Norman Lamb

I have regular meetings with ministerial colleagues, officials and others.

According to Ofgem’s latest installation report for the Feed-in Tariffs scheme, there were five domestic-scale (up to 4kW) solar PV installations that were commissioned prior to 31 December 2015, which subsequently applied for accreditation under the scheme on or after 15 January 2016.

We expect to commence the financial penalty provision in section 150 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 from April 2016.

I refer the Right Honourable Member to the answer given to Question 198752 on 7 January 2019.

I refer the Right Honourable Member to my answer given to Question 198752 on 7 January.

I refer the Right Honourable Member to my answer given to Question 198752 on 7 January 2019.

Government ministers are not involved in the process of awarding or withdrawing royal warrants. Information on the awarding of warrants can be found on the Royal Household's website or requested from the Lord Chamberlain's Office.

Government ministers are not involved in the process of awarding or withdrawing royal warrants. Information on the awarding of warrants can be found on the Royal Household's website or requested from the Lord Chamberlain's Office.

Government ministers are not involved in the process of awarding or withdrawing royal warrants. Information on the awarding of warrants can be found on the Royal Household's website or requested from the Lord Chamberlain's Office.

The Cabinet Office does not hold this information centrally.

The Cabinet Office publishes total Lord Lieutenancy Expenditure as part of its Annual Financial Accounts. Therefore the total amount of money from the public purse spent by Lord-Lieutenants on their expenses each year, dating back to 2008, is publicly available online using the following link.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cabinet-office-annual-reports-and-accounts

The information requested on travel, hospitality, clothing and other costs for each Lieutenancy could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Government ministers are not involved in the process of awarding or withdrawing royal warrants. Information on the awarding of warrants can be found on the Royal Household's website or requested from the Lord Chamberlain's Office.

Government ministers are not involved in the process of awarding or withdrawing royal warrants. Information on the awarding of warrants can be found on the Royal Household's website or requested from the Lord Chamberlain's Office.

The Cabinet Office does not allocate spending for dispersal by members of the Royal Family.

Use of the protected title ‘Royal’ is conferred by the Queen acting on the advice of
Ministers. No grants to towns and cities have been made since 2014

Details of the applications are not disclosed to protect their confidentiality, however the
number of applications received by the Cabinet Office for all protected titles including
those containing the word ‘Royal’, was 906 in 2018. The Cabinet Office objected to 107 of
these, issued a non-objection to 703 and approved 14. The remaining cases are still being
considered or were closed without a resolution.

The Cabinet Office considers whether the applicant can demonstrate the following when determining whether to advise Her Majesty the Queen to grant an application for the protect title ‘Royal’: (i) a specific and strong connection with royalty (ii) a pre-eminent and outstanding reputation and (iii) national standing. Other issues may inform decision making on a case by case basis such as whether the application is linked with a specific event or a milestone anniversary.

The Cabinet Office draws from a range of scientific advice and expertise, including from the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, the Chief Scientific Advisers in individual Government Departments, and academics and researchers. The Cabinet Office does not have its own Chief Scientific Adviser.

My Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for Cabinet Office and I met with Professor Chris Whitty, the then Acting Government Chief Scientific Adviser and Rupert Lewis, Director of Government Office for Science on 28 Feb 2018.

Cabinet Office officials and Ministers regularly meet with government scientific advisers.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office did not have any meetings with the Government Chief Scientific Adviser between October and December 2017.

The Government Chief Scientific Adviser regularly meets Ministers throughout Government.

Cabinet Office only has records of core central property that have been provided by departments. The Government Property Unit is responsible for minimising vacancy by supporting departments to sell, sublet, find alternative use, and to do early surrenders. Interventions such as these have contributed significantly to minimising the vacancy rates and cost to the taxpayer.

As shown in the State of the Estate Report 2015-16 published in February 2017, total vacant space represents 1.4% of the entire Central Estate, a drop of 2% from 2014–15. This is well below the average in the private sector of 8.9%.

No buildings appear on the unit’s electronic property system as vacant in North Norfolk area. In the wider Norfolk area, there is one building that is vacant and records show that this building was used for vehicle testing and is being marketed for sale:

List A: Vacant building in Norfolk

The First Secretary has not had meetings with the Government Chief Scientific Adviser in
the last three months.

The table below sets out information about working days lost in my Department due to sickness absence related to mental illness over the last three calendar years.

The Cabinet Office is committed to reducing work related absence due to mental illness and has a number of services in place to support members of staff suffering from such conditions. Our Workwell community is staffed by volunteers who aim to make Cabinet Office a happy and healthy workplace through a number of interventions including a listening service for staff. We also offer a 24 hour counselling support helpline through our Employee Assistance Programme provider and advocate early referral to our occupational health service where appropriate for advice on a number of conditions including mental health.

The Government will consider this and other issues relating to the regulation of campaigning at referendums, following the publication of the Electoral Commission's report on the administration of the referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of European Union.

As I made clear in the House on 27 April, we are continuing to consider the comments of all interested parties, ahead of the introduction into grant agreements of the clause aimed at protecting taxpayers' money from being wasted on government lobbying government. We are pausing the implementation, pending a review of the representations made, and to give further time to consider any necessary adjustments to the wording of the clause, or the policy on its implementation, to help to deliver this policy in the best possible way for all involved.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy met with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser on 6 occasions between 1 September and 30 November 2018.

The Commission’s proposal does not present a strong evidence base that shows why the change is necessary nor that demonstrates the benefits to Member States, their citizens, or the EU.

Information on the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) spend on research relating directly to mental health and total research spend for 2017/18 will be made available once the MRC’s Annual Report and Accounts are laid before Parliament. We would expect the data to be available by the end of the Summer.

Between 1 January 2018 and 31^st March 2018, my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) met with the Chief Scientific Adviser for BEIS five times in person.

The Medical Research Council’s spend on research relating to directly to mental health and total research spend for 2014/15 to 2016/17 can be found in the table below. Data for 2017/18 is not yet available.

The value of Small Business Research Initiative contracts in 2016/17 as reported to Innovate UK by Departments is set out below:

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) leads the cross Council Digital Economy (DE) Theme, which incorporates the digital currency technology and associated distributed ledger technology activities, announced in the March 2015 Budget. To date, the DE Theme has invested around £7.2 million in the following activities:

• A £260,000 project - Third Party Dematerialisation and Rematerialisation of Capital.
• An 18-month £0.4 million project investigating the phenomena of cryptocurrencies and their associated underlying technology - Cryptocurrency Effects in Digital Transformations (CREDIT)
• A £3.7 million for seven interdisciplinary feasibility studies that will explore and understanding transformative use cases of distributed ledger technology “Applications of Distributed Ledger Technology” resulting in. Details of the projects are available on the EPSRC website at: http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPanelROL.aspx?PanelId=1-3X22ML&RankingListId=1-3X22MS
• Three projects relevant to research in applications of distributed ledger technology were supported under “Broad applications of distributed ledger technologies” as one of six focal areas in a £10 million call for research proposals on the Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security in the Digital Economy call (2015) - see http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPanel.aspx?PanelId=1-37PAUA)

Innovate UK has funded projects that develop and commercial digital currency technologies with various sectoral applications, related to blockchain and distributed ledger projects for use in areas like provenance tracking of goods. Since 2004 Innovate UK has invested nearly £2 million into these technologies.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides gross expenditure on R&D split by basic research, applied research and experimental research for OECD countries, including the UK based on ONS data. The latest data covers the period 2007 and 2014. It shows that the split of funding has been stable over time, at around 17% on basic research, 45% on applied research and 38% on experimental development. Further information can be found at http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=RD_ACTIVITY.

Between 1^st October 2017 and 31^st December 2017 the Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has met with:

(a) my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for BEIS nine times in person.

The case for the employer with identified arrears of over £1 million was opened by HM Revenue and Customs before the revised scheme came into effect on 1 October 2013. This employer failed to meet any of the set criteria for naming under the previous scheme.

The Department has no plans to change the current naming policy.

The information of those who have been named is available within the relevant press announcements on GOV.UK.

