Tag: Parliamentary Question

Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effects of proposed changes to the way in which drugs are assessed for inclusion in the Cancer Drugs Fund on cancer drug patients.

George Freeman

NHS England has advised that it envisages, under the new arrangements for the Cancer Drugs Fund, that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.

01/01/2023
Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that community pharmacies are not adversely affected by the localising of clinical pharmacists in GP surgeries.

Alistair Burt

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 have been in detailed discussions with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) since December 2015 regarding the Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond, including the proposal for a Pharmacy Access Scheme. In parallel, we also want to hear views on our proposals from across the sector and from patient groups. We published our open letter to the PSNC on 17 December 2015 and on 27 January 2016 we published a set of slides setting out the proposals with a foreword by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer.

We announced on 16 March 2016 that the consultation period was to be extended to allow more time to develop the proposed changes with the PSNC and others. It will now close on 24 May 2016.

Once we have carefully considered the outcomes from the consultation, we are looking to communicate final decisions as soon as possible, so that pharmacy contractors are fully informed some months before the funding reduction starts from October 2016.

The role of the general practice pharmacist is distinct from the role of the pharmacist in a community setting. However, they are synergistic. Pharmacists working in general practice will, in the main, work with patients who have long term conditions to support them with their medicines and self-management of their condition by helping with the development and review of individual care plans. These patients will not generally be those with minor illnesses which can be treated by seeing a pharmacist in a community setting and for whom community pharmacy will remain the first, and most appropriate, option.

01/01/2023
Derek Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Twigg on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 32463, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on his announcement of 23 April 2015 of a special scheme to help small businesses in Runcorn and Widnes using the new Mersey Gateway Bridge and the existing Silver Jubilee Bridge from 2017.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Secretary of State for Transport met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 29th February 2016 and discussion included discount schemes on the Mersey Gateway Crossing.

Officials in the Department for Transport and Her Majesty’s Treasury are continuing to work through the implications of any further extension of user discounts to the cost of the scheme and to the commercial structure of the contracts already signed for the scheme.

01/01/2023
Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has service standards in place for considering fee waiver applications.

James Brokenshire

There are no service standards for fee waiver applications.

01/01/2023
Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar has retained his role as the Government’s Anti-Corruption Champion.

Ben Gummer

The Prime Minister will consider all such appointments, including that of the anti-corruption champion, in due course.

01/01/2023
Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he or his officials have had with UK businesses on the consequences on them of leaving the EU Customs Union.

Margot James

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and his officials have on-going discussions with businesses operating in multiple sectors to understand their views on a range of issues following the referendum.

01/01/2023
Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of doctors left foundation training and entered training posts in core or specialty training in each year between 2008 and 2015.

Ben Gummer

The UK Foundation Programme Office collects data and produces reports annually on behalf of Health Education England and the devolved nations which show next career destinations of second year foundation doctors who have successfully completed their foundation training across the United Kingdom.

Data prior to 2011 was not routinely collected by the UK Foundation Programme Office. Data from the 2015 destination survey is not yet available.

The numbers provided in the attached table are from responses to a survey of outgoing F2 doctors and not all doctors provide a response. The appointments to specialty /general practice (ST/GP) are self-declared by the doctors in response to the survey and are not verified against recruitment data.

Whilst the survey is a fairly accurate predictor of the destination of doctors who have completed foundation training the figures are not intended to be an accurate employment record.

01/01/2023
The Lord Bishop of St Albans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-11-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what research they have conducted into the bacterial infection spread by the Agrilus biguttatus beetle.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Over the past five years Forest Research, in collaboration with Rothamsted Research, has conducted a systematic survey to model the distribution of acute oak decline (AOD) in England and Wales. The results show that the condition currently affects several thousand oak trees, mostly across East Anglia, the Midlands and southern England.

The complex nature of the condition means it is often associated with other pathogens, as well as insect defoliators and the research has not yet concluded whether AOD kills trees or not. A large proportion of the infected trees monitored have entered remission suggesting some level of host resistance. We do not have information at the landscape level on the number of oak with AOD symptoms that die every year.

Since 2013, Defra has invested £1.1 million in research to understand the causes, distribution and scale of AOD in the UK. This includes work to investigate the bacterial species associated with the condition and to understand whether the Agrilus biguttatus beetle plays a role in the dispersal of these bacterial species. Early findings from this research are still inconclusive. There is currently no firm evidence of transmission by the beetle.

Earlier this year, Defra in collaboration with the Research Councils, Scottish Government and the Forestry Commission launched a further £2 million call for research proposals on ‘oak health’ and Phytophthora. The successful bids from this call are due to be announced shortly.

01/01/2023

Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on purchasing bearskins and other associated headgear containing real fur in each of the last 10 years.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not buy bear pelts; it buys ceremonial caps direct from suppliers who source pelts from animals culled as part of a programme to manage the wild population licensed by the Canadian government. Animal welfare standards relating to the bear cull are a matter for the Canadian government.

The MOD also purchases coney skin (rabbit fur) for the Royal Engineers’ and Royal Signals’ busby and fox fur for the Royal Horse Artillery, Kings Troop Officers’ busby. The current contract requires a commitment to sustainable procurement.

Depending on usage and maintenance, bearskin busbys can last for up to 50 years. The coney skin and fox fur busbys have indefinite lifespans if properly maintained.

Calendar Year	Cost of Bearskin Busby Headgear (£)	Financial Year	Cost of Coney Skin Busby Headgear (£)	Cost of Fox Fur Busby Headgear(£)
2005	Not held	2005-06	1,532	0
2006	Not held	2006-07	0	1,472
2007	Not held	2007-08	0	0
2008	31,319	2008-09	9,173	406
2009	148,891	2009-10	0	0
2010	131,886	2010-11	0	0
2011	90,822	2011-12	0	861
2012	126,087	2012-13	1,779	861
2013	65,108	2013-14	0	0
2014	136,671	2014-15	10,257	1,899
2015	149,379	2015-16	2,558	0

All figures are rounded to the nearest pound.

Calendar Year	Number of Bearskin Busby Headgear	Financial Year	Number of Coney Skin Busby Headgear	Number of Busby Headgear made of Fox Fur
2005	Not held	2005-06	4	0
2006	Not held	2006-07	0	2
2007	Not held	2007-08	0	0
2008	35	2008-09	22	1
2009	195	2009-10	0	0
2010	158	2010-11	0	0
2011	99	2011-12	0	1
2012	126	2012-13	4	1
2013	63	2013-14	0	0
2014	127	2014-15	20	2
2015	122	2015-16	5	0

Historically the MOD has undertaken a number of trials on synthetic alternatives to bear skin but none of these matched the properties of the natural material. No trialling has taken place since 2007. Information about costs of these trials is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. In 2012 the Ministry of Defence loaned a sample bearskin to the animal rights organisation, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, to aid its research and development programme on a synthetic alternative.

There has been no research and development carried out to find a synthetic alternative to coney skin or fox fur.

01/01/2023

Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-01-28.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment the Financial Conduct Authority has made of the implications for its policies of the statement made by the financial service messaging platform Symphony that they offer Guaranteed Data Deletion; and whether this statement complies with financial regulations on record keeping.

Harriett Baldwin

This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government.

The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

01/01/2023