Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Norman Lamb, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Norman Lamb has not been granted any Urgent Questions
A bill to set up a Groceries Code Adjudicator with the role of enforcing the Groceries Code and encouraging compliance with it.
This Bill received Royal Assent on Thursday 25th April 2013 and was enacted into law.
A Bill to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to provide for the lawful production, packaging, marketing, sale, purchase, possession and consumption of herbal cannabis in specific circumstances by certain persons; and for connected purposes.
A Bill to establish an independent commission to examine the future of the National Health Service and the social care system; to take evidence; to report its conclusions to Parliament; and for connected purposes.
Climate Change (Emissions Targets) Bill 2017-19 - Private Members' Bill (Presentation Bill)
Sponsor - Rachel Reeves (LAB)
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019 - Private Members' Bill (Presentation Bill)
Sponsor - Yvette Cooper (LAB)
Counsellors and Psychotherapists (Regulation) and Conversion Therapy Bill 2017-19 - Private Members' Bill (Presentation Bill)
Sponsor - Karen Lee (LAB)
House of Peers Bill 2017-19 - Private Members' Bill (Presentation Bill)
Sponsor - Christine Jardine (LDEM)
European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 4) Bill 2017-19 - Private Members' Bill (Presentation Bill)
Sponsor - Yvette Cooper (LAB)
Homelessness (End of Life Care) Bill 2017-19 - Private Members' Bill (under the Ten Minute Rule)
Sponsor - Ed Davey (LDEM)
Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 - Private Members' Bill (Ballot Bill)
Sponsor - Steve Reed (LAB)
European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Bill 2017-19 - Private Members' Bill (Presentation Bill)
Sponsor - Nick Boles (IND)
Representation of the People (Young People's Enfranchisement) Bill 2017-19 - Private Members' Bill (Ballot Bill)
Sponsor - Peter Kyle (LAB)
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.
The Attorney General’s Office, Government Legal Department and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate report quarterly sickness absence statistics to Cabinet Office and define mental disorders as absences for reasons of stress; mood affective disorders; disorders of personality & behaviour and schizophrenia.
Based on these definitions, the number of working days lost due to mental disorders in these three departments in each of the last three financial years is as follows:
Year Days lost to Mental Disorders
AGO GLD HMCPSI
01/04/2013 – 31/03/2014 23 1,843 15
01/04/2014 – 31/03/2015 0 1,704.5 168
01/04/2015 – 31/03/2016 0 1,551 28
In the last 3 financial years the following numbers of absence days have been recorded by the Serious Fraud Office for reasons of Anxiety, Depressive Disorder or Mental Disorder:
Year Days lost to Mental Disorders
2013/14 18 days
2014/15 176.5 days
2015/16 507 days
In addition to this the following number of absence days have been recorded as Stress or Work Related Stress:
Year Days lost to Mental Disorders
2013/14 105 days
2014/15 195 days
2015/16 529 days
The number of working days lost to mental illness in the Crown Prosecution Service for the last three financial years is shown in the table below:
Financial Year | Total Number of working days lost due to Mental Illness, including stress. | Number of working days lost which were attributed to stress. |
01/04/2013-31/03/2014 | 16028 | 7844 |
01/04/2014-31/03/2015 | 15989 | 7807 |
01/04/2015-31/03/2016 | 11854 | 5856 |
The absence reasons which are included in the Mental Illness category are categorised in line with World Health Organisation (WHO).
The Government Digital Service leads the Government’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) function, helping departments build and run services that are digital by default and focused on the needs of citizens.
GDS does this in a number of ways. It works with departments to set the government's strategy for digital transformation, including the Government Transformation Strategy. It runs the GDS Academy, which has upskilled over 10,000 civil servants in the skills that are essential to building public services in the 21st century, and deploys specialist DDaT teams across government to accelerate the delivery of priority projects. GDS establishes, and assures projects against, clear best practice standards to help departments deliver world-class digital services that are designed around user needs. It also helps departments to build these services by providing advice and developing solutions to common problems and making them available for reuse across government’s digital estate; removing duplication and freeing up resources for departments to focus on solving the hard problems that are unique to them.
Within government we have a strong focus on the concept of “digital maturity” which encapsulates not only delivery of excellent digital services, but improving government’s processes, tools, and infrastructure, developing digital, data and technology (DDaT) capability, and upskilling decision makers to ensure we build on these foundations to deliver digital transformation at scale.
The Cabinet Office previously led on the inter-ministerial group (IMG) on early years family support. The IMG has concluded its work and has now disbanded. The recommendations are presently with Secretaries of State for consideration of next steps. We will consider publication once their view is clearer. Given that the emotional and social development of babies and young children is a broad and complicated issue, the responsibility for the area sits across multiple departments including MHCLG, DfE, DHSC and DWP.
The Cabinet Office previously led on the inter-ministerial group (IMG) on early years family support. The IMG has concluded its work and has now disbanded. The recommendations are presently with Secretaries of State for consideration of next steps. We will consider publication once their view is clearer. Given that the emotional and social development of babies and young children is a broad and complicated issue, the responsibility for the area sits across multiple departments including MHCLG, DfE, DHSC and DWP.
The Cabinet Office previously led on the inter-ministerial group (IMG) on early years family support. The IMG has concluded its work and has now disbanded. The recommendations are presently with Secretaries of State for consideration of next steps. We will consider publication once their view is clearer. Given that the emotional and social development of babies and young children is a broad and complicated issue, the responsibility for the area sits across multiple departments including MHCLG, DfE, DHSC and DWP.
The requested information is not held centrally.
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
Property Name | Property Address | Department |
(Erstwhile) CRIMPLESHAM TEST STATION | BEXWELL AIRFIELD KING'S LYNN NORFOLK PE33 9DU | Department for Transport |
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.
Calendar Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Working Days Lost due to Mental Illness | 1574 | 1382 | 1443 |
As % of All Sick Absence | 39% | 31% | 29% |
As % of Total Workforce | 1.7% | 1.6% | 1.7% |
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.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and its partner organisations have digital strategies exploring opportunities to transform services using modern technologies and aligning with the objectives in the Single Departmental Plan and the Secretary of State’s agreed priorities.
We make use of agile project management methodologies and work closely with our colleagues at the Government Digital Service to ensure we are using best practice service design techniques, creating the digital services that citizens and businesses need the most.
The core Department takes a blended approach to resourcing digital projects with work performed by in-house teams, externally-sourced teams or a combination of these depending on the skills required for a given project.
Since taking office, the Secretary of State had meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) in her department twice in this period.
My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State met with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser on one occasion between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.
The UK has a world-leading record in tackling climate change. We are rightly proud of our performance against our carbon targets, having overperformed for the second time, leading us to cut our emissions faster than any G7 country. We remain firmly committed to tackling the threat of climate change and to meeting our future carbon targets through the ambitious plans and policies set out in the Clean Growth Strategy.
The decision to reserve part of the second carbon budget is a technical one which does not impact the Government’s commitment to taking strong domestic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.
The Government has deposited letters in the Libraries of the House confirming its decision.
In the event of a no deal, the Government underwrite will cover the payment of awards to UK beneficiaries for all successful bids to Horizon 2020, including the European Research Council, for the lifetime of projects.
This includes Horizon 2020 grants that have been transferred to the UK before the date of EU exit. We will seek to publish further guidance in due course on how the underwrite will apply to Horizon 2020 grantees based outside of the UK that are planning to move their research base to the UK.
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 31st 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.
Year | Mental Health Research £m | MRC Total Research Expenditure £m |
2014/15 | £26m | £801m |
2015/16 | £25m | £928m |
2016/17 | £24m | £755m |
The value of Small Business Research Initiative contracts in 2016/17 as reported to Innovate UK by Departments is set out below:
Department/Public Body | Total Contract Value (£k) |
Department for Business Innovation and Skills | £649 |
Department of Health | £20,579 |
NHS England | £13,437 |
Home Office | £4,777 |
MoD | £13,996 |
NC3Rs (National Centre for Replacement and Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research) | £2,294 |
Department for Culture Media and Sport | £450 |
Department for Education | £125 |
Department for International Development | £497 |
UK Space Agency | £737 |
Innovate UK | £2,028 |
Devolved Administrations | £14,811 |
Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) projects | £4,641 |
Total | £79,021 |
Source: Innovate UK Management Data |
|
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:
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 1st October 2017 and 31st 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 14th June 2017 and 14th 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:
Period | Days Lost |
July to June 2013/14 | 3531 |
July to June 2014/15 | 3199 |
July to June 2015/16 | 3674 |
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.
Between 1st October 2017 and 31st 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.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
The Chief Scientific Adviser attended one meeting with the Secretary of State and other senior officials.
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has met with the department's Chief Scientific Adviser on four separate occasions between March and May this year.
A statement will be made to the House to communicate the decision at the appropriate time.
'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.
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:
Year | Working days lost |
1 March 2013 to 31 March 2014 | 305 |
1 March 2014 to 31 March 2015 | 189 |
1 March 2015 to 31 March 2016 | 79 |
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.
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:
The Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Emma Stace, is responsible for leading Digital Delivery across the Department for Education (DfE).
The DfE Transformation Aims involve promoting user-centred, end-to-end service design and delivery across the whole department.
The CDO and policy directors have jointly sponsored scoping work to identify opportunities for the development of digital services to deliver better outcomes for our users and continue the transformation of DfE into a service delivery department.
The Digital, Data and Technology (DDT) Directorates within DfE are supporting the government-wide focus on the development of “digital maturity”, developing the department’s processes, tools, infrastructure and capabilities. In support of this, the CDO is promoting the development of the community of service owners, sharing experience and best practice and identifying how the DfE can continue to develop to better support the development and delivery of digital services. This includes work to grow and develop DDT capability across the department, including through improving recruitment, training and procurement.
The DfE works with the Government Digital Service to provide assurance against the Government Service Standards, to ensure that the services being delivered are high quality, user centred, and delivering value to users.
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.
The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.
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.
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.
2011 | 30 |
2012 | 25 |
2013 | 23 |
2014 | 28 |
2015 | 23 |
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.
Year | Working days lost due to mental health absence |
| |||||
2013/14 | 5331 |
| |||||
2014/15 | 6073 |
| |||||
2015/16 | 4712 |
| |||||
|
|
|
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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.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Defra’s former Chief Scientific Adviser Ian Boyd left Defra at the end of August and on 1 October 2019 Gideon Henderson was appointed. The Secretary of State was appointed on the 24 July 2019 and has not yet held any bilateral meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser since this date and 31 August 2019. The Chief Scientific Adviser regularly attends other Secretary of State meetings on wider issues.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
The Secretary of State has had one bilateral meeting with Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019. The Chief Scientific Adviser also regularly attends other Secretary of State meetings on wider issues.
The Secretary of State had two bilateral meetings with Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019. The Chief Scientific Adviser also regularly attends other Secretary of State meetings on wider issues.
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:
Year | Total |
June to July 2013/14 | 1519.40 |
June to July 2014/15 | 1966.91 |
June to July 2015/16 | 2374.62 |
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Discussions between senior DExEU officials and their EU counterparts are ongoing. Over 60 engagements have taken place during the past twelve months (not including formal negotiations). This also excludes instances where DExEU senior officials have accompanied Ministers to meetings with EU officials (Member States and Institutions).
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Between 1 June 2019 and 31 August 2019, the Secretary of State met with Eoin Parker, Chief Scientific Adviser at DExEU, on 8 occasions. It should be noted that this is a dual role for Eoin Parker, and is combined with his position as the co-Director of Market Access and Budget.
Between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019, the Secretary of State met with Chris Jones, Chief Scientific Adviser at DExEU during that period, on one occasion. It should be noted that this was a dual role for Chris Jones, and was combined with his position as the Director of Justice, Security and Migration.
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.
DFID’s Digital Strategy 2018 to 2020 sets out a vision and approach for doing development in a digital world. Its aim is to establish DFID as a global leader in digital technology and development, in order to have a bigger, faster and more cost-effective impact on the lives of poor people.
Responsibility for delivering on the digital strategy is shared across different business units in DFID, including the Head of Emerging Policy, Innovation and Capability, the Chief Information Officer, the Head of Better Delivery Department and the Chief Statistician, co-ordinating through the Digital Data and Technology Steering Group.
A Digital Data and Technology Delivery Board chaired by the Permanent Secretary provides strategic oversight and guidance.
