The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with (a) East Lancashire and (b) Blackburn and Darwen clinical commissioning groups on the cost of outsourced mental health services.
Alistair Burt
No Ministers in the Department have held such discussions with East Lancashire and Blackburn and Darwen Clinical Commissioning Groups.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the implications for his policies are of the findings of the Annual Report of the National Clinical Audit for Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Arthritis on treatment targets in England and Wales for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Jane Ellison
National Clinical Audits are commissioned and managed on behalf of NHS England by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP). Audits help drive improvement by providing local trusts with individual benchmarked reports on their performance against a range of measures, feeding back comparative findings to help participants identify necessary improvements for patients
The first annual report of the national clinical audit of rheumatoid and early inflammatory arthritis was published on 22 January 2016. The report identifies that although most services offer prompt educational support and agree targets for treatment with their patients, performance against criteria for referral and assessment could be improved. Since the audit, HQIP has reported that a number of trusts have successfully reconfigured their services in order to improve patient care. More information can be found at the following link:
www.hqip.org.uk/national-programmes/a-z-of-nca/arthritis-rheumatoid-and-early-inflammatory
To help clinicians to identify the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and make prompt referrals to specialists, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published Rheumatoid arthritis: The management of rheumatoid arthritis in adults, in 2009. This best practice guideline sets out the signs and symptoms of the disease and emphasises the need for early diagnosis with urgent referral to a specialist rheumatologist on suspicion of RA. For those diagnosed with the condition, the guidance also recommends they should be offered the opportunity to take part in educational activities, including self-management programmes.
The NICE RA quality standard (QS), published in 2013, is based on the NICE guideline, and one of the seven quality statements recommends that people with suspected RA are assessed in a rheumatology service within three weeks of referral. However, whilst providers and commissioners must have regard to these standards in planning and delivering services, they do not provide a comprehensive service specification and are not mandatory.
Regarding the establishment of early arthritis clinics, the configuration of services, including decisions to such arthritis clinics, is a matter for the local National Health Service.
The latest monthly workforce statistics published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre showed that, as of November 2015, there were 563 full time equivalent rheumatology consultants employed in the NHS. This is an increase of 119 (26.8%) since May 2010. The recruitment and retention of staff is matter for local NHS services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the availability of qualified paramedics within the NHS to meet demand.
Ben Gummer
Health Education England (HEE) has worked closely with all English ambulance services through the Paramedic Evidence Based Education Project programme, both to modernise the future training of paramedics and other ambulance service workers to be fit for future services.
The national commissioning of paramedic training has increased significantly since 2013 and in the last year alone HEE has commissioned an additional 605 places on 2015/16 figures, which is an increase of 53.8%.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-20.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which countries attended the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.
Matthew Hancock
44 countries (including the UK) attended the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May. A attach a list.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of NHS efficiency savings on waiting times in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement.
George Freeman
The Government has fully funded the National Health Service’s Five Year Forward View, so that the NHS will receive £10 billion more in real terms by 2020-21 than in 2014-15. This additional funding, alongside measures to improve efficiency and reduce waste will enable delivery of the Government’s mandate to NHS England.
The Government’s mandate to NHS England for 2016-17 sets out objectives to 2020. These include the objective that it should support the NHS to maintain, and where possible improve, performance against core standards in line with the NHS Constitution, and the objective to balance the NHS budget and improve efficiency and productivity.
At the same time, the Government is addressing the longer term issues that lead to increased demand by more strongly coordinating health and social care, increasing access to the services seven days a week, reducing unwarranted variations in performance between providers, and supporting the public and patients to take the right steps to look after their own health.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that the Financial Reporting Council has in place adequate processes to monitor disclosure on climate-related risk.
Margot James
Companies are required to prepare an annual report. As part of this, companies are required to make disclosure on environmental matters containing information necessary for their shareholders to gain a proper understanding of the company’s business, including the principal risks faced by the company during the company’s previous financial year.
With their knowledge of the company, it is the directors who are best placed to assess the quality of any disclosure relating to climate change. In addition, shareholders can challenge any disclosure or its absence, including those relating to climate change, either at a meeting with the board or at the company’s Annual General Meeting, should they feel this is a key risk that needs to be addressed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to embed the Family Test into its policy making.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Officials in my Department have liaised with the Department for Work and Pensions as the lead Department for the Family Test on cross government activity to embed the Test into the policy process. This has included training officials on applying the Test, disseminating relevant learning materials and best practice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top on 2015-12-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many kinship care households they estimate will be affected by the combined impact of the proposals in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill to limit child tax credit to two children and to reduce the benefit cap in each year between 2016 and 2021; what is their estimate of the cost of exempting kinship care households from those measures; and what impact assessment has been carried out as to how many potential kinship carers may be unable to afford to take on the children as a result of those measures and any consequential cost to the state of such children remaining in the care system.
Lord Freud
It is fair that families on benefits have to make the same financial decisions as families supporting themselves solely through work. These measures are being actively discussed in the Committee stage of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill (as the Minister informed the House) and there will be further discussion at the Report stage.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to enable special circumstances to be taken into account when making the decision to withhold pension credit to people who are away from their homes for a period of more than four weeks.
Justin Tomlinson
It is the intention to amend the Pension Credit temporary absence from Great Britain rules from April 2016. The temporary absence rules allow entitlement to Pension Credit to continue where under normal conditions it would not do so.
We are planning for a general rule which will allow Pension Credit to remain payable for absences not exceeding four weeks. We intend to have exceptions to the general rule to cater for bereavement or medical treatment. Where the absence from Great Britain is in connection with a bereavement concerning a partner or close relative then entitlement to Pension Credit may continue for absences not exceeding eight weeks. Where the absence from Great Britain is in order to receive medical treatment then entitlement to Pension Credit may continue for absences not exceeding 26 weeks.
These changes do not affect the Pension Credit rules covering absences from home within Great Britain.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will commission a review into the effectiveness of NHS England in discharging its duties in implementing the Rare Diseases Strategy.
George Freeman
There are no plans to commission a review into NHS England’s implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases. The UK Forum for Rare Diseases has been established to monitor implementation of the strategy across the United Kingdom. We have received a copy of the Forum’s first progress report on implementation of the strategy and this will be published on 29 February 2016 – UK Rare Disease Day.