Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the terms of reference are for the investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into GlaxoSmithKline (GSK); whether the SFO will investigate (a) GSK's activities within the UK, (b) allegations of bribery of UK doctors, (c) promotion of Seroxat prescribing for children and (d) the 2002 CSM Expert Working Group on the safety of SSRI antidepressants; and whether there is a point of contact for members of the public who wish to help the SFO investigation.
Answered by Dominic Grieve
The Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) recently announced that he has opened a criminal investigation into the commercial practices of GlaxoSmithKline plc and its subsidiaries. The SFO investigation will follow the evidence and it is not appropriate to comment whilst enquiries are continuing.
A press release regarding GlaxoSmithKline and information on how to contact the SFO can be found on its website at www.sfo.gov.uk
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in England in receipt of free social care are terminally ill.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Local authorities have a duty to assess the needs of any person for whom the authority may arrange social care and who may be in need of such care. They have a further duty to decide, having regard to the results of the assessment, what, if any, care and support they should provide to meet the individual's needs. Where a local authority decides to arrange care and support it will carry out a financial assessment to decide what an individual can afford to contribute towards the cost. Appeals against decisions by local authorities are considered locally. Information about appeals is not collected centrally.
In its 2011 report, the independent Palliative Care Funding Review recommended the provision of free social care at the end of life. A series of palliative care funding pilots were established to test the review's recommendations, and these completed their work in March 2014. NHS England is currently analysing the financial data collected from the pilots. Once this analysis has been completed, a decision will be made on the issue of free social care at the end of life, taking into account this analysis and wider policy and financial considerations.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many appeals were made by applicants for social care at the end of their life in the last two years; how many such appeals were successful; and what proportion of total appeals against decisions about social care such appeals represent.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Local authorities have a duty to assess the needs of any person for whom the authority may arrange social care and who may be in need of such care. They have a further duty to decide, having regard to the results of the assessment, what, if any, care and support they should provide to meet the individual's needs. Where a local authority decides to arrange care and support it will carry out a financial assessment to decide what an individual can afford to contribute towards the cost. Appeals against decisions by local authorities are considered locally. Information about appeals is not collected centrally.
In its 2011 report, the independent Palliative Care Funding Review recommended the provision of free social care at the end of life. A series of palliative care funding pilots were established to test the review's recommendations, and these completed their work in March 2014. NHS England is currently analysing the financial data collected from the pilots. Once this analysis has been completed, a decision will be made on the issue of free social care at the end of life, taking into account this analysis and wider policy and financial considerations.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 41W, on drinking water, whether his Department has conducted a study of levels of psychotropic drugs in UK rivers and seawater.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Currently no psychotropic drugs have been identified as Priority Hazardous Substances, Priority Substances or UK Specific Pollutants under the Water Framework Directive. As such no routine monitoring is carried out for these substances in England.
However, previous research by the Environment Agency on pharmaceuticals in surface waters included environmental monitoring for the psychotropic drug fluoxetine (an anti-depressant). In 2005, monitoring was undertaken in rivers downstream of a number of sewage works across England and Wales. Thirty-nine samples were taken with fluoxetine occurring in 85% of samples with a maximum concentration of 0.044 microgrammes/litre (µg/l), and norfluoxetine in 51% of samples with a maximum concentration of 0.083 µg/l.
During 2011, a programme of monitoring for pesticides was undertaken in six catchments. The psychotropic drugs carbamazepine and gabapentin were detected in all six catchments with maximum levels of 0.7 µg/l and 1.2 µg/l respectively.
The report published by the Drinking Water Inspectorate evaluated the risk from psychotropic drugs in river water used for abstraction for drinking water supplies.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the findings of the recent Global Forum on Incontinence into improving health and social care in incontinence.
Answered by Norman Lamb
No assessment has been made of the findings of the recent Global Forum on Incontinence (GFI) into improving health and social care in incontinence. However, we applaud the work of the GFI and the work it is doing to improve the health and social care provisions for incontinence, giving patients and care givers a better quality of life.