The DFID Chief Scientific Adviser met with the current and previous Secretary of State once each 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 UK Government provides funding to the World Health Organisation through the universal health coverage (UHC) partnership programme, along with the EU, Japan and other donors. This supports the development of UHC country plans to help countries to prioritise their own pathway to achieve UHC. Over 60 countries have now developed these plans and we are advocating use of the plans to drive greater coordination of efforts from other multilaterals.
The UK is a global champion for Universal Health Coverage; one of the key ways to deliver the health-related SDGs and climate resilient, sustainable development more broadly. At the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage this September, the UK will be a strong advocate for increased domestic resources for primary health care and prevention and is pushing for positive commitments in this regard.
The DFID Chief Scientific Adviser met with the Secretary of State once during this period.
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 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.
Period | Total Sick (Days Lost) to Mental Disorders |
1 November 2013 – 31 October 2014 | 1522 |
1 November 2014 – 31 October 2015 | 1732 |
1 November 2015 – 31 October 2016 | 1594 |
Holly Ellis, Director of Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT), alongside Departmental Directors and DGs, is responsible for ‘digitisation’
Digitisation, and maturing our current digital services and approach, is championed through a variety of means, including:
- Demonstrating benefits to colleagues across the Department, so they understand the productivity gains, increased customer satisfaction and reach.
- Delivery of training and communication to build capability, helping employees understand possibilities and how to engage on DDaT projects.
- DDaT and other function joint boards for cross-departmental buy-in and delivery of digitisation projects.
- The DIT DDaT strategy has been approved by the Executive Committee.
My Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade did not meet the Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 June and 31 August 2019.
However, the Chief Scientific Adviser is closely involved in policy development and meets regularly with the Permanent Secretary, members of the Department for International Trade’s (DIT) Executive Committee and many other senior officials more broadly both within DIT and across Government.
My Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade met the Chief Scientific Adviser three times between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.
The Chief Scientific Adviser contributes fully to policy development, including through frequent meetings with the Permanent Secretary, Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and other members of DIT’s Executive Committee, as well as engaging more broadly with policy development such as through the Chief Scientific Advisers’ Network.
My Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary for State and Chief Scientific Adviser met for a one-to-one meeting on 19th December 2019. The Secretary of State and Chief Scientific Adviser also led a delegation of 100 to the annual CES in the USA from the 7th to 10th of January 2019.
The Chief Scientific Adviser contributes fully to policy development, including through frequent meetings with the Permanent Secretary, Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and other members of the Department for International Trade’s Executive Committee; as well as engaging more broadly with policy development such as through the Chief Scientific Advisers’ Network.
During the requested time period: Department for International Trade (DIT) Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) presented an update to the DIT Board on 19th November, at which my Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State was present as a member of the Board. The CSA updated the Board on his activities during the past year and priorities for 2019.
The Secretary of State and the CSA do meet for bilaterals and the Secretary of State takes a keen interested in the CSA’s work.
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.
As Minister of State for the Future of Transport, I am responsible for the digitisation agenda, with digitisation of the transport system being one of my three core priorities - digitisation, decarbonisation and (tackling) disconnection.
Delivery of this priority is overseen and managed by a group of director-level officials, including the Department’s Digital Director, which is chaired by me. This provides the primary mechanism for championing this agenda and driving progress.
At an official level, a Digital and Data Strategy Board has been established to draw together the Department’s work on digitisation to ensure that it is conducted in a coherent fashion and exploits synergies across the Departmental group and the wider transport sector.
The Secretary of State for Transport had no meetings with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 June and 31 August 2019.
The Minister for State for the Future of Transport, George Freeman MP, had five meetings with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser in the same timeframe.
The Government Car Service (GCS) have procured 65 vehicles since July 2015.
The table below shows (a) make, (b) model and (c) country of manufacture:
(a)Make (b)) Model | ( c ) Country of Manufacture |
Land Rover Discovery 3.0 HSE Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Land Rover Discovery 3.0 HSE Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Diesel Luxury | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 Petrol Portfolio | UNITED KINGDOM |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Ford Galaxy 2.0 Ecoboost Titanium | PORTUGAL |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Jaguar F-Pace 2.0d 180ps Portfolio | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar F-Pace 2.0d 180ps Portfolio | UNITED KINGDOM |
Land Rover Discovery 3.0 SDV6 Landmark Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Mondeo 2.0TiVCT Titanium Hybrid | SPAIN |
Nissan Leaf 30kw Acenta | UNITED KINGDOM |
Nissan Leaf 30kw Acenta | UNITED KINGDOM |
Ford Galaxy 2.0 Ecoboost Titanium | BELGIUM |
Ford Galaxy 2.0 Ecoboost Titanium | BELGIUM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 V6 340PS Portfolio | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 V6 340PS Portfolio | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XJ LWB 3.0 V6 340PS Portfolio | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Honda CR-V EX 2.0 I-VTEC | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar I-PACE EV400 SE | AUSTRIA |
Jaguar I-PACE EV400 SE | AUSTRIA |
Range Rover 2.0 P400e Vogue 4dr Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Range Rover 2.0 P400e Vogue 4dr Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Range Rover 2.0 P400e Vogue 4dr Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Range Rover 2.0 P400e Vogue 4dr Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Range Rover 2.0 P400e Vogue 4dr Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar I-PACE EV400 SE | AUSTRIA |
Jaguar I-PACE EV400 SE | AUSTRIA |
Jaguar I-PACE EV400 SE | AUSTRIA |
Jaguar XF Saloon 2.0i Prestige 4dr Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
Jaguar XF Saloon 2.0i Prestige 4dr Auto | UNITED KINGDOM |
The Secretary of State for Transport has had no meetings with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.
We are committed to a greener, cleaner transport system. That’s why we are modernising the UK rail fleet to introduce more electric, bi-mode (electric and diesel hybrid) and alternative-fuel trains to the network. Better trains and upgraded infrastructure will take polluting cars and lorries off our roads – reducing the overall carbon footprint of UK transport – making our air cleaner..
On the Midland Main Line, brand new intercity trains will be introduced, which will have less environmental impact than the current trains, some of which are over 30 years old. They will be bi-mode, which means they can also take advantage of the electrified parts of the line.
Our ambition is that these will be the cleanest ever bi-mode trains. Abellio, who have recently been awarded the new East Midlands Railway franchise, are seeking innovative ways to keep emissions to a minimum when running under diesel power. It is not possible to accurately calculate the environmental impact of new bi-mode trains until the design and development of the new trains is complete.
This new franchise will be at the forefront of delivering a cleaner, greener rail network. Abellio will trial hydrogen fuel cell trains on the Midland Main Line and will run zero-carbon pilots at six stations along the route.
Once the transformation of the Great Western is complete the new Intercity Express trains will spend most of the journey between London and Swansea in electric mode. In diesel mode the new trains meet the highest rolling stock emissions standards.
On Windermere to Oxenholme, there are proposals for alternative fuel trials involving battery technology by Northern on the Lakes Line.
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.
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.
Service transformation is one of the Department for Work and Pensions’ strategic objectives. Accountability is shared between the Director General for Digital and the Director General for Service Excellence. It is coordinated through the Service Transformation Board which provides governance for service improvements as well as the strategic approach to the digitalisation of the Department’s services. The work is championed across the Department, including via Transformation Portfolio Managers and Digital product owners.
There were no meetings between the Secretary of State and her Departments Chief Scientific Officer from 1 June to 31 August 2019.
On Tuesday 25 June the Government launched a new cross-government approach on disability which is guided by a vision that recognises the contributions that disabled people make and where disabled people can participate fully in society.
To drive forward this approach, government will establish a new cross-departmental disability team in the Cabinet Office and the Office for Disability Issues will be incorporated into the team. This move recognises that disabled people, including those with neurodevelopmental conditions, face barriers across a wide range of aspects of their lives and across the whole of the life course, and that coordinated cross-government action is therefore vital.
The new disability team in the Cabinet Office will sit in the new Equalities Hub alongside the Government Equalities Office and the Race Disparity Unit. Together they will be better equipped to drive meaningful progress on equality and to tackle intersectional issues.
The team will work closely with disabled people, disabled people’s organisations and charities to take forward this new approach to disability, with their views and experiences at the forefront of any new policy.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions held no meetings with the Department’s Chief Scientific Advisor between 1 March 2019 and 31 May 2019.
The DWP and DHSC Joint Work and Health Unit plans to consult later this year on measures to encourage and support all employers to play their part in retaining and reintegrating employees who are struggling with their health or who are off sick. This includes measures to improve access to cost effective and high quality occupational health services.
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:
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:
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:
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.
Period | Working Days Lost to mental illness | Working Days Available | Working Days Lost as a % of Working Days Available |
01 November 2015 to 31 October 2016 | 114,887 | 16,933,234 | 0.68% |
01 November 2014 to 31 October 2015 | 103,596 | 16,288,909 | 0.64% |
01 November 2013 to 31 October 2014 | 121,513 | 17,558,267 | 0.69% |
‘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.
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 :
2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | |
Total work related activity or limited capability for work group decisions from new claims to ESA or UC | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 |
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 Government Digital Service leads the Government’s digital, data and technology function. Responsibility for digitisation within the Department is discharged by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NHSX. NHSX is a joint unit between the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement, and launched on 1 July this year.
The CEO has system-wide responsibility for digital and technology policy in health and social care, and is both a Director General in the Department and National Director for Digital in NHS England. The organisation combines the levers of policy and implementation, including setting of national strategy, delivery of programmes, development of best practice, and setting of standards. Departmental officials within NHSX are also responsible for overseeing NHS Digital.
The current CEO is Matthew Gould.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
The Government is taking steps to fulfil its commitment in its Prevention Green Paper to seek views on how to improve the healthy social and emotional development of babies and young children.
Public Health England’s (PHE’s) vision is to improve the health of babies, children and their families and to enable the foundations of good health into adulthood. A large proportion of this work will be done through the modernisation of the Healthy Child Programme, which is PHE’s national offer to our children and families. This can be viewed at the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/healthy-child-programme-5-to-19-years-old
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
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 once we have left the EU.
The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, has analysed the supply chains of over 12,000 licensed medicines used by patients in the United Kingdom and close to half a million product lines of medical devices and clinical consumables with an EU/European Economic Area touchpoint. This approach means that the medicines and medical equipment used by people living with disabilities are included within our planning.
We continue to implement 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:
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:
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.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:
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.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:
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.
NHS Commissioners' spend on non National Health Service bodies by organisation type | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
| £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million |
Independent sector providers | 6,467 | 8,067 | 8,818 | 9,007 | 8,765 |
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.
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.
Year | Amount |
2016/17 | £267,037.81 |
2017/18 | £213,414.20 |
2018/19 | £325,640.03 (year to date) |
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.
Year | Amount |
2016/17 | £267,037.81 |
2017/18 | £213,414.20 |
2018/19 | £325,640.03 (year to date) |
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:
Patient Group | 2018/19 (%) |
Patients aged 65 years or older | 69.9 |
Patients aged six months to under 65 years in risk groups (excluding pregnant women without other risk factors) | 45.1 |
Pregnant women (including those in risk groups) | 43.8 |
Patients aged two years old (including those in risk groups) | 41.9 |
Patients aged three years old (including those in risk groups) | 43.5 |
Notes:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
The information requested is as shown in the following table:
NHS England senior management team (defined as employees who report directly to the Chief Executive) | NHS Improvement executive team (defined as employees who report directly to the Chief Executive) | ||
Nursing and Midwifery Council registrant | 1 | Nursing and Midwifery Council registrant | 1 |
General Medical Council registrant | 1 | General Medical Council registrant | 1 |
Health and Care Professionals Council registrant | 0 | Health and Care Professionals Council registrant | 0 |
Registrants of other health care professional regulatory bodies | 0 | Registrants of other health care professional regulatory bodies | 0 |
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.
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.
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
Total | £121.2 million | £111.2 million | £89.3 million |
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.
Year | Chemical | Dispensed by dispensing doctors | Dispensed by community pharmacies | All dispensing in the community |
2015 | Bupropion Hydrochloride | 1,130 | 20,701 | 21,831 |
2016 | Bupropion Hydrochloride | 1,110 | 21,231 | 22,341 |
2017 | Bupropion Hydrochloride | 1,084 | 22,254 | 23,338 |
Source: Prescription Cost Analysis, NHS Digital
NHS Digital does not hold data on drugs dispensed in hospitals, including mental health trusts, or private prescriptions.
