Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the NHS England Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group plans to make an announcement on the recommendations of the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group.
Answered by George Freeman
The Specialised Services Commissioning Committee is due to meet at the end of June 2016. The recommendations of the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group will be announced after that meeting.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress is being made on conducting antenatal mental health assessments.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Our commitment to improving perinatal mental health was demonstrated by the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of a £290 million investment over the next five years to 2020/21 in perinatal mental health services. This builds on the initial investment of £75 million announced in the March 2015 Budget, making a total investment from 2015/16 to 2020/21 of £365million.
The National Institute for Health Care and Excellence guidelines recommend that during a pregnant women’s first contact with primary care or when booking her first appointment she should be asked how she is feeling. This will enable a sensitive conversation and, if appropriate, for a referral to her general practitioner for further assessment or, if a severe mental health problem is suspected, to a mental health professional.
It has been recognised that more information is needed about perinatal mental health. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is working on the implementation of a new Mental Health Services Dataset which will seek to increase the amount of data available about antenatal mental health assessments. We expect that some initial data on perinatal mental health will be available later this year. We will use this initial information to refine how data on perinatal mental health is collected going forward.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether a representative of HM Prisons Service sits on the Mental Health Task Force.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Mental Health Task Force does not include a representative of HM Prison Service amongst its membership.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times ambulances have been required to attend prisons as a result of emergency call-outs relating to (a) illegal drugs, (b) prescribed drugs and (c) psychoactive substances in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Information about the frequency of emergency ambulance call-outs to prisons is not collected centrally by the Department or NHS England.
In February 2013, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) issued guidance to prisons and immigration removal centres operated by NOMS concerning emergency ambulance call-outs. This guidance, Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 03/2013 Medical Emergency Response Codes outlines the medical symptoms in a prisoner, but not behaviours such as drug misuse, for which a prison must always call out an emergency ambulance. This PSI is mandatory in all prisons in England.
A copy of the guidance is available at: