Asked by: Andrew Griffiths (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what funding his Department has provided to enable access to chemoprevention drugs in the last 12 months.
Answered by George Freeman
It is for commissioners to make decisions on the availability of chemoprevention drugs for their local populations, on the basis of the available evidence, including guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
National Health Service funding has risen in each year of this Parliament and is £12.7 billion higher in cash terms in 2014-15 than in 2010-11. Health funding will again grow in real terms in 2015-16, which means an additional £2.1 billion.
NHS England has responsibility for clinical commissioning group (CCG) allocations and, as a result of the Government protecting the overall health budget for NHS England, NHS England has in turn ensured that all CCGs are receiving a funding increase at least matching inflation, as predicted at the time of the announcement, in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
The funding that CCGs receive is not ring-fenced and it is for CCGs at a local level to decide how to allocate their funding.
NICE issued an updated clinical guideline on familial breast cancer in June 2013 which includes recommendations on the use of tamoxifen and raloxifene outside their licensed indications for the prevention of cancer in specific groups of women at high and moderate risk of breast cancer. NICE’s clinical guidelines represent best practice and we expect commissioners to take their recommendations into account when designing services and making commissioning decisions for their local population.
Asked by: Andrew Griffiths (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of people were estimated to be binge-drinkers in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information is not available in the format requested.
Current government recommendations are that adult men should not regularly drink more than 3-4 units of alcohol a day and adult women should not regularly drink more than 2-3 units a day.
The Office of National Statistics class heavy drinkers as those that drink more than six units in a day for women and more than eight units in a day for men (double the current lower risk guidelines) and this definition is often used as a proxy for “binge drinking”.
Information is available for the percentage of men who drank more than eight units and women who drank more than six units on at least one day in the last week prior to the interview for the General Lifestyle Survey and the General Household Survey (The Office of National Statistics).
Year | % |
2006 | 19 |
2007 | 20 |
2008 | 18 |
2009 | 16 |
2010 | 15 |
Source: The Office of National Statistics (General Lifestyle Survey and the General Household Survey)
Asked by: Andrew Griffiths (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Government's Public Health Responsibility Deal in reducing alcohol-related harms.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department is committed to helping people live well for longer. The Responsibility Deal pledge to remove one billion units of alcohol from the market by the end of 2015 (a reduction of around 2%) has a role to play in supporting improvements in reducing alcohol-related harms. In the first year of this four year pledge, 253 million units of alcohol were taken out of the market. A copy of the report showing this analysis has already been placed in the Library.
Because much alcohol-attributable harm occurs in middle or older age groups as a result of years of drinking above the lower-risk guidelines, even a relatively small reduction is likely to have a significant impact upon long-term and chronic illnesses.
Improving consumer awareness can help people make informed choices about when and how much they drink. For advice on alcohol consumption to be meaningful, people need to be able to put it into the context of their own drinking habits. To increase awareness and understanding of alcohol units, the lower-risk drinking guidelines and the Chief Medical Officer’s advice on drinking during pregnancy, 92 companies committed to displaying this information on 80% of bottles and cans by the end of 2013.
An independent market survey has been carried out which we expect to be published shortly. Subject to publication of the final report:
- On a market share based on the total numbers of bottles and cans (ie a distinct item), 79.3% of bottles and cans have this information.
- On a market share based on alcohol by volume, 69.9% of bottles and cans have this information.
In addition to unit and health information on bottles and cans, pub chains and retailers committed to providing unit and health information. This year, Ipsos Mori carried out an independent survey of whether the public saw such information. 27% of the public said they saw a British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) or Wine and Spirits Trade Association (WSTA) unit awareness image; 41% of 18-24 year-olds recalled seeing at least one image; 27% saw something similar and 52% of those also saw BBPA or WSTA materials.
Asked by: Andrew Griffiths (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in England aged (a) under 11, (b) 11 to 16, (c) under 18 and (d) 18 years and over were admitted to each hospital with (i) symptoms of alcohol poisoning, (ii) symptoms of substance abuse, (iii) stab wounds and (iv) gunshot wounds in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Tables which show the number of finished admission episodes with a relevant diagnosis for all patients treated in England, by the hospital provider in which they were treated have been placed in the Library. The information is broken down into the following age groups:
- Under 11 years
- 11-16 years
- Under 18 years
- 18 years and over
- Unknown
These data are not a count of people as the same person may have been admitted on more than one occasion in any given time period.
Asked by: Andrew Griffiths (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people being prescribed methadone or other opioid substitutes had their prescription reduced in 2013-14.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Andrew Griffiths (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the total value of public service contracts that were awarded by (a) his Department and (b) NHS bodies to voluntary sector organisations in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The total value of public service contracts awarded by the Department on voluntary sector organisations' contracts in 2012-13 was £39.77 million and for NHS bodies, which is taken to mean primary care trusts (PCTs), the equivalent was £542.76 million.
Prior to their abolition in 2013, the vast majority of healthcare commissioned by the NHS was directly through PCTs, who were responsible for commissioning healthcare from providers based on the needs of their local population.
2013-14 information for both the Department and NHS bodies will not be available until the Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14 are published later in the year.