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.
| All pharmacotherapies | Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRT) | Bupropion | Varenicline |
NIC (£000) |
|
|
| |
2015/16 | 33,218 | 15,672 | 814 | 16,732 |
2016/17 | 28,487 | 13,376 | 832 | 14,279 |
2017/18 | 26,017 | 12,038 | 889 | 13,090 |
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.
Residential homes | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 12,472 | 12,191 | -281 | -2.3% |
2016 | 12,191 | 11,968 | -223 | -1.8% |
2017 | 11,968 | 11,615 | -353 | -2.9% |
Nursing homes | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 4,716 | 4,648 | -68 | -1.4% |
2016 | 4,648 | 4,513 | -135 | -2.9% |
2017 | 4,513 | 4,489 | -24 | -0.5% |
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.
Residential beds | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 240,767 | 237,769 | -2,998 | -1.2% |
2016 | 237,769 | 239,118 | 1,349 | 0.6% |
2017 | 239,118 | 237,229 | -1,889 | -0.8% |
Nursing beds | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 224,665 | 224,024 | -641 | -0.3% |
2016 | 224,024 | 221,205 | -2,819 | -1.3% |
2017 | 221,205 | 222,416 | 1,211 | 0.5% |
Notes: We have classified homes that are registered for both residential and nursing care as nursing homes. The CQC data do not show the split of nursing and residential beds in such homes.
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.
Residential homes | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 12,472 | 12,191 | -281 | -2.3% |
2016 | 12,191 | 11,968 | -223 | -1.8% |
2017 | 11,968 | 11,615 | -353 | -2.9% |
Nursing homes | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 4,716 | 4,648 | -68 | -1.4% |
2016 | 4,648 | 4,513 | -135 | -2.9% |
2017 | 4,513 | 4,489 | -24 | -0.5% |
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.
Residential beds | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 240,767 | 237,769 | -2,998 | -1.2% |
2016 | 237,769 | 239,118 | 1,349 | 0.6% |
2017 | 239,118 | 237,229 | -1,889 | -0.8% |
Nursing beds | ||||
| Start of year | End of year | Net change during the year | % net change during the year |
2015 | 224,665 | 224,024 | -641 | -0.3% |
2016 | 224,024 | 221,205 | -2,819 | -1.3% |
2017 | 221,205 | 222,416 | 1,211 | 0.5% |
Notes: We have classified homes that are registered for both residential and nursing care as nursing homes. The CQC data do not show the split of nursing and residential beds in such homes.
A count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with an external cause of self-harm and self-poisoning for boys and girls aged 0-10, 11-13, 14, 15 and 16 and 17 years old in England for the years 2014-15 to 2016-17 is shown in the attached table owing to its size.
An FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
I responded to the Rt. hon. Member’s letter on 4 July.
NHS England has written to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, and the family concerned, setting out how they will implement the recommendations contained in the report ‘Ignoring the alarms: how NHS eating disorder services are failing patients’, and specifically the actions that will be taken to review the provision of adult eating disorder services.
Responses to the consultation on ‘Reducing the Need for Restraint and Restrictive Intervention’ have been analysed. The guidance is currently being updated in light of the responses and is due to be published soon.
As part of a stakeholder consultation on the childhood pneumococcal vaccination schedule, responses were sought from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Meningitis Now, and the Meningitis Research Foundation. Additional responses were received from the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations, the International Federation of Ageing, and the International Longevity Centre.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Pneumococcal sub-committee considered the responses received on 10 May 2018. The sub-committee reported to the JCVI on 6 June 2018. The minutes of these meetings will provide the Committee’s response to points raised during the consultation and will be published on or before 18 July 2018.
As part of a stakeholder consultation on the childhood pneumococcal vaccination schedule, responses were sought from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Meningitis Now, and the Meningitis Research Foundation. Additional responses were received from the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations, the International Federation of Ageing, and the International Longevity Centre.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) Pneumococcal sub-committee considered the responses received on 10 May 2018. The sub-committee reported to the JCVI on 6 June 2018. The minutes of these meetings will provide the Committee’s response to points raised during the consultation and will be published on or before 18 July 2018.
The Department published ‘Carers Action Plan 2018-2020: Supporting carers’ on 5 June 2018. The plan sets out a two-year programme of targeted cross-Government work that seeks to build carer friendly communities and support carers to provide care in a way that protects their own health and wellbeing, employment and life chances.
We are in year three of the five year strategy and we are on track to deliver it by 2020. We have made rapid progress in a number of key and high-impact areas, as set out in our last progress report, published in October 2017 at the following link:
NHS England publishes yearly progress reports on implementation progress. The next progress report is due to be published in autumn 2018.
The Government and NHS England remain committed to supporting people living with and beyond cancer. Decisions on a new strategy following implementation of the current Cancer Strategy for England by 2020 will be made in due course.
We are in year three of the five year strategy and we are on track to deliver it by 2020. We have made rapid progress in a number of key and high-impact areas, as set out in our last progress report, published in October 2017 at the following link:
NHS England publishes yearly progress reports on implementation progress. The next progress report is due to be published in autumn 2018.
The Government and NHS England remain committed to supporting people living with and beyond cancer. Decisions on a new strategy following implementation of the current Cancer Strategy for England by 2020 will be made in due course.
The Department for Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is currently listening to stakeholders on their views of what the priorities for this work should be, and working to build the evidence base. We are at a relatively early stage of this piece of work which will complement the Green Paper and will set out our plans once we are clearer on the nature of the output.
For the period 1 January to 31 March 2018 my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health met with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) twice, and the CSA met with other Ministers on nine occasions.
Throughout this period the Department of Health and Social Care’s CSA also acted as the Interim Government CSA and met with Ministers from, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and other Government Departments.
The mental health pathways are intended to provide clear guidance to both commissioners and providers in relation to the commissioning and implementation of services to improve access and outcomes for people with mental health problems.
The perinatal pathway was published on 8 May 2018 and can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/the-perinatal-mental-health-care-pathways/
Pathways for crisis care, children and young people’s mental health and acute mental health are being reviewed ahead of publication to ensure alignment with the wider Five Year Forward View for Mental Health strategy, as well as the outcomes of the consultation on the Green Paper on Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision. This review is necessary to ensure the pathways provide the most helpful guidance to both commissioners and providers.
The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Although diagnosis is recorded in the Mental Health Services Data Set, this is a new area of investigation on which detailed data quality assessment and detailed analysis would be required.
The National Health Service Breast Screening Programme began in 1988. Data on the levels of Breast screening from 2004 to 2016 is available at:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/breast-screening-programme
Data outside this time period are not available in the format requested.
The NHS Cervical Screening Programme began in 1988. Data on the levels of Cervical screening from 2004 to 2016 are available at:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/cervical-screening-programme
Data outside this time period are not available in the format requested.
The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme started in 2006. Data for years 2016/17 are available in the following table. Data outside this time period are not available in the format requested.
NHS bowel cancer screening data for 2016/17
Indicator | Period | Rate for England |
Persons, 60-69, screened for bowel cancer within six months of invitation (Uptake, %) | 2016/17 | 57% |
Persons, 60-69, screened for bowel cancer in the last 30 months (2.5 year coverage, %) | 2016/17 | 57.4% |
Source: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/cancer
The NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme began in 2007. Data for 2016/17 (by clinical commissioning group/region) are available here:
Data outside this time period are not available in the format requested.
The NHS Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening Programme started in 2009. Data on coverage for 2016/17 (by region) are available here:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/Abdominal%20aortoa#pat/15/ati/6/par/E92000001
Data outside this time period are not available in the format requested.
The NHS Foetal Anomaly Screening Programme began in 2001. Data for 2016/17 are available in the Annual KPI data: April 2016 to March 2017 document here:
A copy is attached. Data outside this time period are not available in the format requested.
Under the current Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) all payments go back into spending on improving patients’ health and care. Following normal Government accounting rules, there is no separately identified ring-fenced funding stream associated with the PPRS payment.
Informal discussions have already begun with industry regarding future medicines pricing arrangements. Formal negotiations will begin shortly.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been working in partnership with the Department, professional bodies and the healthcare system to bring together a package of measures to raise awareness of the significant risks associated with sodium valproate in pregnancy and to support healthcare professionals in reducing the harms from valproate in women of child-bearing age. All parties involved are fully committed to this important work using the existing resources of each relevant organisation.
The new measures include updated educational materials for healthcare professionals and patients and will be communicated through the MHRA bulletin and letters to healthcare professionals through the NHS Central Alerting System. The information cascade will be supported by messages from professional bodies, charities and patient groups to their constituents and reinforced through changes to clinical guidelines and improved alerts on general practitioner prescribing systems.
The effectiveness of the new measures in changing prescribing of valproate will be closely monitored. Relevant data will be published and there will be ongoing follow up to ensure that the harms to the child from valproate in pregnancy are minimised.
Information is not available in the format requested. NHS England publishes monthly data on the number of attendances at Type 3 accident and emergency (A&E) departments (other A&E departments/Minor Injury Units). This is available at national and trust level in each year from 2010-11 via the following link:
NHS England does not hold the requested level of detail in respect to general practitioner (GP) appointments. It has therefore not been possible to consider each GP appointment and make a judgement as to whether the patient could/should have been treated at home or by a pharmacy.
Information is not available in the format requested. NHS England publish monthly data on the number of attendances at Type 3 accident and emergency (A&E) Departments (other A&E departments/Minor Injury Units) and this is available at the following link:
This information is not available in the format requested.
From 2012/13 until June 2017, NHS111 referrals to ‘dental/pharmacy’ were recorded together and it is not possible to provide disaggregated figures. From July 2017 onwards, referrals to dentists and pharmacists are recorded separately and published monthly at national and regional level. The latest data is available at the following link:
In the last three years NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) has imported two rare red cell units from the European Union.
Approximately 24,000 units of plasma per year are imported from the EU.
NHSBT has not imported any tissues (excluding solid organs) from the EU in the past three years.
NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics and the following table shows the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists employed in the Health Education East of England region between September 2012 and September 2017 and latest data available.
National Health Service Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS): Child and adolescent psychiatrists, as at 30 September for each specified year and latest data available, full time equivalents (FTE):
Year | Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in Health Education East of England region (FTE) |
September 2012 | 83 |
September 2013 | 83 |
September 2014 | 84 |
September 2015 | 73 |
September 2016 | 62 |
September 2017 | 65 |
December 2017 | 69 |
Source: NHS Digital Monthly HCHS workforce statistics.
Notes:
FTE figures are given as this is the most accurate measure of service capacity.
FTE figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Information on the number of adults and children diagnosed with fetal anti-convulsant syndrome in the United Kingdom due to pre-natal sodium valproate exposure is not collected centrally. Fetal anti-convulsant syndrome is a non-drug specific condition that relates to abnormalities in children exposed to any anticonvulsant, not just sodium valproate, during pregnancy.
The Department does not collect data about local authorities' expenditure specifically on social care provision for children diagnosed with foetal anti-convulsant syndrome, or on the provision of special education needs or disability support for such children, and no estimate has been made by the Department of these costs.
Information on the number of adults and children diagnosed with fetal anti-convulsant syndrome in the United Kingdom due to pre-natal sodium valproate exposure is not collected centrally. Fetal anti-convulsant syndrome is a non-drug specific condition that relates to abnormalities in children exposed to any anticonvulsant, not just sodium valproate, during pregnancy.
The Department does not collect data about local authorities' expenditure specifically on social care provision for children diagnosed with foetal anti-convulsant syndrome, or on the provision of special education needs or disability support for such children, and no estimate has been made by the Department of these costs.
Information on the number of adults and children diagnosed with fetal anti-convulsant syndrome in the United Kingdom due to pre-natal sodium valproate exposure is not collected centrally. Fetal anti-convulsant syndrome is a non-drug specific condition that relates to abnormalities in children exposed to any anticonvulsant, not just sodium valproate, during pregnancy.
The Department does not collect data about local authorities' expenditure specifically on social care provision for children diagnosed with foetal anti-convulsant syndrome, or on the provision of special education needs or disability support for such children, and no estimate has been made by the Department of these costs.
The Department has received the letter from the Rt. hon. Member for North Norfolk and will provide a response as soon as possible.
No assessment has been made of the merits of allowing orthoptists to sign hospital eye service spectacle prescriptions. The Opticians Act 1989 sets out who may carry out a sight test and sign a spectacle prescription form. This is restricted under the Act to optometrists registered with the General Optical Council and Ophthalmic Medical Practitioners registered with the General Medical Council.
National Health Service employers are responsible for the safety and welfare of their staff in accordance with health and safety legislation.
