Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) hon. Members, (b) members of the local authority and (c) the public are consulted about the sustainability and transformation plans being developed for Warrington and its surrounding area.

    Mr Jeremy Hunt

    We acknowledge that local government are vital in helping to set the strategic direction of health and care service development locally.

    The March guidance to Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) leads clarified that submissions should state how:

    – partnership arrangements should include local government and explain fit with existing plans, including Health and Wellbeing Strategies and Joint Strategic Needs Assessments;

    – systems will work with local government to deliver prevention and public health improvements; and

    – the footprint will engage other employers, working with local government, to improve health and wellbeing of local people.

    At a regional level, National Health Service arm’s length bodies (ALBs) have:

    – worked initially with local authority colleagues to agree footprints and STP leadership;

    – offered membership of the four new regional STP boards to Local Government Association representatives (including the potential for involvement in the assessment of initial returns); and

    – asked their regional colleagues to continue to work with the STP footprints in their area to encourage them to reflect the knowledge, expertise and experience of local government colleagues where appropriate, e.g. Health and Wellbeing Board leads’ insight into the plans for, and effects on, the local system.

    As set out in the NHS Shared Planning Guidance, published in December 2015, the success of STPs will depend on having an open, engaging, and iterative process that involves patients, carers, citizens, clinicians, local community partners, parliamentarians, the independent and voluntary sectors, and local government through health and wellbeing boards. The arm’s length bodies responsible for the NHS Five Year Forward View – NHS England, NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission, Public Health England, Health Education England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – have asked for local engagement plans as part of the STP process, building where appropriate on existing engagement through health and wellbeing boards and other local arrangements. Where plans propose service changes, formal consultation will follow in due course in line with good practice and legislative requirements. The arm’s length bodies will be holding conversations with each area to assess their plans for local engagement.

  • William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has for road investment in the north of England.

    Mr John Hayes

    This Government is committing a total of £15.2 billion in the enhancement and long-term maintenance of the Strategic Road Network between 2015/16 and 2020/21 including 127 major schemes. Of these there are 42 schemes for the North of England with a value of £2.9 billion investment.

    On the local road network, we have been providing significant investment for roads in the North. This includes eight schemes completed including the Crewe Green Link Road, five under construction including the Heysham-M6 Link Road and the Mersey Gateway Bridge, as well as a further five which are under development. In addition we are currently considering further bids for development funding for large schemes on the local network, including the A6 to M60 Relief Road Scheme. These bids are currently being assessed and the successful schemes will be announced in the autumn.

  • Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps her Department is taking to implement the family test.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014. The Department of Works and Pensions published guidance for Departments and officials on how the test should be applied when formulating policy and my Department follows that guidance.

    The Family Test is an integral part of the policy making process and is applied in a proportionate way in the development of all new policy in line with the Family Test guidance. While the guidance states that departments should consider publishing assessments carried out under the Test, there is no requirement to do so.

  • Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of the £1.7 billion of capital spending on flood defences between 2010 and 2015 was disbursed in each of those years.

    Rory Stewart

    The following table sets out the capital spend on flood and coastal erosion risk management between 2010/11 and 2014/15.

    Year

    Capital Funding (£m)

    2010/11

    365

    2011/12

    261

    2012/13

    269

    2013/14

    315

    2014/15

    478
  • Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws on 2016-01-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the letter by Lord Bates to Lord Rosser on 8 January (DEP2016–0028) and the remarks by Lords Bates on 18 January (HL Deb, col 624), which immigration offences led, following conviction, to the forfeiture of assets totalling £966,024 in 2014–15; and how much was forfeited in total for each offence.

    Lord Bates

    There were 16 confiscation orders amounting to £966,024, these are broken down to the following offences.

