Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on how many occasions the ambulance service has used Resource Escalation Action Plan levels (a) 3 and (b) 4 in winter in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The information requested is not centrally collected. The use of Resource Escalation Action Plans is a matter for National Health Service ambulance trusts. No such guidance has been issued. This year the NHS was better prepared than ever before to meet the challenges of winter. The NHS and the Department undertake rigorous planning each year, putting in place robust plans to ensure resilience throughout the winter period. This planning includes ambulance trusts. Additionally, in place for this year, is a revised escalation framework encompassing all levels of the system – local, regional and national – to ensure a greater standardisation of response to winter pressures. This is overseen by the newly formed, clinically led, National Emergency Pressures Panel.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued on the use of Resource Escalation Action Plan level 4 to ambulance services in the last three years.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The information requested is not centrally collected. The use of Resource Escalation Action Plans is a matter for National Health Service ambulance trusts. No such guidance has been issued. This year the NHS was better prepared than ever before to meet the challenges of winter. The NHS and the Department undertake rigorous planning each year, putting in place robust plans to ensure resilience throughout the winter period. This planning includes ambulance trusts. Additionally, in place for this year, is a revised escalation framework encompassing all levels of the system – local, regional and national – to ensure a greater standardisation of response to winter pressures. This is overseen by the newly formed, clinically led, National Emergency Pressures Panel.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the pass mark for the International English Language Test for doctors and nurses was last reviewed; and when he next plans to review the pass mark.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Language testing of doctors and nurses, where this is deemed necessary to evidence language competency, is a matter for the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council respectively as part of their registration or fitness to practise processes. Government policy on language controls is aimed at ensuring that only health and care professionals who have a sufficient knowledge of the English language are able to work in the United Kingdom, in the interests of patient safety and public protection.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether payments from the Skipton Fund for people infected with hepatitis B will vary between Scotland and England; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Responsibility for the infected blood payment schemes in the United Kingdom is a matter for each devolved administration. Scotland has made different choices in relation to their payment schemes.
As announced in the consultation response the annual payment from the Skipton Fund for those registered with the English scheme is £3,535 for those with hepatitis C stage 1 and £15,655 for those with hepatitis C stage 2. In 2017/18 the annual payment will rise to £4,500 for those with hepatitis C stage 1 and £18,500 for those with hepatitis C stage 2.
A new single scheme administrator, NHS Business Services Authority, will be implemented in England, from 1 November 2017. NHS Business Services Authority will replace the five current ex-gratia payment schemes, including the Skipton Fund.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will take steps to implement the recommendations of the Nuffield Council bioethics report, Cosmetic procedures: ethical issues, published in June 2017.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government is committed to ensuring that individuals make informed and safe choices about cosmetic interventions. Since publication of Sir Bruce Keogh’s Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions, in 2013, we have implemented a number of important changes to that end. A copy of the report is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-regulation-of-cosmetic-interventions
We are considering options for the effective registration and regulation of those performing cosmetic interventions, and the Nuffield Council’s thorough and thoughtful report will help to inform our thinking about how to take this forward.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2017 to Question 69941, what proportion of the overall £250 million savings were realised for the Norwich and Norfolk NHS Trust in its PFI payments to Octagon Healthcare as a result of his Department's initiative to extract savings and better value for money for PFI contracts.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The latest published information for the overall cost projections for all private finance initiative (PFI) schemes over the lifetime of their contracts, including that for the new District General Hospital project procured by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is available on the Treasury’s website, via:
The table shows that for the New District General Hospital (Project I.D 373) the total unitary charge payment (UP) for 2015/16 was estimated as £57.0 million. The table shows the estimated UP for each year to the end of the contract in 2036/37. UPs are subject to meeting agreed performance and quality standards, contractual variations agreed between the parties, and include an annual uprate assumption for inflation of 2.5%. Information on the different elements of the UP expenditure are not collected for this data collection exercise and are not held by the Department.
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust did not report any savings on their PFI contract when the survey was conducted in 2014.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of trends in the levels of PFI payments made to the Norwich and Norfolk NHS Trust to Octagon Healthcare over the next two decades.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The latest published information for the overall cost projections for all private finance initiative (PFI) schemes over the lifetime of their contracts, including that for the new District General Hospital project procured by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is available on the Treasury’s website, via:
The table shows that for the New District General Hospital (Project I.D 373) the total unitary charge payment (UP) for 2015/16 was estimated as £57.0 million. The table shows the estimated UP for each year to the end of the contract in 2036/37. UPs are subject to meeting agreed performance and quality standards, contractual variations agreed between the parties, and include an annual uprate assumption for inflation of 2.5%. Information on the different elements of the UP expenditure are not collected for this data collection exercise and are not held by the Department.
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust did not report any savings on their PFI contract when the survey was conducted in 2014.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish a breakdown of PFI payments made by Norwich and Norfolk NHS Trust to Octagon Healthcare, including (a) capital costs and (b) service payments made to SERCO.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The latest published information for the overall cost projections for all private finance initiative (PFI) schemes over the lifetime of their contracts, including that for the new District General Hospital project procured by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is available on the Treasury’s website, via:
The table shows that for the New District General Hospital (Project I.D 373) the total unitary charge payment (UP) for 2015/16 was estimated as £57.0 million. The table shows the estimated UP for each year to the end of the contract in 2036/37. UPs are subject to meeting agreed performance and quality standards, contractual variations agreed between the parties, and include an annual uprate assumption for inflation of 2.5%. Information on the different elements of the UP expenditure are not collected for this data collection exercise and are not held by the Department.
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust did not report any savings on their PFI contract when the survey was conducted in 2014.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to oral evidence given to the Public Accounts Committee on 27 February 2017, if he will specify the legal status of the new organisations that will be established under NHS England's Sustainability and Transformation Plans; and what duties and powers to plan and provide health services those organisations will have.
Answered by David Mowat
Sustainability and Transformation Plans are not statutory organisations; instead they represent local organisations coming together to work collectively. The statutory architecture for health and care remains fully in place, as do the existing accountabilities for Chief Executives and Accountable Officers of National Health Service organisations.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department spent on advertising with the Evening Standard newspaper in each year since 2010.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department can confirm following a detailed search of its Business Management Services database, that “The Evening Standard” is not a registered supplier and consequently hold no records of any spend on advertising costs since 2010 with this newspaper.