Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to include worker representation on its departmental board.
Answered by David Mowat
I refer the hon. Member to the oral statement on Corporate Governance of 29 November 2016, Official Report, column 1408, and to the associated Green Paper itself which can be found at:
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the percentage gap in earnings is between the highest-paid and lowest-paid full-time employee in his Department.
Answered by David Mowat
Government departments do not publish details of the salary of their highest to lowest paid employees.
The Office for National Statistics do, however, publish the salary ratio of highest to median earners for each Civil Service organisation. These ratios are published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics and can be found on the Office for National Statistics website:
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to publish information on the gender pay gap among its employees.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department has reported mean and median gender pay gap data since 2008 as part of the annual release of Civil Service Statistics by the Office for National Statistics.
The latest gender pay gap data (published in October earlier this year) can be found on the Office for National Statistics website:
In October 2015, the then Prime Minister announced that new gender pay gap reporting measures being introduced across the private and voluntary sector from April 2017 would be extended to also apply across the public sector. The Department is actively working to ensure the gender pay gap data reported in future fully mirror these new requirements.
The Civil Service has a comprehensive plan to become the most inclusive employer in the United Kingdom. This is called the Talent Action Plan and was refreshed in March 2016. The plan commits the Civil Service to a number of actions with the aim of removing barriers faced by underrepresented groups, including women, from succeeding. The plan sets out the ambition under key themes which includes recruitment and selection, talent and progression, inclusive culture and social mobility.
Key actions include ensuring single gender panels in recruitment and shortlists are now by exception only (as committed in the first publication of the Talent Action Plan) and committing the Civil Service to reviewing the way in which talent is defined and identified to ensure more inclusive ways to identify potential are developed.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
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 potential merits of introducing in the UK initiatives for people with (a) fibromyalgia and (b) other central sensitivity syndromes similar to those introduced in Spain.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department is aware of ongoing clinical trials and research projects which deal with the assessment and treatment of people with fibromyalgia. Whilst the results of the studies in Spain concerning the merits of ophthalmologic tests in diagnosis and fibromyalgia and helping guide disease management are interesting, larger, high quality clinical trials would be needed to demonstrate the efficacy before introducing such initiatives in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to ensure that applications for Continuing Healthcare are dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
Answered by Alistair Burt
From 2015/16 NHS Continuing Healthcare (NHS CHC) has been included in the assurance processes for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This will help NHS England be assured of CCG compliance with the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care (November 2012) (revised) (the National Framework).
One of the priority areas for the Assurance process to focus on is that the ‘Assessment and Decision making processes are lawful, high quality and timely’. This ensures that CCG policies and procedures are compliant with the National Framework as well as the consistency of NHS CHC assessments across the National Health Service.
NHS England will work closely with CCGs where it has been identified, via the assurance process, that further support is needed.