    Offence

    Amount

    Forgery and Counterfeiting

    £162,997.55

    Facilitation investigation

    £10,665.95

    Sham Marriage – assisting unlawful immigration

    £85,519.29

    Fraud and Money Laundering

    £2.00

    Conspiracy to Facilitate a Breach of Immigration Law

    £25,466.62

    Conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration

    £330,352.72

    Fraud by false representation

    £1,020.32

    Assisting Unlawful Immigration into the UK

    £350,000.00

    In the case of Money Laundering, the small total is because of nominal confiscation orders. A nominal confiscation order for a small amount (such as £1), may be imposed where the court finds that the defendant has benefitted from his criminal conduct, but has no realisable assets. If circumstances change then the order can be revisited.

  • Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people under the age of 18 have epilepsy.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department does not collect this information centrally. The Joint Epilepsy Council in Epilepsy prevalence, incidence and other statistics, (December 2011) estimated that around one in 220 (0.5%) children under the age of 18 have epilepsy in the United Kingdom.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, in how many areas the NHS provides mental health services that are targeted at black men; and what types of service provision are so targeted.

    Alistair Burt

    The information is not held centrally.

    We are committed to ensuring fair and equitable mental health care services for all, which includes all black and minority ethnic (BME) communities. NHS England published The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report by the independent Mental Health Taskforce last month, which clearly outlines action to be taken nationally, regionally, and locally to help improve mental health services for BME communities in England.

  • Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust has a Risk Register covering staffing at the Accident and Emergency department at Chorley and South Ribble District Hospital.

    Ben Gummer

    These are operational matters for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and we have written to Stuart Heys, Chair of the Trust informing him of the hon. Member’s questions. He will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the income tax paid each year by EU nationals who remain in the UK for less than one year in each of the last three years.

    Damian Hinds

    The information requested is not available.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, by what mechanisms (a) clinicians and (b) patients can request NHS England review specialised services commissioning policies that previously conferred a not routinely commissioned status to procedures (i) as part of the Commissioning through Evaluation Programme and (ii) in general.

    David Mowat

    Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE) is an innovative £25 million programme introduced by NHS England in 2013. It specifically aims to generate valuable new evaluation data in promising areas of specialised care where the current evidence base of cost and clinical effectiveness is insufficient to support routine National Health Service commissioning, and where further formal research trials are thought to be less likely.

    Each scheme – put forward by senior clinicians and other stakeholders – is funded on a time limited basis in a small number of selected centres, and then evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

    Once the planned number of patients has been recruited across the participating centres, each scheme closes to new patients and analysis begins. This means that the funding identified for each scheme can then be reinvested into the evaluation of additional potentially life changing specialised treatments to maximise the value and impact of the overall evaluation fund for patients. As an example, routinely funding Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy contrary to the currently published clinical commissioning policy and in advance of a formal review of any new evidence would mean that between £2 million and £4 million per year (covering the surgical costs and immediate follow up only) would then be unavailable to support the evaluation of other promising treatments.

    The analysis phase for each CtE scheme will typically take between one and two years depending on how long we need to follow up patients after their treatment to identify its effectiveness. The three cardiology based CtE schemes are currently scheduled for a 15 month analysis and reporting phase, after which the data can be used by NHS England to support policy review.

    However, CtE is only one form of data that might be put forward in considering a new (or revision to an existing) policy and clinicians do not need to await the final report from CtE schemes if they feel that other new substantive data becomes available more quickly.

    NHS England’s published clinical commissioning policies (which set out eligibility for NHS funded specialised care on the basis of the available evidence) can be reviewed at any time where there is thought to be substantive new evidence available, and around 100 such proposals were developed and considered by NHS England during 2016/17.

    The policy development process is subject to both informal stakeholder testing and formal public consultation, including the opportunity for patients, clinicians and industry representatives to review and comment on the evidence base considered and the assessed impact on patients, existing services and cost.

    Where a new service is routinely commissioned as a result of a policy review, NHS England works with commissioned providers to ensure that sufficient clinical expertise and supporting infrastructure is in place to provide a safe service to patients in line with nationally set requirements.