The Department does not collect information on the number of reports received on incidents relating to sexual misconduct involving staff and patients in the NHS.
Information on sexual assaults was not collected separately from other physical assaults, in the last central collection which took place in 2015/16 and was undertaken by NHS Protect. The NHS Staff Survey also collects data on physical violence against those staff responding to the Survey but does not separate out sexual assaults.
The Department is working with the NHS on a new data collection for violence against and abuse of NHS staff which should be introduced from 2019.
The role that allied health professionals and other clinicians play in National Health Service leadership is of utmost importance and we engage with a range of professions to understand how best to support clinical leaders. My hon. Friend, the former Minister of State (Mr Phillip Dunne MP), met the Allied Health Professionals Federation on 29 November 2017.
NHS Digital collects data on restrictive interventions through the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). The data for 2017/18 is not yet available and the data for 2015/16 is incomplete as it is from a previous data set, the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Data Set (MHLDDS). The MHLDDS only covers eight months of the year from April 2015. Due to the changes in scope across the two data sets they would not be directly comparable.
NHS Digital has provided the number of recorded instances of physical interventions in 2016/17 only from the MHSDS:
- North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – 195; and
- South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – 1,065.
Data for Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust is not yet available as the organisation only opened on April 2017.
Data on deaths by suicide by mental health provider are not routinely collected centrally.
NHS Digital collects data on restrictive interventions through the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). The data for 2017/18 is not yet available and the data for 2015/16 is incomplete as it is from a previous data set, the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Data Set (MHLDDS). The MHLDDS only covers eight months of the year from April 2015. Due to the changes in scope across the two data sets they would not be directly comparable.
NHS Digital has provided the number of recorded instances of physical interventions in 2016/17 only from the MHSDS:
- North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – 195; and
- South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – 1,065.
Data for Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust is not yet available as the organisation only opened on April 2017.
Data on deaths by suicide by mental health provider are not routinely collected centrally.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) on 26 February 2018 to Question 128962.
NHS Digital has provided a count of finished admission episodes1 (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis2 of obesity, tabulated by sex and age group, for the financial years between 2014-15 and 2016-173. This information is provided in the table below.
Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector | ||||||
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | |||
Age | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female |
0-9 | 80 | 104 | 98 | 94 | 107 | 122 |
10-19 | 219 | 273 | 235 | 321 | 311 | 365 |
20-29 | 130 | 575 | 124 | 638 | 129 | 654 |
30-39 | 325 | 1,216 | 297 | 1,321 | 358 | 1,486 |
40-49 | 637 | 1,952 | 686 | 2,089 | 699 | 2,066 |
50-59 | 676 | 1,669 | 674 | 1,956 | 807 | 2,045 |
60-69 | 382 | 690 | 386 | 798 | 441 | 824 |
70-79 | 64 | 155 | 83 | 161 | 112 | 201 |
80-89 | 20 | 47 | 27 | 51 | 25 | 58 |
90+ | - | 5 | - | 4 | - | 6 |
Unknown | 6 | 24 | 14 | 25 | 10 | 26 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital
Notes:
1A FAE is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
2The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.
3HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.
NHS Digital has provided a count of the number of hospital bed days1 for finished admission episodes2 with a primary diagnosis3 of obesity, tabulated by sex and age band, for the financial years between 2014-15 and 2016-174. This information is provided in the table below.
Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector | ||||||
| 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | |||
Age | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female |
0-9 | 45 | 94 | 62 | 48 | 69 | 58 |
10-19 | 83 | 290 | 193 | 171 | 91 | 271 |
20-29 | 1,278 | 1,076 | 250 | 992 | 284 | 1,143 |
30-39 | 612 | 2,578 | 803 | 2,242 | 1,479 | 2,810 |
40-49 | 1,665 | 4,224 | 1,555 | 4,442 | 1,296 | 3,825 |
50-59 | 2,012 | 4,093 | 1,813 | 5,026 | 1,970 | 4,236 |
60-69 | 1,732 | 2,803 | 1,364 | 2,861 | 1,616 | 3,190 |
70-79 | 757 | 1,853 | 561 | 1,634 | 690 | 1,797 |
80-89 | 168 | 707 | 236 | 740 | 368 | 823 |
90+ | 16 | 109 | 4 | 22 | 67 | 57 |
Unknown | 10 | 42 | 17 | 43 | 72 | 147 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital
Notes:
1Episode duration is calculated as the difference in days between the episode start date and the episode end date, where both are given. Episode duration is based on finished consultant episodes (FCE) and only applies to ordinary admissions, i.e. day cases are excluded (unless otherwise stated).
2A FCE is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year.
3The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.
4HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.
Public Health England regularly publishes information showing the number of alcohol-related National Health Service hospital admissions in England in the Local Alcohol Profiles for England. The table below shows figures for the last three years based on primary and secondary diagnoses (broad measure):
| Total | Male (all ages) | Female (all ages) |
2016/17 | 1,135,710 | 732,790 | 402,920 |
2015/16 | 1,119,020 | 721,340 | 397,680 |
2014/15 | 1,078,810 | 695,360 | 383,450 |
This data, including a further breakdown by sex and age group is available at:
http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/documents/LAPE_Statistical_Tables_for_England_022018.xlsx
NHS Digital will also publish this data in its annual Statistics on Alcohol 2018 report which is due to be published on 1 May.
Data on the number of hospital bed days used by patients with alcohol-related conditions is not collected centrally.
Public Health England regularly publishes information showing the number of alcohol-related National Health Service hospital admissions in England in the Local Alcohol Profiles for England. The table below shows figures for the last three years based on primary and secondary diagnoses (broad measure):
| Total | Male (all ages) | Female (all ages) |
2016/17 | 1,135,710 | 732,790 | 402,920 |
2015/16 | 1,119,020 | 721,340 | 397,680 |
2014/15 | 1,078,810 | 695,360 | 383,450 |
This data, including a further breakdown by sex and age group is available at:
http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/documents/LAPE_Statistical_Tables_for_England_022018.xlsx
NHS Digital will also publish this data in its annual Statistics on Alcohol 2018 report which is due to be published on 1 May.
Data on the number of hospital bed days used by patients with alcohol-related conditions is not collected centrally.
HM Treasury ran a consultation ‘Breathing Space – a call for evidence’ from 24 October 2017 to 16 January 2018. The consultation sought to gain further insight from the debt advice sector and creditors about how best to design, implement, administer and monitor a six-week breathing space scheme and statutory debt management plan.
The call for evidence covered the following, broad, topics:
- how to access and then enter a six-week breathing space;
- how a breathing space could work for creditors and debtors; and
- how to best design a statutory debt management plan.
The consultation also asked about the characteristics of who should be able to access a Breathing Space scheme.
We will consider the responses to the consultation and it will be published in due course.
The National Emergency Pressures Panel (NEPP) met on 2 January 2018 and recommended that non-urgent operations be deferred until 31 January 2018 to increase capacity for emergency cases. NEPP’s recommendations to trusts were clear that cancer operations and procedures where deferral would lead to a deterioration in the patient’s condition were not in scope and should continue as planned.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will undertake a review of the arrangements and interventions undertaken this winter, including the recommendations issued by NEPP on the deferment of patients’ routine elective treatment. For those patients who have not had new appointments, cancelled operations should be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity, taking into account patients’ clinical need.
The Government has supported the National Health Service to manage winter pressures with £337 million additional funding.
The National Emergency Pressures Panel (NEPP) met on 2 January 2018 and recommended that non-urgent operations be deferred until 31 January 2018 to increase capacity for emergency cases. NEPP’s recommendations to trusts were clear that cancer operations and procedures where deferral would lead to a deterioration in the patient’s condition were not in scope and should continue as planned.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will undertake a review of the arrangements and interventions undertaken this winter, including the recommendations issued by NEPP on the deferment of patients’ routine elective treatment. For those patients who have not had new appointments, cancelled operations should be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity, taking into account patients’ clinical need.
The Government has supported the National Health Service to manage winter pressures with £337 million additional funding.
The National Emergency Pressures Panel (NEPP) met on 2 January 2018 and recommended that non-urgent operations be deferred until 31 January 2018 to increase capacity for emergency cases. NEPP’s recommendations to trusts were clear that cancer operations and procedures where deferral would lead to a deterioration in the patient’s condition were not in scope and should continue as planned.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will undertake a review of the arrangements and interventions undertaken this winter, including the recommendations issued by NEPP on the deferment of patients’ routine elective treatment. For those patients who have not had new appointments, cancelled operations should be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity, taking into account patients’ clinical need.
The Government has supported the National Health Service to manage winter pressures with £337 million additional funding.
The Department keeps the legislation relating to the Care Quality Commission under ongoing review. In particular, this led to comprehensive changes to the regulations relating to the Care Quality Commission, which came into force in 2014 and 2015. These included introduction of fundamental standards below which care should not fall, public ratings of provider performance, and a duty of candour for providers.
A specific post implementation review of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 as stipulated in part 7 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) and (Additional Functions) and Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 has not yet been completed but will be published in due course. This is part of a wider exercise within government to test the impact of legislation five years after implementation.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Swansea East on 21 December to Question 119325.
For the period 1 October 2017 to 31 December 2017 my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health met with the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) twice, the CSA met with other Health ministers on five occasions.
Throughout this period the Department of Health and Social Care’s CSA also acted as the Interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser and met with ministers from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and other Government Departments.
NHS England has not confirmed for the date for publication of the mental health pathways as a number of the pathways are still being reviewed.
While much of the content has been finalised across the pathways, further review is ongoing to ensure alignment with the wider Five Year Forward View strategy, thereby ensuring that the pathways provide the most helpful guidance to both commissioners and providers.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has regular meetings with officials from NHS England and other arm’s length bodies on the implementation of Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (FYFVMH) commitments. These discussions are varied and focus on the range of commitments made within the FYFVMH, including the commitments around implementation of new mental health pathways of care.
The mental health pathways are intended to provide clear guidance to both commissioners and providers in relation to the commissioning and implementation of services to improve access and outcomes for people with mental health problems.
No formal assessment has been made of the impact of delayed publication of the mental health pathways on planning and resource allocation. However clinical commissioning groups’ decisions about resource allocations for mental health are not guided solely by pathways but, also, by a number of other resources. Principally the ‘NHS England Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance’, which provides guidance on the delivery of key transformation objectives, thereby supporting commissioners and providers in meeting key Five Year Forward View for Mental Health recommendations.
Information and advice is fundamental to enabling people, carers and families to take control of, and make well-informed choices about, their care and support and how they fund it.
The Care Act 2014 placed duties on local authorities to establish and maintain information and advice services relating to care and support for all people in its area.
When appropriate, local authorities direct people to national sources of information, including the quality ratings of providers from the Care Quality Commission.
The Government is already committed to backing the National Health Service with an additional £8 billion, in real terms, by 2020/21. As part of the Budget announcement on 22 November, we have now committed to backing the NHS in England further so that by 2019/20 it will have received an additional £2.8 billion of revenue funding for frontline services than previously planned over the period. This includes £335 million this winter to help trusts to increase capacity. We have also committed £3.5 billion of new capital investment by 2022/23 to transform its estate and drive further efficiency savings.
The Government is committed to parity of esteem between mental health and physical health and delivering the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision; a Green Paper’ sets out ambitious plans to further improve support and early intervention for children and young people. The proposals as set out in the Green Paper would cost £215 million over the next three years towards the creation of Mental Health Support Teams, piloting a four week waiting time standard and rolling out mental health first aid training in primary schools. Funding will be made available to take forward the proposals following the consultation.
The Government recognises the challenges faced by people of working age with care needs. We are committed to ensure that people with disabilities and complex conditions are able to live healthy, independent lives, and participate fully in society. The Green Paper will focus on care for older people, but many of the issues and questions about the sustainability of the care system, will be relevant to adults of all ages. To ensure that issues specific to working-age adults with care needs are considered in their own right, the Government will take forward a parallel programme of work, led jointly by the Department of Health and the Department for Communities and Local Government, which will focus on this group. This work will also be overseen by the Inter-Ministerial Group to ensure alignment with the Green Paper.
NHS England has undertaken evaluations of the six demonstrator sites providing Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services for people with severe mental illness, and in 2015 jointly with the McPin Foundation published an evaluation of the service user experience of those who had been treated in the demonstrator sites. The report is available at the following link:
http://mcpin.org/a-service-user-evaluation-of-iapt-for-people-with-a-severe-mental-illness/
As recommended in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, NHS England has committed to increase access to psychological therapies for people with severe mental illnesses – namely psychosis, bipolar disorder and personality disorders.
NHS England has commissioned the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to develop a pathway for community mental health services beginning in 2017/18, which will map the care and treatment that should be commissioned and delivered across primary and secondary care. This includes a specific focus on increasing access to psychological therapies for people with severe mental illnesses under the care of secondary care community mental health services.
In addition, NHS England has also commissioned the NHS Benchmarking Network to undertake a stocktake of community mental health services in 2017/18, including a stocktake of the capacity within community mental health teams to deliver psychological therapies for people with severe mental illness.
NHS England has undertaken evaluations of the six demonstrator sites providing Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services for people with severe mental illness, and in 2015 jointly with the McPin Foundation published an evaluation of the service user experience of those who had been treated in the demonstrator sites. The report is available at the following link:
http://mcpin.org/a-service-user-evaluation-of-iapt-for-people-with-a-severe-mental-illness/
As recommended in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, NHS England has committed to increase access to psychological therapies for people with severe mental illnesses – namely psychosis, bipolar disorder and personality disorders.
NHS England has commissioned the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to develop a pathway for community mental health services beginning in 2017/18, which will map the care and treatment that should be commissioned and delivered across primary and secondary care. This includes a specific focus on increasing access to psychological therapies for people with severe mental illnesses under the care of secondary care community mental health services.
In addition, NHS England has also commissioned the NHS Benchmarking Network to undertake a stocktake of community mental health services in 2017/18, including a stocktake of the capacity within community mental health teams to deliver psychological therapies for people with severe mental illness.
Significant progress has been made in relation to the development of a comprehensive set of mental health care pathways, including the publication to date of pathways for early intervention in psychosis, community services for eating disorders in children and young people and urgent and emergency mental health liaison.
The pathways are intended to provide clear guidance to both commissioners and providers in relation to the commissioning and implementation of services to improve access and outcomes for people with mental health problems, and contain a set of quality benchmarks against which local systems can understand their progress in implementing them. The introduction of new access and waiting time standards would only be made in areas where it was clear that the funding and workforce were in place to support this.
An updated timetable for the publication and delivery of the mental health pathways was provided within ‘Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health’.
The pathways for crisis care, perinatal mental health, children and young people's mental health, and acute mental health care have been developed in draft and will be published in due course. Whilst much of the content has been finalised, it is still being reviewed to ensure that it is in line with the wider Five Year Forward View strategy and that it provides the most helpful guidance to both commissioners and providers within the current context.
Significant progress has been made in relation to the development of a comprehensive set of mental health care pathways, including the publication to date of pathways for early intervention in psychosis, community services for eating disorders in children and young people and urgent and emergency mental health liaison.
The pathways are intended to provide clear guidance to both commissioners and providers in relation to the commissioning and implementation of services to improve access and outcomes for people with mental health problems, and contain a set of quality benchmarks against which local systems can understand their progress in implementing them. The introduction of new access and waiting time standards would only be made in areas where it was clear that the funding and workforce were in place to support this.
An updated timetable for the publication and delivery of the mental health pathways was provided within ‘Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health’.
The pathways for crisis care, perinatal mental health, children and young people's mental health, and acute mental health care have been developed in draft and will be published in due course. Whilst much of the content has been finalised, it is still being reviewed to ensure that it is in line with the wider Five Year Forward View strategy and that it provides the most helpful guidance to both commissioners and providers within the current context.
Significant progress has been made in relation to the development of a comprehensive set of mental health care pathways, including the publication to date of pathways for early intervention in psychosis, community services for eating disorders in children and young people and urgent and emergency mental health liaison.
The pathways are intended to provide clear guidance to both commissioners and providers in relation to the commissioning and implementation of services to improve access and outcomes for people with mental health problems, and contain a set of quality benchmarks against which local systems can understand their progress in implementing them. The introduction of new access and waiting time standards would only be made in areas where it was clear that the funding and workforce were in place to support this.
An updated timetable for the publication and delivery of the mental health pathways was provided within ‘Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health’.
The pathways for crisis care, perinatal mental health, children and young people's mental health, and acute mental health care have been developed in draft and will be published in due course. Whilst much of the content has been finalised, it is still being reviewed to ensure that it is in line with the wider Five Year Forward View strategy and that it provides the most helpful guidance to both commissioners and providers within the current context.
The National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare makes clear that the starting point for agreeing a NHS Continuing Healthcare care package and the setting where NHS Continuing Healthcare services are to be provided should be the individual’s preferences. However, in some situations a model of support preferred by the individual will be more expensive than other options and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) can take comparative costs and value for money into account when determining the model of support to be provided.
NHS England is working to encourage the development and dissemination of good practice by CCGs in relation to commissioning NHS Continuing Healthcare care packages.
The National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare makes clear that the starting point for agreeing a NHS Continuing Healthcare care package and the setting where NHS Continuing Healthcare services are to be provided should be the individual’s preferences. However, in some situations a model of support preferred by the individual will be more expensive than other options and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) can take comparative costs and value for money into account when determining the model of support to be provided.
NHS England is working to encourage the development and dissemination of good practice by CCGs in relation to commissioning NHS Continuing Healthcare care packages.
Neither the Department nor NHS England holds this information.
NHS Continuing Healthcare expenditure in the form of personal health budgets is part of the overall expenditure base of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). The funding provided by CCGs for NHS Continuing Healthcare packages in the form of a personal health budget should be sufficient to meet the needs identified in an individual’s care plan, based on the CCGs knowledge of the costs of services for the relevant needs in the locality where they are to be provided.
The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce (WMHTF) was set up in early 2017 in response to the findings of the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) which found a significant rise in mental ill health among women, particularly between 16-24 years old. The Taskforce’s objective is to develop proposals and deliver action collaboratively to improve women’s mental health, and is co-chaired by myself and Katherine Sacks-Jones, Director of Agenda.
The WMHTF brings together experts on women’s mental health and involves key national organisations responsible for policy, commissioning and delivery of services, including system partners such as NHS England and Public Health England.
The first meeting of the Taskforce was held in February 2017 and discussed the findings of the APMS and key issues for the Taskforce.
The next WMHTF meeting is being held in November 2017. The Taskforce’s key findings will be made available in summer 2018.
The Department has commissioned the following consultations on adult social care in the last 20 years:
2005 - Green Paper, Independence, Wellbeing and Choice;
2009 - Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Care Together;
2010 - White Paper, Building the National Care Service;
2012 - White Paper, Caring for our Future; and
2015 – Green Paper, Consultation on the detail of the cap system.
NHS England and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, together with professional and stakeholder groups, are working together to see how commissioning of fertility services could be improved. This includes ongoing work to develop a benchmark price to inform what the National Health Service would pay for in-vitro fertilisation treatments. Commissioning guidance, which aims to improve the quality of commissioning and further encourage the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence fertility guideline, is also being developed and will be disseminated by NHS England to all clinical commissioning groups in England.
The intention is that both of these products this will be ready for use by the NHS in 2018/19 financial year.
The Department strongly supports this programme of work.
NHS England and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, together with professional and stakeholder groups, are working together to see how commissioning of fertility services could be improved. This includes ongoing work to develop a benchmark price to inform what the National Health Service would pay for in-vitro fertilisation treatments. Commissioning guidance, which aims to improve the quality of commissioning and further encourage the implementation of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence fertility guideline, is also being developed and will be disseminated by NHS England to all clinical commissioning groups in England.
The intention is that both of these products this will be ready for use by the NHS in 2018/19 financial year.
The Department strongly supports this programme of work.
The proportion of calls triaged that resulted in ambulance dispatch over the last 12 months for which data are available is given in the table below and broken down nationally, by region and by area (each of which is comprised of one or more clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)). Data for individual CCGs are not available.
Geography | Calls triaged | Ambulance dispatches | Ambulance dispatches as a % of calls triaged |
England | 12,090,555 | 1,548,989 | 12.8% |
North Region | 3,554,832 | 481,828 | 13.6% |
Midlands and East Region | 3,738,083 | 453,921 | 12.1% |
London Region | 1,449,855 | 164,137 | 11.3% |
South Region | 3,347,785 | 449,103 | 13.4% |
North East | 730,804 | 122,068 | 16.7% |
North West including Blackpool | 1,411,961 | 205,502 | 14.6% |
Yorkshire and Humber | 1,412,067 | 154,258 | 10.9% |
Lincolnshire | 173,197 | 22,240 | 12.8% |
Nottinghamshire | 247,442 | 31,175 | 12.6% |
Derbyshire | 269,553 | 31,539 | 11.7% |
Leicestershire and Rutland | 221,052 | 28,968 | 13.1% |
Northamptonshire | 181,749 | 21,619 | 11.9% |
Milton Keynes | 54,419 | 6,285 | 11.5% |
Staffordshire | 232,181 | 29,504 | 12.7% |
West Midlands excluding Staffordshire | 865,480 | 113,881 | 13.2% |
Norfolk including Great Yarmouth and Waveney | 274,902 | 38,294 | 13.9% |
Suffolk | 162,263 | 20,933 | 12.9% |
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough | 193,331 | 23,488 | 12.1% |
Luton and Bedfordshire | 111,665 | 13,926 | 12.5% |
Hertfordshire | 264,432 | 25,939 | 9.8% |
North Essex | 254,613 | 24,946 | 9.8% |
South Essex | 231,804 | 21,184 | 9.1% |
Outer North East London | 225,371 | 25,508 | 11.3% |
East London and City | 101,269 | 10,949 | 10.8% |
North Central London | 268,822 | 29,061 | 10.8% |
Inner North West London | 111,426 | 12,184 | 10.9% |
Outer North West London | 170,177 | 22,433 | 13.2% |
Hillingdon | 61,178 | 7,998 | 13.1% |
South West London | 252,100 | 30,592 | 12.1% |
South East London | 259,512 | 25,412 | 9.8% |
Isle of Wight | 72,006 | 9,355 | 13.0% |
Mainland SHIP | 479,440 | 56,839 | 11.9% |
Berkshire | 218,423 | 24,503 | 11.2% |
Buckinghamshire | 122,657 | 12,582 | 10.3% |
Oxfordshire | 172,932 | 18,437 | 10.7% |
Gloucestershire and Swindon | 138,768 | 18,827 | 13.6% |
Bath and North East Somerset and Wiltshire | 133,284 | 17,853 | 13.4% |
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire | 280,221 | 36,139 | 12.9% |
Somerset | 116,358 | 16,665 | 14.3% |
Dorset | 194,280 | 29,935 | 15.4% |
Devon | 276,988 | 47,541 | 17.2% |
Cornwall | 132,879 | 23,043 | 17.3% |
South East Coast | 1,009,549 | 37,384 | 13.6% |
Source: NHS 111 Minimum Data Set 2017-18
Note:
To give comparable figures, the numbers for ‘South East Coast excluding East Kent’ and ‘East Kent’ have been added together for the period November 2016 to September 2017 to give a total for the ‘South East Coast’ area. Likewise the numbers for ‘Luton’ and ‘Bedfordshire’ have been added together for the period October 2016 to February 2017 to give a ‘Luton and Bedfordshire’ total, and the numbers for ‘Norfolk’ and ‘Great Yarmouth and Waveney’ have been added together for the period October 2016 to March 2017 to give a ‘Norfolk including Great Yarmouth and Waveney’ total.
NHS England does not hold information on the use of Tasers in mental health units.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds prescribing data which includes patient level data containing National Health Service number, age and date of birth of a patient enabling the ability to report figures of sodium valproate for women and girls of childbearing age. NHSBSA provides NHS stakeholders with prescribing volumes, trend and cost analysis based on prescribing by general practitioners and other prescribers that was dispensed in the community. Data, split by clinical commissioning group, on the volumes of prescriptions and patient numbers has been previously published via the NHS England website.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/prescribing-for-sodium-valproate/
We are exploring how this data might be updated in the future.
A list of buildings owned by the Department and its agencies that are currently empty in Norfolk and North Norfolk with future plans for the buildings is shown in the table below.
