise the independence of the organisation.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    We are supportive of the World Anti-Doping Agency and its governance structure.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, who each (a) Colonel of the Regiment and (b) Colonel-in-Chief is in the armed forces.

    Mark Lancaster

    Lists of Colonels in Chief and Regimental Colonels are shown in the attached table. Where an individual’s rank is below that of one star and their name is not already available in the public domain it cannot be released and I am withholding the information under the data protection act.

  • Stephen McPartland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen McPartland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen McPartland on 2016-01-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the annual cost to the to the Exchequer of all subsidies and reliefs for business in the financial years 2010 to 2015.

    Greg Hands

    Tax Reliefs

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes the Exchequer cost for around 180 reliefs in its annual publication on the cost of tax reliefs. This list includes reliefs provided to both individuals and households as well as businesses.

    The data for the years 2012-13 to 2015-16 was published on 31 December 2015 and a link is provided below:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-expenditures-and-ready-reckoners

    The data for the years 2010-11 and 2011-12 were published in December 2011 and 2012 and a link is provided below:

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121103081415/http://hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_expenditures/menu.htm

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130103073027/http://hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/expenditures.htm

    Public Spending Grants and Subsidies

    Information on ‘subsidies to private sector companies’ is published in Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses. A link is provided below:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-2015

    Table 2.1 on budgetary expenditure by economic category of spend includes this category on page 40 under ‘resource budgets’. Information is published for the last five outturn years.

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  • Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department, NHS England and NICE will publish work undertaken to analyse variation between areas in treatment for patients during the transition from the current Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) to proposed a new CDF scheme.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has advised that it plans to publish analyses of variation in use of Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) drug indications according to geographical areas in the spring of 2016 and then routinely in the future for the new CDF.

  • Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the direct effect of drug eluting stents on the reduction of lower limb amputations.

    George Freeman

    Vascular services manage the treatment and care of patients with diseases related to disorders of the arteries, veins and lymphatic system. These can be managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures and surgical reconstruction. NHS England commissions these services as part of its specialised commissioning portfolio.

    The vascular disease specialised commissioning clinical reference group has prepared a service specification for specialised vascular services. This aims to ensure that services deliver improved patient experience, provide equality of access to the full range of vascular diagnostics and interventions, and ensue that patients are receiving a high quality of service, with access to the most modern techniques.

    Implementation of the service specification for specialised vascular services through the local service review processes is designed to reduce regional variation.

    The service specification can be found at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/a04-spec-vascu-adult.pdf

    The Government has made no assessment of the effects of drug eluting stents on lower limb amputation rates.

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  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they intend to take to enable UNRWA to deliver urgent aid to Palestinian refugees trapped in Yarmouk camp in Damascus.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK is extremely concerned about the situation in Yarmouk camp in Syria, especially given intense fighting between Daesh and Al-Nusra Front in recent weeks. According to UNRWA, the intensified fighting has acutely aggravated shortages of food and clean water for the approximately 6000 civilians residing inside Yarmouk. We condemn in the strongest terms the grave crimes committed by Daesh and Al-Nusra Front against civilians in the camp, and continue to call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians, ensure humanitarian access to the area, and allow the safe passage and evacuation of civilians.

    We welcome UNRWA’s efforts in protecting and assisting vulnerable Palestinian refugees. To date, the UK has allocated over £59 million to UNRWA to provide assistance for Palestinian refugees affected by the violence in Syria and the region.

    The UK has given support to the UN and international NGOs since the start of the conflict to deliver aid to besieged and hard to reach areas and continue to use our position in the UN Security Council to push for humanitarian access to be granted to these areas. We are also part pf the International Syria Support Group that agreed at its meeting on 11 February that humanitarian access would be opened to a number of priority areas, including Yarmouk, as a first step to accelerating full and sustained access across Syria. Since then, UNRWA has delivered 21 convoys with multi-sectoral assistance to 19,000 people in Yalda, Babella, Beit-Sahm, including thousands of residents in and from Yarmouk.

  • would have a less than one in five chance of being detected despite potentially causing more than 10 – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    would have a less than one in five chance of being detected despite potentially causing more than 10 – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by would have a less than one in five chance of being detected despite potentially causing more than 10 on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the statement in the Executive Summary of the Water fluoridation: Health monitoring report for England 2014 that there is no evidence of a difference in the rate of hip fractures between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas”

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The possible effects of fluoride in water have been extensively studied and reviewed over the last 50 years. In the United Kingdom the most recent review prior to the publication of Public Health England’s (PHE) Health Monitoring Report was undertaken by the National Health Service Centre for Reviews and Dissemination based at the University of York and published in 2000. The Medical Research Council subsequently, in 2002, reported to the Department of Health its advice on future research priorities. The US National Research Council reported in 2006 and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council reported in 2007. PHE drew on these authoritative sources in selecting a number of indicators of health conditions for inclusion in the 2014 water fluoridation health monitoring report.

    The chosen indicators of various health conditions were selected based on the evidence base, theoretical plausibility, potential impact on population health, the quality and availability of data, and the validity of the indicator. The selected indicators will be reviewed for future reports in the light of emerging evidence.

    The article by KK Cheng et al did not provide any new evidence regarding hip fractures, but comments on the chance of detecting an increased risk of hip fracture for a speculated odds ratio of 1.2 in a previous study by Hiller et al. 2000. This only refers to a single study and it is important to consider the overall weight of evidence.

    The overall weight of evidence and the consensus of opinion from authoritative reviews do not indicate that a drinking water concentration of 1 part fluoride per million parts of water presents an increased risk of hip fracture.

    A more recent review of potential health effects from water fluoridation was published in 2015 by the Irish Research Board. The report concluded that a summary of the existing literature indicates that the relationship between fluoride in drinking water and bone health is inconsistent, with no definitive proof of protective or harmful effects.

  • Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to lay an explanatory memorandum before Parliament on the ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UK’s commitment to the Paris Agreement and to climate action is firm. An explanatory memorandum initiating the UK’s domestic approval of the Agreement was laid on 7th October 2016 with a view to completing domestic procedures before the end of the year.

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to appeal NICE’s draft guidance on asfotase alfa for treating paediatric-onset hypophosphatasia, issued in September 2016.

    Nicola Blackwood

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently evaluating the costs and benefits of asfotase alfa (Strensiq) for treating paediatric-onset hypophosphatasia to determine whether it can be recommended for national commissioning by NHS England.

    There has not yet been an opportunity for stakeholders to appeal NICE’s recommendations on the use of asfotase alfa for treating paediatric-onset hypophosphatasia. NICE published a second iteration of draft guidance for consultation on 22 September 2016 and the closing date for comments was 13 October 2016. NICE’s independent Evaluation Committee will now consider the comments received in response to the consultation before deciding on the next steps for the evaluation.

  • Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of fatal opioid overdoses in the UK.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.