Tag: Parliamentary Question

Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when (a) her Department and (b) the contractor G4S became aware of concerns that asylum seekers were being housed in properties with doors that are all uniform or nearly uniform in colour.

James Brokenshire

Home Office officials are working closely with our housing providers to ensure that asylum seeker accommodation is not easily identifiable. I am not aware of a uniform door colour being the practice in any other region. My officials have also spoken to our housing providers to tell them that such a practice is not acceptable.

I was first made aware of this issue when The Times contacted the Home Office in mid-January. G4S has investigated correspondence and discussions on the issue of external door colour in the North East and has confirmed that it was raised in 2012 by a Middlesbrough local councillor and was considered by the G4S audit and assurance team, no complaints from asylum seekers relating to this matter were found and a response was issued.

As I said to the House on 20 January, I instructed officials to look into this issue as a matter of urgency and I expect that the audit will be concluded on the Home Office side very shortly.

01/01/2023
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether NHS Improvement, in commissioning management consultancies to work with turnaround trusts, will exclude those consultancies which were engaged in any failed initiatives from the previous round of consultancy-driven financial recovery initiatives.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The guidance for use of management consultancies is set out as part of the spending approvals process. Monitor has published the following guidance for foundation trusts “Consultancy spending approval process: Initial guidance to NHS foundation trusts” with the Trust Development Authority (TDA) publishing similar for NHS trusts “Consultancy spending controls: Initial Guidance to NHS Trusts”. Copies of the guidance are attached.

The guidance is clear that expenditure on management consultancy must demonstrate that the skills and expertise of advisors cannot be delivered through use of existing resources. It is also a requirement that value for money must be demonstrated. This approach is the same for NHS providers, NHS Improvement or any NHS organisation. Therefore we are content NHS Improvement’s approach to managing turnaround programmes is consistent with this requirement.

NHS Improvement ensures that lessons learned from all financial turnaround programmes are taken into account when considering how to handle any financially challenged providers requiring turnaround actions in the future. This includes the use of the best available, most appropriate consultancies with the right blend of skills and experience required to deliver the turnaround programme.

01/01/2023
Baroness Goudie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Goudie on 2016-03-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 1 March (HL6250), whether they retain details of the names and battalions, or other units, of Burmese Army soldiers who receive training from the UK.

Earl Howe

We retain details of the names and current units of Burmese Army soldiers who receive training from the UK. However, we do not hold any information on which units these individuals may have served in previously.

01/01/2023
Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) average and (b) maximum time taken for contractors to return assessments to his Department was for Scottish claimants of (i) employment and support allowance and (ii) personal independence payments in each of the last four quarters for which information is available.

Justin Tomlinson

The information you have requested on the average and maximum time taken for the contractor in Scotland to return ESA assessments to the Department is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

PIP average actual clearance times for Scotland, measured from the point of referral to the assessment providers to a decision being made on the claim by the DWP, is available in published data at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-january-2016. Information on maximum time is not available in the published statistics and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

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01/01/2023
Alan Whitehead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Whitehead on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33974, what regard she has given to to Section 14 of the Cabinet Office publication, Guide to making legislation, when determining the relative timing of issuing the impact assessment and the closure of the consultation on further reforms to the Capacity Market.

Andrea Leadsom

Section 14 of the Cabinet Office ‘Guide to making legislation’ states that Impact Assessments are generally required for all UK Government interventions of a regulatory nature. The latest version of the ‘Better Regulation Framework Manual’, in its definition of “Regulation”, clarifies that Regulation does not include tax and spending decisions.

The Capacity Market, and the proposals outlined in the consultation on further reforms to the Capacity Market, is classified as ‘Tax and Spend’. Therefore Section 14 does not apply to this policy and a consultation stage Impact Assessment is not needed. The Government will, however, publish a final Impact Assessment alongside its response to the recent consultation.

01/01/2023
David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-06-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve uptake of cervical screening among all age groups.

Jane Ellison

NHS England closely monitors the coverage rates for cervical screening in all age groups. NHS England is committed to improving coverage and reducing variation between all age groups.

Local NHS England commissioners analyse coverage rates within their area and work with general practices to improve coverage by sharing best practice. In addition a primary care cancer screening best practice guide has been developed jointly with the transforming cancer services team, clinical commissioning groups and local authority public health representatives.

NHS England is working in partnership with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support on the ACE (Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate) Programme aiming to generate knowledge about effective approaches to achieve earlier diagnosis. A number of ACE test sites are evaluating approaches to increase screening rates in a range of groups.

A range of research studies are also underway, such as Imperial College conducting a randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of texting non-responders on improving coverage. In addition, the Department’s Behavioural Insight team has undertaken a trial to investigate the use of behavioural insights to optimise the content of the invitation letter for cervical screening. Results are due shortly.

The Independent Cancer Taskforce recognised the importance of screening for cervical cancer and the potential of the new human papillomavirus (HPV) test in their report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, published in July 2015. NHS England has appointed Cally Palmer as National Cancer Director to lead the implementation of the strategy, and an implementation plan outlining the key first steps for the national cancer programme was published on 12 May. In addition, the routine HPV vaccination programme, offering immunisation to girls aged 12-14 years, is expected to reduce the already low rates of cervical cancer in these young women and allow them to be protected for years to come.

