Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how existing schools embedded in hospitals for pupils with medical needs will be supported financially if planned changes to the commissioning of alternative provision proceed; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We will announce more detail on the funding for alternative provision under the new commissioning arrangements in due course. We are mindful of the diverse range of provision which comes under the banner of alternative provision, and the particular logistical and geographical issues related to hospital schools.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) adults and (b) children with cystic fibrosis who have previously claimed disability living allowance have received no award when assessed under the new personal independence payment.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Department intends to provide detailed breakdowns of DLA to PIP reassessment outcomes in due course. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish his evaluation of the National Stroke Strategy for England and the Government's approach to outpatient rehabilitation services for stroke survivors.
Answered by David Mowat
There has been no formal evaluation of the National Stroke Strategy. However there is a continuous evaluation of the quality of stroke care via the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP). This measures most of the key indicators defined as important in the strategy and findings are freely available on the SSNAP website:
The Government’s approach to outpatient rehabilitation services for stroke survivors is to encourage clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to commission evidence based care such as early supported discharge and longer term neurorehabilitation. There are some areas where these services are incomplete and NHS England is working with CCGs and the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints to address this.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 24 March 2016 to Question 32596, if he will place in the Library the spreadsheet used to calculate the allocation of the 2016-17 transition grant to individual authorities.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Secretary of State has published an explanatory note setting out the method of calculation of the Transition Grant. Copies have been made available in the libraries of both Houses. It is available to view at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf.
The spreadsheet showing individual authority allocations was published on 8 February as part of the Core Spending Power: Supporting Information tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corespending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2016-to-2017.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the final local government finance settlement 2016-17, published on 8 February 2016, if he will place a copy of the (a) methodology used for calculating the distribution and (b) detailed model used to calculate the allocation to each individual authority of the 2016-17 transitional grant in the Library; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Secretary of State has published an explanatory note setting out the method of calculation of the Transition Grant. Copies have been made available in the libraries of both Houses. It is available to view at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510870/Explanatory_note_on_the_allocation_of_the_Transition_Grant.pdf.
Individual authority allocations were published on 8 February as part of the Core Spending Power: Supporting Information tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corespending-power-final-local-government-finance-settlement-2016-to-2017.
The Secretary of State has already addressed questions from the House on this matter. I refer the hon. Member to the debate on Local Government Finance Report (England) on 10 February, Official Report, Columns 1643-1645.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the public purse has been of storing, maintaining and facilitating research access to the Corsellis Brain Collection in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. West London Mental Health Trust has therefore decided - once it has responded to current requests for samples - to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some tissue has also been requested by the University of Hong Kong for training purposes for their neuropathology students, which the Trust is providing as a more appropriate use of such clinical material than respectful disposal. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.
The Trust has provided figures for each of the three years to 2014/15. In each case the cost has been borne by the Trust, offset (to a relatively small extent) by fees received for tissue sample requests and - in 2014/15 - by a donation. The figures are shown in the following table.
Financial Year | Cost | Income | Donation |
2012/13 | £101,126 | Nil | Nil |
2013/14 | £84,561 | £7,016 | Nil |
2014/15 | £80,684 | £1,003 | £69,316 |
The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the future of the Corsellis Brain Collection at the West London Mental Health NHS Trust; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. West London Mental Health Trust has therefore decided - once it has responded to current requests for samples - to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some tissue has also been requested by the University of Hong Kong for training purposes for their neuropathology students, which the Trust is providing as a more appropriate use of such clinical material than respectful disposal. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.
The Trust has provided figures for each of the three years to 2014/15. In each case the cost has been borne by the Trust, offset (to a relatively small extent) by fees received for tissue sample requests and - in 2014/15 - by a donation. The figures are shown in the following table.
Financial Year | Cost | Income | Donation |
2012/13 | £101,126 | Nil | Nil |
2013/14 | £84,561 | £7,016 | Nil |
2014/15 | £80,684 | £1,003 | £69,316 |
The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will direct West London Mental Health Trust to consider mothballing or other alternatives to dismantling the Corsellis Brain Collection.
Answered by George Freeman
Started in the early 1950s by Professor Nick Corsellis at Runwell Hospital, in recent years the Corsellis Collection of brain pathology specimens has been managed and maintained by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT). The excess costs of maintaining the collection can only be supported by WLMHT from funds received for patient care. Therefore WLMHT has decided to dispose of the collection by seeking expressions of interest in the brain tissue of value for research, mainly sub-collections of the less common pathologies, and to respectfully dispose of that tissue for which no scientific purpose could be envisaged.
WLMHT has received expressions of interest, but none in taking the complete collection. The original timescale for closure was by the end of March 2016, but WLMHT will support a further three months activity to meet the additional requests for tissue samples. The collection will close by the end of June.
The Department and NHS England have not made any specific assessment of the contribution of the collection to medical research and health improvement in the United Kingdom, or undertaken any specific analysis of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the collection.
The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the contribution of the Corsellis Brain Collection to medical research and health improvement in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
Started in the early 1950s by Professor Nick Corsellis at Runwell Hospital, in recent years the Corsellis Collection of brain pathology specimens has been managed and maintained by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT). The excess costs of maintaining the collection can only be supported by WLMHT from funds received for patient care. Therefore WLMHT has decided to dispose of the collection by seeking expressions of interest in the brain tissue of value for research, mainly sub-collections of the less common pathologies, and to respectfully dispose of that tissue for which no scientific purpose could be envisaged.
WLMHT has received expressions of interest, but none in taking the complete collection. The original timescale for closure was by the end of March 2016, but WLMHT will support a further three months activity to meet the additional requests for tissue samples. The collection will close by the end of June.
The Department and NHS England have not made any specific assessment of the contribution of the collection to medical research and health improvement in the United Kingdom, or undertaken any specific analysis of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the collection.
The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what analysis his Department or NHS England has undertaken of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the Corsellis Brain Collection; and if he will place any such analysis in the Library.
Answered by George Freeman
Started in the early 1950s by Professor Nick Corsellis at Runwell Hospital, in recent years the Corsellis Collection of brain pathology specimens has been managed and maintained by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT). The excess costs of maintaining the collection can only be supported by WLMHT from funds received for patient care. Therefore WLMHT has decided to dispose of the collection by seeking expressions of interest in the brain tissue of value for research, mainly sub-collections of the less common pathologies, and to respectfully dispose of that tissue for which no scientific purpose could be envisaged.
WLMHT has received expressions of interest, but none in taking the complete collection. The original timescale for closure was by the end of March 2016, but WLMHT will support a further three months activity to meet the additional requests for tissue samples. The collection will close by the end of June.
The Department and NHS England have not made any specific assessment of the contribution of the collection to medical research and health improvement in the United Kingdom, or undertaken any specific analysis of the potential effect on medical research of dismantling the collection.
The Medical Research Council supports a range of brain tissue banks which have been set-up around specific disorders and diseases generally to collect post-mortem brain tissue from consented donors.