The case for the employer with identified arrears of over £1 million is among the 69 cases that will not be considered for naming. The case was opened by HMRC before the revised scheme came into effect on 1 October 2013 and did not meet the set criteria for naming under the previous scheme. Those criteria were:

(1) Employer knowingly or deliberately failed to comply with their NMW obligations

(2) Employer previously received advice from HMRC about steps they need to take to ensure future compliance with national minimum wage and has not taken these steps

(3) Employer failed to take adequate steps to keep and preserve NMW records

(4) Employer delayed or obstructed a NMW compliance officer in the performance of their duties

(5) Employer refused or neglected to answer questions put to them by a NMW compliance officer

(6) Employer refused or neglected to provide information to produce documents to a NMW compliance officer

(7) Employer neglected to pay arrears of NMW to workers following HMRC intervention, which has resulted in HMRC having to undertake action against the employer to ensure payment of arrears

The case for the employer with identified arrears of over £1 million is among the 69 cases that will not be considered for naming. The case was opened by HMRC before the revised scheme came into effect on 1 October 2013 and did not meet the set criteria for naming under the previous scheme. Those criteria were:

(1) Employer knowingly or deliberately failed to comply with their NMW obligations

(2) Employer previously received advice from HMRC about steps they need to take to ensure future compliance with national minimum wage and has not taken these steps

(3) Employer failed to take adequate steps to keep and preserve NMW records

(4) Employer delayed or obstructed a NMW compliance officer in the performance of their duties

(5) Employer refused or neglected to answer questions put to them by a NMW compliance officer

(6) Employer refused or neglected to provide information to produce documents to a NMW compliance officer

(7) Employer neglected to pay arrears of NMW to workers following HMRC intervention, which has resulted in HMRC having to undertake action against the employer to ensure payment of arrears

The case for the employer with identified arrears of over £1 million is among the 69 cases that will not be considered for naming. The case was opened by HMRC before the revised scheme came into effect on 1 October 2013 and did not meet the set criteria for naming under the previous scheme. Those criteria were:

(1) Employer knowingly or deliberately failed to comply with their NMW obligations

(2) Employer previously received advice from HMRC about steps they need to take to ensure future compliance with national minimum wage and has not taken these steps

(3) Employer failed to take adequate steps to keep and preserve NMW records

(4) Employer delayed or obstructed a NMW compliance officer in the performance of their duties

(5) Employer refused or neglected to answer questions put to them by a NMW compliance officer

(6) Employer refused or neglected to provide information to produce documents to a NMW compliance officer

(7) Employer neglected to pay arrears of NMW to workers following HMRC intervention, which has resulted in HMRC having to undertake action against the employer to ensure payment of arrears

The case for the employer with identified arrears of over £1 million is among the 69 cases that will not be considered for naming. The case was opened by HMRC before the revised scheme came into effect on 1 October 2013 and did not meet the set criteria for naming under the previous scheme. Those criteria were:

(1) Employer knowingly or deliberately failed to comply with their NMW obligations

(2) Employer previously received advice from HMRC about steps they need to take to ensure future compliance with national minimum wage and has not taken these steps

(3) Employer failed to take adequate steps to keep and preserve NMW records

(4) Employer delayed or obstructed a NMW compliance officer in the performance of their duties

(5) Employer refused or neglected to answer questions put to them by a NMW compliance officer

(6) Employer refused or neglected to provide information to produce documents to a NMW compliance officer

(7) Employer neglected to pay arrears of NMW to workers following HMRC intervention, which has resulted in HMRC having to undertake action against the employer to ensure payment of arrears

Between 14^th June 2017 and 14^th September 2017 the Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Business, Energy (BEIS) and Industrial Strategy has met with:

(a) the Secretary of State for BEIS six times in person and four times by telephone; and

(b) BEIS Ministers six times in person and once by telephone.

The total number of working days lost due mental illness in each of the last 3 years for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s predecessors (the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department of Business, Industry and Strategy) are:

Figures include only core departments with the 2013/14 figures including what is now the Oil and Gas Authority which became an Agency from 2014/15 and is excluded thereafter.

I refer the Rt hon Member to the reply I gave to Question UIN 44973.

Between 1^st October 2017 and 31^st December 2017 the Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has met with:

(a) my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for BEIS nine times in person.

The role of Chief Scientific Adviser was unfilled during this timeframe.

'This is an internal matter for the Premier League. While the Premier League already invests £100million per year in grassroots football, we will be keen to ensure that they - and football more broadly - uses the opportunity it has to invest in and support the grassroots and the sport as a whole as much as possible, and this is something that I will be raising when I meet the Premier League and other football stakeholders over the coming weeks

The Secretary of State did not meet with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser during the period 1 January to 31 March 2018.

There were no meetings between the Chief Scientific Adviser and the Secretary of State between October 2017 and December 2017.

The department is currently piloting the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) role. An interim CSA took up the post in October 2017 with a first objective of scoping the role for the department and to provide immediate scientific/technical support to officials ahead of an open recruitment in April.

I refer the Hon member to my answer to PQ 9586.

We are engaged with stakeholders on this important issue. Determining and reacting to interference to wireless devices is a matter for Ofcom, the independent regulator for spectrum. Ofcom made an initial assessment that there was no issue with the use of adjacent bands but after representations from the assisted listening community have performed additional extensive and rigorous testing, using scenarios suggested by that community. The results of that testing are expected to be published soon, alongside a statement on the auction of 2.3 and 3.4 GHz spectrum.

The number of working days lost in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport due to all illness reported under the Mental & Behavioural Disorders category in each of the last three years is shown in the table below:

We provide support to help all employees to stay well and manage their health conditions at work. This support includes a variety of programmes like occupational health support, the Employee Assistance Programme and the Civil Service reasonable adjustments service.

We signed up to level 2 of the Disability Confident Scheme and the “Time to Change” pledge and have been actively working with line managers to support individuals with mental health conditions. We introduced Mental Health First Aiders who are trained to recognise the symptoms of mental health and guide the individual towards appropriate professional help.

These actions have led to a continued decrease in the number of working days lost due to mental health sickness absence.

I refer my honourable friend to my response to PQ 44972, answered on 8^th September.

As at the end of November 2015, spend on the Mobile Infrastructure Project is £9.1 Million. The breakdown of this spend is not in the format requested but the following information can be provided:

• Site Builds - £0.9 Million.

• Site Searches and acquisitions, which includes obtaining planning permission - £5.1 Million.

• Supplier management and programme management costs and one-off supplier deliverables - £3 Million

The above spend relates to concluded and ongoing activities to enable identification of suitable locations to build masts. The spend in respect of Site Builds includes payments for some of the masts that are already on air.

There are 15 live MIP masts as at the end of November 2015. These masts are in the following locations:

• Grantham and Stamford, Lincolnshire

• Weaverthorpe, North Yorkshire

• North Molton, Devon

• Portesham, West Dorset

• Roadwater, Somerset

• Ipswich, Suffolk​

• Rattlesden, Suffolk

• Seaton, Cornwall

• Peakswater, Cornwall

• Calstock, Cornwall

• Weston Green, Cambridgeshire

• Rothwell, Lincolnshire

• Manaccan, Cornwall

• Londonderry, Derry and Strabane - Northern Ireland

• Fermanagh, Fermanagh and Omagh - Northern Ireland

Over 50 other potential mast sites are currently being progressed by our supplier with the aim of delivering as many of these as possible by the project end date of 31 March 2016.

The Government publishes annual statistics on Freedom of Information on GOV.UK, including detailed statistics on public interest cases. This includes information relating to DCMS. Please see the latest annual figures for 2014 at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/freedom-of-information-statistics-october-to-december-2014-and-annual

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had any meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019. The CSA’s staff regularly attend meetings as required. The CSA regularly provides written advice to my right hon. Friend, Secretary of State for Education.

From September 2020, the Department expects schools to teach the new content in the relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education guidance. The required teaching content covers sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDs, and teaching on prevention and the importance of testing and how and where to access advice and treatment. In teaching about sexually transmitted infections, schools may choose to include information about HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in the context of HIV prevention. The guidance is clear that schools should draw on medically accurate information and set this in the broader context of the subjects as a whole.

Schools will be supported to deliver high quality teaching of relationships education, RSE and health education. This will include making training, good practice and high-quality resources available to schools.

Pupils need to know how to protect their own mental and physical health, they need to know what activities, behaviours and circumstances can risk these and they need to know when and how to seek help both for themselves and others.

At secondary school, by introducing health education alongside relationships and sex education (RSE), the Government will ensure that pupils are taught age appropriate knowledge about sexual health. In health education, this includes the benefits of regular self-examination and screening, and the facts and science relating to immunisation and vaccination. This is complemented by content in RSE about how sexually transmitted infections are passed on and treated, how risks can be reduced, the importance of and facts about testing and prevalence and the impact sexually transmitted infections can have on those who contract them. This will be set in the context of how to get further advice, including how and where to access advice and treatment.

The Department is committed to supporting schools to deliver high quality teaching of relationships education, RSE and health education. A budget of £6 million has been allocated in 2019/20 financial year to develop a programme of support for schools. Further funding beyond the next financial year is a matter of the forthcoming Spending Review.

The requested data is shown in the attached tables.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had any one-to-one meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019. However, during this time, the Chief Scientific Adviser has been present at two meetings my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has held with officials, and regularly provides written advice.

Over the next five years the NHS will fund new Mental Health Support Teams working in schools and colleges which will be rolled out to between one fifth and a quarter of England by 2023. This will start with 25 trailblazer areas which will be fully operational by the end of 2019. Next steps for roll out are being considered as part of the NHS long term plan and will be informed by the evaluation of the initial trailblazers.

The designated senior lead for mental health training will be available from the academic year 2019/20, over a five-year period, so that all schools and colleges have the chance to train a lead.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State has not had any one-to-one meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 September – 30 November 2018.

The requested data is shown in the attached table.

Results at local authority level for academic year 2017/18 are due to be published on Thursday 29 November.

The department did not have a Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 January and 31 March 2018. During this period we conducted a review of analysis and considered whether the department required a Chief Scientific Adviser in addition to a Chief Analyst as part of that review. The Chief Scientific Adviser was appointed on 3 April 2018.