Property Name | Town | Post code | Current Plans |
St Michaels Hospital | Norwich | NR11 6WA | Disposal completed October - 2016 |
Norwich Community Hospital: Building (21 Buildings) | Norwich | NR2 3TU | Declared surplus and marketing commenced early 2017. |
The Ship | Great Yarmouth | NR30 2QE | Declared surplus and marketing commenced summer 2017. |
Kittywiches | Great Yarmouth | NR30 2PA | Empty leasehold and options under evaluation. |
Former Ambulance Station | Great Yarmouth | NR30 1BU | Declared surplus and NHS foundation trust leading marketing of site. |
Drake Centre | Great Yarmouth | NR30 4JH | Recently declared surplus. |
Bradwell Medical Centre (Universal House) | Great Yarmouth | NR31 8QW | Freehold disposal underway. |
Fairstead Land | King's Lynn | PE30 4SR | Land surplus car park for general practitioner development that did not proceed. Future plans to be confirmed. |
The Government has no plans to introduce a national 24-hour helpline to support people affected by prescribed drug dependence. People who feel that they might be dependent on either prescribed or over the counter medicines should seek help from a health professional in the first instance (such as a general practitioner or pharmacist). Help and advice is also available from, for example, the 111 helpline or the on-line NHS Choices service.
In the past three months my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has had three formal meetings with the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for Health, Chris Whitty, and the CSA has had five meetings with other Health Ministers. As this period includes August when Parliament was in recess meetings between the CSA and Ministers have been less frequent than normal.
We do not currently collect data on the number of allied health professionals occupying leadership positions in the National Health Service. However we understand that around half of NHS trust Chief Executives have a clinical background and that a small number are allied health professionals.
The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management conducted a review of the opportunities and barriers facing clinicians who wish to move in to senior operational leadership roles in the NHS. The review has been submitted to the Department and a response will be published in due course. We would be happy to meet with the Allied Health Professions Federation to discuss this matter.
We do not currently collect data on the number of allied health professionals occupying leadership positions in the National Health Service. However we understand that around half of NHS trust Chief Executives have a clinical background and that a small number are allied health professionals.
The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management conducted a review of the opportunities and barriers facing clinicians who wish to move in to senior operational leadership roles in the NHS. The review has been submitted to the Department and a response will be published in due course. We would be happy to meet with the Allied Health Professions Federation to discuss this matter.
The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health stated that £30 million of the £150 million of additional funding to be made available for child and adolescent eating disorders would be allocated to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) as part of their financial baselines for each of the five financial years 2016/17 to 2020/21.
£30 million was allocated to CCGs in 2016/17 and has been included again in CCG allocations for 2017/18. As it has been added to baselines we are unable to provide a breakdown of the £30 million by individual CCG for 2017/18.
NHS Improvement’s Single Oversight Framework (SOF) is designed to help National Health Service providers meet and exceed the standards required of them. Two of the standards in the SOF for mental health providers which can trigger action relate to improving access to National Institute for Health and Care Exellence-recommended psychological therapies: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP).
Additionally, NHS England employs a Mental Health Intensive Support Team. This team undertakes work with mental health providers to improve their operational processes, information systems and data submission to support delivery and monitoring of both the IAPT and EIP waiting and access standards.
NHS England expects that clinical commissioning group contracts with providers include the monitoring of providers’ delivery against defined service specifications.
The Department does not set a target occupancy rate, but official statistics show that the bed occupancy rate has remained stable, between 84% and 89% (all beds) since 2000.
National Health Service hospitals need to manage beds effectively in order to cope with peaks in demand. Occupancy rates are higher in winter, when demands are at their greatest. Bed availability fluctuates, but the NHS has practice and experience in managing capacity to cope with both routine and emergency care. It is the responsibility of individual hospitals to manage the day-to-day running of their organisations, considering issues such as patient flow and throughput, safety and infections.
NHS England publishes quarterly information on the numbers of available and occupied beds open overnight or day only in NHS organisations, most recently for quarter 1 of 2017/18.
National time series of these data are available at:
and
We have noted this research study and we expect mental health providers to implement guidelines for treatment issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). We published the updated National Suicide Prevention Strategy in January which set out how we are strengthening delivery of its aims, including reducing suicide in high risk groups such a people in contact with mental health services. We are investing an additional £25 million to implement the recommendations in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health to reduce suicides. The Department is working with NHS England and Public Health England to agree the priorities for this funding.
NICE is developing a suicide prevention guideline for community and custodial settings to be published next year which will set out further measures for organisations, including health care providers, to prevent suicide.
Health Ministers have regular discussions with their colleagues in other Government departments about a range of issues.
Departmental officials are liaising with Home Office officials to make arrangements for the next Crisis Care Concordat Steering Group meeting later this year.
Health Ministers have regular discussions with their colleagues in other Government departments about a range of issues.
Departmental officials are liaising with Home Office officials to make arrangements for the next Crisis Care Concordat Steering Group meeting later this year.
The Department has made no such assessment. We have no current plans to change the list of medical conditions which provide for exemption from prescription charges.
The Pharmacy Integration Fund financial figures are due to be published later in the summer.
A five year workforce plan to deliver the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health is currently being finalised by Health Education England and will be published in summer 2017. Analysis and development of the workforce strategy have been completed and Health Education England is now working with arm’s length body partners to agree the associated goals, trajectories, actions, and other deliverables associated with the implementation of the strategy.
NHS England's National Clinical Director for Mental Health and her team conduct regular assessments of the clinical aspects of delivery within Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs), alongside policy experts for specific areas of the STPs’ plans. This ensures national senior clinical engagement to support quality improvement across the STPs.
NHS England’s national mental health team and regional teams are working closely with Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprints to deliver the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health commitments, based on the trajectories published in Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.
As part of NHS England’s delivery approach, national and regional mental health leads are working together to track progress across the mental health programme in STPs, and areas are being offered targeted support to build leadership and improve commissioning and quality.
Through this and careful tracking of progress and investment, NHS England will ensure implementation of recommendations to improve community-based support for people with mental health conditions.
Plans to improve community-based support for people with learning disabilities and autism with behaviour that challenges are detailed in Transforming Care Plans (TCPs), which are closely linked to STPs. Each area of England has produced a TCP demonstrating a reduction in the number of inpatient beds and strengthening the community services in their area for people with learning disability and autism. The plans have detailed milestones to support delivery, and are scrutinised at regional and at national level.
Local authorities and National Health Service commissioners are required to take account of the 2009 Autism Act. The autism strategy, Think Autism, published in 2014, and its statutory guidance supports the effective development of local strategies to design and deliver services for meeting the needs of adults with autism.
NHS England’s national mental health team and regional teams are working closely with Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprints to deliver the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health commitments, based on the trajectories published in Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.
As part of NHS England’s delivery approach, national and regional mental health leads are working together to track progress across the mental health programme in STPs, and areas are being offered targeted support to build leadership and improve commissioning and quality.
Through this and careful tracking of progress and investment, NHS England will ensure implementation of recommendations to improve community-based support for people with mental health conditions.
Plans to improve community-based support for people with learning disabilities and autism with behaviour that challenges are detailed in Transforming Care Plans (TCPs), which are closely linked to STPs. Each area of England has produced a TCP demonstrating a reduction in the number of inpatient beds and strengthening the community services in their area for people with learning disability and autism. The plans have detailed milestones to support delivery, and are scrutinised at regional and at national level.
Local authorities and National Health Service commissioners are required to take account of the 2009 Autism Act. The autism strategy, Think Autism, published in 2014, and its statutory guidance supports the effective development of local strategies to design and deliver services for meeting the needs of adults with autism.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have been clear that they see Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) as the key means to deliver the goals set out in the Five Year Forward View.
As a result, they have been working with each area to improve proposals and turn these into plans, and continue to work with STPs in turning plans into partnerships.
Each STP will be formally assessed in relation to its performance across a series of priority metrics. An STP dashboard, setting out this assessment, will be published shortly.
In 2016/17 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS England’s specialised commissioning spend on mental health increased to £11.6 billion from the previous year (7.3% increase for CCGs and specialised commissioning, 8.2% for CCGs).
Planned spend for CCGs and NHS England specialised commissioning is £11.8 billion in 2017/18 (2.3% increase for CCGs and Specialised, 2.7% for CCGs) and £12.0 billion in 2018/19 (2.1% increase for CCGs and Specialised, 2.5% for CCGs).
This represents £11.6 billion in 2017/18 and £11.7 billion in 2018/19 expressed in 2016/17 ‘prices’. 2017/18 and 2018/19 are subject to validation as part of the financial planning process.
NHS England (London) is working with the local clinical commissioning group and provider to make sure any necessary support is provided.
NHS England (London’s) mental health response to the Grenfell Tower Fire has been a stepped approach which is designed to enable people affected to return to normal life as early as possible using existing support mechanisms. We are committed to ensuring that the right support is available at every stage.
The Local Authority is responsible for allocating a lead social care worker to the bereaved. Every Grenfell Tower resident has been allocated a key worker to provide wrap around care. Cruse bereavement support, a leading national charity, is also available for the bereaved.
To co-ordinate the local response a central command centre was set up by government on 16th June, led by the chief executive of the City of London Corporation and the chief executive of the London Borough of Southwark Council.
NHS England (London) is working with Professor Chris Brewin, professor of clinical psychology at University College London who worked extensively with people suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following the 7/7 incidents.
In the first days of a major incident the focus is on providing support to enable people to talk about their experience and their fears and to help them to feel safe. NHS England (London) will be assessing exact numbers when we have accurate figures on the numbers of people affected.
The Government is developing a new tobacco control plan, which will be published shortly. We will continue our comprehensive tobacco control strategy, one element of which is the provision of evidence-based stop smoking services. Councils will receive £16 billion of public health funding between 2016 and 2021 to provide vital services for their local population including smoking cessation services. As there is such a wide variety in smoking across the country, local councils must have the flexibility to consider how best to respond to the needs of their populations.
Shared Decision Making is a process in which patients can participate actively with their healthcare professional in making decisions about their health and care. This can only be realised by involving patients fully in their own care, with decisions made in partnership with clinicians, rather than by clinicians alone as set out in No decision about me without me (DH2012 link below) which outlined the principles of patients and service users, their carers and families more say. This includes areas such as mental health services, both inpatient and outpatient.
The Department strengthened the guiding principles of the Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice to make clear what rights and expectations patients, their families and carers have in relation to the Mental Health Act.
The Act can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-practice-mental-health-act-1983
Shared Decision Making is a process in which patients can participate actively with their healthcare professional in making decisions about their health and care. This can only be realised by involving patients fully in their own care, with decisions made in partnership with clinicians, rather than by clinicians alone as set out in No decision about me without me (DH2012 link below) which outlined the principles of patients and service users, their carers and families more say. This includes areas such as mental health services, both inpatient and outpatient.
The Department strengthened the guiding principles of the Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice to make clear what rights and expectations patients, their families and carers have in relation to the Mental Health Act.
The Act can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-practice-mental-health-act-1983
Under the Transforming Care programme, a clear programme of work is underway with national delivery partners to improve services for people with learning disabilities and/or autism, who display behaviour that challenges, including those with a mental health condition.
‘Positive and Proactive Care: reducing the need for restrictive interventions’, which was published by the Coalition Government in 2014 introduced a requirement that providers report on the use of restrictive interventions to service commissioners, who will monitor and act in the event on concerns being raised. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) monitors and inspects against complaints in line with the guidance contained in ‘Positive and Proactive Care’.
The CQC is developing a programme of work and consulting on revised key lines of enquiry for inspections to address variations in service quality, including use of restraint and seclusion.
For NHS England-funded services, NHS England employs both CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and adult case managers who have the specific responsibility of monitoring the care and treatment of patients. This involves overseeing the whole treatment programme for individuals, including issues of restrictive practice.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health regularly meets with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to discuss a wide range of policy and delivery issues.
NHS England is not planning this approach, rather NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-2019 required each National Health Service clinical commissioning group (CCG) to set out its own trajectory to meet the eating disorder standard by 2020. All CCG plans for 2017-19, submitted to NHS England by 23 December 2016, included local stated trajectories for meeting the standard by 2020.
From May 2017, NHS England will be publishing the national and regional data on progress towards meeting the eating disorder standard. NHS England is working on the provider and clinical commissioning group level data to understand how frequently to display the data at this level given the disclosure risks posed by small numbers.
The Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation recommended shingles vaccination for adults aged 70 years up to and including 79 years. Shingles immunisation is currently offered to people aged 70 – 73 and 78 – 79 based on their age on 1 September 2016. Eligibility will be extended in the future to all those aged 70 – 79. The rate of the further extension of eligibility is determined by annual negotiations between the Department and NHS England taking into account factors such as the capability of the National Health Service to provide the additional immunisations, and the overall affordability of doing so.
