Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to tackle bovine TB in Torridge and West Devon constituency; and if she will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    As outlined in a Written Ministerial Statement on 17 December 2015, the Government is taking strong action to deliver a long-term plan to eradicate the disease and protect the future of the UK’s dairy and beef industries. The comprehensive strategy includes strengthening cattle testing and movement controls, improving biosecurity on farm and when trading, and badger control in areas where TB is rife. As part of the strategy the Government wants to see badger control over a wider number of areas in line with the UK Chief Veterinary Officer’s advice.

  • Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the proportion of people with autism who have a learning disability.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The number of children, young people and adults diagnosed with autism by the National Health Service is not collected centrally. Latest figures from the School Census (2015) state that there were 90,775 pupils with an autistic spectrum disorder at state funded schools and non-maintained special schools in England. This has increased from a total of 56,250 in 2010 who were recorded as having a primary need of autism, but it is not directly comparable to the 2015 figures because of a change in collection methodology. Local authority areas provide information for Public Health England’s annual self-assessment exercise on implementing the Autism Strategy. This includes the number of adults receiving an autism diagnosis but because information is submitted on a voluntary basis a complete total for England is not available.

    The Department has discussed with NHS England the difficulties that people on the autistic spectrum can have in getting an appropriate diagnosis and support in a timely manner. NHS England has commenced a programme to visit clinical commissioning groups to identify and share good practice in accessing autism diagnosis, and look at possible barriers. The Department is funding the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to support this work. NHS England will complete a report on this by the end of April 2016.

    The Department is also encouraging the autism third sector to work together and the four charity representatives on the Cross Government Autism Programme Board, which oversees the implementation of the Autism Strategy, gave presentations at the meeting on 18 February on work they are doing to increase public awareness. The charities are the National Autistic Society, the Autism Alliance UK, Autism Plus and Ambitious about Autism. The Autism Alliance UK is also being funded by the Department to undertake work with national and local organisations, to make reasonable adjustments to services and to train staff to be aware of what autism can mean to individuals who have the condition and their families.

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s publication Estimating the Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Conditions in Adults – Extending the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) gave the overall prevalence of autism in England as 1.1% (95% confidence interval 0.3% to 1.9%). Among adults with learning disabilities living in private households whose learning disability was sufficiently severe that they could not have taken part in the 2007 APMS, the prevalence of autism was 35.4% (95% confidence interval 24.7% to 46.2%). Among adults with mild or severe learning disabilities living in communal care establishments, the prevalence of autism was 31% (95% confidence interval 23.9% to 38%). Detailed supporting information regarding the underlying data and how figures have been derived is found within the detail of the report, a copy of which is attached.

    The APMS was repeated in 2014 and findings are scheduled to be published in September 2016.

  • Luke Hall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Luke Hall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luke Hall on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many patients in (a) Ashworth, (b) Broadmoor and (c) Rampton high security psychiatric hospitals received income support between 2012 and 2015; and what the average weekly payment of that benefit was to such recipients.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The information requested is not readily available, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the extent of errors in payments of universal credit arising from errors in PAYE real time information.

    Priti Patel

    DWP and HMRC are continually monitoring the quality of Real Time Information (RTI). This includes information regarding erroneous data.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent human rights abuses against the Oromo people in Ethiopia; and what recent representations he has made to his Ethiopian counterpart on that issue.

    James Duddridge

    We remain deeply concerned about the handling of demonstrations in Oromia, including the reported deaths of a number of protestors, and about those detained under the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. We have repeatedly made representations to the Ethiopian Government over the situation in that region. Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for International Development, raised our concerns with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on 21 January and Her Majesty’s Ambassador last raised the issue with Prime Minister Hailemariam on 26 April.

    I met with Dr Tedros at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa on 27 January. I raised the UK’s concerns with regards to the human rights situation. We will continue to raise our concerns with the Government of Ethiopia both through our bilateral engagement, most notably through our ongoing Human Rights Dialogue, as well as jointly with our international partners.

    The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been appointed to look into the handling of the protests in Oromia. We will not pre-judge the outcome of their investigation and we await the publication of their report. We will continue to urge the EHRC and the Government of Ethiopia to ensure that their report is credible, transparent and leads to concrete action. We will take a view on what further lobbying, if any, might be appropriate following the publication of the EHRC report.

  • Baroness Stern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Stern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Stern on 2016-07-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the government of Germany about its recognition of the killings of Herero and Nama people in 1904–08 as genocide, and whether in the light of those discussions they have any plans formally to recognise those events as genocide.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Government have not discussed the killings of the Herero and Nama peoples with the Government of Germany.

    It is the policy of the Government that any judgment on whether genocide has occurred is a matter for judicial decision, rather than for governments or non-judicial bodies.

  • Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to incentivise the provision of higher quality mental health services.

    Nicola Blackwood

    Mental health is one of the six core clinical areas to be covered by NHS England’s new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework. NHS England is working to ensure that this will provide as broad a view as possible of how well commissioners are supporting and driving improvement in mental health.

    A dashboard for mental health will be published this autumn, containing a set of standard indicators to articulate progress in mental health services at a national level and allow benchmarking of services across the country.

    NHS England will continue to ensure that mental health is represented within the full suite of levers and incentives at its disposal including Commissioning for Quality and Innovation payment framework (CQUINs), Quality Premium, the NHS Standard Contract and within the design of new models of care. The Technical Guidance for NHS planning covering 2017/18 and 2018/19 that accompanied the publication of the main NHS Planning Guidance earlier this autumn included a number of draft proposals for specific mental health CQUINs:

    – Improving services for people with Mental Health needs who present to A&E;

    – Improving physical health care for people with Severe Mental Illnesses; and

    – Improving transitions for children and young people.

    The Quality Premium is based on measures that cover a combination of national and local priorities, and on delivery of the fundamentals of commissioning. The Premium is paid to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in 2018/19 and 2019/20 reflects the quality of the health services commissioned by them in 2017/18 and 2018/19. There will be six mandated indicators including a mental health indicator.

    Mental health service providers are responsible for the consistency and quality in the services that they provide. Services in England are regulated by the Care Quality Commission which introduced a new regulation and inspection regime in 2014. CCGs are expected to increase their spending on mental health in line with overall growth in their baseline allocations.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2015 to Question 15636, if he will make it his policy to collect data on which local areas are providing take-home naloxone for opioid overdose in people who use drugs; whether he plans to monitor the effects of provision of naloxone and instances of drug-related deaths; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    Local authorities are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning substance misuse services, using the public health grant, to meet that need. Public Health England (PHE) supports local authorities in this work and has provided advice on naloxone provision to commissioners and service providers for them to use in planning naloxone supply. PHE is providing support to areas with higher than average death rates.

    PHE is engaged in ongoing monitoring and analysis of drug-related deaths based on data collected by the Office for National Statistics, including matching with treatment data. PHE is investigating the use of this data to assess the impact of increased naloxone availability following the legislative change.

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of why representatives of the cantons of Rojava were not invited to the recent conference of Syrian opposition groups in Riyadh, and whether they will call for their inclusion in any future meetings.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Kurds will play an important role in a political settlement for Syria. Members of all major communities of Syrian society participated in the Riyadh Opposition Conference. This included minorities such as the Kurds in the major political parties. Opposition representatives agreed to form a “High Negotiating Committee” to negotiate with the Syrian regime, under the auspices of the UN. The International Syria Support Group has agreed that protecting the rights of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity or religious domination is fundamental. The UK will continue to advocate this, as the political discussions continue.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on public health of rising levels of alcohol consumption in England.

    Jane Ellison

    There has been a reduction in overall consumption in recent years which is welcome, but there is no room for complacency. Harms such as liver disease remain much too high.

    To help people understand how to keep health risks from alcohol consumption low, the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers published new low risk alcohol guidelines on 8 January 2016.