Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with Ofcom on the regulation of BT Openreach and other companies' fibre access costs.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
I have regular discussions with Ofcom and the subjects discussed include all aspects of the regulation of the telecoms markets.
A range of infrastructure providers is playing a part in extending the coverage of superfast broadband across the UK. In general, the most effective and efficient way to provide superfast broadband on the Openreach network is to upgrade existing cabinets to fibre. This is feasible for most of the 95% of UK premises that are covered under the existing BDUK programme.
Openreach is not the only provider of Next Generation Access (NGA) infrastructure – i.e. fibre - in the UK. Virgin Media and KCOM (in the Hull area) and a number of other network providers are also rolling out their own networks to provide broadband or superfast broadband services. The smaller providers have smaller networks, usually where Openreach and Virgin Media’s NGA networks are not present. Many operators, such as Sky and TalkTalk, provide services using the BT Openreach network.
There are also a range of community-led broadband projects across the UK, many of which have been supported by Government funding and receive technical, procurement and legal support from Government. There are also projects that are community owned, built and operated; for instance Broadband 4 the Rural North (B4RN) The Honourable Member’s own constituency; as well as small commercial investors in fibre and wireless technology broadband.
Since 2011, BT has been obliged to offer passive infrastructure access (PIA) to operators across the UK for the deployment of access networks. In Ofcom’s Fixed Access Market Review, published in June 2014, the Regulator decided to maintain this obligation on BT.
Ofcom is responsible for regulation of the UK telecommunications markets and the Government's broadband programme is consistent with the UK regulatory regime operated by Ofcom. Ofcom’s regulatory approach has been to encourage commercial investment by allowing for pricing flexibility to incentivise commercial providers to roll out fibre to the maximum extent. By incentivising providers and achieving maximum commercial coverage, there are fewer areas in which the Government has had to become involved.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of regulating BT Openreach and other companies' fibre access costs on his Department's plans to increase superfast broadband coverage.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
I have regular discussions with Ofcom and the subjects discussed include all aspects of the regulation of the telecoms markets.
A range of infrastructure providers is playing a part in extending the coverage of superfast broadband across the UK. In general, the most effective and efficient way to provide superfast broadband on the Openreach network is to upgrade existing cabinets to fibre. This is feasible for most of the 95% of UK premises that are covered under the existing BDUK programme.
Openreach is not the only provider of Next Generation Access (NGA) infrastructure – i.e. fibre - in the UK. Virgin Media and KCOM (in the Hull area) and a number of other network providers are also rolling out their own networks to provide broadband or superfast broadband services. The smaller providers have smaller networks, usually where Openreach and Virgin Media’s NGA networks are not present. Many operators, such as Sky and TalkTalk, provide services using the BT Openreach network.
There are also a range of community-led broadband projects across the UK, many of which have been supported by Government funding and receive technical, procurement and legal support from Government. There are also projects that are community owned, built and operated; for instance Broadband 4 the Rural North (B4RN) The Honourable Member’s own constituency; as well as small commercial investors in fibre and wireless technology broadband.
Since 2011, BT has been obliged to offer passive infrastructure access (PIA) to operators across the UK for the deployment of access networks. In Ofcom’s Fixed Access Market Review, published in June 2014, the Regulator decided to maintain this obligation on BT.
Ofcom is responsible for regulation of the UK telecommunications markets and the Government's broadband programme is consistent with the UK regulatory regime operated by Ofcom. Ofcom’s regulatory approach has been to encourage commercial investment by allowing for pricing flexibility to incentivise commercial providers to roll out fibre to the maximum extent. By incentivising providers and achieving maximum commercial coverage, there are fewer areas in which the Government has had to become involved.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support coastal communities.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This Government remains committed to helping all coastal communities thrive. The Coastal Communities Fund is supporting 117 projects across the UK, to the tune of £62 million, and we are looking forward to announcing a further tranche of successful projects in the New Year.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will direct the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to amend its drug approval system to ensure (a) more cancer drugs and (b) more drugs for cancers of unmet need pass its appraisal process.
Answered by George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) plays a vital role in ensuring that National Health Service resources deliver the maximum benefit to patients and it has helped to secure access to clinically and cost effective drugs and treatments for many thousands of patients, including those with cancer. NICE is an independent body and is responsible for the development of its methods and processes.
The Government has announced an external review of the pathways for the development, assessment and adoption of innovative medicines and medical technologies. This review will consider how to speed up access for NHS patients to cost-effective new diagnostics, medicines and devices.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department has made available to small primary schools for providing free school meals.
Answered by David Laws
We recognise some smaller schools will face particular challenges in implementing universal infant free school meals. We have therefore allocated an extra £22.5 million transitional funding in 2014-15 to help schools with 150 pupils or fewer to implement the policy. Each qualifying small school received a minimum of £3,000. This is on top of the £2.30 per meal taken which all schools have been given for their newly eligible infants.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects NHS England to publish the second quarter figures for Cancer Drugs Fund notifications and individual Cancer Drugs Fund requests for 2014-15; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England published quarter two 2014-15 Cancer Drugs Fund figures on its website on 19 November 2014. Further information is available at:
www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/
Since October 2010, over 60,000 patients in England have benefitted from the Cancer Drugs Fund.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what progress he has made on identifying areas not included in the first and second wave of City Deals to be prioritised for subsequent initiatives.
Answered by Greg Clark
Building on the success of City Deals, we extended the opportunity to every Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) in the Country, to negotiate a bespoke Growth Deal with Government.
These Growth Deals, announced in July, put significant funding into the hands of LEPs, and saw the agreement of significant new freedoms and flexibilities. In Lancaster, £17m of Growth Deal funding (with £58m of private match) will establish new facilities at the Lancaster Health Innovation Park.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library the responses to Public Health England's consultation on drug misuse and dependence.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Public Health England (PHE) has convened an expert group, chaired by Professor John Strang, to consider the responses to the consultation on a possible update to the United Kingdom guidelines on the clinical management of drug misuse and dependence.
PHE is providing secretariat to the group, and we will place consultation responses in the Library after the expert group has had the opportunity to review them in full. The expert group has not yet determined when this will be.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2014 to Question 211087, if he will bring forward proposals to prevent, by means of (a) a mandatory seal and (b) other measures motorcyclists tampering with their exhausts after passing the MOT noise test.
Answered by Claire Perry
The MOT test does not, as a matter of principle, involve modifying the vehicles tested in any way. This is in part to ensure that the vehicle owner can have confidence that their vehicle is not damaged by the test. We would be happy to consider proposals to make enforcement against noisy motorcyclists easier. It is doubtful a mandatory seal is a practical and proportionate measure, as many motorcyclists need to make legitimate repairs or modifications to their exhausts between annual tests.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had on the future of the National Cancer Peer Review Programme.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England is currently reviewing the National Cancer Peer Review programme with a view to considering how its success might be extended into other new areas of specialised commissioning. Regardless of the outcome of this review, cancer peer review will continue to play a critical part of any broader peer review programme NHS England may look to introduce.
The number of visits undertaken by the programme changes based on how many risk visits and how many comprehensive visits are carried out. The highest number of visits completed in any one year since the programme began was 535 in 2012-13, when comprehensive visits to acute oncology were carried out. Generally, between 400 and 450 visits are completed each year.
As the programme has moved to risk assessed visits only rather than comprehensive visits (as comprehensive visits to all tumour sites have been completed) the number of visits has reduced; in 2013-14 there were 424 cancer visits.
This year, between April 2014 and October 2014, 100 cancer visits and 28 major trauma centre visits have been carried out.