Ministers welcome cervical cancer prevention week and we are fully supportive of the work Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust does to raise awareness of cervical cancer and the importance of cervical screening for eligible women.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Health at a Glance 2015: How does the United Kingdom compare?, the UK has cervical screening rates well above the OECD average. Further information is available at:

https://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/Health-at-a-Glance-2015-Key-Findings-UK.pdf

http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/8115071ec053.pdf?expires=1465810879&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=102E30B1A256588EDD14918B5BE3AA4C

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01/01/2023

Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people by age have been diagnosed with sepsis in the last five years.

Mr Philip Dunne

Public Health England does not hold data in the format requested.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is able to provide a count of the number of Finished Discharge Episodes (FDEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis, split by age band for providers in England for the years between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

Information is not held centrally on patients diagnosed in the primary care setting.

Table 1: A count of the number of FDEs with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis, by age band for providers in England for the years between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

Age Bands	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
0-4	18,417	20,080	22,915	23,840	26,725
5-9	577	648	790	853	1,010
10-14	446	415	523	461	635
15-19	814	778	926	980	1,094
20-24	1,220	1,246	1,490	1,770	1,899
25-29	1,373	1,499	1,843	2,032	2,478
30-34	1,510	1,701	2,142	2,540	2,924
35-39	1,697	1,849	2,230	2,319	2,601
40-44	2,213	2,403	2,711	2,988	3,223
45-49	2,775	3,123	3,661	3,937	4,385
50-54	3,462	3,890	4,459	4,942	5,702
55-59	4,130	4,829	5,694	6,115	6,826
60-64	6,162	6,835	7,592	7,893	8,706
65-69	6,624	7,790	9,619	10,805	12,079
70-74	7,766	8,667	9,623	10,458	12,066
75-79	8,955	9,815	10,654	11,793	13,862
80-84	9,427	10,079	11,009	11,584	13,789
85-89	8,340	8,756	9,088	9,739	11,876
90+	5,553	6,054	6,740	7,156	9,173
Unknown	420	558	576	617	719

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

Finished Discharge Episode – A discharge episode is the last episode during a hospital stay (a spell), where the patient is discharged from the hospital or transferred to another hospital. Discharges do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one discharge from hospital within the period.
Number of episodes in which the patient had a primary or secondary diagnosis – The number of episodes where this diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.
ICD-10 codes for Sepsis include – “A02.1 Salmonella sepsis, A20.7 Septicaemic plague, A21.7 Generalized tularaemia, A22.7 Anthrax sepsis, A26.7 Erysipelothrix sepsis, A28.0 Pasteurellosis, A28.2 Extraintestinal yersiniosis, A32.7 Listerial sepsis, A39.2 Acute meningococcaemia, A39.3 Chronic meningococcaemia, A39.4 Meningococcaemia, unspecified, A40.- Streptococcal sepsis, A41.- Other sepsis, A42.7 Actinomycotic sepsis, B37.7 Candidal sepsis, O85.X Puerperal sepsis, P36.- Bacterial sepsis of newborn,
The following pair of codes is a dagger/asterisk code pair (D and A) which must be present together: A39.1 Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, E35.1 Disorders of adrenal glands in diseases classified elsewhere.

01/01/2023

Lord Northbourne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to require all schools, including academies, to provide high quality sex and relationship education as part of their syllabus.

Lord Nash

The Government is clear that all schools should make provision for high-quality sex and relationship education, which is a vital part of preparing young people for life in modern Britain.

Academies, like maintained schools, must teach a broad and balanced curriculum and in respect of sex and relationship education, they must – under the terms of their funding agreement – have regard to the Secretary of State’s statutory Sex and Relationship Education guidance published in 2000.

The issue of statutory personal, social, health and economic education and sex and relationship education was raised during the Education Select Committee session in September. The Secretary of State agreed that we need to look again at how schools deliver high-quality personal, social, health and economic education including sex and relationship education. The Government is considering all the options and will come to a view in due course.

01/01/2023
David Simpson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to support the Russian government since the crash of Airbus 321 in Egypt.

Mr David Lidington

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on the day of the Sinai air crash to express the UK Government’s deepest condolences for the tragic loss of life. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has spoken to President Putin on two occasions to offer his condolences and any assistance the UK might be able to provide, and to set out our assessment of the cause of the crash and the steps we have taken to ensure the safety of our citizens. The Prime Minister and President Putin also met in the margins of the G20 Summit in Antalya. We have also followed up at senior official level with further details and to offer practical cooperation and coordination in Sharm el-Sheikh.

01/01/2023
Lord Falconer of Thoroton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 2015-12-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many volunteers there are currently carrying out work in each prison in England and Wales.

Lord Faulks

This information is not held centrally. The Ministry of Justice facilitates a wide and varied range of opportunities for volunteers to work with offenders, within prisons and in the community, and also directly recruits volunteers to sit on its Independent Monitoring Boards.

01/01/2023