Medical professionals are able to apply their clinical discretion and offer immunisation to anyone aged over 50 years who is not currently eligible but could benefit clinically, for example those with underlying health issues putting them at increased risk of shingles. Shingles immunisation is also available privately from a number of high street pharmacists and other providers.
The information requested on expenditure is not collected centrally.
In July 2016, NHS England published Children and young people’s mental health Local Transformation Plans - a summary of key themes, which includes information on the development of mental health services for children who have been sexually abused or exploited, as recommended by Future In Mind. The report states, “A significant number of Local Transition Plans referenced child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child sexual abuse (CSA) as a priority”.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/08/cyp-mh-ltp.pdf
The Department is working to improve the evidence base for providers and commissioners around interventions for people who have been abused. This includes developing a transformative health and wellbeing service model for supporting children who have been abused, a cost benefits model for quaternary (over medicalisation) prevention of abuse, an economic model of a trauma-informed healthcare service for young women who have been abused, and commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to develop a guideline on child abuse and neglect.
The information requested on expenditure is not collected centrally.
In July 2016, NHS England published Children and young people’s mental health Local Transformation Plans - a summary of key themes, which includes information on the development of mental health services for children who have been sexually abused or exploited, as recommended by Future In Mind. The report states, “A significant number of Local Transition Plans referenced child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child sexual abuse (CSA) as a priority”.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/08/cyp-mh-ltp.pdf
The Department is working to improve the evidence base for providers and commissioners around interventions for people who have been abused. This includes developing a transformative health and wellbeing service model for supporting children who have been abused, a cost benefits model for quaternary (over medicalisation) prevention of abuse, an economic model of a trauma-informed healthcare service for young women who have been abused, and commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to develop a guideline on child abuse and neglect.
It is not possible to assess meaningfully changes in the value of supplier costs in the National Health Service as a result of the change in the value of sterling as we do not collect data that would show from whom trusts are buying products and, more importantly, where their suppliers’ supply chains are and thus the extent to which they are exposed to such changes.
Currency rates constantly fluctuate, and this is one of many commercial risks we would expect suppliers to manage when bidding to join an NHS framework. The Department is working with the NHS Business Services Authority to make sure suppliers keep to the prices set out in contracts for the full length of those contracts in order to help mitigate the impact of fluctuation.
The Operational Productivity Directorate in NHS Improvement is working to support NHS trusts to deliver the £5 billion of efficiencies by 2020-21 as identified in Lord Carter’s final report. The Directorate has ten major clinically and professionally led projects to help trusts deliver this ambition. Where relevant, projects have identified currency fluctuation as a risk and have mitigating actions in place to ensure they can continue to deliver efficiencies.
The price of branded medicines is controlled through the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and statutory medicines pricing scheme, and so we do not anticipate any increase in prices as a result of currency fluctuations. For generic medicines not supplied through an NHS framework, we expect competitive forces in the market to continue to ensure prices are kept low.
It is not possible to assess meaningfully changes in the value of supplier costs in the National Health Service as a result of the change in the value of sterling as we do not collect data that would show from whom trusts are buying products and, more importantly, where their suppliers’ supply chains are and thus the extent to which they are exposed to such changes.
Currency rates constantly fluctuate, and this is one of many commercial risks we would expect suppliers to manage when bidding to join an NHS framework. The Department is working with the NHS Business Services Authority to make sure suppliers keep to the prices set out in contracts for the full length of those contracts in order to help mitigate the impact of fluctuation.
The Operational Productivity Directorate in NHS Improvement is working to support NHS trusts to deliver the £5 billion of efficiencies by 2020-21 as identified in Lord Carter’s final report. The Directorate has ten major clinically and professionally led projects to help trusts deliver this ambition. Where relevant, projects have identified currency fluctuation as a risk and have mitigating actions in place to ensure they can continue to deliver efficiencies.
The price of branded medicines is controlled through the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and statutory medicines pricing scheme, and so we do not anticipate any increase in prices as a result of currency fluctuations. For generic medicines not supplied through an NHS framework, we expect competitive forces in the market to continue to ensure prices are kept low.
Plans to meet the access and waiting time standards for eating disorders by 2020 are locally owned by clinical commissioning groups who are required and responsible for publishing these plans either via their website, or through public meetings.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss within their local population. As with other services which CCGs commission, they should take into consideration assessments of local need and any relevant guidance.
Commissioning services for people with hearing loss: A framework for clinical commissioning groups, published by NHS England in July 2016, provides guidance to inform and support commissioners when making local decisions.
NHS England’s ongoing engagement with commissioners and stakeholders within the hearing loss community will help to ensure that CCGs are commissioning high quality and cost effective hearing loss services that achieve the best possible outcomes for patients.
NHS England does not hold the information requested centrally.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss within their local population. As with other services which CCGs commission, they should take into consideration assessments of local need and any relevant guidance.
Commissioning services for people with hearing loss: A framework for clinical commissioning groups, published by NHS England in July 2016, provides guidance to inform and support commissioners when making local decisions.
NHS England’s ongoing engagement with commissioners and stakeholders within the hearing loss community will help to ensure that CCGs are commissioning high quality and cost effective hearing loss services that achieve the best possible outcomes for patients.
NHS England does not hold the information requested centrally.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health regularly meets with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to discuss a wide range of policy and delivery issues.
The Mental Health Five Year Forward View Dashboard was published in October 2016. The dashboard publishes data on a quarterly basis at clinical commissioning group level on planned spend on children and young people’s mental health services. This is split by total planned spend (excluding learning disabilities and eating disorders), and planned spend on eating disorders.
Since the Coalition Government published Positive and Proactive Care: reducing the need for restrictive interventions in April 2014, the Department, with its partners, has taken a number of steps to implement its recommendations.
These include the development of the Positive and Safe Champions Network to promote good practice in the reduction of restrictive interventions; the inclusion of information about the number and type of restraints in the Mental Health Services Dataset and the development of core standards for the training of staff in techniques of prevention and management of violence and aggression.
The Department of Health and the Department for Education are working to produce, for consultation, new guidance on minimising the use of restraint on children and young people who have autism, learning disabilities or mental health issues, and whose behaviour challenges, in health and care settings and in special schools.
Positive and Proactive Care introduced a requirement that services develop Restrictive Intervention Reduction Plans. These plans along with organisations’ relative use of restraint in comparison with other organisations, form a key focus of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspections. We expect the CQC to use its regulatory powers to ensure that services minimise the use of restraint and other restrictive interventions, including face down restraint.
Since the Coalition Government published Positive and Proactive Care: reducing the need for restrictive interventions in April 2014, the Department, with its partners, has taken a number of steps to implement its recommendations.
These include the development of the Positive and Safe Champions Network to promote good practice in the reduction of restrictive interventions; the inclusion of information about the number and type of restraints in the Mental Health Services Dataset and the development of core standards for the training of staff in techniques of prevention and management of violence and aggression.
The Department of Health and the Department for Education are working to produce, for consultation, new guidance on minimising the use of restraint on children and young people who have autism, learning disabilities or mental health issues, and whose behaviour challenges, in health and care settings and in special schools.
Positive and Proactive Care introduced a requirement that services develop Restrictive Intervention Reduction Plans. These plans along with organisations’ relative use of restraint in comparison with other organisations, form a key focus of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspections. We expect the CQC to use its regulatory powers to ensure that services minimise the use of restraint and other restrictive interventions, including face down restraint.
The NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance for 2017-19 sets out the financial and business rules for the National Health Service for both 2017/18 and 2018/19.
It includes specific requirements for the commissioning of eating disorder services for children and young people.
Clinical commissioning groups’ (CCG) plans for 2017-19 (submitted 23 December 2016) stated their trajectories for meeting the eating disorder standard by 2020. To inform assurance processes, NHS England is comparing CCG reported trajectories with the data collected on the number of young people receiving treatment within the ‘referral to treatment’ timeframe every quarter.
NHS England monitors the number of young people who receive treatment for an eating disorder within the ‘referral to treatment’ standard timeframe as published in the evidence-base pathway for children and young people with an eating disorder available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/cyp/eating-disorders/
These data were collected for the first time in 2016 and will be published on a quarterly basis from 11 May 2017 at a national and regional level as a minimum. The data will be published from May 2017.
Note the eating disorder ‘referral to treatment’ standard states: “By 2020, 95% of those referred for assessment or treatment for an eating disorder should receive National Institute for Health and Care Excellence concordant treatment within one week for urgent cases and within 4 weeks for every other case”.
The independent Care Quality Commission (CQC) will lead a major thematic review of children and adolescent mental health services across the country to identify what is working well and what is not. The CQC is currently developing the terms of reference and scope of this work.
The Government has a commitment to provide an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice by 2020. In order to achieve this, there will be increasing general practitioner (GP) training recruitment, a major national and international recruitment campaign, bursaries and post-certificate of completion of training fellowships in hard to recruit areas, and GPs will be encouraged to return to general practice.
Health Education England recruited 3,019 new starters to training posts in 2016 - the highest number of GP trainees ever.
General Practitioners (GPs) do not have a mandatory retirement age. Any member of the National Health Service Pensions scheme can retire earlier or later than their normal pension age (minimum age is 55, maximum age is 75). It is a matter of individual choice.
Health Education England (HEE) produce local and national forecasts of workforce supply covering the next five years. HEE and NHS England are using these forecasts to develop a programme to improve retention among doctors of all ages in general practice. This includes the Retained Doctor Scheme, which is a support package that includes development support and financial incentives to help GPs who might otherwise leave the profession to remain in clinical general practice.
The latest information available is presented in the following table.
Joiners to the National Health Service by nationality group, which is self reported, in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England, 30 September 2015 to 30 September 2016.
| Headcount |
All nationalities | 155,997 |
United Kingdom | 117,795 |
European Economic Area excluding UK | 15,052 |
Rest of the world | 13,149 |
Unknown | 10,024 |
Source: NHS Digital, NHS Hospital & Community Health Service workforce statistics.
The Test Bed Programme is a joint initiative between the Department (including the Office for Life Sciences) and NHS England. It is creating industry-National Health Service partnerships to test combinations of innovations in technologies (including Internet of Things technologies) with innovations in how NHS services are delivered to improve health and care outcomes at the same or lower cost than existing practice.
There are seven test bed sites across England responding to locally identified clinical challenges. For example, patients with diabetes, in the West of England test bed site, are being equipped with remote monitoring and coaching technology to allow them to better self-manage their condition. All the test beds are now implementing their plans, with a focus on patient recruitment, deploying technological solutions, testing combinations and starting data collection for their evaluation phase. They are due to complete in March 2018 and information on the effectiveness of their combinatorial innovations will be published soon after.
Further details of the seven Test Bed sites can be found here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/innovation/test-beds/
NHS England and the Department have put in place a package of support for the test beds including solving day-to-day operational issues as well as a programme of work exploring the system tools and levers that will be needed to support the wider adoption of successful innovations. For example, successful innovations may be funded the new innovation tariff developed by NHS England or through other national programmes.
Evaluation is central to the Test Bed programme. We want to understand the impact of the new combinations of innovations within each test bed, as well as the overall success of the programme. To this end, the test beds will undertake local evaluations of impact and value of the innovations for patients, the local health system and innovators. These local evaluations will be complemented by a national evaluation that will develop a framework that can be used to evaluate future innovations of this nature. It will build on the local evaluations by developing an approach which distils the outcomes and efficiency measurements from each Test Bed into a national framework.
The evaluations will be made available on completion of the programme.
Total test bed funding across the seven sites to date is approximately £4 million. Over the lifetime of the programme (two years), innovator partners would have contributed an estimated £18 million to the NHS.
The Test Bed Programme is a joint initiative between the Department (including the Office for Life Sciences) and NHS England. It is creating industry-National Health Service partnerships to test combinations of innovations in technologies (including Internet of Things technologies) with innovations in how NHS services are delivered to improve health and care outcomes at the same or lower cost than existing practice.
There are seven test bed sites across England responding to locally identified clinical challenges. For example, patients with diabetes, in the West of England test bed site, are being equipped with remote monitoring and coaching technology to allow them to better self-manage their condition. All the test beds are now implementing their plans, with a focus on patient recruitment, deploying technological solutions, testing combinations and starting data collection for their evaluation phase. They are due to complete in March 2018 and information on the effectiveness of their combinatorial innovations will be published soon after.
