Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of NHS funding was provided to GP surgeries in each of the last five years

Alistair Burt

NHS England has confirmed that the funding it invests in general practice will increase by an average of 4.5% each year from 2016/17 to 2020/21.

The below table shows the proportion of spend on general practice for each of the last five years for which data is available. The figures for spend on general practice are taken from the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Investment in General Practice 2011-2015 report, which is the most comprehensive source of data on investment in general practice. The NHS Revenue Expenditure data is taken from the Department’s accounts.

2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
NHS Revenue Expenditure under Clear Line of Sight Rules (£ billion)	97.47	100.27	102.57	106.5	110.56
Spend on general practice (£ billion)	8.350	8.397	8.459	8.766	9.001
Spend on General Practice as a proportion of total	8.6%	8.4%	8.2%	8.2%	8.1%

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if her Department will take steps to ensure that (a) the UK is energy secure and independent and (b) reliance on foreign gas supplies and cross border electrical connections coupled with decommissioning of UK energy resources does not result in an energy shortage in the UK in the next 10 years.

Andrea Leadsom

Energy security is my top priority. The Department will take the steps needed to ensure hard working families and business have the energy they need, including from overseas where this adds to the diversity and cost effectiveness of our energy supplies.

Interconnection provides greater security of supply as we import from a diverse generation mix, allowing us to access, for example, Norway’s large amounts of hydropower.

The UK has an open and competitive gas market in which gas is traded freely. Gas enters the UK system from a range of sources including the UK Continental Shelf, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the LNG imports. This diverse and flexible range of domestic and foreign supplies ensures security of supply, encourages competition and helps to lower energy costs for British consumers and industry.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what representations he has made to the Electoral Commission on resolving recent problems with registration on aboutmyvote.co.uk related to the EU referendum.

John Penrose

Cabinet Office officials have worked closely with colleagues at the Electoral Commission to ensure the messaging on aboutmyvote.co.uk informs electors that they do not need to re-register for the EU referendum.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many medical consultations took place in GP practices in the Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group area in the last five years.

Alistair Burt

The information requested is not collected centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the cost to the NHS of people with long-term health conditions not taking their prescribed medication.

Jane Ellison

It is estimated that over 15 million people in England live with at least one long term medical condition.

No estimate has been made of the cost to the National Health Service of people with long term conditions not taking their prescribed medication.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2016 to Question 41004, what the cost to the NHS was of financing free prescriptions in 2015-16.

David Mowat

Assuming that for each prescription item a prescription charge would have been paid, the revenue foregone from providing free prescriptions during 2015-16 was £8 billion. However, as many people could limit their total prescription costs by purchasing a Prescription Prepayment Certificate in the event that they were no longer exempt, we estimate that the actual revenue foregone was in the region of £2 billion.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) average and (b) total cost incurred by a Government department was of replying by letter to hon. Members raising matters of policy or casework with that Department in each of the last three years.

Matthew Hancock

This information is not held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that all primary school children are IT literate by the end of Key Stage 2.

Nick Gibb

The new computing curriculum, introduced in September 2014 and compulsory for ages 5-16, has a greater focus on how computers work including the basics of computer science as well as covering digital literacy and the application of information technology. In primary school, pupils will be looking at topics such as: creating and debugging programs; using technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content; and using technology safely, respectfully and responsibly. Through studying these topics, pupils are gaining insight into how the digital technologies that they use every day actually work, allowing them to become active creators, not just passive consumers.

The Government has spent more than £4.5 million over the past three years to support schools in delivering high quality computing teaching. This includes £3 million for Computing At School to build a national network of over 10 regional university centres and 300 ‘Master Teachers’ in Computer Science whom schools can commission to provide training for their teachers. A further £1 million was given to Computing At School to create online resources (Barefoot Computing) targeting primary school teachers specifically to help develop their computing subject knowledge, deliver in-school workshops, and set up computing self-help groups.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the Commission is taking to ensure that Members of Parliament are providing good value for money in communications to their constituents using franked House of Commons envelopes.

Tom Brake

Under the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament, Members are personally responsible and accountable for the way they use resources provided at public expense. The House of Commons provides each Member with prepaid envelopes and stationery up to a value of £9,000 a year. In addition, specific rules on prepaid envelopes, available via the Members’ Handbook, preclude their use for communications within Parliament, or for circulars or business, personal or party political purposes. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is responsible for enforcing the rules on the proper use of prepaid envelopes and stationery.

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.