Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish his Department's impact assessment relating to the consultation into standardised tobacco packaging in a wider range of languages.
Answered by Jane Ellison
It is not Government practice to translate Impact Assessments. The consultation document itself was translated into several languages to raise awareness and to facilitate the response from a wide range of relevant stakeholders.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department is giving to clinical commissioning groups to process retrospective continuing care claims.
Answered by Norman Lamb
NHS England is aware of the issues regarding the management by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) of these cases. NHS England is developing a plan to identify CCGs where further support may be required, including the development of local action plans. The Department will continue to work closely with NHS England to understand and support the progress of these cases and to seek assurance that they are being dealt with as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress clinical commissioning groups have made in (a) processing retrospective continuing care claims and (b) the payment of compensation to affected families.
Answered by Norman Lamb
NHS England is aware of the issues regarding the management by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) of these cases. NHS England is developing a plan to identify CCGs where further support may be required, including the development of local action plans. The Department will continue to work closely with NHS England to understand and support the progress of these cases and to seek assurance that they are being dealt with as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on the detention of Gao Zhisheng in China; and what steps he is taking to secure his release.
Answered by Lord Swire
We remain concerned about human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng who has been imprisoned in Xinjiang, without access to his family, since January 2013. We raised his case directly with Chinese officials during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue on 19-20 May. We understand that Gao’s prison term is due to end soon, and we urge the Chinese authorities to ensure that his rights to freedom of movement and communication are duly protected on his release.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps UK Visas and Immigration can take to prevent no cases of Ebola reaching the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The UK does not specifically screen pre or at entry for Ebola.
Public Health England has assessed the risk of importation of Ebola in the UK
as very low. It is extremely unlikely that an outbreak of Ebola would occur in
the UK even if there was to be an imported case, as there are factors operating
in West Africa which would not be seen in the UK. The outbreak in West Africa
is driven by person to person spread in the absence of any infection control
precautions. Human cases of Ebola virus disease have never yet been exported
from an outbreak zone to a European country.
All UK ports have systems and plans for dealing with issues of public health
concern. However, they all require that the public health system is firstly
notified of the arrival of someone with a suspected disease of concern. Crew
are trained to do this by their respective companies and an example of the type
of guidance that they work towards can be found on the International Air
Transport Association (the international airline trade body) website at:
https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/safety/health/Documents/health-guidelines-cabin-cr
ew-2011.pdf .
At all UK ports, there is a system for routing reports, produced by the
commander of a craft, to a local health protection team who are available on a
24/7 basis throughout the year. Health protection teams have generic
responsibility for managing incidents of public health concern in all settings
including our ports. They will then take the lead in managing the incident from
a public health perspective with the NHS being responsible for the provision of
healthcare.
The International Health Regulations (IHR), which entered into force on 15 June
2007, require countries to report certain disease outbreaks and public health
events to WHO, including Ebola.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what contingency plans he has in place to deal with an outbreak of Ebola virus in the UK.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The National Health Service has plans in place to deal with patients with infectious diseases as part of its core business. This includes plans to manage patients in line with infection control procedures, and where necessary in highly specialist infectious diseases facilities.A patient with Ebola virus infection would be cared for in the national High Level Isolation Unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. In the unlikely event of an outbreak involving more than two people, specialist staff at this unit are trained and prepared to look after patients safely in an isolation ward, which would be dedicated for this purpose.
In the UK, the procedures outlined in the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens guidelines, “The Management of Hazard Group 4 viral haemorrhagic fevers and similar human infectious diseases of high consequence”, are followed for any suspected case.
Public Health England has assessed the risk of importation of Ebola in the UK as very low. It is extremely unlikely that an outbreak of Ebola would occur in the UK even if there was to be an imported case, as there are factors operating in West Africa which would not be seen in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to help the Rohingya peoples in Burma; what recent discussions he has had with the Burmese government on this issue; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Swire
The UK is giving £12m in aid to Rakhine State to support shelter, water sanitation and hygiene programmes, nutrition and protection activities, as well as non-food items for 115,000 people. We are also funding £4.5m towards livelihoods projects in Rakhine and support to the UN's coordination of the international humanitarian response.
