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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Oliver Dowden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Oliver Dowden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Dowden on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that information relating to infertility and its treatment is available to those affected.

    Jane Ellison

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have a statutory duty to publish information for patients and donors about fertility treatment and the clinics that it licenses. The Authority is currently reviewing the information published on its website following extensive research and is working with NHS Choices to make sure that all patients are directed to the right information at the right time.

    Individuals with fertility problems can discuss these issues with their general practitioners and ask to be referred to a fertility specialist to discuss the difficulties that they are having in conceiving and the options that are open to them.

  • Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Lifetime ISA will be included in assessments of savings under universal credit.

    Priti Patel

    Further details about how the Lifetime ISA will work will be announced in the autumn. Following this the Government will confirm how it will be treated for Universal Credit purposes.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria his Department uses to determine links between cancer experienced by a current or former member of the armed forces and exposure to chemicals during periods of service.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Ministry of Defence (MOD) provides no-fault compensation for members of the Armed Forces where illness, injury or death is caused by service from 6 April 2005 under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and, before that date, under the War Pensions Scheme (WPS).

    Any disablement, injury or illness, including cancer, can be claimed with awards made where the claimed disorder is accepted as being due to service. Lay and scheme medical advisers work together and decisions are evidence based, reflecting the individual case facts, contemporary medical understanding of causation and the relevant law.

    Awards under the WPS depend on the assessed level of disablement with the method of assessment set out in the legislation and expressed as a percentage. The AFCS is tariff based. The legislation includes nine tables of injuries and disorders with associated tariff levels, relevant to military service. A lump sum is paid for pain and suffering taking account of the likely progress of the condition over the person’s lifetime. There are fifteen tariff levels and, for the more serious disorders like cancer, a Guaranteed Income Payment to cover reduced civilian employability is paid, in addition, from the date of claim for life.

    Where negligence exists on the part of the MOD, Service personnel may make a claim for damages under common law for service after May 1987. Awards are determined by common law principles which, broadly, take into account, as appropriate, an individual’s pain and suffering, degree of injury, past and future financial losses and level of care required. Levels of compensation which include these elements can vary depending on an individual’s circumstances.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2016 to Question 38739, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of children who were receiving School Action or School Action Plus who subsequently would not be expected to meet the criteria for an Education, Health and Care plan.

    Edward Timpson

    Where a pupil is identified as having Special Educational Needs (SEN), schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place. This system of ‘SEN Support’ has replaced the School Action and School Action Plus categories. We expect schools to make robust judgements about who should receive SEN Support; and that these judgements should be informed by an understanding of good practice.

    Different arrangements apply where a child has more complex SEN. Under the Children and Families Act 2014, the legal test of when a child requires an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan remains the same as that for a statement of SEN under the Education Act 1996. The EHC assessment and planning process allows for closer inter-agency working and greater involvement for the child and their family. This helps the local authority to identify and put in place the most effective provision for the child.

  • Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has further to centralise the delivery of acute stroke services in metropolitan areas.

    David Mowat

    NHS England’s National Clinical Director (NCD) for stroke is leading work to develop a full proposal which will consider the evidence and logistical issues involved in delivering mechanical thrombectomy to stroke patients across the country. This includes working with the relevant specialist societies, Royal Colleges and Health Education England to consider the workforce implications. Once the proposal has been developed, NHS England will decide whether the procedure should be made widely available.

    To ensure there is equitable access to high quality hyper acute stroke care regardless of time of stroke or where a patient has their stroke, NHS England’s NCD for stroke continues to work with Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, clinical commissioning groups and the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints on how stroke care is best delivered to their local communities.

    In some places, this is ‘the London type model’ of focussing care in a small number of centres and equipping these to be able to deliver specialist care 24/7. In other parts of the country, centralisation of care into specialist centres is not feasible for geographical reasons. In these cases, alternative solutions (such as the use of telemedicine) have to be considered. Whatever the scenario, NHS England is fully committed to ensuring that all patients receive the best quality of care and the most up to date treatments.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of reported criticisms that official school textbooks used in Pakistan contain references capable of provoking religious prejudice and hatred, whether they plan to discuss with the government of Pakistan the content of those textbooks, in particular those used in Punjab and Sindh provinces.

    Lord Bates

    The majority of the Department of International Development’s (DFID) education programmes in Pakistan support the work of the Governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Both governments are aiming to improve the quality of education, including through reviewing and replacing text books, implementing Pakistan’s 2006 reformed curriculum, and improving teaching standards through regular and better quality teacher training.

    Independent evaluations of the reformed curriculum have confirmed it to be based on values of democracy, pluralism, and peace. UK development programmes are assisting these provincial government efforts. In Sindh, we do not work with Government but rather we partner with the low cost private sector to get more poor children into school. So far 121,343 previously out of school children in the poorest areas of Sindh are now being educated.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions patients were refused access to their mental health records in 2014.

    Alistair Burt

    This information is not held centrally.

  • Lord Morris of Aberavon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Lord Morris of Aberavon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Morris of Aberavon on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Attorney General has approved the rules of engagement for the RAF bombing of Syria, and whether he will be consulted regularly to ensure that such military action is carried out in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    As the Prime Minister has repeatedly made clear, in carrying out any military action in Syria, the Government will at all times act in accordance with the law.

    In line with the longstanding Law Officers’ Convention, reflected in both the Cabinet Manual and the Ministerial Code, I am unable to provide specific details as to the role of the Attorney General in this matter.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-01-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what information (1) the National Cancer Intelligence Network, (2) Public Health England, (3) the National Institute for Health Research, and (4) the NHS more broadly, hold on mesothelioma and other less common cancers covering (a) hospital surgical volumes; (b) hospital systemic anti-cancer treatment volumes; (c) hospital radiotherapy volumes; (d) clinical trial volumes by hospital; (e) cancer stage and grade at presentation; (f) short-term patient outcomes; (g) one-year survival rates; and (h) five-year survival rates.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The National Cancer Registration Service and National Cancer Intelligence Network are both part of Public Health England and collect data on all diagnoses of cancer in England, including mesothelioma and other rare cancers.

    Data on one-year survival from mesothelioma have been published and is attached. The relative survival for men at one year was 34%; varying between 27% and 39% across England. The relative survival for women at one year was 40%; varying between 24% and 70% across England.

    Data on hospital surgical volumes; hospital systemic anti-cancer treatment volumes; hospital radiotherapy volumes; clinical trial volumes by hospital; cancer stage and grade at presentation; short-term patient outcomes; and five-year survival rates are not held in the format requested.

    Data on whether patients have been offered/entered into a clinical trial is now mandated as part of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset, so we anticipate being able to report on this in the future.

    Within the current financial year, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network has recruited up to 80 trials in less common cancers in a total of 124 recruitment sites. Details of the trials recruiting at each site are in the attached table, Trials in less common cancers in portfolio of NIHR Clinical Research Network. The NIHR does not collect information on hospital surgical volumes; hospital systemic anti-cancer treatment volumes; hospital radiotherapy volumes; cancer stage and grade at presentation; short-term patient outcomes; one-year survival rates; and five-year survival rates.

    With regard to National Health Service more broadly, NHS England has advised that it does not hold the information requested.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the amount of energy that would be generated in West Cumbria as a result of the (a) Moorside Nuclear development and (b) Solway Firth Tidal Gateway project; and what proportion of UK energy would be generated by those projects.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Nugen’s proposal for Moorside is for three Toshiba Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, which together have a stated generation capacity of 3.6GW. This is equivalent to around 27 TWh per year once the station is fully operational. This is estimated to be equivalent to around 7% of the UK’s electricity generation needs in 2030.

    No assessment of the amount of generation which could be produced by a potential Solway Firth Tidal Gateway project has been made by my Department as we have not received any detailed proposal for such a project.