Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has been briefed on the contents of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report 2017, published on 4 May 2018.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
My Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, is aware of the findings of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report 2017.
The Government is committed to learning from every avoidable death and the Department has been working with its partners to see how the report’s recommendations may be implemented to support improvements to services and to the quality of care that people with a learning disability receive.
In my Oral Statement on 8 May, Official Report Column 554, I committed to respond to each of the report’s recommendations and will report back to Parliament shortly.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report 2017, published on 4 May 2018.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
My Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, is aware of the findings of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report 2017.
The Government is committed to learning from every avoidable death and the Department has been working with its partners to see how the report’s recommendations may be implemented to support improvements to services and to the quality of care that people with a learning disability receive.
In my Oral Statement on 8 May, Official Report Column 554, I committed to respond to each of the report’s recommendations and will report back to Parliament shortly.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to implement the recommendations of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report 2017, published on 4 May 2018.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
My Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, is aware of the findings of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report 2017.
The Government is committed to learning from every avoidable death and the Department has been working with its partners to see how the report’s recommendations may be implemented to support improvements to services and to the quality of care that people with a learning disability receive.
In my Oral Statement on 8 May, Official Report Column 554, I committed to respond to each of the report’s recommendations and will report back to Parliament shortly.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has discussed with NHS England the frequency of its meetings with Vertex Pharmaceuticals in respect of providing access to medicines for cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is fully able to agree flexible, commercial arrangements to make medicines for cystic fibrosis and other rare diseases available on the National Health Service, provided the manufacturer is willing to offer a fair and cost-effective price. In the case of Vertex’s medicines for cystic fibrosis, NHS England has made a highly collaborative and flexible offer, and there are now discussions ongoing with the manufacturer to seek a final agreement.
Any deal is not for Ministers to approve, as NHS England rightly make an independent judgement. However, the Department is aware that meetings are taking place and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy) and I wrote to Vertex in April following a Westminster Hall debate to encourage the company to work with NHS England on a proposal that represents value to the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage NHS England to pursue innovative commercial arrangements for medicines for (a) cystic fibrosis and (b) other rare diseases.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is fully able to agree flexible, commercial arrangements to make medicines for cystic fibrosis and other rare diseases available on the National Health Service, provided the manufacturer is willing to offer a fair and cost-effective price. In the case of Vertex’s medicines for cystic fibrosis, NHS England has made a highly collaborative and flexible offer, and there are now discussions ongoing with the manufacturer to seek a final agreement.
Any deal is not for Ministers to approve, as NHS England rightly make an independent judgement. However, the Department is aware that meetings are taking place and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy) and I wrote to Vertex in April following a Westminster Hall debate to encourage the company to work with NHS England on a proposal that represents value to the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the degree of flexibility that it has in its commercial discussions with manufacturers of medicines for cystic fibrosis and other rare diseases.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is fully able to agree flexible, commercial arrangements to make medicines for cystic fibrosis and other rare diseases available on the National Health Service, provided the manufacturer is willing to offer a fair and cost-effective price. In the case of Vertex’s medicines for cystic fibrosis, NHS England has made a highly collaborative and flexible offer, and there are now discussions ongoing with the manufacturer to seek a final agreement.
Any deal is not for Ministers to approve, as NHS England rightly make an independent judgement. However, the Department is aware that meetings are taking place and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy) and I wrote to Vertex in April following a Westminster Hall debate to encourage the company to work with NHS England on a proposal that represents value to the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support the Government provides to people who have Lymphedema.
Answered by Steve Brine
The commissioning of services for the treatment and care of lymphoedema patients is the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups, who are best placed to meet the needs of their populations.
People with lymphoedema can usually be treated through routine access to primary or secondary care services. There is range of guidance, including an international consensus document and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, to support local commissioning.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what provisions the Government plans to put in place to help people who have Lymphedema.
Answered by Steve Brine
The commissioning of services for the treatment and care of lymphoedema patients is the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups, who are best placed to meet the needs of their populations.
People with lymphoedema can usually be treated through routine access to primary or secondary care services. There is range of guidance, including an international consensus document and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, to support local commissioning.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the implementation of the recommendations from the Accelerated Access Review on people with cystic fibrosis; and what the timetable is for the implementation of those recommendations.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government and partners published the response to the Accelerated Access Review on 3 November which outlines plans for implementation. Since the Accelerated Access Collaborative has not yet selected any products, we have not made any assessment of the effect of implementation on any particular condition. The Accelerated Access Pathway will be operational from April 2018 when it will begin selecting products.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) number and (b) proportion of children in each region have received each of the health visitor checks in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England has published the percentages of children receiving health visitor checks for 2013/14 and 2014/15 data at:
No published data is held prior to April 2013.
Public Health England (PHE) now collects the data, which is submitted by local authorities on a voluntary basis. Data for 2015/16 can be found at:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20170302101209/http://www.chimat.org.uk/transfer#3
And data for 2016/17 at:
A change in methodology means that the data from PHE and NHS England are not comparable.