Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 8 December (HL3846), how much grant the Department of Health will provide to Action on Smoking and Health in the current financial year, and whether they will place a copy of any grant application and award letter in the Library of the House.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department will provide a grant of £150,000 to Action on Smoking and Health in the 2015/16 financial year. This grant is awarded under Section 64 of the Health and Social Care Act 1968.
A copy of the signed award letter, including the detailed deliverables of the grant, has been attached.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many occasions between 2013 and 2015 the Department of Health received representations from Action on Smoking and Health regarding the standardised packaging of tobacco products.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
To identify what representations the Department has received about standardised packaging between 2013 and 2015 would require extensive searching of Departmental records to identify which representations were relevant and would result in disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role of Action on Smoking and Health in providing the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, and in particular whether such activities are designed to influence (1) Parliament, Government or political parties, or (2) legislative or regulatory action.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department has made no assessment of the role of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in providing the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health.
The conditions applicable to grants awarded to ASH for work to support tobacco control are set out in the grant award letters. The Department has made clear that none of this funding is to be used for activities designed to influence Parliament, Government or political parties or to influence legislative or regulatory action. ASH’s compliance with the conditions of the grant is assessed at grant monitoring meetings as well as in the final full year grant monitoring and governance reports.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of all audits undertaken or commissioned by the Department of Health into Action on Smoking and Health.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
In financial year 2012/13, the Department grant awarded to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) (under Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968) was included in a sample of grants that was reviewed in an internal audit of the grant management arrangements of the Department. The audit included visits to the charities that formed part of the sample to test the information they provided to the Department and to garner their views on how the Department engaged with them. ASH was included in the work because its grant fulfilled the sample criteria.
The internal audit was not a review of the organisation and the way that it operated, its focus was on the Department grant management. It found that, at the time, there were satisfactory arrangements in place in the Department. The audit report did not raise any adverse comments about ASH or include any recommendations in relation to them. It is not normal practice to place copies of Internal Audit reports in the Library.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the job titles of those officials within the Department of Health currently assessing the application for grant funding made by Action on Smoking and Health.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The assessment of the grant application for funding from Action on Smoking and Health is undertaken by members of the Tobacco Control policy team.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the job titles of those officials within the Department of Health who sit on internal or external working or steering groups with representatives from Action on Smoking and Health.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Acting Deputy Director and Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) attended a dinner, hosted by the American Cancer Society, to celebrate the Luther. L. Terry award for Exemplary Leadership by a Government Ministry which was presented to the UK on 19 March at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health (WCTOH). Representatives of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), as past recipients of an award in 2012, were also present.
The Acting Deputy Director presented at the WCTOH in March 2015 and the Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) presented at the E-cigarette Summit in November. Representatives of ASH also presented at these independent events.
The Deputy Director for Tobacco Control is a member of Public Health England’s Tobacco Control Implementation Board, which also includes a representative from ASH in its membership.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the job titles of those officials within the Department of Health who have appeared on a shared public platform or conference agenda alongside representatives from Action on Smoking and Health in the last year, and at what events.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Acting Deputy Director and Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) attended a dinner, hosted by the American Cancer Society, to celebrate the Luther. L. Terry award for Exemplary Leadership by a Government Ministry which was presented to the UK on 19 March at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health (WCTOH). Representatives of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), as past recipients of an award in 2012, were also present.
The Acting Deputy Director presented at the WCTOH in March 2015 and the Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) presented at the E-cigarette Summit in November. Representatives of ASH also presented at these independent events.
The Deputy Director for Tobacco Control is a member of Public Health England’s Tobacco Control Implementation Board, which also includes a representative from ASH in its membership.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether representatives from Action on Smoking and Health were present at any meals that officials from the Department of Health had during the World Conference on Tobacco or Health between 16 and 21 March, and if so, which representatives and officials were present at each occasion.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Acting Deputy Director and Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) attended a dinner, hosted by the American Cancer Society, to celebrate the Luther. L. Terry award for Exemplary Leadership by a Government Ministry which was presented to the UK on 19 March at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health (WCTOH). Representatives of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), as past recipients of an award in 2012, were also present.
The Acting Deputy Director presented at the WCTOH in March 2015 and the Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) presented at the E-cigarette Summit in November. Representatives of ASH also presented at these independent events.
The Deputy Director for Tobacco Control is a member of Public Health England’s Tobacco Control Implementation Board, which also includes a representative from ASH in its membership.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which organisations, in each of the last five years, have received funding under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968; and whether they will set out the name and amount of funding given to each organisation and any attached conditions or restrictions on its use.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Tables have been attached which provide information on awards made under Section 64 of the Health and Public Health Act 1968 for the financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15 in relation to the following;
- Innovation, Excellence and Service Development Fund;
- Strategic Partner Programme;
- Financial Assistance Fund;
- Children’s Hospice and Hospice at Home Grants;
- Homeless Hospital Discharge Fund (HHDF); and
- Other grants awarded under Section 64 outside the main schemes (for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 only).
Information on Section 64 grants made outside the main schemes for the years 2010-11 to 2012-13 is not available in the format requested from central records and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Standard conditions are included in the award letters for all Section 64 grants. These are reviewed on a regular basis. The current standard template used for grant awards made under Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 has also been attached.
In addition to the standard terms and conditions of award, individual grant awards may include additional conditions. These are not collated centrally and would require examination of every grant awarded during the last five years. Therefore this could only be provided at disproportionate cost.