Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2018 to Question 201731, how many cases have come before the Information Commissioner in relation to allegations that the DVLA computer system has been illegally accessed by private car park operators to obtain a driver's personal data in the last year.
Answered by Margot James
The Information Commissioner performs her regulatory functions independently of Government. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport does not hold operational data on the Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) enforcement activity and is unable to to provide detail on specific complaints or investigations on behalf of the Commissioner. The ICO does, however, publish a range of management information about enforcement activity they have undertaken and numbers of complaints received and addressed on their website (ico.org.uk). Enquiries about specific cases can be made directly to the ICO using the general enquiry form available on their website.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many infrastructure contracts overseen by his Department have been let with the stipulation that a Project Bank Account must be applied in the last year.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Central BEIS have not let any infrastructure contracts over the past year. We do not hold this information for BEIS Arms Lengths Bodies therefore this information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2018 to Question 201214 on Rare Diseases: Drugs, on how many occasions NICE has made a conditional recommendation for a rare disease treatment that do not qualify for conditional recommendation through the cancer drugs fund; and what criteria NICE uses to determine whether such treatments are eligible for conditional recommendations.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is able to take into account the commercial terms offered by a manufacturer during a NICE appraisal through a mechanism known as a commercial access agreement. On two occasions NICE has issued optimised recommendations to make rare disease medicines routinely available for the appropriate group of National Health Service patients that are conditional on it being supplied in accordance with the terms of the commercial access arrangements. These were Sorafenib, for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, and ibrutinib for relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma.
This is different from the process of a conditional recommendation for use within the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) for oncology drugs, where there is significant remaining clinical uncertainty which needs more investigation through data collection. In these cases funding is provided from the CDF for a time-limited period to allow patient access whilst this data is collected, before guidance is then reviewed again for routine commissioning.
NICE does not have any particular criteria to determine whether treatments are eligible for conditional recommendations. However, the process guide for patient access schemes and commercial access agreements and the CDF can be found at the following link:
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what monitoring processes the Government uses to check that main contractors pay sub-contractors within 30 days.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Public Contract Regulations require public sector buyers to pay their suppliers within 30 days and require these payment terms to be passed down the supply chain. Should circumstances of non-compliance arise, we encourage sub-contractors to contact the Public Procurement Review Service in the Cabinet Office who will investigate. The service has helped suppliers reclaim over £5 million in late payments.
A new prompt payment initiative to ensure all Government suppliers and subcontractors benefit from being paid on time, will come into force in Autumn 2019. Companies who fail to demonstrate prompt payment to their suppliers face being prevented from winning government contracts. This move will promote a healthy and diverse marketplace of companies providing public services.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his policy paper of 5 December 2018 entitled Voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access, whether NICE plans to review the suitability of its technology appraisal methods for rare disease treatments that do not qualify for the highly specialised technologies programme.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is not yet able to advise what will be included in the scope of the review of its technology appraisal methods. NICE will begin scoping the planned review in 2019/20 with the involvement of industry and other relevant stakeholders.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 12 November 2018 to Question 188234 on Rare Diseases: Drugs, whether NICE can make a conditional recommendation for treatment for rare diseases that do not qualify for conditional recommendation through the cancer drugs fund.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence can make a conditional recommendation for treatment for rare diseases that do not qualify for conditional recommendation through the cancer drugs fund. For example, it has recommended the use of belimumab for the treatment of lupus subject to the conditions of a managed access agreement.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to publish the results of his May 2018 consultation on whether Government suppliers with a poor payment record should be excluded from Government procurement contracts in future.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
On November 29, I announced a new prompt payment initiative to ensure all Government suppliers and subcontractors benefit from being paid on time. For the first time, failure of companies to demonstrate prompt payment to their suppliers could result in them being prevented from winning government contracts.
Coming into force on 1 September 2019, this will ensure the government only does business with companies who pay their suppliers on time, many of which are small businesses. The move will promote a healthy and diverse marketplace of companies providing public services.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Government departments use Project Bank Accounts when issuing contracts; and how use of those accounts is monitored.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Government contracts make provision for the use of Project Bank Accounts (PBAs) and departments have committed to use PBAs on their construction projects unless there are compelling reasons not to. The greatest use of PBAs is in DfT within Highways England and through Defra in the Environment Agency.
It is for individual departments to monitor the PBA as appropriate to their contracts
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps to ensure that existing Carillion project sub-contractors are given priority consideration when tenders are being reissued.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
It is illegal to favour specific suppliers in public tendering exercises. Subcontractors are appointed by prime contractors, and Government has no involvement with the allocation of sub-contractors for public contracts.
The Official Receiver is the official contact for subcontractors who worked on Carillion projects.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many prosecutions the DVLA has pursued in relation to suspected illegal access to a driver's personal data on the DVLA's computer system by private car park operators.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has no powers to bring prosecutions where personal data from its records may have been obtained unlawfully. Any such cases would be passed to the Information Commissioner, who is empowered to investigate and consider appropriate enforcement action.