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Written Question
Eyesight: Testing
Friday 4th October 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for eye care appointments.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning all secondary care ophthalmology services and are also able to commission primary care services (i.e. minor eye services, glaucoma monitoring, referral, refinement and post cataract assessment) in the community to reduce secondary care demand for services and better meet identified needs.

We would expect services to be commissioned in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance where it is available or best available evidence and for patients to receive treatment, in line with their clinical priority, without any undue delay at any stage of their referral, diagnosis or treatment. Where urgent referral pathways do not exist all patients in England have a right to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-urgent conditions. National guidance is also clear that all follow-up appointments should take place when clinically appropriate.

Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is a national clinical improvement programme, working with frontline clinicians to identify and reduce unwarranted variations in service delivery and clinical practice. The GIRFT programme looked at what can be done to ensure ophthalmology patients do not suffer unnecessary delays in follow-up care. NHS England advise the GIRFT report into ophthalmology, which will contain recommendations for service improvement, is due for publication shortly.


Written Question
Hospitals: Parking
Thursday 27th June 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of abolishing parking fees for staff at NHS hospitals.

Answered by Stephen Hammond

The level and appropriateness of car parking charges at National Health Service sites for staff is the responsibility of the local NHS trust. We have published the NHS Car Parking Principles which clearly state that concessions should be offered to groups who most need help, such as staff who cannot travel by public transport due to their shift pattern.

However, given it is the responsibility of the local NHS trust, the Department has no jurisdiction to reduce or eliminate hospital car parking charges for nurses, doctors and essential healthcare workers.


Written Question
Smoking: Health Education
Thursday 27th June 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

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 include the vaping industry in the annual Stoptober campaign; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Seema Kennedy

Public Health England (PHE) is directed under the Tobacco Control Plan for England to include within quit smoking campaigns messages about the relative safety of e-cigarettes and to continue to provide smokers and the public with clear, evidence based and accurate information on the relative harm of nicotine, e-cigarettes, other nicotine delivery systems and smoked tobacco, to enable informed decision-making.

PHE has worked with the Independent British Vape Trade Association and its members to reassure smokers about the relative safety of e-cigarettes and to encourage smokers to switch.


Written Question
Smoking: Health Education
Thursday 27th June 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

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 merits of working with representatives of the vaping industry to help spread the Public Health England findings that e-cigarettes are 95 per cent less harmful than traditional cigarettes; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Seema Kennedy

Public Health England (PHE) is directed under the Tobacco Control Plan for England to include within quit smoking campaigns messages about the relative safety of e-cigarettes and to continue to provide smokers and the public with clear, evidence based and accurate information on the relative harm of nicotine, e-cigarettes, other nicotine delivery systems and smoked tobacco, to enable informed decision-making.

PHE has worked with the Independent British Vape Trade Association and its members to reassure smokers about the relative safety of e-cigarettes and to encourage smokers to switch. This has broadened PHE’s reach to the audience of smokers.


Written Question
Smoking: Health Education
Tuesday 25th June 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

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 effectiveness of the annual Stoptober campaign in getting smokers (a) to switch to vaping and (b) to quit entirely.

Answered by Seema Kennedy

The primary objective of Stoptober is to generate quit attempts amongst smokers in England. Latest available data show that 16% of smokers in England reported making a Stoptober quit attempt in 2017.

Although switching to vaping is not the primary objective of the campaign, latest figures show that 42% of smokers who made a Stoptober quit reported using an e-cigarette in 2017.

In 2017, 8% of smokers making a Stoptober quit attempt reported still not smoking by early November. Public Health England does not measure beyond this point.


Written Question
Smoking: Health Education
Tuesday 25th June 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the findings by Public Health England that e-cigarettes are around 95 per cent less harmful to health than traditional cigarettes are reaching the target audience; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Seema Kennedy

The Government is committed to helping people to quit smoking by permitting innovative technologies that minimise the risk of harm, and through maximising the availability of safer alternatives to smoking. Public Health England continues to provide smokers and the public with clear, evidence based and accurate information on the relative harm of nicotine, e-cigarettes, other nicotine delivery systems and smoked tobacco, to enable informed decision-making. There were over 2.5 million e-cigarettes users in England in 2017, an increase from 1.6 million in 2014. Over half of those using e-cigarettes have quit smoking for good. Adult smoking prevalence in England is at its lowest level on record at 14.9%.


Written Question
Health Services: Foreign Nationals
Monday 1st April 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money was recovered by the NHS from overseas visitors in (a) 2016, (b) 2017 and (c) 2018.

Answered by Stephen Hammond

The total amount of National Health Service treatment recovered from overseas visitors in each of the last three years is provided in the following table.

All income recovered is directed straight back to the NHS frontline.

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

Payments Received (England only)

£196 million

£281 million

£290 million

The United Kingdom Government has made an offer to countries in the European Union/European Economic Area and Switzerland to extend existing healthcare arrangements for UK nationals if the UK leaves without a deal.


Written Question
NHS: Fraud
Wednesday 6th March 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the annual cost of fraud in the NHS.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

For 2016-17 the estimated level of fraud in the National Health Service in England was £1.29 billion. The NHS Counter Fraud Authority will produce its revised Strategic Intelligence Assessment of the estimated level of fraud in the NHS in England for 2017-18 shortly.


Written Question
NHS: Fraud
Wednesday 6th March 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many individuals the NHS Counter Fraud Authority has (a) investigated and (b) pursued charges against since its establishment in 2017.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

Since its establishment in November 2017, the NHS Counter Fraud Authority has:

- Completed investigations or is currently investigating a total of 148 individuals; and

- Submitted evidence and supporting information to the Crown Prosecution Service in respect of 51 individuals.


Written Question
Department for Health and Social Care: Consultants
Monday 25th February 2019

Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on external consultants in (a) 2017 and (b) 2018.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

The level of consultancy spend by the core Department for each of the last two financial years is as follows:

Financial Year

Consultancy Services (£000’s)

2017-18

12,402

2016-17

4,485

The Department utilises consultancy services where it is necessary and prudent to do so. The increase in spend between 2016-17 and 2017-18 relates to programmes of a short-term nature that require specialist support not available within the Department. These resources primarily support development and implementation of a new supply chain model to produce procurement efficiency and value for money for NHS services and the Corporate Services Improvement Programme.