The Department for Education has not had a Chief Scientific Adviser in post since 30 September 2017. The Department is currently carrying out a review of analysis and we are considering whether the Department requires a Chief Scientific Adviser in addition to a Chief Analyst as part of this review. The Permanent Secretary gave written evidence to the Science and Technology Committee on 23 January, which will be published in due course and accessible here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/research-integrity-17-19/publications/.

Cases of serious misconduct by teachers or headteachers which meet the test set out in the Secretary of States’s advice, are dealt with by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL). Any individual referring such a case to the Secretary of State will be directed to refer the case directly to the NCTL.

We do not believe that collecting information on pupils being prevented from attending school outside the formal exclusions process is practical.

The government has recently announced an externally led review of exclusions practice and implications for pupil groups disproportionately represented in the national statistics. The review will consider how schools use exclusion and how this impacts on all pupils, but particular why some groups of children are more likely to be excluded from school. The department will publish full details of the review, including how views can be submitted, in due course.

The Department does not routinely collect data on unrecorded or illegal exclusions.

There is a statutory process to follow when pupils are formally excluded from their school. Where an exclusion decision is challenged and an independent review panel (IRP) is appointed, the Department collects and publishes data on whether panels decide to uphold the exclusion decision, recommend that the governing body reconsider their decision, or quash the decision and direct that the governing body/academy trust considers the exclusion again:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2015-to-2016 (table 12). One of the reasons that an IRP could direct the governing body/academy trust to reconsider is if they believe the exclusion to be illegal, but we do not collect data on the reason for an IRPs decision.

We do not collect data on pupils who are prevented from attending a school outside of the formal exclusion process.

The department publishes statutory guidance for head teachers and governors on exclusion: ‘Exclusion from maintained schools, Academies and pupil referral units in England’. The guidance covers the process from start to finish, and includes specific requirements in relation to pupils with special educational needs (SEN). In particular, head teachers should make additional efforts to consider what extra support may be required to avoid exclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disability, and as far as possible, should avoid permanently excluding pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan or Statement.

In reaching a decision on whether or not a pupil should be reinstated, the governing board should consider whether the decision to exclude the pupil was lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair, including considering whether a head teacher has complied with the guidance in relation to pupils with SEN.

In the last three years there have been 57 cases of serious misconduct concluded at a hearing involving a head teacher. The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) does not record inappropriate exclusions as a category of misconduct. We would normally expect this type of misconduct to be dealt with at a local level by employers.

The NCTL considers referrals concerning serious misconduct by teachers. These are recorded at the initial stage according to the type of misconduct being alleged. Inappropriate exclusion is not a type of serious misconduct that is recorded. We do not record the role held by a teacher until an investigation concludes that there is evidence of serious professional misconduct.

Minister Gibb has met with the Department’s Chief Scientific Advisor twice in the last three months.

The Department is increasing the number of educational psychologists working with schools by building capacity in the educational psychology workforce. It is achieving this by:

a) Increasing the number of Department funded educational psychology doctorate training places from 150 per intake at present to 160 per intake from 2018, at a cost of £7.7M per course intake (currently £7.2M).

b) Advertising for an educational psychology training provider in the East of England to deliver training from 2018. This will address the current anomaly of the region being the only one in England without a local educational psychology training provider. In addition to generating a flow of newly qualified educational psychologists locally, trainees while they are on the course will work in local services, including schools, while on practice placement in years two and three.

In addition, the Minister is meeting a group of national representatives from the profession (The Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), National Association of Principal Educational Psychologists (NAPEP) and British Psychological Society) on 14 March, to discuss the issues facing the profession and possible solutions.

The head count of educational psychologists reported as employed by Norfolk local authority in November each year since 2011 is provided in the table below. Data for 2010 were not provided by the local authority.

Source: School Workforce Census

The Department has approval to advertise for a new training provider in the East of England providing additional 10 training places.

Good mental health and wellbeing is a key priority for the Department. We have high aspirations for all children and young people and want them to be able to fulfil their potential. Counselling can play an important role in this, which is why we worked with experts to produce a blueprint for effective school-based counselling. We published an updated version of this advice last year. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497825/Counselling_in_schools.pdf

The Prime Minister announced last month that the Department would launch a programme of randomised control trials of preventative programmes across three different approaches to mental health promotion and prevention.

We are currently working to procure contractors and plan to issue a prior information notice this month, followed by a call for expressions of interest in March, with the aim of having a final contract in place during May. The timetable for delivery will depend on each individual intervention trialled.

We envisage the contract will cover a suite of programmes and approaches to be tested in both primary and secondary schools. We acknowledge that colleges and further education establishments play an important role in supporting young people with mental health issues. However, given the wish to focus on early prevention activity and the nature of the approaches we have been considering that to date we are currently not planning on trialling the interventions for older young people. However, our procurement approach for this programme will allow further trials to be added if needed. We will be giving further consideration to how to improve preventative activity as we develop the new green paper on children and young people’s mental health.

There is already a large scale randomised control trial of school-based counselling underway: The ETHOS study, which is funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and led by the University of Roehampton. Department for Education officials are represented on the steering group to ensure it informs policy.

Good mental health and wellbeing is a key priority for the Department. We have high aspirations for all children and young people and want them to be able to fulfil their potential. Counselling can play an important role in this, which is why we worked with experts to produce a blueprint for effective school-based counselling. We published an updated version of this advice last year. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497825/Counselling_in_schools.pdf

The Prime Minister announced last month that the Department would launch a programme of randomised control trials of preventative programmes across three different approaches to mental health promotion and prevention.

We are currently working to procure contractors and plan to issue a prior information notice this month, followed by a call for expressions of interest in March, with the aim of having a final contract in place during May. The timetable for delivery will depend on each individual intervention trialled.

We envisage the contract will cover a suite of programmes and approaches to be tested in both primary and secondary schools. We acknowledge that colleges and further education establishments play an important role in supporting young people with mental health issues. However, given the wish to focus on early prevention activity and the nature of the approaches we have been considering that to date we are currently not planning on trialling the interventions for older young people. However, our procurement approach for this programme will allow further trials to be added if needed. We will be giving further consideration to how to improve preventative activity as we develop the new green paper on children and young people’s mental health.

There is already a large scale randomised control trial of school-based counselling underway: The ETHOS study, which is funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and led by the University of Roehampton. Department for Education officials are represented on the steering group to ensure it informs policy.

Good mental health and wellbeing is a key priority for the Department. We have high aspirations for all children and young people and want them to be able to fulfil their potential. Counselling can play an important role in this, which is why we worked with experts to produce a blueprint for effective school-based counselling. We published an updated version of this advice last year. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497825/Counselling_in_schools.pdf

The Prime Minister announced last month that the Department would launch a programme of randomised control trials of preventative programmes across three different approaches to mental health promotion and prevention.

We are currently working to procure contractors and plan to issue a prior information notice this month, followed by a call for expressions of interest in March, with the aim of having a final contract in place during May. The timetable for delivery will depend on each individual intervention trialled.

We envisage the contract will cover a suite of programmes and approaches to be tested in both primary and secondary schools. We acknowledge that colleges and further education establishments play an important role in supporting young people with mental health issues. However, given the wish to focus on early prevention activity and the nature of the approaches we have been considering that to date we are currently not planning on trialling the interventions for older young people. However, our procurement approach for this programme will allow further trials to be added if needed. We will be giving further consideration to how to improve preventative activity as we develop the new green paper on children and young people’s mental health.

There is already a large scale randomised control trial of school-based counselling underway: The ETHOS study, which is funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and led by the University of Roehampton. Department for Education officials are represented on the steering group to ensure it informs policy.

The Immigration Skills Charge will be paid by UK employers recruiting workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) through the Tier 2 skilled worker route. There are no plans to extend the charge to employers recruiting from the European Economic Area post-Brexit.

We have not estimated the potential annual cost to the NHS of the Immigration Skills Charge. The cost to the NHS will depend on its use of the Tier 2 skilled worker route.

The Immigration Skills Charge will be paid by UK employers recruiting workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) through the Tier 2 skilled worker route. There are no plans to extend the charge to employers recruiting from the European Economic Area post-Brexit.

We have not estimated the potential annual cost to the NHS of the Immigration Skills Charge. The cost to the NHS will depend on its use of the Tier 2 skilled worker route.

The Government expects to lay Regulations implementing changes to student support for undergraduates in 2017/18 early in the New Year. The Regulations will be subject to the negative resolution procedure which is set out in statute.

The information requested is set out in the table below.

Sickness absence relating to mental health includes those recorded as anxiety and depression, mental health issues, and stress.

Recruiting sufficient, high-quality teachers is central to the Government’s ambition to deliver educational excellence everywhere. High-quality teachers are the single most important factor determining how well pupils achieve in schools. That is why we have already committed to spend over £1.3 billion on teacher recruitment up to 2020. This includes continuing to provide generous tax-free teacher training bursaries to graduates, which are worth up to £30,000 for academic year 2016/17.

More trainee teachers started training in 2015/16 than in 2014/15, and a record proportion of new trainees held a first class degree. For courses beginning in 2016/17, so far around 26,000 people have secured a teacher training place, and we have already recruited in excess of targets in primary and several secondary subjects.

