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Written Question
Coronavirus: Legislation
Wednesday 7th October 2020

Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government on what date and at what time the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (North East of England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1010) (1) were laid before Parliament, (2) came into force, and (3) were published on the legislation.gov.uk website; and if they were not so published by 8am on 18 September, why not.

Answered by Lord Bethell

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (North East of England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1010) were laid 5:30pm on 17 September 2020, came into force on 18 September 2020 and published online shortly before 5:41pm on 17 September 2020.

These Regulations were subsequently amended by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Protected Areas) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1019), which came into force on 22 September 2020.


Written Question
Berwick Infirmary
Wednesday 19th September 2018

Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of proposals to replace the Berwick Infirmary with a new facility in Tweedmouth built in conjunction with a leisure centre rather than rebuilding on the existing site, and whether appropriate consultation has taken place.

Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy

How and where National Health Service services are provided is a matter for local health and care leaders to decide with the local population. Northumberland County Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee support these proposals, considering them as meeting the healthcare needs of the people of Berwick.

Since the proposals are not regarded as a substantial change to current service provision, no formal public consultation has been required. However, local public engagement has, and will, continue to be carried out as the scheme progresses.


Written Question
Out of Area Treatment: Channel Islands
Monday 13th November 2017

Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that NHS Trusts have been advised to charge residents of Channel Islands 150 per cent of the cost of specialist treatments received at English hospitals.

Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy

The United Kingdom has a residence based health care system, and entitlement to free National Health Service care is largely based on being ordinarily resident in the UK, or being otherwise exempt from charge under the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015, as amended the Charging Regulations.

A person who is not ordinarily resident in the UK (an overseas visitor) is subject to the Charging Regulations, which require providers of NHS relevant services to make and recover charges from overseas visitors unless an exemption category in the Charging Regulations applies. Since April 2015, it is a requirement when making these charges to apply a charge of 150% of the national tariff to those overseas visitors who are resident outside the European Economic Area, including those resident in the Channel Islands.


Written Question
Public Records
Friday 17th October 2014

Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what targets have been set for the release of his Department's material to the National Archives; what progress has been made in meeting those targets; and how many staff in his Department are engaged in reviewing records for that purpose.

Answered by Dan Poulter

The Department has two full-time reviewers, supported by a team leader. The Department is recruiting two additional full-time staff as sensitivity reviewers to support the transfer of records to The National Archives.

Departmental progress is reported to The National Archives on a bi-annual basis and is available on their website at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/record-transfer-report.htm


Written Question
Health Services
Thursday 16th October 2014

Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department provides to clinical commissioning groups about commissioning services on treatments from hospitals (a) in Scotland and (b) outside their own area.

Answered by Norman Lamb

Clinical commissioning groups’ (CCGs) commissioning responsibilities are set out in the NHS Act 2006, The National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/2996) and The National Health Service (Clinical Commissioning Groups— Disapplication of Responsibility) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/350), as amended.

NHS England have published the document ‘Who Pays? Determining responsibility for payments to providers’ which provides guidance for CCGs on commissioning services from hospitals in Scotland and outside their own area.

A copy is attached.


Written Question
Out of Area Treatment: Scotland
Tuesday 24th June 2014

Asked by: Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) arrangements and (b) contracts NHS England has for non-emergency specialist care and treatment of English residents in Scottish hospitals.

Answered by Jane Ellison

NHS England has a block contract (value £250,000 a year) for vein of Galen malformation services with the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.