Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on producing an implementation plan for England for the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases; and when he expects such a plan to be in place.
Answered by George Freeman
There are no plans to consult on the implementation plan for England on the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases. NHS England published a Statement of Intent to implement the UK Strategy in February 2014. Implementation of the Strategy is also included in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.
The UK Rare Disease Forum is responsible for monitoring progress on implementation of the Strategy across the United Kingdom. It published its first progress report on 29 February 2016. This recognises that significant progress has been made against majority of the 51 recommendations in the report. Further reports will be published in 2018 and 2020.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what consultation he expects to undertake on the implementation plan for England for the UK strategy on rare diseases.
Answered by George Freeman
There are no plans to consult on the implementation plan for England on the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases. NHS England published a Statement of Intent to implement the UK Strategy in February 2014. Implementation of the Strategy is also included in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.
The UK Rare Disease Forum is responsible for monitoring progress on implementation of the Strategy across the United Kingdom. It published its first progress report on 29 February 2016. This recognises that significant progress has been made against majority of the 51 recommendations in the report. Further reports will be published in 2018 and 2020.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to review the definition of stillbirth since January 2014; and whether he has had discussions with his ministerial colleagues on changing the procedure on the registration of stillbirths to allow for the registration of deaths before 24 weeks.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, as amended, provides for the registration of babies born without signs of life after 24 weeks’ gestation, which is the legal age of viability. Parents of babies who are stillborn after 24 weeks’ gestation receive a medical certificate certifying the stillbirth and, upon registration, can register the baby's name and receive a certificate of registration of stillbirth.
Parliament supported a change to the stillbirth definition from “after 28 weeks” to “after 24 weeks” in 1992, following a clear consensus from the medical profession at that time that the age at which a foetus should be considered viable should be changed from 28 to 24 weeks. Medical opinion does not currently support reducing the age of viability below 24 weeks of gestation. Therefore, there are no plans to amend the stillbirth definition.
We are aware that some parents find it very distressing that they may not register the birth of a baby born before 24 weeks. However, it is important to recognise there would also be parents distressed at the possibility of having to do so. When a baby is born without signs of life before 24 weeks’ gestation, hospitals may issue a local certificate to commemorate the baby's birth.
In November 2015, the Government announced a national ambition to halve by 2030 the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth. The announcement also committed to publishing an annual report to update the public, health professionals, providers and commissioners on the progress we are making towards achieving the ambition.
To support the system in achieving this ambition we also announced:
― A £2.24 million capital fund for equipment to improve safety.
― Over £1 million to roll out training programmes to make sure staff have the skills and confidence they need to deliver world-leading safe care.
― £500,000 to develop a new system that can be used consistently across the National Health Service to enable staff to review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average hourly earnings of (a) female, (b) male, (c) full-time and (d) part-time employees of his Department were in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The following table shows the average hourly rates of pay for all Civil Servants in the Department by gender and by working pattern for the last five years. The average hourly rate calculation uses net hours for both full-time and part-time staff.
| March 2012 | March 2013 | March 2014 | March 2015 | January 2016 |
Female | £22.34 | £22.23 | £22.23 | £22.45 | £22.48 |
Male | £25.37 | £25.41 | £21.69 | £24.40 | £24.56 |
Part-time | £22.95 | £22.64 | £23.60 | £24.08 | £23.95 |
Full-time | £23.74 | £23.75 | £23.12 | £23.11 | £23.21 |
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what targets his Department has for the transfer of documents between GP surgeries when a patient moves to a different area.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department does not collect information on the time taken to transfer documents between general practitioner (GP) surgeries.
The GP contract requires GP practices to use the electronic facility known as “GP2GP” for the safe and effective transfer of any computerised patient records where they have access to this system. As at end September 2015, 97.2% of GP practices were using GP2GP. 5,859,890 patient electronic health records have been transferred by GP2GP to the patient’s new GP since 2007.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the devolved administrations in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland on the speed and efficiency of transfer of patient records between administrations.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We do not have any record of discussions that have taken place between the Secretary of State for Health and the devolved administrations on the speed and efficiency of transfer of patient records between administrations. However, we are aware that Wales has been conducting a pilot of the GP2GP system, which enables patient records to be electronically transferred between one practice and another, and Scotland has also been rolling out the system. In the future this should enable faster, more effective transfer of patient records between administrations.
Additionally, the Summary Care Record Programme in England has a four nations forum with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that focuses on best practice and lessons learned from the respective national record sharing solutions.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP surgeries have adopted the use of the GP2GP system developed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Answered by George Freeman
7,547 general practitioner practices in England were live with the GP2GP system at the end of November 2015; this equates to 97.7% of all GP2GP eligible practices within England.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average time taken for the transfer of documents between GP surgeries when a patient move to a different health area was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department does not collect information on the time taken to transfer documents between general practitioner (GP) surgeries.
The GP contract requires GP practices to use the electronic facility known as “GP2GP” for the safe and effective transfer of any computerised patient records where they have access to this system. As at end September 2015, 97.2% of GP practices were using GP2GP. 5,859,890 patient electronic health records have been transferred by GP2GP to the patient’s new GP since 2007.