We review the financial incentives for teacher training every year, and we will continue to test new approaches to recruiting teachers, such as the STEM teacher supply package announced in March 2015.

Recruiting and retaining high quality social workers is essential to ensure we deliver high quality services to vulnerable children and families. As already announced, the Government will consult on the future funding of social work education in order to ensure that there will be an adequate supply of social workers with the right skills and training. This is part of a wider, ongoing programme which has seen investment of over £700m since 2010 in social worker training and improvement programmes, including support for a range of routes to expand entry into the profession such as Frontline, a scheme specifically aimed at bringing top graduates into social work, and Step Up.

The Department for Education has been working with the National Health Service to determine the scope and nature of the audit of educational provision within Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) tier 4 settings, as a result of the Health Select Committee report on CAMHS in 2014. We will release the outcomes of this audit in due course.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has held three meetings with, or involving, his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 January and 31 March 2018.

We have not carried out an assessment of these proposals. There is a long established precedent of free access for local residents to deposit household waste at household waste recycling centres. In 2015, the Government made an order prohibiting local authorities from charging householders to deposit household waste at civic amenity sites or household waste recycling centres.

Where local authorities charge for the deposit of non-household items at Household Waste Recycling Centres, this should be done in line with the Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012. Where charges are proposed, they should be proportionate and transparent and made in consultation with local residents so that local services meet local needs.

We have not carried out an assessment of these proposals. There is a long established precedent of free access for local residents to deposit household waste at household waste recycling centres. In 2015, the Government made an order prohibiting local authorities from charging householders to deposit household waste at civic amenity sites or household waste recycling centres.

Where local authorities charge for the deposit of non-household items at Household Waste Recycling Centres, this should be done in line with the Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012. Where charges are proposed, they should be proportionate and transparent and made in consultation with local residents so that local services meet local needs.

The definition of household waste is set out in section 75(5) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In that Act, household waste means waste from domestic properties, caravans, residential homes and premises forming part of a university, school, other educational establishment, hospital or nursing home.

Schedule 1 to the Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 further prescribes what types of waste should be treated as household waste, subject to the place where it is produced or the nature of the activity producing the waste.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs held nine meetings with, or involving, his Chief Scientific Advisor between October 2017 and December 2017.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Ministers of his department meet regularly with departmental advisers, including the department’s Chief Scientific Adviser. Over a three month period, this covers a number of meetings varying in scope and personnel, and the department does not hold a central list of all such meetings.

The number of working days lost in Defra due to mental illness in the last three years is as follows:

Between 1 September and 30 November 2018, the current Secretary of State met with Chris Jones, Chief Scientific Adviser at DExEU, on two occasions, and his predecessor on ten occasions. It should be noted that this is a dual role for Chris Jones, and is combined with his position as the Director of Justice, Security and Migration.

Between 1 January and 31 March 2018 the Secretary of State met Chris Jones, Chief Scientific Adviser at DExEU, four times. It should be noted that this is a dual role combined with his position as the Director of Justice, Security and Migration.

Between October and December 2017 the Secretary of State met Chris Jones, Chief Scientific Adviser at DExEU, five times. It should be noted that this is a dual role combined with the Director of Justice, Security and Migration position and conversations would have covered both briefs.

The Department for Exiting the European Union is committed to ensuring that we access the very best scientific expertise. We have actively considered the best way of achieving this and have appointed Chris Jones, Director for Justice Security and Migration (JSM) as Chief Scientific Adviser. We have taken the decision to appoint a Chief Scientific Advisor to ensure that departmental decisions are informed by the best science and engineering advice and to provide a route for us to engage directly with the wider network of Chief Scientific Advisers where necessary.

I hold the responsibility for DFID’s Science and Research. The DFID Chief Scientific Adviser has met with me three times during the period of 1 September – 30 November 2018. In addition, DFID’s Chief Scientific Adviser has also met with my colleague the Right Hon. the Lord Bates during this period.

The Chief Scientific Adviser has not met with the Secretary of State during the period of September - November 2018. The Chief Scientific Adviser continues to provide all Ministers with regular written submissions and briefings on DFID science and research activities.

I hold the responsibility for DFID’s Science and Research. The DFID Chief Scientific Adviser has met with me twice during the period of January-March 2018. In addition, DFID’s Chief Scientific Adviser has also had two meetings with Minister of State Lord Bates during this period.

The Chief Scientific Adviser has met with the Secretary of State twice during the period of January-March 2018. The Chief Scientific Adviser continues to provide all Ministers with regular written submissions and briefings on DFID’s science and research activities.

The Chief Scientific Adviser has met with the Secretary of State on 4 occasions within the time frame.

I hold the portfolio responsibility for DFID's Science and Research department. I have met the DFID Chief Scientific Adviser once since my appointment in January. In addition, DFID’s Chief Scientific Adviser has also had a meeting with DFID Lord Bates during this period.

The Chief Scientific Adviser met with my predecessor, Rory Stewart, on 3 occasions during the period of October – December 2017. The Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser also attended the Research Roundtable session with Minister Stewart.

The Chief Scientific Adviser continues to provide all Ministers with regular written submissions and briefings on DFID science and research activities.

The DFID Minister of State Rory Stewart holds the portfolio responsibility for DFID’s Science and Research. The DFID Chief Scientific Adviser has met with the Minister Stewart on 3 occasions (including all-day evidence discussion) over the last 3-months to discuss a range of science and research priorities. In addition, DFID’s Chief Scientific Adviser has also had a meeting with Lord Bates during this period

The Chief Scientific Adviser continues to provide all Ministers with regular written submissions and briefings on DFID science and research activities.

The number of notified days lost within DFID due to mental illness in each of the last 3 years is detailed in the table below.

Dr Mike Short CBE has recently taken up his position as Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department for International Trade (DIT). My Rt. Hon Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade publicly welcomed his appointment when it was announced, stating how ‘Dr Short’s many decades of experience in technology, innovation and public policy will ensure that cutting-edge scientific and technical know-how is firmly at the core of DIT’s work’. The Secretary of State will be formally meeting Dr Short in the coming weeks.

The Department for International Trade has recently concluded a recruitment campaign to appoint a Chief Scientific Adviser. The appointment will be announced in due course.

The Secretary of State for Transport had one meeting with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 September and 30 November 2018.

The Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser has had seven meetings with members of the Ministerial team during this period.

The Department for Transport Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) met with the Secretary of State once during this period, with other senior officials. The CSA also met with the former Parliamentary under Secretary of State, Paul Maynard MP, and the Parliamentary under Secretary of State, Jesse Norman MP, during this time period.

The Department for Transport reviews land and property holdings on an ongoing basis. As and when appropriate any land or property holdings deemed surplus are promptly identified and disposed of in accordance with business needs.

As part of the Government’s Transparency Agenda information about Department for Transport properties is published on the data.gov.uk website.

Information on the buildings owned by the Department in Norfolk and North Norfolk is available following web link:

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/epimstransparency

The specific information requested on buildings that are currently empty and the future plans for those sites can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

No such meetings have taken place in the last three months.

Stress is the biggest contributor to the category of ‘mental health’ illness. Whilst it affects relatively few members of staff compared to other categories for sickness absence, by its nature a significant number of working days can be lost by those with mental health illness.

The Department for Transport and its agencies have lost the following number of working days due to mental health illness in the last three financial years:

2013/14 – 27908

2014/15 – 32946

2015/16 – 28895

The table at (A) shows the vehicles and type operated by the Government Car Service from 2011-12 to date. This confirms that the number of vehicles has fallen from 149 in April 2011 to 85 as at April 2016.

The table at (B) shows the allocated vehicle to each department and ministerial office at the beginning of April in each year since 2006 -07 to date.

The Ministry of Defence and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office both have their own car pools. The FCO pool started supporting their own Ministers following the 2010 general election.

The Department for Work & Pensions made their own car arrangement in 2012 and the Ministry of Justice did the same in 2013.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has met with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser on the 30 November 2018 and her predecessor met on one occasion on the 1 September 2018.

The Statutory Sick Pay (Medical Evidence) Regulations 1985 already allow for other forms of medical information to be used in place of a fit note as long as there is an agreement between employer and employee that the other option, which can include an Allied Health Professions Advisory Fitness for Work Report, is acceptable. The regulations do not however name a particular alternative as being the most suitable replacement.

In November 2017, The Government Command paper “Improving Lives: The Future of Work, Health and Disability” committed to investigating the feasibility of using the AHP Advisory Fitness for Work Report for the purposes of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). The Paper can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-lives-the-future-of-work-health-and-disability

A rapid review was held in February 2018 involving extensive work by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) with its fellow organisations under the Allied Health Professions Federation and the Joint Department for Health and Social Care and Department for Work and Pensions Work and Health Unit. Following this, the RCOT and Chartered Society of Physiotherapists released a statement advising their members that the Allied Health Professions report can be used to provide evidence for the purposes of SSP and encouraging them to increase their use of this document within their professional remits.

The link to statement can be found here: https://www.rcot.co.uk/news/ahp-advisory-fitness-work-report-admissible-evidence-statutory-sick-pay

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has met the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Work and Pensions on one occasion between 1 January and 31 March 2018.

The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

There have been no meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions between October 2017 and December 2017.

