Written Question
Wednesday 18th March 2015
Asked by:
Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question
to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the positive and negative effects of e-cigarettes on people with asthma.
Answered by Jane Ellison
No such assessment has been made.
Written Question
Wednesday 18th March 2015
Asked by:
Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question
to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of research on the efficacy and safety of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid.
Answered by Jane Ellison
According to the ASH Smokefree GB survey, around two million adults in Great Britain currently use e-cigarettes. A third are ex-smokers who have given up completely, and a further third are using them as part of a quit attempt.
While e-cigarettes are not completely without risk, they carry a far lower risk to health than smoking tobacco. A recent Cochrane Review found that e-cigarettes can help smokers to quit or reduce their smoking and the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) advice to local stop smoking services is that they should be open to helping smokers who want to quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes, especially in those that have tried, but not succeeded, in stopping smoking with the use of licenced stop smoking medicines.
Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for reviewing the evidence on e-cigarettes and providing evidence-based recommendations to inform the Government’s future thinking. In May 2014 PHE published an expert report from Professor John Britton, one of the UK’s leading respiratory physicians and tobacco researchers (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/311887/Ecigarettes_report.pdf).
Written Question
Wednesday 11th February 2015
Asked by:
Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question
to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will assess the potential merits of signing a covenant with Portsmouth City Council to prevent the land at the St James' Hospital site being developed.
Answered by Dan Poulter
This is a matter for NHS Property Services (NHS PS).
NHS PS has advised that there is no operational rationale for a covenant to restrict the future use and development of surplus land and buildings at the site.
We understand there are local proposals, under the St Mary’s and St James’ Estate Project in Portsmouth, aiming:
- to make St Mary’s Community Health Campus the focus of community care services in Portsmouth;
- to retain mental health facilities at St James’ Hospital;
- to reduce substantial areas of unused space at both sites;
- to dispose of surplus land and buildings at St James’ and invest in St Mary’s and other NHS facilities in the city, and
- to generate savings of circa £3 million in the ongoing cost of running the NHS-owned and occupied estate.
As part of the rationalisation plans, we are advised surplus land and buildings at St James’ Hospital will be released for redevelopment and this will take place over two phases.
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 11 Feb 2015
NHS Mental Health Care
"I am delighted to be able to have this debate with you in the Chair, Mr Pritchard; I am sure that on this occasion you will not be disturbed by colleagues making signals to you, trying to stop you from calling me to speak. The debate is very important, and …..."Mike Hancock - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 11 Feb 2015
NHS Mental Health Care
"Absolutely. I agree with that entirely and I will come to it when I talk about my own personal experiences of spending a long time in a mental hospital trying to recover from a mental breakdown. I know only too well the issues that the hon. Gentleman has raised.
The …..."Mike Hancock - View Speech
View all Mike Hancock (Ind - Portsmouth South) contributions to the debate on: NHS Mental Health Care
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 11 Feb 2015
NHS Mental Health Care
"I am sorry. I was quoting the Minister, Mr Chairman. He stated that 25% of young people with mental health problems had access to mental health services, which he described as both “dysfunctional and fragmented”. That cannot persist. That cannot be right in a society that claims to care and …..."Mike Hancock - View Speech
View all Mike Hancock (Ind - Portsmouth South) contributions to the debate on: NHS Mental Health Care
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 11 Feb 2015
NHS Mental Health Care
"I agree entirely. We lucky ones who are privileged and proud to be in this House of Commons must use whatever elements are available to us, whether in speeches here or outside this House, to do more to expose this issue.
I was fortunate because the people I was in …..."Mike Hancock - View Speech
View all Mike Hancock (Ind - Portsmouth South) contributions to the debate on: NHS Mental Health Care
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 11 Feb 2015
NHS Mental Health Care
"I could not agree more; it would make such sense for that to happen. The hon. Gentleman is dead right. It is vital for people just to have someone outside the family circle to talk to and open up to, and then later they can develop the inner strength to …..."Mike Hancock - View Speech
View all Mike Hancock (Ind - Portsmouth South) contributions to the debate on: NHS Mental Health Care
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 11 Feb 2015
NHS Mental Health Care
" I entirely accept the idea that, when a bed is needed, a bed needs to be found. However, that person is at the very start of the crisis that made them seek help. They are shifted several hundred miles across the country, settled in and then, because the NHS …..."Mike Hancock - View Speech
View all Mike Hancock (Ind - Portsmouth South) contributions to the debate on: NHS Mental Health Care
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 11 Feb 2015
NHS Mental Health Care
"I will be very quick. This issue is made worse: Mind carried out a survey of all local authorities in England and found that, on average, they allocated just 1.36% of their public health budget to help people avoid developing mental health problems. Some planned to spend nothing at all. …..."Mike Hancock - View Speech
View all Mike Hancock (Ind - Portsmouth South) contributions to the debate on: NHS Mental Health Care