Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has spent on research into fybromyalgia in the last three years; and what guidance his Department gives on support to be given through the NHS for fybromyalgia sufferers.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Department has made no estimate of the number of fibromyalgia sufferers in the United Kingdom. As the condition is poorly understood and there is not specific diagnostic test, it is difficult to make a reliable estimate
Although there is no cure for fibromyalgia, some treatments can ease symptoms and support improved quality of life for patients. The treatments offered will depend on the severity of a patient’s condition, but may include: pharmacological pain relief; physiotherapy; dietary and exercise advice; counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy; and self-management programmes which aim to give patients the skills and confidence to manage their conditions more effectively. There are also a number of NHS Trusts that offer specialist fibromyalgia clinics, such the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, which patients can access on referral from the clinician responsible for their care.
In each of the last three years, the Department’s National Institute for Health Research has spent £0.1 million on fibromyalgia research.
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 ambulances in (a) the East Midlands and (b) High Peak constituency failed to respond within their targeted response times in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information is not available in the format requested.
Information on the number of ambulance calls receiving an emergency response from the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and the proportion of those that were responded to within the standard response time, for the last five years, is shown in the attached table.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many ambulance calls from (a) the East Midlands and (b) High Peak constituency were responded to in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information is not available in the format requested.
Information on the number of ambulance calls receiving an emergency response from the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and the proportion of those that were responded to within the standard response time, for the last five years, is shown in the attached table.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the financial advantages enjoyed by larger companies in preventing their marketing and promotional emails from being blocked by servers.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Department has not made an assessment regarding this issue.
If there is evidence that treating emails in this manner is driving anti-competitive behaviour by companies, this should be referred to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s independent competition authority, for consideration.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether all prisoners at HM Prison Drake Hall have access to a library and at what times of the day such access is given.
Answered by Simon Hughes
All prisoners at HM Prison Drake Hall have access to the prison library or its outreach service, in accordance with Prison Service Instruction 45/2011 on the Prison Library Service.
The opening times of the prison library are as shown below.
Day | Time |
Monday to Thursday | 2.00pm to 7.15pm |
Friday | Closed |
Saturday | 9.00am to 3.45pm |
Sunday | 1.00pm to 3.45pm |
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce the bureaucracy required to apply for a new mortgage.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently put in place new regulations for mortgages in the UK, known as the ‘Mortgage Market Review’ (MMR). The MMR is a matter for the FCA, whose day-to-day operations are independent from government control and influence.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Chinese counterpart on the health and whereabouts of human rights' lawyer Mr Gao Zhisheng following his further detention by Chinese authorities.
Answered by Lord Swire
We remain concerned about human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has been imprisoned in Xinjiang since 2011. We raised his case directly with Chinese officials during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue on 19-20 May, and urged the Chinese authorities to respect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all detainees, including access to family, lawyers and adequate medical care.
We understand that Gao’s prison term is due to end soon, and we urge the Chinese authorities to ensure that his rights to freedom of movement and communication are duly protected on his release.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the contribution of High Speed 2 to transport connectivity between communities in the East Midlands.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Under the proposed HS2 scheme, the station in the East Midlands will be separated by journeys to Birmingham and Sheffield by less than 20 minutes each. Fast and frequent shuttle services could connect Nottingham and Derby with the East Midlands Hub station with a journey time of just 12mins from Nottingham and 15mins from Derby.
Sir David Higgins' report, HS2 Plus, was published on 17th March. Government welcomes Sir David's recommendation that Phase Two should be considered holistically and integrated with classic rail investment. In order to deliver better connectivity we have now asked HS2 Ltd and Network Rail to explore a process for integrated development of Network Rail's plans with decisions on Phase Two of HS2. This will form part of Sir David Higgins' report in the autumn.
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 reports by disability campaigners that the German government was complicit in preventing British victims of thalidomide from securing compensation from Grünenthal; and if he will make representations to his German counterpart on that matter.
Answered by Norman Lamb
No assessment has been made of the German Government's role in relation to British Thalidomide survivors and the issue of compensation from the German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal.
I met with the Thalidomide Trust on 23 June 2014. We are considering further what representations we might make in the light of this meeting. A further meeting between the Thalidomide Trust and the Minister for Europe is due to take place on 3 September.
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 his policy is on allowing the transplant of organs from people deceased outside of hospital.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Organ donation following death outside of hospital is not broadly practiced in the United Kingdom. For organs to remain viable and suitable for transplantation, they must either be kept supplied with oxygen, blood and nutrients, or kept cold so that the metabolism of the cells is slowed right down. When someone's heart stops beating suddenly, the blood supply to organs stop and the cells begin to get starved of oxygen and nutrients and start to die. Therefore, there is a very narrow window of a few minutes between the heart stopping beating and the need for organs to be removed and preserved.
A pilot programme is underway in Edinburgh for retrieval of organs from those who suffer a witnessed cardiac arrest from which they are unable to be resuscitated and are brought within minutes to the hospital. NHS Blood and Transplant is supporting this pilot and, depending on the outcome, will support further similar initiatives.
Additionally, health care professionals need to obtain consent and get a full medical history to ensure the organs are suitable for transplantation.