There have been no meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser and Ministers of his Department in the last three months.

Improving Lives; the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper was published on 31 October 2016 and the consultation closed on 17 February 2017. The Green Paper explored a range of ways to improve the prospects and transform the lives of disabled people by removing barriers that prevent them from working, and helping ensure that they are able to remain in employment. We received over 6000 of responses and engaged in a wide range of conversations with stakeholders during the consultation period, supported by over 166 accessible events held across England, Scotland, and Wales. We are now carefully considering the consultation responses and next steps for longer-term reform and will set these out in due course

In October 2016, my department in conjunction with the Department of Health, published, Improving Lives: the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper which included a range of data of the impact of inactivity on the labour market, including our estimate that ill health among working age people which prevents them from working, costs the economy around £100 billion a year and related sickness absence costs employers £9 billion a year.

This Government is committed to building a country that works for everyone. The package of initiatives announced in Improving Lives aims to improve the employment prospects of those with disabilities and health conditions; helping them to realise their potential and enabling employers’ to benefit from a large, valuable and under-used section of the labour market.

The Department already encourages employers to support hard-to-reach groups through communications campaigns such as See Potential. This campaign was launched in September 2015 with the aim of inspiring employers to change their recruitment practices and be more open to hiring people from the most disadvantaged groups in our society.

Similarly, Disability Confident is about creating a movement for change – getting employers to think differently about disability and to take action to improve how they attract, recruit and retain disabled workers.

Employment status

Data on the proportion of working age disabled people who were employed, inactive and unemployed is published by the Office for National Statistics using the Labour Force Survey. The latest data for Q2 2017 can be found using the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusofdisabledpeoplea08

In the United Kingdom, over the last four years the employment rate of disabled people has increased by nearly 6 percentage points from 43.6% in Q2 2013 to 49.2% in Q2 2017. There are now almost 600,000 more disabled people in work than four years ago, with almost 3.5 million disabled people in employment.

Business Size

As part of the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper we have published information based on the size of people’s workplaces for Q2 2016 using the Labour Force Survey. This data can be found in Table 1h using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/641240/work-health-and-disability-green-paper-data-pack-supporting-tables.xlsx

Self-employment

The latest published figures from the Labour Force Survey, covering Q4 2016, show that the proportion of people in Great Britain who are self-employed who have a disability is 13%.

Source: Labour Force Survey, available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/adhocs/006673economicactivityofpeoplewithdisabilitiesbyemploymenttypeaged16to64apriltojune2013onwardsgreatbritain

Note

Please note that the latest data from the Labour Force Survey covers Q2 (April to June) 2017. However, we have used the latest publicly available data for each request which is why different time periods are used.

Employment status

Data on the proportion of working age disabled people who were employed, inactive and unemployed is published by the Office for National Statistics using the Labour Force Survey. The latest data for Q2 2017 can be found using the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourmarketstatusofdisabledpeoplea08

In the United Kingdom, over the last four years the employment rate of disabled people has increased by nearly 6 percentage points from 43.6% in Q2 2013 to 49.2% in Q2 2017. There are now almost 600,000 more disabled people in work than four years ago, with almost 3.5 million disabled people in employment.

Business Size

As part of the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper we have published information based on the size of people’s workplaces for Q2 2016 using the Labour Force Survey. This data can be found in Table 1h using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/641240/work-health-and-disability-green-paper-data-pack-supporting-tables.xlsx

Self-employment

The latest published figures from the Labour Force Survey, covering Q4 2016, show that the proportion of people in Great Britain who are self-employed who have a disability is 13%.

Source: Labour Force Survey, available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/adhocs/006673economicactivityofpeoplewithdisabilitiesbyemploymenttypeaged16to64apriltojune2013onwardsgreatbritain

Note

Please note that the latest data from the Labour Force Survey covers Q2 (April to June) 2017. However, we have used the latest publicly available data for each request which is why different time periods are used.

The latest available information on Universal Credit sanction decisions is up to December 2016 and is published at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

These statistics cover Universal Credit live service only, more information on these can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-sanctions-statistics-background-information-and-methodology

The total number of working days lost in DWP due to mental illness in each of the last three years is set out in the table below.

DWP is committed to improving mental ill health. We support employees through access to comprehensive stress risk assessments, Occupational Health services and our Employee Assistance Programme which offers immediate telephone support 24 hours a day, every day. DWP is currently introducing Mental Health First Aid to further add to the support available.

DWP has greatly reduced sickness absence from an average of 11.1 days in March 2007 to 6.13 days currently. The Department has the lowest average working days lost across Government when compared against other Departments of its size and grade structure.

‘Improving Lives - The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper’, published on 31 October, announces a Personal Support Package for people with health conditions and disabilities, with a range of new interventions and initiatives designed to provide support that is tailored to the individual needs of claimants, including young disabled people.

In particular as part of this package we will explore how to better support young disabled people by testing a voluntary, supported Work Experience programme. This will give young disabled people the opportunity to benefit from time in the workplace with a mainstream employer. It will enable them to build their confidence and skills, enhance their CV and demonstrate their ability to perform a job role.

The requested information for Personal Independence Payment applications is not available as information on PIP claimants’ disabling conditions is not collected at the initial claim application stage.

Such information on PIP awards, by disabling condition and whether new or reassessment claim status, are available from Stat-Xplore.

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

We have made no proposals to extend Jobseekers Allowance conditionality.

We have made no proposals to extend Jobseekers Allowance conditionality.

Information regarding the number of new claimants who will be placed in the work related activity or limited capability for work groups can be found in the following table, for each of the financial years in the time period requested :

Figures are consistent with the Autumn Statement 2015 forecasts, which do not separate out ESA and UC.

We do not hold estimates on the number of claimants we expect with specific conditions.

The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products, including those used for the treatment of epilepsy, once we have left the EU.

The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages. Further details can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/medicines-and-medical-products-supply-government-updates-no-deal-brexit-plans

We have been working closely with suppliers to monitor over 300 different epilepsy medicines provided by almost 50 companies and we are pleased to see many are holding stockpiles far beyond the six weeks’ additional buffer we requested. We also know that the vast majority of those suppliers with lower levels of stockpiles are taking action to re-route their supply chains away from the short straits crossings where applicable.

For the period 1 June 2019 to 31 August 2019 my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care met with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) three times, the CSA met with other Health Ministers on seven occasions.

A core function of the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact Trial Community Advisory Board (CAB) is to raise awareness and uptake of PrEP in key populations including women and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. Further information about PrEP Impact Trial CAB activities and participating community groups can be found at the following links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/blood-and-infection-group-f/f03/prep-trial-updates/

https://www.prepimpacttrial.org.uk/faqs

In addition, Public Health England’s Innovation Fund has supported a number of community based projects aimed at increasing PrEP awareness in women, BAME groups and trans communities; information on the projects funded in 2018 can be found at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/innovative-hiv-prevention-projects-reached-170000-people-in-2018

Since the start of the PrEP Impact Trial in October 2017, over half of the available 26,000 trial places have been filled. As of 3 September 2019, all participating Trial clinics were open to recruitment for women, trans men and heterosexual men. Information on the enrolment status of participating clinics is regularly updated on the PrEP Impact Trial website at the following link:

https://www.prepimpacttrial.org.uk/join-the-trial

A core function of the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact Trial Community Advisory Board (CAB) is to raise awareness and uptake of PrEP in key populations including women and black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. Further information about PrEP Impact Trial CAB activities and participating community groups can be found at the following links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/blood-and-infection-group-f/f03/prep-trial-updates/

https://www.prepimpacttrial.org.uk/faqs

In addition, Public Health England’s Innovation Fund has supported a number of community based projects aimed at increasing PrEP awareness in women, BAME groups and trans communities; information on the projects funded in 2018 can be found at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/innovative-hiv-prevention-projects-reached-170000-people-in-2018

Since the start of the PrEP Impact Trial in October 2017, over half of the available 26,000 trial places have been filled. As of 3 September 2019, all participating Trial clinics were open to recruitment for women, trans men and heterosexual men. Information on the enrolment status of participating clinics is regularly updated on the PrEP Impact Trial website at the following link:

https://www.prepimpacttrial.org.uk/join-the-trial

A Serious Shortage Protocol is an additional tool to manage serious medication shortages and may be used in the exceptional and rare situation when other measures have been exhausted or are likely to be ineffective.

At present we are currently working on the governance process for developing Serious Shortage Protocols, should one be required, through engagement, including with professional bodies and patient groups. Following this we will issue guidance to health professionals in due course.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the organisation who represent National Health Service community pharmacy contractors in England, have developed a briefing note to support community pharmacies, who will need to consider training and changes to their standard operating-procedures to take account of the potential new processes.

Any Serious Shortage Protocol would be developed by senior, specialist doctors and pharmacists, with input from national experts, Royal Colleges and specialist societies. If a Serious Shortage Protocol is to be authorised then there will also be engagement with the relevant patient groups, who can assist in informing patients. Pharmacists still have to use their professional judgment as to whether supplying against the protocol rather than the prescription is appropriate and provide the patient with relevant information. If they determine supply is not appropriate, then the patient should be referred back to their prescriber.

