Tag: Richard Harrington

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what contingency plans he has in place to deal with an outbreak of Ebola virus in the UK.

Jane Ellison

The National Health Service has plans in place to deal with patients with infectious diseases as part of its core business. This includes plans to manage patients in line with infection control procedures, and where necessary in highly specialist infectious diseases facilities.A patient with Ebola virus infection would be cared for in the national High Level Isolation Unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. In the unlikely event of an outbreak involving more than two people, specialist staff at this unit are trained and prepared to look after patients safely in an isolation ward, which would be dedicated for this purpose.

In the UK, the procedures outlined in the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens guidelines, “The Management of Hazard Group 4 viral haemorrhagic fevers and similar human infectious diseases of high consequence”, are followed for any suspected case.

Public Health England has assessed the risk of importation of Ebola in the UK as very low. It is extremely unlikely that an outbreak of Ebola would occur in the UK even if there was to be an imported case, as there are factors operating in West Africa which would not be seen in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps UK Visas and Immigration can take to prevent no cases of Ebola reaching the UK.

James Brokenshire

The UK does not specifically screen pre or at entry for Ebola.

Public Health England has assessed the risk of importation of Ebola in the UK
as very low. It is extremely unlikely that an outbreak of Ebola would occur in
the UK even if there was to be an imported case, as there are factors operating
in West Africa which would not be seen in the UK. The outbreak in West Africa
is driven by person to person spread in the absence of any infection control
precautions. Human cases of Ebola virus disease have never yet been exported
from an outbreak zone to a European country.

All UK ports have systems and plans for dealing with issues of public health
concern. However, they all require that the public health system is firstly
notified of the arrival of someone with a suspected disease of concern. Crew
are trained to do this by their respective companies and an example of the type
of guidance that they work towards can be found on the International Air
Transport Association (the international airline trade body) website at:

https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/safety/health/Documents/health-guidelines-cabin-cr
ew-2011.pdf .

At all UK ports, there is a system for routing reports, produced by the
commander of a craft, to a local health protection team who are available on a
24/7 basis throughout the year. Health protection teams have generic
responsibility for managing incidents of public health concern in all settings
including our ports. They will then take the lead in managing the incident from
a public health perspective with the NHS being responsible for the provision of
healthcare.

The International Health Regulations (IHR), which entered into force on 15 June
2007, require countries to report certain disease outbreaks and public health
events to WHO, including Ebola.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve support for carers.

Norman Lamb

Carers are central to the Government’s reform of social care and support, with significant improvements in the Care Act which extends carers rights to an assessment which will be based on the appearance of a need for support. For the first time, local authorities will be required to meet carers’ eligible needs for support.

We have provided £400 million to the National Health Service over four years from 2011 for carers to have breaks from their caring responsibilities. For 2015-16, the carers’ breaks funding will be in the Better Care Fund.

We have also provided more than £2 million in recent years to the professional bodies such as the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Nursing, Carers UK and the Carers Trust to develop initiatives to raise early awareness of carers among healthcare professionals and to help identify and support carers. We have committed more than £1 million in 2014–15 to enable these organisations to build on this work and to develop new initiatives.

We set out our vision for transforming primary care in Transforming Primary Care: Safe, proactive, personalised care for those who need it most. It recognises the importance of involving and supporting carers and sets out a clear expectation for general practitioners to identify carers as a matter of course.

Carers are also central to the work that NHS England is leading to improve the quality of life of people with long term conditions. Their action plan, NHS England’s Commitment to Carers includes a series of commitments around eight priorities, including raising the profile of carers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support, advice, guidance and funding his Department makes available for children and adults diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Jane Ellison

Our overall aim is for all people with diabetes to have the right support to manage their condition, with access to specialist care when they need it. To help deliver this, NHS England has set out in “Action for Diabetes” how it will support improvements in outcomes for people with diabetes, focussing on earlier diagnosis of all diabetes, and support for people to manage their diabetes and so improve their quality of life.

In addition, NHS England has recently piloted a sample service specification for the management of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes based on the NICE Quality Standard for Diabetes with a number of clinical commissioning groups. This is a tool that commissioners can choose to use to deliver high quality care and offers a model for commissioning integrated care for those with diabetes. It highlights the specific care needs for those with Type 1 diabetes where they differ from those with Type 2 diabetes.

Also, the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) makes a significant contribution to global research on Type 1 diabetes, in particular through its world-class research infrastructure. The NIHR Clinical Research Network is currently recruiting to 32 studies in Type 1 diabetes, in addition to 58 studies relevant to both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Expenditure by the NIHR on research on Type 1 diabetes through research programmes, research centres and units, and research training awards rose from £1.8 million in 2011-12 to an estimated £2.8 million in 2013-14.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to ensure that (a) enhanced frequency and (b) restoration of late night trains are mandatory requirements in the specification for the tendering process of Abbey Line between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey station.

Stephen Hammond

The Department for Transport intends to negotiate a Direct Award for the West Midlands franchise to run from April 2016 to June 2017. We will work with the incumbent train operator, London Midland, to consider service enhancements and we will include the Watford Junction – St Albans route in our discussions. Any improvements will have to demonstrate both a positive business case and that they are affordable within the budget provided for the franchise.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support people affected by recent flooding in the Balkans

Mr David Lidington

I discussed the impact of the floods with Prime Minister Vucic of Serbia in Belgrade on 2 June and with Prime Minister Bevanda in Sarajevo on 3 June. During my visit to the region I also met the Serbian Red Cross and travelled to Maglaj in Bosnia-Herzegovina to meet the Mayor and representatives of World Vision.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), between 18 and 23 May a thirty-three person water rescue team from the British Fire Service was deployed to work alongside EUFOR Operation Althea and local rescue efforts. They rescued nearly 200 people, delivered large amounts of humanitarian aid, and helped restore power in villages North of Bijeljina.

In Serbia, the UK provided 64 radios for the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, to assist with the coordination of their response teams; and donated £280,000 worth of heavy lift and transport vehicles to the Serbian Red Cross to aid their relief distribution effort.

A team from the UK flew out to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the week commencing 20 May to assess likely humanitarian and recovery needs. During my visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina I was able to announce that the UK had approved £250,000 to support a World Vision flood response project in the region focussing on sanitation and health and providing support for 140,000 people made homeless by the floods.

In addition to this bilateral support, the UK provided support to BiH, Serbia and Croatia through the EU, UN and other international organisations. In BiH, EUFOR Operation Althea, to which the UK contributes troops in-theatre and in reserve, assisted the BiH Armed Forces in their response to the flooding. The First Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, who provide part of EUFOR’s intermediate reserve, and are in BiH for a routine operational rehearsal, will assist the BiH Armed Forces in this regard.

The UK has worked closely with the EU European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and offered advice and assistance during all phases of the flood response effort. ECHO have released €3.2m in humanitarian aid to support the most vulnerable population in BiH and in Serbia (to which the UK will have contributed 15%).

The Government will work closely with the UNDP, the EU and other international organisations to assess what further help might be given to help both Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina recover from the impact of the floods.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional support she is providing to the Passport Office to ensure it continues to meet the deadlines for applications to be processed and returned during the holiday period.

James Brokenshire

Her Majesty’s Passport Office looks to ensure that adequate resources are in place to meet demand whilst ensuring that resources are proportionate to that demand. Contingencies are in place to coincide with peak periods of demand e.g. school breaks and summer holidays.

This primarily involves staff working overtime but also includes, as required, the redeployment of resources to support passport application examination staff and to assist in the handling of customer contact.