We remain one of the most vocal and active members of the international community in supporting those calling for human rights and democracy in Burma. I was the first Western Minister to visit Rakhine State in December 2012. I raised concerns again with the Burmese government during my second visit to Burma in January this year, and I again saw Rohingya leaders to hear from them about the many issues they are facing.
The plight of the Rohingya was also at the top of the agenda during the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron's) meeting with President Thein Sein in London in July 2013. In March this year, I summoned the Burmese Ambassador and called on the Burmese government urgently to restore humanitarian access to all communities in need, and to ensure the security of humanitarian aid workers and all communities in Rakhine State. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks), again raised our concerns in a call with his Burmese counterpart in April, and I most recently discussed the situation with the Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister on 12 June.
We will continue to urge the Burmese government to take swift and decisive action to protect the lives and rights of Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine State, and to address the underlying causes of ethnic and religious discrimination and violence.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support people affected by recent flooding in the Balkans
Answered by David Lidington
I discussed the impact of the floods with Prime Minister Vucic of Serbia in Belgrade on 2 June and with Prime Minister Bevanda in Sarajevo on 3 June. During my visit to the region I also met the Serbian Red Cross and travelled to Maglaj in Bosnia-Herzegovina to meet the Mayor and representatives of World Vision.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), between 18 and 23 May a thirty-three person water rescue team from the British Fire Service was deployed to work alongside EUFOR Operation Althea and local rescue efforts. They rescued nearly 200 people, delivered large amounts of humanitarian aid, and helped restore power in villages North of Bijeljina.
In Serbia, the UK provided 64 radios for the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, to assist with the coordination of their response teams; and donated £280,000 worth of heavy lift and transport vehicles to the Serbian Red Cross to aid their relief distribution effort.
A team from the UK flew out to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the week commencing 20 May to assess likely humanitarian and recovery needs. During my visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina I was able to announce that the UK had approved £250,000 to support a World Vision flood response project in the region focussing on sanitation and health and providing support for 140,000 people made homeless by the floods.
In addition to this bilateral support, the UK provided support to BiH, Serbia and Croatia through the EU, UN and other international organisations. In BiH, EUFOR Operation Althea, to which the UK contributes troops in-theatre and in reserve, assisted the BiH Armed Forces in their response to the flooding. The First Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, who provide part of EUFOR's intermediate reserve, and are in BiH for a routine operational rehearsal, will assist the BiH Armed Forces in this regard.
The UK has worked closely with the EU European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and offered advice and assistance during all phases of the flood response effort. ECHO have released €3.2m in humanitarian aid to support the most vulnerable population in BiH and in Serbia (to which the UK will have contributed 15%).
The Government will work closely with the UNDP, the EU and other international organisations to assess what further help might be given to help both Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina recover from the impact of the floods.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional support she is providing to the Passport Office to ensure it continues to meet the deadlines for applications to be processed and returned during the holiday period.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty's Passport Office looks to ensure that adequate resources are in place to meet demand whilst ensuring that resources are proportionate to that demand. Contingencies are in place to coincide with peak periods of demand e.g. school breaks and summer holidays.
This primarily involves staff working overtime but also includes, as required, the redeployment of resources to support passport application examination staff and to assist in the handling of customer contact.
Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to ensure that (a) enhanced frequency and (b) restoration of late night trains are mandatory requirements in the specification for the tendering process of Abbey Line between Watford Junction and St Albans Abbey station.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department for Transport intends to negotiate a Direct Award for the West Midlands franchise to run from April 2016 to June 2017. We will work with the incumbent train operator, London Midland, to consider service enhancements and we will include the Watford Junction – St Albans route in our discussions. Any improvements will have to demonstrate both a positive business case and that they are affordable within the budget provided for the franchise.