Responsibility for continence services sit with NHS England and clinical commissioning groups (CCG). CCGs are responsible for commissioning high quality continence services based on an assessment of local need and performance managing their providers in the delivery of high quality services.
The Mandate to NHS England requires it to deliver continued improvements in relation to enhancing the quality of life for people with long-term conditions, including those suffering incontinence, across the five domains of the NHS Outcomes Framework. NHS England will be taking forward a major programme of work through the Primary Care Strategy; it has established a working group on continence care and will provide an update for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Continence Care on 24 June.
To improve standards in continence care, the Department commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to develop clinical guidelines on the management of urinary incontinence in women (issued in 2006) and faecal incontinence in adults (issued in 2007), which are supported by commissioning tools to support CCGs. In February, NICE published a clinical Quality Standard on Faecal Incontinence, QS54, which describes high-priority areas for quality improvement in this area. NHS England continues to champion the use of Quality Standards with both commissioners and providers.
We believe all patients have the right to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion.
We recognise that continence can impact on every aspect of peoples' lives and that it often requires a joined approach from both health and social care services. That is why in April the Department published the policy paper, Transforming Primary Care: safe proactive, personalised care for those who need it, which focuses on improving and individualising the management of out of hospital care, directly supporting those with continence problems by creating more integrated health and social care services. This paper has been placed in the Library.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on the fairness of the hearing of Asiya Noreen Bibi sentenced to death in 2011 at the provincial Lahore High Court.
Answered by Hugh Robertson
We receive regular reports on the case of Mrs Bibi and others facing charges of blasphemy in Pakistan and we are aware that a numbers of NGOs and other governments follow her case closely. We remain concerned about the case of Asia Bibi and would urge the courts in Pakistan to ensure a fair and swift hearing of her appeal due later this month.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the government of Pakistan on (a) the fairness of the hearing of Asiya Noreen Bibi who was sentenced to death in 2011 at the provincial Lahore High Court and (b) providing adequate protection to judiciary officials to allow a further hearing to take place.
Answered by Hugh Robertson
We regularly raise the issue of blasphemy laws, and their misuse against both Muslims and religious minorities, at the highest levels in Pakistan and press the government to ensure fair trials.We remain concerned about the case of Asia Bibi and would urge the courts in Pakistan to ensure a fair and swift hearing of her appeal due later this month. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) raised our concerns regarding these laws and the need for reforms during the recent visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to reorganise its funding model to ensure that it is encouraging service delivery for complex multiple needs, in line with an intregrated model of healthcare solutions.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
DFID supports work to strengthen health systems and deliver health programmes, helping developing countries to assess and provide for the health needs of its people. This will enable countries to make sound decisions about the delivery of the promotion, prevention and treatment services that are needed.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will discuss with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists the decision of its faculty of sexual and reproductive health not to allow doctors and nurses who have a conscientious objection to supplying contraceptive drugs or devices which act after fertilisation to receive its diploma in sexual and reproductive health.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare is responsible for decisions on the syllabus of its Diploma, the requirements for entry to the Diploma course, and the award of a Diploma qualification.
Asked by: Jim Dobbin (Labour (Co-op) - Heywood and Middleton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to tackle illicit trade in prescription tranquilisers in prisons.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) deploys a comprehensive range of measures to reduce the availability of drugs in prisons, including targeted searching, drug education, and other interventions. Prisoners are also subject to random and targeted mandatory drug tests, which include a test for the misuse of benzodiazepines. Prisoners found with prohibited items face swift and robust punishment. This can include having days added to their custody, being transferred to a different prison and losing privileges.
NOMS is not complacent about the potential misuse of prescription medication in prisons and prison governors work closely with healthcare providers to ensure that relevant information is shared and that medication is safely and appropriately administered.
The published National Partnership Agreement between NOMS, NHS England and Public Health England (www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/about/noms/work-with-partners/national-partnership-agreement-commissioning-delivery-healthcare-prisons2013.pdf) has a commitment to review the level and choice of prescription medications within prisons and for the organisations to work together with professional bodies to promote changes in prescribing practice and tackle abuse of medications.