Further details of the seven Test Bed sites can be found here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/innovation/test-beds/
NHS England and the Department have put in place a package of support for the test beds including solving day-to-day operational issues as well as a programme of work exploring the system tools and levers that will be needed to support the wider adoption of successful innovations. For example, successful innovations may be funded the new innovation tariff developed by NHS England or through other national programmes.
Evaluation is central to the Test Bed programme. We want to understand the impact of the new combinations of innovations within each test bed, as well as the overall success of the programme. To this end, the test beds will undertake local evaluations of impact and value of the innovations for patients, the local health system and innovators. These local evaluations will be complemented by a national evaluation that will develop a framework that can be used to evaluate future innovations of this nature. It will build on the local evaluations by developing an approach which distils the outcomes and efficiency measurements from each Test Bed into a national framework.
The evaluations will be made available on completion of the programme.
Total test bed funding across the seven sites to date is approximately £4 million. Over the lifetime of the programme (two years), innovator partners would have contributed an estimated £18 million to the NHS.
The Test Bed Programme is a joint initiative between the Department (including the Office for Life Sciences) and NHS England. It is creating industry-National Health Service partnerships to test combinations of innovations in technologies (including Internet of Things technologies) with innovations in how NHS services are delivered to improve health and care outcomes at the same or lower cost than existing practice.
There are seven test bed sites across England responding to locally identified clinical challenges. For example, patients with diabetes, in the West of England test bed site, are being equipped with remote monitoring and coaching technology to allow them to better self-manage their condition. All the test beds are now implementing their plans, with a focus on patient recruitment, deploying technological solutions, testing combinations and starting data collection for their evaluation phase. They are due to complete in March 2018 and information on the effectiveness of their combinatorial innovations will be published soon after.
Further details of the seven Test Bed sites can be found here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/innovation/test-beds/
NHS England and the Department have put in place a package of support for the test beds including solving day-to-day operational issues as well as a programme of work exploring the system tools and levers that will be needed to support the wider adoption of successful innovations. For example, successful innovations may be funded the new innovation tariff developed by NHS England or through other national programmes.
Evaluation is central to the Test Bed programme. We want to understand the impact of the new combinations of innovations within each test bed, as well as the overall success of the programme. To this end, the test beds will undertake local evaluations of impact and value of the innovations for patients, the local health system and innovators. These local evaluations will be complemented by a national evaluation that will develop a framework that can be used to evaluate future innovations of this nature. It will build on the local evaluations by developing an approach which distils the outcomes and efficiency measurements from each Test Bed into a national framework.
The evaluations will be made available on completion of the programme.
Total test bed funding across the seven sites to date is approximately £4 million. Over the lifetime of the programme (two years), innovator partners would have contributed an estimated £18 million to the NHS.
The Test Bed Programme is a joint initiative between the Department (including the Office for Life Sciences) and NHS England. It is creating industry-National Health Service partnerships to test combinations of innovations in technologies (including Internet of Things technologies) with innovations in how NHS services are delivered to improve health and care outcomes at the same or lower cost than existing practice.
There are seven test bed sites across England responding to locally identified clinical challenges. For example, patients with diabetes, in the West of England test bed site, are being equipped with remote monitoring and coaching technology to allow them to better self-manage their condition. All the test beds are now implementing their plans, with a focus on patient recruitment, deploying technological solutions, testing combinations and starting data collection for their evaluation phase. They are due to complete in March 2018 and information on the effectiveness of their combinatorial innovations will be published soon after.
Further details of the seven Test Bed sites can be found here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/innovation/test-beds/
NHS England and the Department have put in place a package of support for the test beds including solving day-to-day operational issues as well as a programme of work exploring the system tools and levers that will be needed to support the wider adoption of successful innovations. For example, successful innovations may be funded the new innovation tariff developed by NHS England or through other national programmes.
Evaluation is central to the Test Bed programme. We want to understand the impact of the new combinations of innovations within each test bed, as well as the overall success of the programme. To this end, the test beds will undertake local evaluations of impact and value of the innovations for patients, the local health system and innovators. These local evaluations will be complemented by a national evaluation that will develop a framework that can be used to evaluate future innovations of this nature. It will build on the local evaluations by developing an approach which distils the outcomes and efficiency measurements from each Test Bed into a national framework.
The evaluations will be made available on completion of the programme.
Total test bed funding across the seven sites to date is approximately £4 million. Over the lifetime of the programme (two years), innovator partners would have contributed an estimated £18 million to the NHS.
The Better Care Fund (BCF), first announced in Spending Round 2013, and implemented from the beginning of 2015-16, is the first national, mandatory integration policy. One of its overarching aims is to keep people living independently at home and in their communities, including those who are disabled and of working age.
The Integration and Better Care Fund Policy Framework for 2017-19, due to be published early in the New Year, sets out proposals for going beyond the BCF towards further integration by 2020. Although there will be no separate process for integration plans, local areas will set out how they expect to progress to further integration by 2020 in their BCF 17-19 returns. We will provide a set of resources, integration models and indicators for integration to help local areas. However, it will be up to local areas how they use the fund to benefit their population.
No such assessment has been made.
The strategy and its companion document provide excellent advice to the National Health Service on implementing changes at a local level to improve the management and care of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Elements of the strategy have been incorporated into the NHS outcomes framework and have been used to develop the national COPD and asthma audits, the forthcoming best practice tariff for COPD and the smoking cessation Commissioning for Quality and Innovation payment.
The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Outcomes Indicator Set also includes indicators to support CCGs to understand the progress they are making in improving outcomes for people with COPD.
The Government welcomes the College of Occupational Therapist’s report ‘Reducing the pressure on hospitals’, which was published in November. We recognise that occupational therapists are key to supporting safe and timely hospital discharge. Occupational therapists work seamless across health and social care, are natural integrators and understand what factors enable individuals to lead independent and fulfilled lives.
Winter preparedness funding was included in allocations to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) at the start of the 2016-17 financial year. It is for CCGs to decide how to use this funding to prepare for winter. The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to ensure there is robust governance and operational arrangements in place to help prevent avoidable hospital admissions and to improve access and flow through hospital when patients are admitted.
All NHS trusts must ensure that they have the professions with the right skills working within rapid response and acute and emergency care service. It is for local trusts and commissioners, working with NHS England, to ensure that they fully utilise the vital skills and knowledge of their occupational therapists as part of the multi-disciplinary team, and working across health and social care.
The Government welcomes the College of Occupational Therapist’s report ‘Reducing the pressure on hospitals’, which was published in November. We recognise that occupational therapists are key to supporting safe and timely hospital discharge. Occupational therapists work seamless across health and social care, are natural integrators and understand what factors enable individuals to lead independent and fulfilled lives.
Winter preparedness funding was included in allocations to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) at the start of the 2016-17 financial year. It is for CCGs to decide how to use this funding to prepare for winter. The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to ensure there is robust governance and operational arrangements in place to help prevent avoidable hospital admissions and to improve access and flow through hospital when patients are admitted.
All NHS trusts must ensure that they have the professions with the right skills working within rapid response and acute and emergency care service. It is for local trusts and commissioners, working with NHS England, to ensure that they fully utilise the vital skills and knowledge of their occupational therapists as part of the multi-disciplinary team, and working across health and social care.
The Government welcomes the College of Occupational Therapist’s report ‘Reducing the pressure on hospitals’, which was published in November. We recognise that occupational therapists are key to supporting safe and timely hospital discharge. Occupational therapists work seamless across health and social care, are natural integrators and understand what factors enable individuals to lead independent and fulfilled lives.
Winter preparedness funding was included in allocations to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) at the start of the 2016-17 financial year. It is for CCGs to decide how to use this funding to prepare for winter. The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to ensure there is robust governance and operational arrangements in place to help prevent avoidable hospital admissions and to improve access and flow through hospital when patients are admitted.
All NHS trusts must ensure that they have the professions with the right skills working within rapid response and acute and emergency care service. It is for local trusts and commissioners, working with NHS England, to ensure that they fully utilise the vital skills and knowledge of their occupational therapists as part of the multi-disciplinary team, and working across health and social care.
The Government welcomes the College of Occupational Therapist’s report ‘Reducing the pressure on hospitals’, which was published in November. We recognise that occupational therapists are key to supporting safe and timely hospital discharge. Occupational therapists work seamless across health and social care, are natural integrators and understand what factors enable individuals to lead independent and fulfilled lives.
Winter preparedness funding was included in allocations to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) at the start of the 2016-17 financial year. It is for CCGs to decide how to use this funding to prepare for winter. The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to ensure there is robust governance and operational arrangements in place to help prevent avoidable hospital admissions and to improve access and flow through hospital when patients are admitted.
All NHS trusts must ensure that they have the professions with the right skills working within rapid response and acute and emergency care service. It is for local trusts and commissioners, working with NHS England, to ensure that they fully utilise the vital skills and knowledge of their occupational therapists as part of the multi-disciplinary team, and working across health and social care.
No such assessment has been made.
However, as part of implementing Lord Carter’s recommendations on hospital productivity, ‘Operational productivity and performance in English NHS acute hospitals: Unwarranted variations’, NHS Improvement is leading work with providers to develop a richer dataset around all aspects of the patient pathway, including discharge.
NHS England is also leading activity to embed a minimum community dataset which will allow an accurate understanding of levels of activity within community health services, this will help enable a robust picture of costs and implications of delayed discharges to emerge. At the same time, the Department continues to work closely with the National Health Service and local government to help local areas improve transfers out of hospital, share best practice, and reduce unnecessary delays.
The majority of staff leaving the Department in 2016-17 will be leaving on voluntary exit, the combined estimated cost of this, voluntary and compulsory redundancies is £30 million.
The current estimate costs for the planned reduction in staff is £30 million in 2016-17 and £0.5 million in 2017-18. In addition there is a team leading the DH2020 transformation project and costs related to additional pension quotes for staff exiting, these taken together are not expected to exceed £1 million per annum. The total cost is therefore not expected to exceed £33 million.
We welcomed the recommendation in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health to appoint a national Equalities Champion with a specific remit to tackle mental health inequalities across the health system and through cross-Government action. We are working with our stakeholders to progress this recommendation.
We will consider how best to address a range of equality issues in mental health, including giving consideration to the recommendation of the Independent Commission on Acute Adult Psychiatric Care, established and supported by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, that a Patients and Carers Race Equality Standard should be piloted in mental health.
NHS England has a memorandum of understanding with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to deliver an evidence-based treatment pathway (EBTP) support programme and a robust and systematic approach to EBTP development and implementation has been developed. The standards are co-produced with people with experience of mental health services, and the first step in the process is the establishment of a multi-stakeholder expert reference group including experts by experience in the membership. The supporting EBTP 'technical team’ that drafts all of the pathway products for publication also includes a minimum of two experts by experience.
Over the next five years, NHS England will be working with partners to develop a range of evidence-based treatment pathways for mental health and the supporting infrastructure required to enable their implementation. Each of the pathways will be designed to span the journey from ‘referral to recovery’.
As outlined in Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, this will include a focus on the provision of evidence-based psychological therapies as part of secondary mental health care services.
NHS England has funded an Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – Severe Mental Illness programme to test and evaluate the impact of providing evidence-based psychological therapies for people with a severe mental illness.
For specialised mental health inpatient care, NHS England has published service specifications for the provision of high, medium and low secure mental health services and tier 4 child and adolescent mental health services which include the provision of psychological therapies and interventions as part of the treatment pathway.
Data on prisoners receiving treatment for mental health problems, substance misuse and alcohol addiction is collected by NHS England through its Health and Justice Indicators of Performance and by Public Health England via the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System.
Information from these data sets will be published in 2017.
Data on prisoners receiving treatment for mental health problems, substance misuse and alcohol addiction is collected by NHS England through its Health and Justice Indicators of Performance and by Public Health England via the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System.
Information from these data sets will be published in 2017.
Public Health England has published hepatitis C metrics for the report ‘Hepatitis C in the UK 2016 report - Working towards its elimination as a major public health threat’. The report is available at the link below:
The United Kingdom has a comprehensive surveillance system in place combining laboratory diagnoses data, risk/behaviour data, outcome data, statistical modelling and service evaluation to monitor the cascade of care, detect outbreaks, and generate burden estimates. There is national guidance and legislation around infection control in healthcare settings including a policy for healthcare workers to prevent nosocomial transmission of blood-borne viruses. Prevention efforts in minimising harm in people who inject drugs is focused on access to opiate substitution therapies and needle syringe exchange programmes, and disinfection tablets in prisons.
NHS England continues to support National Health Service-led Operational Delivery Networks to provide National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved treatments for hepatitis C.