A Serious Shortage Protocol is an additional tool to manage serious medication shortages and may be used in the exceptional and rare situation when other measures have been exhausted or are likely to be ineffective.

At present we are currently working on the governance process for developing Serious Shortage Protocols, should one be required, through engagement, including with professional bodies and patient groups. Following this we will issue guidance to health professionals in due course.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the organisation who represent National Health Service community pharmacy contractors in England, have developed a briefing note to support community pharmacies, who will need to consider training and changes to their standard operating-procedures to take account of the potential new processes.

Any Serious Shortage Protocol would be developed by senior, specialist doctors and pharmacists, with input from national experts, Royal Colleges and specialist societies. If a Serious Shortage Protocol is to be authorised then there will also be engagement with the relevant patient groups, who can assist in informing patients. Pharmacists still have to use their professional judgment as to whether supplying against the protocol rather than the prescription is appropriate and provide the patient with relevant information. If they determine supply is not appropriate, then the patient should be referred back to their prescriber.

A Serious Shortage Protocol is an additional tool to manage serious medication shortages and may be used in the exceptional and rare situation when other measures have been exhausted or are likely to be ineffective.

At present we are currently working on the governance process for developing Serious Shortage Protocols, should one be required, through engagement, including with professional bodies and patient groups. Following this we will issue guidance to health professionals in due course.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the organisation who represent National Health Service community pharmacy contractors in England, have developed a briefing note to support community pharmacies, who will need to consider training and changes to their standard operating-procedures to take account of the potential new processes.

Any Serious Shortage Protocol would be developed by senior, specialist doctors and pharmacists, with input from national experts, Royal Colleges and specialist societies. If a Serious Shortage Protocol is to be authorised then there will also be engagement with the relevant patient groups, who can assist in informing patients. Pharmacists still have to use their professional judgment as to whether supplying against the protocol rather than the prescription is appropriate and provide the patient with relevant information. If they determine supply is not appropriate, then the patient should be referred back to their prescriber.

The Government is committed to supporting people with neurodevelopmental conditions to live well. We are currently reviewing the adult autism strategy and working with the Department of Education will be extending the scope of the strategy to include children. The refreshed strategy will be published by the end of the year. We are also working closely with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and their attention deficit hypersensitivity disorder (ADHD) Implementation Working Group to look at how the current NICE guidance and quality standard on ADHD are being implemented. This work includes looking to identify best practice and examples of innovation, which have improved outcomes for people with ADHD, so that these can be widely disseminated to commissioners to improve local practice. We are considering what actions can be taken to support those with other neurodevelopmental conditions.

We estimate that increases in rates of syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia are due to a number of factors. These include increases in both the number of people attending sexual health services and the number of tests for sexually transmitted infections. Public Health England has advised that other factors include, better detection of infection and behavioural changes such as an increase in partner numbers and condomless sex, as well as, for some men who have sex with men, ‘chemsex’ and group sex facilitated by geosocial networking applications.

Local authorities will receive £3.1 billion in 2019/20, ring-fenced exclusively for use on public health, including sexual health. We are investing over £16 billion in local authority public health services over the five years of the 2015 Spending Review until 2020/21. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties.

Local authorities are required by regulations to provide comprehensive open access sexual health services, including provision for sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and contraception.

The latest statistics show that more people are now accessing sexual health services. Attendances have increased by 7% between 2017 and 2018 (from 3,337,677 to 3,561,548). This continues the trend of increases in attendances seen over the past five years. To help manage the overall increase in demand, local authorities are increasingly commissioning online services to manage lower risk and asymptomatic patients. These services have the potential to reach groups not currently engaged with clinic services.

We are considering a number of policy options for the Prevention Green Paper and will be mindful of the level of funding that may be required for their implementation.

We are considering a range of policy options for the Green Paper and will be mindful of HIV and sexual health.

Total spending by NHS Commissioners on private health providers in each of the last five years for which figures are available is shown in the following table.

Note: 1. The numbers above have been collected separately from audited accounts data and may include estimates.

The Department uses two main routes to engaging legal support.

- The Department’s Anti-Fraud Unit (AFU) engages external law firms through the Civil Litigation and Arbitration in Medicines and Pharmaceuticals Framework, as well as the Government Legal Department (GLD). The AFU utilises a case management system in order to differentiate between individual cases and checks are conducted against invoices and supporting documents submitted by each law firm, including GLD, to ensure these are reflective of their instructions.

- Other business areas within the Department consult with the GLD on the resources available and should they not have the capacity then they will a conduct a competition for other Legal service providers using the Crown Commercial Services framework contract. GLD will ensure that deliverables are agreed and undertaken to the agreed quality before payments are made.

The arm’s length bodies concerned do not collect information in the format requested. The transactions charged by the organisations involved do not specifically itemise legal costs as ‘employment disputes’.

The arm’s length bodies concerned do not collect information in a way that would enable them to answer this question in the format requested.

For the period 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019 my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care met the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser seven times.

There is no nationally agreed data set or data collection for recording the immunisation of social care workers.

This information is not held centrally.

The United Kingdom national action plan on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), published on 24 January 2019, contains the commitment to continue to support research into new and alternative treatments, vaccines and diagnostic tests.

The Government has invested over £350 million in AMR research and development since 2014, including research funding calls with vaccination in scope, most recently the £32 million capital funding call lead by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and the Small Business Research Initiative competition which announced its awards in January 2019. We would expect to consider the role of vaccines for AMR in future programmatic funding.

The UK supports the development of vaccines through UK Aid programmes such as the Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) and the UK Vaccine Network. GAMRIF is a £50 million fund to support innovative research and development for AMR, for the benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, and invests £30 million into preventative measures in human and animal health, including vaccines for AMR not including tuberculosis (TB). The fund includes a £1 million work package with the Bacterial Vaccinology Network which supports early stage research and development around the world to drive the development and uptake of vaccines for AMR in humans and animals.

The UK supports TB vaccine research through the Medical Research Council (MRC), with support to the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and through the Joint Global Health Clinical Trials programme represented by the Department for International Development (DFID), MRC, NIHR and Wellcome. DFID’s Agriculture research team is supporting work on bovine TB vaccine development in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The United Kingdom national action plan on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), published on 24 January 2019, contains the commitment to continue to support research into new and alternative treatments, vaccines and diagnostic tests.

The Government has invested over £350 million in AMR research and development since 2014, including research funding calls with vaccination in scope, most recently the £32 million capital funding call lead by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and the Small Business Research Initiative competition which announced its awards in January 2019. We would expect to consider the role of vaccines for AMR in future programmatic funding.

The UK supports the development of vaccines through UK Aid programmes such as the Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) and the UK Vaccine Network. GAMRIF is a £50 million fund to support innovative research and development for AMR, for the benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, and invests £30 million into preventative measures in human and animal health, including vaccines for AMR not including tuberculosis (TB). The fund includes a £1 million work package with the Bacterial Vaccinology Network which supports early stage research and development around the world to drive the development and uptake of vaccines for AMR in humans and animals.

The UK supports TB vaccine research through the Medical Research Council (MRC), with support to the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and through the Joint Global Health Clinical Trials programme represented by the Department for International Development (DFID), MRC, NIHR and Wellcome. DFID’s Agriculture research team is supporting work on bovine TB vaccine development in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust spent £4,655.29 on legal fees on its appeal to the First Tier Tribunal with respect to the Information Commissioner's Office's decision notices on patient safety and welfare information.

The amount East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust has spent on legal fees defending employment tribunal cases in each year since 2016 is set out in the following table.

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust spent £4,655.29 on legal fees on its appeal to the First Tier Tribunal with respect to the Information Commissioner's Office's decision notices on patient safety and welfare information.

The amount East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust has spent on legal fees defending employment tribunal cases in each year since 2016 is set out in the following table.

For the period 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care met with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) seven times, and the CSA met with other Health and Social Care ministers on 12 occasions.

Costs for how much each National Health Service trust spent in legal fees defending employment tribunal cares relating to discrimination, unfair dismissal and public interest disclosure since 2016 is not held centrally.

The total legal costs incurred by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, since 2014, in respect of all matters, proceedings and appeals involving Mr Gordon Fleming is £252,162.15 plus VAT. This figure includes disbursements and Counsel’s fees. The Trust is unable to quantify other costs.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is in the process of planning how to conduct its scoping of the review of the methods for technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies evaluations. Scoping will involve industry and other relevant stakeholders, including patient organisations. Additional detail and more information will be made available on the NICE website in due course.

Medicines shortages are an ongoing issue that the Department manages constantly. The Department receives a wide range of representations regarding the availability of medicines on a regular basis.

The Department’s Medicines Supply Team has well established procedures to deal with medicine shortages and works closely with all stakeholders to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise.

Every shortage is different. The decision to communicate, and type of communication, will depend on a number of factors. We work closely with all stakeholders in these situations to provide advice on management options and to consider how best to communicate a supply problem to those affected. Where necessary, we will engage with relevant patient groups regarding specific medicine shortages, including, for example, several epilepsy patient groups.

