Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Law Commission as part of its scoping work on reform of surrogacy law.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Law Commission is currently consulting on proposals for its 13th programme of law reform, and has asked consultees for their views on whether a project about surrogacy should be included in the programme. The consultation closes on 31 October 2016. The Department wrote to the Law Commission on 20 May 2016 supporting the inclusion of a project about surrogacy in the list of suggested possible projects being considered for the programme. No discussions have taken place with the Law Commission about scoping.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 21 of his Department's Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, published in December 2013, when he plans to publish information on the comparative use of medicines in the NHS referred to in that document; by which channels he plans that information to be published; what plans he has to communicate that information proactively through the NHS; whether he intends to communicate that information to patients; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Life Science Competitiveness Indicators were published for the first time in March 2015 and are available to all. The publication can be found here:
The Competitiveness Indicators were the product of extensive collaboration with colleagues from across the life science sector, including from industry. In developing the Indicators, issues such as the availability and reliability of data, the potential for international comparisons and relevance to United Kingdom competitiveness in life sciences were considered in establishing which measures to include.
We plan to publish the 2016 Life Science Competitiveness Indicators in March 2016. Our intention is to maintain as much consistency in content as possible, in order to facilitate analysis of progress over time, which can in turn inform policy development.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 21 of his Department's Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, published in December 2013, when he plans to refresh the annual indicators arising from the Pharmaceutical Industry Competitiveness Taskforce referred to in that document; if he will make it his policy to include (a) medicines expenditure per head of population, (b) market sales as a percentage of GDP and (c) average pricing and reimbursement delays in the set of those indicators; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Life Science Competitiveness Indicators were published for the first time in March 2015 and are available to all. The publication can be found here:
The Competitiveness Indicators were the product of extensive collaboration with colleagues from across the life science sector, including from industry. In developing the Indicators, issues such as the availability and reliability of data, the potential for international comparisons and relevance to United Kingdom competitiveness in life sciences were considered in establishing which measures to include.
We plan to publish the 2016 Life Science Competitiveness Indicators in March 2016. Our intention is to maintain as much consistency in content as possible, in order to facilitate analysis of progress over time, which can in turn inform policy development.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what payments have been made to the devolved administrations under the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme to date; on which date each such payment was made; what methodology is used to calculate the level of such payments; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government recognises that the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) payments that companies make under the 2014 scheme in respect of the United Kingdom need to be allocated to each of the devolved administrations in a fair way.
The PPRS payments that companies make under the scheme in respect of the UK are allocated to each of the four countries on an agreed basis each year. Apportionment is not covered by the terms of the PPRS. However, the four countries agreed the current method for apportioning income received under the 2014 PPRS which is based on primary care data for spend on licensed branded medicines, as the most consistent data set available across the UK. Income is apportioned using prescribing data for the same period as the income relates.
The attached table includes the quarterly PPRS income paid to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from Q1 2014 to Q2 2015. It should be noted that as well as PPRS payments this income also includes historic cash payments made by companies that were members of the 2009 PPRS.
As requested, the following table contains information regarding the dates PPRS payments were made to the devolved administrations:
PPRS Payment | Historic Cash Payment | |
2014 Q1 | 21 August 2014 | 10 October 2014 |
2014 Q2 and Q3 | 20 February 2015 | 20 February 2015 |
2014 Q4 | 8 April 2015 | 8 April 2015 |
2015 Q1 | 3 July 2015 | 24 July 2015 |
2015 Q2 | 13 October 2015 | 16 October 2015 |
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 21 of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulations Scheme, what steps he is taking to encourage academic health science networks to translate research into practice.
Answered by George Freeman
Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) have been set up to support local health economies to improve health outcomes in their communities, and maximise the National Health Service’s contribution to economic growth by enabling change through collaboration, and the spread of innovation and best practice. To do this, they bring together local NHS partners, academia and industry by acting as catalysts, brokers, coordinators, sponsors and knowledge-sharers.
Speeding up adoption of innovation into practice to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience has been one of the four core contractual objectives for AHSN since their establishment in 2013. As well as directly supporting partners to diffuse specific innovations and best practice, AHSNs also work to create an infrastructure and environment that enables the development, identification and adoption of innovation. This work encompasses the establishment of partnerships and networking opportunities, as well as investment in infrastructure.
AHSNs are supporting over 150 active programmes and projects across a range of clinical and cross-cutting themes. These have been selected in response to the priorities of their local populations and health economies. In addition to their individual programmes, AHSNs also work collectively to support national priorities which include a Medicine’s Optimisation programme. AHSNs are working with NHS England and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry among others to promote best practice that ensures patients, the public and society more broadly get the best outcomes from medicines. This includes programmes to encourage access to innovative medicines and to ensure safer use of medicines.
AHSNs have taken a range of approaches in delivering their objectives. Case studies and exemplars of some their work can be found in the resources section of the AHSNs Network website: www.ahsnnetwork.com
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to publicise the innovation scorecard to (a) NHS organisations and (b) members of the public.
Answered by George Freeman
The Innovation Scorecard supports appropriate access to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) positively appraised products (medicines, devices and diagnostics), by giving health and care commissioners and professionals information they can use to identify and act on unwarranted variation in patient access to these treatments. It covers the uptake of medicines approved by NICE since 2011 and medical technologies.
It is published quarterly by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) and is available to all. A calendar of future publications is available on the HSCIC website, in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The most recent version of the publication can be found here:
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB18515
The Department is working very closely with the HSCIC, NHS England and others to extend coverage of the Scorecard and make it more user-friendly, to maximise its benefit for clinicians, patients and others.
Notification of each publication is made via a range of clinical and NHS networks, and via the regional medical directors. The media team at the HSCIC report all publications to national media.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which organisation provides the secretariat for the NICE Implementation Collaborative; what the Collaborative's current priorities and work programmes are; what funding the Collaborative has received from the public purse since it was established; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has advised that it has provided the secretariat function for the NICE Implementation Collaborative (NIC) since January 2014 as part of a wider memorandum of understanding with NHS England. This year, the NIC agreed to undertake work in the following four areas, each of which was agreed because of their potential to generate learning about how to support uptake of NICE guidance:
- Improving patient outcomes for patients with non ST Elevation acute Coronary Syndromes;
- Improving Tuberculosis screening and data collection across health and social care;
- Identifying appropriate treatment pathways for people with moderate alcohol consumption across health and social care; and
- Increasing the knowledge base about the factors that increase use of technologies building on previous National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) research.
NHS England has responsibility for funding any project costs and projects liaise with NHS England to access these funds.
NHS England has advised that it provided £4,000 in 2014-15 and up to £10,000 in 2015-16.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on when the Health and Social Care Information Centre expects its innovation scorecard to attain the status of non-experimental statistics; what steps that centre is taking to improve the data quality of that scorecard; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Health and Social Care Information Centre is working towards the removal of the experimental status of the innovation scorecard during the first half of 2016. The data already complies with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, in which months the implementation of commitments to increase access to treatments contained in the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme has been discussed in NHS England accountability meetings.
Answered by George Freeman
Improving patients’ access to innovative, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved treatments is part of an objective set out in the Government’s mandate to NHS England. Performance against the mandate is discussed in NHS England accountability meetings chaired by the Secretary of State. The minutes of the meetings are published on the Government’s website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-commissioning-board-accountability-meeting-minutes
Asked by: Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons his recent assessment of NHS England's performance against the Mandate in 2014-15 did not address NHS England's performance in meeting the requirement contained in the Mandate to ensure that people have access to the right treatment when they need it.
Answered by George Freeman
The Secretary of State’s annual assessment of NHS England’s performance in 2014-15 sets out specifically his evaluation of NHS England’s performance in meeting the access standards set out in the NHS Constitution.
In addition, the Secretary of State’s annual assessment sets out that he agrees with NHS England’s own assessment, as set out in its annual report for 2014-15, that it has made good progress against delivering its objectives in the mandate, which includes ensuring that people have the right treatment when they need it.