Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of people diagnosed with lung diseases.
Answered by George Freeman
Data on the number of people diagnosed with lung diseases in not available. However, the British Lung Foundation estimates that more than 12 million people in the United Kingdom are affected by lung disease, (of which eight million people have asthma, just over a million have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and more than 150,000 have interstitial lung disease.)
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total cost was of transferring the services previously provided by the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health and Care Professions Council after the GSCC was abolished in 2012.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The function for the regulation of social workers in England was transferred from the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) on 1 August 2012.
The final set of accounts from the GSCC show that the total cost to the public purse of closing down the Council was £16.5 million. The HCPC also received £1.4 million to support it take on the functions for the regulation of social workers in England. Therefore, the total cost was £17.9 million.
On the assumption that the costs of the GSCC remained broadly similar, the Department estimated that the closure of the GSCC saves £13.5 million each year.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the public purse was of closing down the General Social Care Council.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The function for the regulation of social workers in England was transferred from the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) on 1 August 2012.
The final set of accounts from the GSCC show that the total cost to the public purse of closing down the Council was £16.5 million. The HCPC also received £1.4 million to support it take on the functions for the regulation of social workers in England. Therefore, the total cost was £17.9 million.
On the assumption that the costs of the GSCC remained broadly similar, the Department estimated that the closure of the GSCC saves £13.5 million each year.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the public purse was of winding up the College of Social Work.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Government agreed to make a grant payment of £225,000 to the College of Social Work for the 2015-16 financial year, to enable completion of existing projects and provide an orderly transfer of functions and resources to other organisations by September 2015.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he intends to make a decision on the closure of the Risk Sharing Scheme; and what provisions his Department plans to put in place for people who are currently accessing drugs via that Scheme.
Answered by George Freeman
The Department is currently discussing with key stakeholders the arrangements for formally bringing the Multiple Sclerosis Risk Sharing Scheme to an end. Patients currently receiving drugs as part of the Scheme will continue to do so for as long as this is clinically appropriate for them.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to seek the views of pensioners on (a) his Department's policies and (b) dementia since the closure of the UK Advisory Forum on Ageing.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We are committed to continuing to listen to and act on the wishes of older people. For example the Department plans to carry out an engagement programme with stakeholder groups representing older people as part of the forthcoming Carer’s Strategy.
The Government is clear that dementia remains a priority and will implement the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 in full to make sure that dementia care, support, awareness and research are transformed by 2020. The 2020 Challenge aims to build on the achievements of the Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia 2012-2015.
The Department continues to engage with a range of people with dementia and carers including stakeholders who represent them in both delivering the Prime Minister’s Challenge 2012-2015 and in developing and implementing the Prime Minister’s Challenge 2020. The Department also works closely people with dementia and carers through its work with the Dementia Action Alliance.
The Department has funded a number of projects on dementia education and training which have worked directly with people with dementia, in order to better understand the training needs of the staff who support and care for them.
More generally through the Health and Care Voluntary Sector Strategic Partner Programme, the Department, NHS England and Public Health England are already able to work directly in partnership with well-connected voluntary sector organisations. The programme provides a way for policy makers to reach thousands of voluntary and community sector organisations. Many of these groups whom support and represent older people within their communities through the extensive depth and reach of the partners’ networks. This helps to ensure that the voice of small voluntary and community sector organisations is in direct contact with national bodies at the heart of decision making. Age UK is one of the 22 strategic partners, ensuring that older people’s needs are strongly represented.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
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 the survey published in November 2015 by Cancer Research UK which found that only 19 per cent of women aged from 50 to 64 were aware that the main purpose of the national cervical screening programme is to prevent cervical cancer.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS Screening Programmes are committed to giving people information to support them to make an informed choice about whether or not to take up the offer of screening. There is a group dedicated to researching, developing and evaluating information for those invited for screening, and service users and providers are involved at all stages.
The NHS Screening Programmes aim to provide clarity in the leaflets and information given to people.
The NHS Screening Programmes will continue to work closely with voluntary sector groups like Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and with NHS Choices to help raise awareness of the intentions of the programmes.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department plans to publish the year 10 data for the Risk Sharing Scheme for the supply of disease modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government expects the conclusions from the year 10 results of the Multiple Sclerosis Risk Sharing Scheme to be published in a recognised academic journal in late 2016.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what arrangements his Department plans to put in place for new patients who wish to access drugs included in the Risk Sharing Scheme for the supply of disease modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis, glatiramer acetate and beta interferon after funding for that scheme ceases.
Answered by George Freeman
Colleagues are in discussion with NHS England colleagues to plan for a smooth transition from the end of the Scheme in England, and with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations in respect of Multiple Sclerosis services in their countries.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for which drugs he is the marketing authorisation holder; and under what circumstances he became the marketing authorisation holder for each such drug.
Answered by George Freeman
The Secretary of State currently holds a market authorisation for one drug, Healthy Start Children’s Vitamins Drops.
This product was originally granted a licence in 1972 as licence of right. The reasons for this likely stem from the need to ensure supply of this product when a commercial supply of a similar product could not be procured.