Frontline social care workers should be provided with influenza vaccine by their employer, with some staff able to access vaccination from their general practitioner or community pharmacy in a scheme funded by NHS England. Collecting comprehensive uptake data at a national level would be challenging. Most social care organisations do not have appropriate systems in place either to deliver influenza vaccine or collect uptake information and there are a large number of organisations, many independent, in the sector.

In 2016/17, Public Health England undertook a pilot data collection in a sample of 320 care homes across England with a response rate of 51%. 70% of responding care homes do not have systems in place to collect data on staff influenza vaccination. In addition, only 38% of the responding care homes in the study sample provided data on vaccine uptake despite considerable local follow-up.

For the 2018/19 season, NHS England is collecting data on the number of social care workers that access vaccination through the scheme they fund for some staff.

Flu vaccination of social care workers is recommended to protect staff, protect vulnerable users and to contribute to resilience of the health and social care system in the winter, including prevention of outbreaks in care homes.

In October 2017, NHS England announced additional funding to support vaccination of frontline social care staff working in residential and care homes and in the community and offering direct care to vulnerable people. The 2017/18 NHS seasonal flu programme offered by general practices and community pharmacy was extended to include frontline social care staff. This was continued in 2018/19 and extended to frontline health and care staff working in the voluntary managed hospice sector. This scheme is intended to complement, not replace, any established occupational health schemes that employers have in place to offer the flu vaccination to their workforce.

Any serious shortage protocol would be developed with and signed off by clinicians. Only if clinicians deem it appropriate, an alternative quantity, strength, pharmaceutical form or medicine can be dispensed in line with the protocol. Each protocol would clearly set out what action can be taken by the retail pharmacy, under what circumstances, for which patients and during which period.

Protocols for therapeutic or generic equivalents will not be suitable for all medicines and patients. For example, they would not be suitable for treatments where the medicines that are prescribed need to be prescribed by brand for clinical reasons, for example anti-epilepsy medicines. In these cases, patients would always be referred back to the prescriber for any decision about their treatment before any therapeutic or generic alternative is supplied.

Influenza vaccine coverage is closely monitored, with publication of weekly and monthly reports throughout the flu season. In addition, Public Health England publishes an annual report on gov.uk in the spring with finalised data on vaccine uptake.

The following table shows the latest available data on the uptake of the influenza vaccine amongst eligible groups for 2018/19:

Notes:

1. Weekly vaccine uptake data snapshot for week one (week ending 6 January 2019)
2. Data is provisional and from a sample of 97.2% of all automated general practitioner (GP) practices participating in the 2018/19 sentinel GP Flu survey. The data for the two and three year olds is from a sample of 97.4% of all automated GP practices participating in the 2018/19 sentinel Childhood flu GP
3. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports-2018-to-2019-season
4. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports-2017-to-2018-season

We understand that epilepsy medicines are vitally important to many people in this country. Our contingency plans aim to ensure that the supply of epilepsy medicines and other essential medicines to patients is not disrupted in all European Union exit scenarios, including a ‘no deal’ exit.

That is why on 23 August 2018, the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply prescription only medicines and pharmacy medicines to the United Kingdom that come from, or via, the EU or European Economic Area (EEA) asking them to ensure a minimum of six weeks additional supply in the UK, over and above existing business-as-usual buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019.

We followed that up on 7 December 2018 when the Department wrote to pharmaceutical companies that supply licensed medicines to the UK from or via the EU/EEA, and/or manufacture medicines in the UK, informing them of the updated reasonable worst-case scenario border planning assumptions and asking them about their current transportation routes and their ability to re-route their supply chains if they currently rely on Dover and/or Folkestone.

In response to those communications we have received very good engagement from industry, including companies supplying epilepsy medicines to the UK, who share our aims of ensuring continuity of medicines supply for patients is maintained and able to cope with any potential delays at the border that may arise in the short term in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit.

The Department has received both letters regarding Dr Chris Day from the Rt. hon. Member for North Norfolk and the hon. Member for Ellesmore Port and Neston dated 26 July 2018 and 17 December 2018. Officials are carefully considering their contents and preparing responses and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be responding to the hon. Members’ letters shortly.

The Department has received both letters regarding Dr Chris Day from the Rt. hon. Member for North Norfolk and the hon. Member for Ellesmore Port and Neston dated 26 July 2018 and 17 December 2018. Officials are carefully considering their contents and preparing responses and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be responding to the hon. Members’ letters shortly.

In response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report, NHS England has convened a working group with NHS Improvement, Health Education England, the Department and other partners to co-ordinate the actions being taken in response to the recommendations. These actions will inform future planning for improvements to adult eating disorder services.

NHS England commissioned NHS Benchmarking to collect data on the current levels of provision across community and inpatient services for adults with an eating disorder. This work reported to NHS England in 2018 and a modelling exercise has taken place to establish the baseline, understand the geographical variation, and the cost and workforce required to achieve parity with children and young people’s eating disorder services.

As part of the Department’s ‘no deal’ European Union exit contingency planning a tender process to procure additional warehouse space for stockpiled medicines, including ambient, refrigerated and controlled drug storage, was undertaken in October 2018. Contract agreements for storage, including refrigerated storage for around 5,000 pallets of medicines, have recently been signed. The refrigerated storage will cost circa £1 million.

NHS England and Genomics England are producing materials which will help patients to understand what a genomic test is, what it means for them and their family, how their data will be used and how they can participate in research. These materials are being produced and tested with clinicians, patient representatives and the Royal Colleges to ensure they are appropriate and will be made available in early 2019.

This information is not collected centrally.

NHS England’s Winter Daily Situation Reports are published at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/winter-daily-sitreps/winter-daily-sitrep-2018-19-data/

The data record the number of diverts in place and not the number of patients. The plans for diverts are pre-agreed locally between ambulance service and neighbouring trusts and are designed to ensure patients can be seen faster.

This information is not collected centrally.

NHS England’s Winter Daily Situation Reports are published at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/winter-daily-sitreps/winter-daily-sitrep-2018-19-data/

The data record the number of diverts in place and not the number of patients. The plans for diverts are pre-agreed locally between ambulance service and neighbouring trusts and are designed to ensure patients can be seen faster.

Mental health will be a core part of the National Health Service long-term plan, including building on the improvements in providing access to good mental health services. The NHS long-term plan is currently in development and will be published shortly by NHS England.

As of 13 December, no National Health Service trusts with remaining contacts in place with Healthcare Environment Services are reporting that they are continuing to receive their scheduled clinical waste collections from Healthcare Environmental Services. Contingency arrangements are in place for each of the affected trusts. An optional extension in the Mitie contract has been exercised, which will allow all affected trusts to access a replacement clinical waste collection service, should they choose to do so.

The Environment Agency is currently investigating the reasons as to why the clinical waste was over the permitted levels on a number of sites owned by Healthcare Environment Services, and they have launched criminal investigations into permit breaches by Healthcare Environmental Services.

As of 13 December, all the trusts still holding contracts with Healthcare Environment Services have reported that Healthcare Environment Services have failed to meet scheduled waste collections. NHS Improvement sought assurance from Healthcare Environment Services that it has not ceased trading and will continue to provide services. Such assurance has not been forthcoming and contingency arrangements have therefore been put in place for each of the affected trusts.

This Government recognises the importance of raising awareness and reducing stigma so that more people feel able to talk about their mental health, including eating disorders, and seek treatment. In January 2017, the Prime Minister committed to having mental health first aid training available to secondary schools, aiming to have trained at least one teacher in every secondary school by 2020 and to all primary schools by 2022.

This Government has also provided grant funding to the Time to Change national mental health anti-stigma campaign since 2012. Time to Change works with people with experience of mental health problems, including eating disorders, to challenge stigma and to improve social attitudes towards mental health. Time to Change’s website provides information and guidance about eating disorders and provides signposts and links to organisations that can help. This information is available at the following link:

https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/about-mental-health/types-problems/eating-disorders

The Government has also committed to equip one million people to be better informed to look after their own mental health, so Public Health England is currently leading the development of a £15 million national mental health campaign called ‘Every Mind Matters’.

It is a matter for employers to ensure that rest facilities are provided for all staff during breaks in their work shifts. Staff would normally leave their place of work at the end of their shift.

There are particular provisions in the terms and conditions of doctors in training and consultants covering working at night.

The doctors in training contract states: “Where a doctor is required to work overnight on a resident on-call working pattern, the doctor shall be provided with overnight accommodation for the resident on-call duty period. The consultant contract requires agreement with their employer on those occasions when they would be resident for night duties which, subject to the agreement, may include access to a dedicated place to rest.”

Generally, employers do not require doctors to be resident on call, as all time resident on call is classified as working hours following the Jaeger judgement. It is a matter for employers to consider what rest facilities they wish to provide when a doctor has been called into the hospital and wishes to rest before going home.

Between 1 September and 30 November 2018 my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has had eight formal meetings the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) Professor Chris Whitty, and the CSA has seven meetings with other Health Ministers.

The national review of adult eating disorder services that NHS England commissioned in 2017 is now complete.

Data collected on activity, investment and workforce is being reviewed with stakeholders to inform NHS England’s understanding of current provision and existing levels of parity with eating disorder services for children and young people. The data is informing modelling in support of the development of the National Health Service’s long term plan, which will be launched soon.

Any plans for publication of the NHS benchmarking data will be determined in due course.

The Government recognises that long-term conditions, such as arthritis, can have an impact on a person’s mental wellbeing. The guideline ‘Rheumatoid arthritis in adults: management’, updated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in 2018, sets out best practice in the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of people with rheumatoid arthritis. The guidance recommends that patients should be offered psychological interventions (for example, relaxation, stress management and cognitive coping skills to help them to adjust to living with their condition). The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng100

The Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey will be published by NHS Digital shortly.

The Department is aware that Dr Chris Day took legal action against Health Education England (HEE) and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, between 2014-18, which was settled on the basis of him withdrawing the claim.

HEE spent a total of £433,000.00 on legal fees and costs, which includes £55,000, which was previously agreed legal costs to Dr Chris Day.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust spent a total of £285,500.00 plus VAT in legal fees and does not have any other associated costs.

Work on developing mental health support teams for schools forms part of the work to implement the proposals set out in the Green Paper, ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’. The first wave of recruitment for the Educational Mental Health Practitioners who will form part of these teams is now under way and 210 people will take their places on specialist training courses from January 2019. These trainees will start working in schools during 2019. The initial local areas, or trailblazer sites, that will trial the Green Paper proposals will be announced by the end of the year. As stated in the Green Paper, we plan to roll out the teams to between a fifth and a quarter of the country by 2022/23.

We are not currently able to provide the details requested about the composition and structure of the children and young people’s mental health crisis teams.

The Government has asked the National Health Service to develop a long-term plan which will set out a vision for the health service and we have been clear that better access to mental health services, to help achieve the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem between mental and physical health, is one of the principles which must underpin the plan. The 2018 Budget set out some aspects of what the long-term plan will contain, and further details will follow when the plan is published.

We are setting up new Mental Health Support Teams to deliver mental health interventions for those with mild to moderate needs in or close to schools and colleges, referring those with more severe needs on to specialist services. The teams will support and join up with existing professionals such as educational psychologists, school nurses and health visitors. We expect the teams to comprise a mix of more junior and more senior staff; there will be funding available to support the teams and will also support the cost of supervision from qualified staff in National Health Service children’s mental health services. There will also be a new role, Educational Mental Health Practitioner, with the recruitment for this role currently underway and 210 places available across the country.

There are no ready-made answers about the overall make-up of teams and how they should operate, and we are clear that we do not want to impose a model that does not take account of the existing local context. It will therefore be important to design national roll-out on the basis of the experience from the trailblazer programme. The trailblazer sites will be announced shortly.

There was no national data collection of the activity and outcomes of healthcare that takes place out of hospital, and so it was agreed via the National Information Board (NIB) and NHS England’s Data Co-ordination Group in 2016 to develop a community services dataset, which has had two distinct phases.

The process that has been followed by NHS England is as follows.

In the first phase, now completed, the Community Services Data Set (CSDS) was developed by removing the age cap from the Children and Young People’s Health Services dataset and has been collecting data since November 2017. NHS England continues to work with NHS Digital to encourage community service providers to complete their statutory obligations to submit data to improve the knowledge and information we have available nationally on services delivered locally.

The CSDS will be further enhanced with a phase two development that will broaden the scope including outcome measures, and work is scheduled to begin on the scope shortly with plans to deliver in the autumn of 2020. Further work is also ongoing in NHS Digital to establish connectivity across national data sets to give longitudinal intelligence to support future planning processes.

This information is not collected in the format requested.

The Tobacco Control Plan 2017-2022 published last year commits the Government to reduce the inequality gap in smoking prevalence between those in routine and manual occupations and the general population. Smoking cessation treatment is one part of the comprehensive approach to tobacco control required to achieve this ambition.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline NG92 provides a summary of the relative effectiveness of individual stop smoking medications (when used both with or without behavioural support), compared to effectiveness of no medication. This summary and accompanying guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng92/evidence/b-interventions-to-aid-smoking-cessation-behavioural-support-and-pharmacotherapy-pdf-4788920847

This information is not available in the format requested.

This information is not available in the format requested.

The Department is working with relevant bodies across health and education to monitor the effects of the healthcare funding reforms on all the professions affected.

A preliminary Equality Analysis was published alongside the public consultation document on 7 April 2016. This document provided the assessment of the potential effect of the replacement of National Health Service bursaries by student loans for all the protected characteristics of the Public Sector Equality Duty (Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010).

The Equality Analysis and the Government consultation can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changing-how-healthcare-education-is-funded

A revised version of the original Equality Analysis, was published in February 2018 to accompany the reforms to pre-registration postgraduate healthcare funding.

The revised Equality Analysis can be found at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/680681/Equality_Analysis_healthcare_education_funding.pdf

There is significant work surrounding community rehabilitation, with leadership from a stroke programme board in March 2018, co-chaired by the NHS England National Medical Director, Professor Steve Powis and Juliet Bouverie, CEO of the Stroke Association. The Board is overseeing the development of a stroke plan, which will include a strong focus on rehabilitation.

A review of community performance reporting is also underway to help the National Health Service to understand variations in clinical rehabilitation across services and patient groups. This will support clinical commissioning groups to target improvement initiatives in rehabilitation services.

This information is not held centrally in the Department.

The information requested is as shown in the following table:

The Department does not hold the information as requested.

The increased purchase price of buprenorphine is reflected in the reimbursement price paid to pharmacies, to ensure that supplies remain available to patients. The market for buprenorphine has generally been competitive and we expect the supply situation to improve over the coming weeks which is likely to result in an increasingly competitive market. The Department continues to monitor this very closely.

The information requested is not held centrally.

There were 3,323,275 attendances at sexual health services in England in 2017, an increase of 3% from the previous year and a 13% increase in total attendances since 2013. No assessment has been made centrally of the number of people who were unable to access sexual health services as a result of insufficient capacity. Local authorities are best placed to determine local needs and have been mandated by the Government to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services.

The following table shows the amount local authorities have spent on stop smoking services and interventions over the last three years of available data.

Source: Local authority revenue expenditure and financing

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing

In England 7,373,761 sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests were carried out in 2013; 7,604,000 were carried out in 2014; 7,778,264 were carried out in 2015; 7,808,902 were carried out in 2016 and 7,772,537 were carried out in 2017. Data on testing for hepatitis A/B/C and herpes simplex virus are not available prior to 2015. Therefore, the STI testing total from 2015 onwards is not directly comparable to data from previous years.

Data are not available by sexual health clinic.

NHS Digital reports that it does not hold the prescription level data requested. NHS Digital holds data about prescription items dispensed by doctors and community pharmacies in England which is available in the following table.

Source: Prescription Cost Analysis, NHS Digital

NHS Digital does not hold data on drugs dispensed in hospitals, including mental health trusts, or private prescriptions.

No such assessment has been made.

Information is only available centrally on the cost of smoking cessation medication that has been dispensed to National Health Service patients using the FP10 prescription form. There are various other routes in which such medication can be supplied to a patient from the NHS including from community pharmacies via voucher schemes and a direct supply to patients from a Patient Group Direction.

The following table provides the Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) of smoking cessation medication where they have only been dispensed in the community via an FP10 form in England in the specified years.

Source: NHS Digital published Statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services in England - April 2017 to March 2018

Notes:

1. Prescriptions are written on a prescription form known as a FP10. Each single item written on the form is counted as a prescription item.

2. The NIC of all pharmacotherapies is the basic cost of the treatments and does not take account of discounts, dispensing costs, fees or prescription charge income

3. All pharmacotherapies includes NRT, bupropion (including branded medicine Zyban) and varenicline (including branded medicine Champix)

4. This information was obtained from the Prescribing Analysis and CosT (PACT) system, which covers prescriptions prescribed by general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and others in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom. Prescriptions written in England but dispensed outside England are included. Prescriptions written in hospitals /clinics that are dispensed in the community, prescriptions dispensed in hospitals, dental prescribing and private prescriptions are not included in PACT data.

5. Financial figures presented do not take into account inflation and are presented in cash terms only.

6. Prescribing data presented in statistics on NHS Stop Smoking Services excludes data on drugs supplied direct to patients without prescriptions. Services such as Stop Smoking Services can supply NRT, either direct to patients or through vouchers redeemable at pharmacies. In addition, stop smoking prescription medications can be issued on behalf of these services by pharmacists through Patient Group Directions. These supplies are not recorded in national prescriptions datasets and are also excluded.

The information requested is not centrally held.

NHS England is continuing work to ensure that every person who presents at an accident and emergency (A&E) department for self-harm receives a psychosocial assessment. The Government is investing £247 million to roll out liaison mental health teams in A&E departments by 2020 to ensure that people who present at hospital with mental health problems get the appropriate care and treatment they need.

Liaison mental health teams are well placed to deal with presentations for self-harm and ensure that people receive a psychosocial assessment of their mental health needs to prevent further self-harming.

Data published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) can be used to calculate the net change in the number of nursing and residential homes. The data are summarised in the following tables.

Notes: We have classified homes that are registered for both residential and nursing care as nursing homes.

Data published by the CQC can be used to calculate the net change in the number of nursing and residential beds. The data are summarised in the following tables.