Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which prisons make available eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy for prison staff or prisoners; and how such therapy is funded.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Prisoners are entitled to the same quality of healthcare treatments and services as people in the community. Psychotherapy treatments, including eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) may be provided in any prison, where clinically recommended by an appropriate healthcare professional.
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) centrally funds psychological treatments for workplace trauma for prison staff, including EMDR, according to need and across the whole NOMS prison estate. NHS England is responsible for commissioning prisoner healthcare and all treatment and services provided to prisoners are funded from its overall budget.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department spent on counselling or therapy in prisons for (a) prisoners and (b) prison staff with post-traumatic stress disorder in (i) 2014, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2016.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Information on spending on counselling or therapy for prisoners with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not collected centrally by NHS England.
Spending by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) on psychological therapies delivered to NOMS’ staff for work related trauma was £22,131.06 in 2014, £150,336.09 in 2015 and £199,690.03 in 2016. NOMS’ data do not identify the proportion of PTSD-related cases within this spend.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many addicts have received pharmaceutical heroin from the public purse in (a) England and Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland in each year since 2000.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The National Drug Treatment Monitoring System collects information on structured treatment for drug and/or alcohol users in England, but does not collect data on which drugs are used in opioid substitution treatment.
As health is a devolved matter we cannot answer for the devolved administrations.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the NHS England Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group plans to make an announcement on the recommendations of the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group.
Answered by George Freeman
The Specialised Services Commissioning Committee is due to meet at the end of June 2016. The recommendations of the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group will be announced after that meeting.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress is being made on conducting antenatal mental health assessments.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Our commitment to improving perinatal mental health was demonstrated by the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of a £290 million investment over the next five years to 2020/21 in perinatal mental health services. This builds on the initial investment of £75 million announced in the March 2015 Budget, making a total investment from 2015/16 to 2020/21 of £365million.
The National Institute for Health Care and Excellence guidelines recommend that during a pregnant women’s first contact with primary care or when booking her first appointment she should be asked how she is feeling. This will enable a sensitive conversation and, if appropriate, for a referral to her general practitioner for further assessment or, if a severe mental health problem is suspected, to a mental health professional.
It has been recognised that more information is needed about perinatal mental health. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is working on the implementation of a new Mental Health Services Dataset which will seek to increase the amount of data available about antenatal mental health assessments. We expect that some initial data on perinatal mental health will be available later this year. We will use this initial information to refine how data on perinatal mental health is collected going forward.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether a representative of HM Prisons Service sits on the Mental Health Task Force.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Mental Health Task Force does not include a representative of HM Prison Service amongst its membership.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times ambulances have been required to attend prisons as a result of emergency call-outs relating to (a) illegal drugs, (b) prescribed drugs and (c) psychoactive substances in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Information about the frequency of emergency ambulance call-outs to prisons is not collected centrally by the Department or NHS England.
In February 2013, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) issued guidance to prisons and immigration removal centres operated by NOMS concerning emergency ambulance call-outs. This guidance, Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 03/2013 Medical Emergency Response Codes outlines the medical symptoms in a prisoner, but not behaviours such as drug misuse, for which a prison must always call out an emergency ambulance. This PSI is mandatory in all prisons in England.
A copy of the guidance is available at:
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the (a) proposed timescale and (b) scope will be of the Government's consultation on its proposed reduction of £200 million in the funding of public health.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We are committed to implementing these savings in a way which will minimise any impact on services. We consulted from 31 July to 28 August on the best way of delivering the required savings and are currently considering responses. The consultation included a question on seeking more information about the effects of these savings.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Prime Minister's press release of 18 August 2014, what steps he is taking to assess the impact of his Department's policies on the family.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014 through the publication of guidance for officials - Family Test Guidance.
The objective of the Test is to introduce a family perspective to the policy making process, specifically to make the potential impacts on family functioning and relationships explicit.
The Department is working to raise awareness of the Family Test amongst its policy staff, so that the impact of policy on the family is considered as a matter of course. The Family Test is highlighted in policy induction training, which is available to staff who are new to policy roles in the Department. The Family Test is also highlighted through the PolicyKit, an online resource for the Department’s policy officials.
Asked by: David Burrowes (Conservative - Enfield, Southgate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what arrangements are in place for regulating and ensuring correct practice by approved independent sector places for abortion services which fail to comply with the requirements of the revised Procedures for the Approval of Independent Sector Places for the Termination of Pregnancy and his Department's Guidance in Relation to the Requirements of the Abortion Act, both published in May 2014.
Answered by Jane Ellison
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 15 January 2015 to Question 220148 and 5 February to Question 222044.