Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the current levels of funding within the NHS for wheelchair provision for outpatients.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Wheelchair services are the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). No information is currently held centrally about CCGs’ expenditure on wheelchair services or the level of service that they provide, including information about access and patient experience, that would enable the transparent assessment and benchmarking of provision for outpatients.
NHS England has recently established a new national wheelchair dataset, which went live from 1 July. This will enable the use of data in future to drive improvement in wheelchair services.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of athletics coaches coaching in England.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Government recognises the critically important role that coaches play in community sport across England.
According to the latest available figures provided by England Athletics, the number of athletics coaches coaching in England over the last five years was:
Year | Total number of coaches |
2014 - 2015 | 51,031 |
2013 - 2014 | 46,810 |
2012 - 2013 | 43,109 |
2011- 2012 | 36,077 |
2010 - 2011 | 32,367 |
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to promote tourism and develop the tourism industry in England.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The GREAT Britain campaign continues to promote great British holidays at home, through the 'Holidays at Home' are GREAT campaign, and overseas. In its first 3 years of operation, it is estimated that the campaign has now generated £520.6 million in incremental spend for the domestic tourism industry and over two million domestic overnight holiday trips. It is anticipated that Visit Britain's GREAT activity will help generate an extra £305 million in incremental spend by inbound visitors (2012/13-2013/14).
We are also encouraging travel outside of London through the visa-waiver scheme for Chinese tourists, and our £10 million tourism in the North and £5 million tourism in the South West funds, which aim to create joined-up strategies for promoting these areas as top holiday destinations for international travellers.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of businesses invoicing VAT on goods and services discounted for early payment in cases when the discount is not subsequently applied.
Answered by David Gauke
The introduction of this measure will protect over £250 million pounds of tax revenue per annum.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the cost to businesses of the requirement to double invoice VAT on goods and services which have been discounted for early payment.
Answered by David Gauke
There is no requirement to double invoice.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with business organisations about changes to VAT invoicing requirements when discounting for early payment.
Answered by David Gauke
HMRC consulted on VAT accounting for prompt payment discounts between 17 June and 9 September 2014. HMRC listened to business concerns and issued guidance in December 2014 which will make it easier for businesses to account for VAT on prompt payment discounts.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on the effect on businesses of changes to VAT invoicing on discounting for early payment schemes.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Treasury is in regular contact with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on a wide range of issues
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to provide care and respite funding for young adult amputees.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Information on specific funding for young adult amputees is not held centrally.
NHS England has advised that the rehabilitation and re-ablement of all patients is provided by a specialised Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) which should be consultant led. The needs of patients of all age groups are addressed including physical, psychological, social, emotional and spiritual with the emphasis on individual outcomes, independence and prevention keeping patients dexterous, mobile and safe. Secondary injuries should be minimised.
The NHS Standard Contract for Complex Disability Equipment – Prosthetics, which applies to all ages, sets out how the specialist centres should operate and the required level of service delivered. It also recognises that children, young adults, veterans and other patients require a flexible model of care which provides longer term involvement with the full MDT. The specification also recognises that child growth is a recognised clinical need.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of long-term conditions which entitle patients to free prescriptions are curable.
Answered by George Freeman
The list of medical conditions that give entitlement to apply for a National Health Service prescription charge medical exemption certificate are:
- a permanent fistula (including caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy, or ileostomy) which requires continuous surgical dressing or requires an appliance forms of hypoadrenalism (including Addison's disease) for which specific substitution therapy is essential;
- diabetes insipidus or other forms of hypopituitarism;
- diabetes mellitus (except where treatment of the diabetes is by diet alone);
- hypoparathyroidism;
- myasthenia gravis;
- myxoedema (that is, hypothyroidism requiring thyroid hormone replacement);
- epilepsy requiring continuous anti-convulsive therapy;
- continuing physical disability which prevents the patient from leaving his residence without the help of another person; and
- patients undergoing treatment for cancer, the effects of cancer or the effects of current or previous cancer treatment. (From 1 April 2009).
Clinical advice from NHS England is that the majority of these conditions are considered to be permanent, incurable conditions. Only in exceptional cases would a person have the possibility of curative treatment for one of these conditions.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for pain management in each region.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The information requested is shown in the following table. These data are from hospital episode statistics and measure the time waited between decision to admit and admission to hospital. They are not the same as referral to treatment waiting times, which measure waiting times from referral to the start of consultant-led treatment by 18 treatment functions (subdivisions of consultant main specialties), but which do not include condition specific information.
The average (median) number of days waited for pain management treatment, 2012-13
Average (median) waiting time (days) | ||
Area Team of Residence | Admissions | First Outpatient Attendances |
Cheshire, Warrington And Wirral Area Team | 59 | 46 |
Durham, Darlington And Tees Area Team | 65 | 52 |
Greater Manchester Area Team | 64 | 42 |
Lancashire Area Team | 55 | 38 |
Merseyside Area Team | 58 | 50 |
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne And Wear Area Team | 44 | 49 |
North Yorkshire And Humber Area Team | 57 | 55 |
South Yorkshire And Bassetlaw Area Team | 41 | 26 |
West Yorkshire Area Team | 84 | 54 |
Arden, Herefordshire And Worcestershire Area Team | 49 | 49 |
Birmingham And The Black Country Area Team | 47 | 52 |
Derbyshire And Nottinghamshire Area Team | 47 | 29 |
East Anglia Area Team | 61 | 50 |
Essex Area Team | 56 | 55 |
Hertfordshire And The South Midlands Area Team | 84 | 68 |
Leicestershire And Lincolnshire Area Team | 63 | 54 |
Shropshire And Staffordshire Area Team | 64 | 61 |
Bath, Gloucestershire, Swindon And Wiltshire Area Team | 56 | 60 |
Bristol, North Somerset, Somerset And South Gloucestershire Area Team | 18 | 50 |
Devon, Cornwall And Isles Of Scilly Area Team | 77 | 49 |
Kent And Medway Area Team | 58 | 49 |
Surrey And Sussex Area Team | 66 | 59 |
Thames Valley Area Team | 69 | 56 |
Wessex Area Team | 65 | 48 |
London Area Team | 70 | 63 |
England | 63 | 51 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre
Notes: