Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will provide an update on his Department's work on the 100,000 Genomes Project; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The 100,000 Genomes Project is making good progress. The project is at the leading edge of global science, developing ground breaking new techniques and protocols.
Genomics England has developed semi-automated bioinformatics to analyse genomic data to find the cause of disease. To date, over 29,000 whole genomes have been sequenced and reports are already being returned to the National Health Service who are responsible for discussing clinical interpretations and next steps with patients.
The project is already changing the lives of patients with a rare disease – providing many patients with diagnoses for the first time, often after years of uncertainty and distress whilst helping to reduce considerable costs to health and social care budgets.
Genomics England and NHS England are actively developing a fast track pipeline for patients with cancer who are participating in the Project. We are aiming to reduce the time from sample acquisition to the return of a report to four weeks. This will increase the utility of the service to clinicians and patients alike.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to help all clinical commissioning groups to provide adequate access to genetic cascade testing services for familial hypercholesterolemia in their areas.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS England and Public Health England are working to raise the profile of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) and break down the barriers to genetic testing. Specifically, FH is emphasised in the NHS England Prevention aide memoire to support Sustainability and Transformation Planning, which is available at:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/stp-aide-memoire-prevention.pdf
NHS England’s National Clinical Director for heart disease chairs an FH steering group which comprises representatives from relevant stakeholder organisations, including Public Health England. This group, with funding from the British Heart Foundation, has established FH specialist nurses in many areas of England, aimed at increasing FH cascade testing across the country so that more affected families can be identified. The steering group aims to develop a systems approach to the detection and management of FH.
One third of England is now covered by these FH nurses as well as cascade testing, and over the last three years more than 1,000 new people with FH have been identified.
Software to support cascade testing and provide a database for FH is available and will be increasingly used in England as FH services are established.
NHS England has also identified FH as a possible condition that it could focus on as part of the work looking into personalised medicine and how the NHS might make better use of increased genetic testing.
Finally, a cholesterol test is included as part of the NHS Health Check that is mandated by the Health and Social Care Act for delivery across all local authorities in England. Revised NHS Best Practice Guidance published in February now includes strengthened guidance for detection of FH as part of the NHS Health Check. Every patient with a cholesterol test result above 7.5mmol/l (as per National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance) will be alerted to their general practitioner for consideration of FH in combination with other diagnostic criteria.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that diagnosis and management of familial hypercholesterolaemia is consistent across England.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS England and Public Health England are working to raise the profile of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) and break down the barriers to genetic testing. Specifically, FH is emphasised in the NHS England Prevention aide memoire to support Sustainability and Transformation Planning, which is available at:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/stp-aide-memoire-prevention.pdf
NHS England’s National Clinical Director for heart disease chairs an FH steering group which comprises representatives from relevant stakeholder organisations, including Public Health England. This group, with funding from the British Heart Foundation, has established FH specialist nurses in many areas of England, aimed at increasing FH cascade testing across the country so that more affected families can be identified. The steering group aims to develop a systems approach to the detection and management of FH.
One third of England is now covered by these FH nurses as well as cascade testing, and over the last three years more than 1,000 new people with FH have been identified.
Software to support cascade testing and provide a database for FH is available and will be increasingly used in England as FH services are established.
NHS England has also identified FH as a possible condition that it could focus on as part of the work looking into personalised medicine and how the NHS might make better use of increased genetic testing.
Finally, a cholesterol test is included as part of the NHS Health Check that is mandated by the Health and Social Care Act for delivery across all local authorities in England. Revised NHS Best Practice Guidance published in February now includes strengthened guidance for detection of FH as part of the NHS Health Check. Every patient with a cholesterol test result above 7.5mmol/l (as per National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance) will be alerted to their general practitioner for consideration of FH in combination with other diagnostic criteria.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve enforcement of (a) paragraph 15 on environmental enrichment for pigs of Schedule 8 to the Aftercare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 and (b) paragraph 5 on tail docking of pigs of Schedule 3 to the Mutilations (Permitted Procedures) (England) Regulations 2007.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra’s Code of Recommendations for pigs, which all pig-keepers must be familiar with, provides guidance on how to comply with the legal requirements in relation to environmental enrichment and routine tail-docking. When carrying out an inspection of a pig unit, the Animal Health and Plant Health Agency evaluate the provision of enrichment material and whether pigs are routinely tail-docked without a justifiable reason and will apply breaches where non-compliances are found.
There are health and welfare reasons for continuing to tail-dock in certain circumstances, but we and the pig industry recognise a need to improve the quality of enrichment materials available for all pigs and increase opportunities to stop tail-docking.
Defra contributed to a European Commission research project by Bristol University which informed the EU Commission’s recently published guidance on tail docking and enrichment materials. We are working with the industry to implement these recommendations on tail docking and enrichment which were published earlier this year.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, whether her nomination of people for a peerage takes account of age as well as merit; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness May of Maidenhead
Any appointments would be made in the usual way and would be vetted for propriety by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many recipients of posthumous claims for compensation under the (a) Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979 and (b) Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 were found to be in receipt of less compensation than they were entitled to after the post-mortem evidence for those claims was submitted.
Answered by Jesse Norman
There have been no such claims.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many posthumous claims for compensation under the (a) Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979 and (b) Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 were successful in each of the last 30 years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
With regards to the Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers Compensation) Act 1979, the Department for Work and Pensions have advised that the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
For the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 (CWPS) the figures for posthumous claims received and paid, and the reasons for the difference between the two are shown in the table below:
Year | Deceased Claims Received | Dec’d Claims Paid | Denials & Work In Progress (WIP) | |||
Duplicate Claim Denial | Failed Eligibility Denial | Nil Offer* | Work In Progress/Withdrawn/ Other Denial | |||
2011 | 41 | 17 | 5 | 15 | 3 | 1 |
2012 | 104 | 65 | 20 | 6 | 3 | 10 |
2013 | 160 | 103 | 18 | 13 | 14 | 12 |
2014 | 153 | 96 | 19 | 13 | 18 | 7 |
2015 | 169 | 101 | 20 | 20 | 24 | 4 |
2016 | 70 | 33 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 17 |
* Nil Offer – a claim under the 1979 Act resulted in a higher award than would have been payable under the CWPS
N.B. Figures only available from July 2011 onwards when current claims handler took on the contract.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many posthumous claims for compensation under the (a) Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979 and (b) Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 were submitted in each of the last 30 years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
With regards to the Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers Compensation) Act 1979, the Department for Work and Pensions have advised that the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
For the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 (CWPS) the figures for posthumous claims received and paid, and the reasons for the difference between the two are shown in the table below:
Year | Deceased Claims Received | Dec’d Claims Paid | Denials & Work In Progress (WIP) | |||
Duplicate Claim Denial | Failed Eligibility Denial | Nil Offer* | Work In Progress/Withdrawn/ Other Denial | |||
2011 | 41 | 17 | 5 | 15 | 3 | 1 |
2012 | 104 | 65 | 20 | 6 | 3 | 10 |
2013 | 160 | 103 | 18 | 13 | 14 | 12 |
2014 | 153 | 96 | 19 | 13 | 18 | 7 |
2015 | 169 | 101 | 20 | 20 | 24 | 4 |
2016 | 70 | 33 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 17 |
* Nil Offer – a claim under the 1979 Act resulted in a higher award than would have been payable under the CWPS
N.B. Figures only available from July 2011 onwards when current claims handler took on the contract.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons his Department included in the tender document to administer the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 a requirement that all posthumous claims to that scheme be accompanied by a grant of probate.
Answered by Jesse Norman
There was no separate tender document for the administration of the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme. The Department’s tender did not therefore have any bearings on the requirements under the Scheme.
Before payments can be made under the CWPS, claims handlers must ensure that the person making the claim is entitled to do so. Provision of probate is sometimes necessary in posthumous claims to ensure that the correct person receives the compensation and also to ensure that the positions of both the estate and the taxpayer are adequately and proportionately protected against fraud.
Asked by: Alan Meale (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which signatories to the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 were consulted by his Department prior to the inclusion in the tender document to administer that scheme a requirement that all claims to that scheme be accompanied by a grant of probate.
Answered by Jesse Norman
There was no separate tender document for the administration of the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme (CWPS), hence there was no such consultation.