Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, over what period of time, at what time intervals, at which depths and for which substances he plans to monitor wells abandoned after use for high volume hydraulic fracturing.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The aim of the current regulatory framework is that wells are made safe so that they can be decommissioned with no need for on-going attention. In the UK very few instances are known of problems with decommissioned wells, and none of significant pollution caused by decommissioned wells.
There is, however, a case for further quality assurance, with some period of monitoring post-decommissioning. We are discussing suitable arrangements with regulators and industry. As regards monitoring of the site restoration, this is a matter for the planning authority.
In the 2014 Autumn Statement, the Government announced £31 million funding for a world-leading facility for research, technology and monitoring of the subsurface that will provide openly available data for academia, industry and regulators. The independent research will provide an evidence base for better regulation and to reassure the public that subsurface developments can be safe.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will direct NHS England to enable University College London Hospital to use the Gamma Knife on the same terms as it enables University Hospitals Bristol to use that equipment.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has advised that the future provision of Stereotactic Radiosurgery services for the National Health Service in England will be determined by the procurement exercise that will follow on from the consultation exercise that has recently ended. Until this process is completed there are no plans to change current commissioning arrangements.
All feedback received via the online consultation for the Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Radiotherapy Services Needs Assessment and Service Review will be collated and summarised and a report of the consultation findings will be considered by the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group.
NHS England will publish a report outlining the key themes of the consultation findings on its website.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will direct NHS England to publish all submissions to its Stereotactic Radiosurgery Review.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has advised that the future provision of Stereotactic Radiosurgery services for the National Health Service in England will be determined by the procurement exercise that will follow on from the consultation exercise that has recently ended. Until this process is completed there are no plans to change current commissioning arrangements.
All feedback received via the online consultation for the Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Radiotherapy Services Needs Assessment and Service Review will be collated and summarised and a report of the consultation findings will be considered by the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group.
NHS England will publish a report outlining the key themes of the consultation findings on its website.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many NHS trusts have reported patient incidents involving stereotactic radiosurgery or stereotactic radiotherapy; what the nature was of each such incident; and what kind of radiotherapy machine was involved in each such incident.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The National Reporting and Learning System identified five incidents over the past two years, which had been reported by three different National Health Service trusts.
Three incidents were reported in 2013 of the following nature:
Intra-procedural problem: stereotactic radiotherapy
- Treatment dosage issue (reported as no harm)
Intra-procedural problem: stereotactic radiosurgery
- Localisation markers not correctly placed (reported as no harm); and
- Beam positioning issue (reported as no harm).
Two incidents were reported in 2014 of the following nature:
Intra-procedural problem: stereotactic radiotherapy
- Beam positioning issue (reported as low harm); and
- Near miss wrong side stereotactic radiotherapy treatment due to transcription error (reported as no harm).
None of these incidents gave details of the machine involved.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many legal cases have been initiated that involve treatment for trigeminal neuralgia given to patients at the Salford radiotherapy satellite of the Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The NHS Litigation Authority (NHS LA) handles clinical negligence claims on behalf of its members under the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST). Currently, all NHS trusts in England are members of the CNST.
A search of the NHS LA’s claims’ database shows that less than five claims for clinical negligence involving treatment for trigeminal neuralgia have been submitted to the NHS LA from all members of the CNST during the last 10 years.
I hope my hon. Friend will understand that where a small number of cases exists, the Department is unable to provide a specific figure or location, as the disclosure of such information could breach an individual’s confidentiality.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to broaden and escalate the Government’s intervention in Somerset County Council’s Children’s Services.
Answered by Edward Timpson
I take any failure to provide children and young people with the services they deserve very seriously and I issued Somerset County Council with an Improvement Notice in November 2013. I recently met Somerset’s leadership and my officials have been working closely with the local authority against the requirements of my Improvement Notice; Ofsted’s 2013 report; and the Ofsted multi-remit inspection published on 26 November 2014.
Under the terms of my Notice, an improvement board with an independent Chair is in place and the Chair reports on progress in Somerset every three months. My officials are in regular communication with council leadership, and have attended each of the monthly boards to assess the LA’s improvement.
Ofsted is currently inspecting child protection and children in care service provision in Somerset and I am considering my next steps in relation to this intervention. I will not hesitate to escalate the intervention in the local authority if I am presented with further evidence that children and young people are still not safe in Somerset. I will inform Somerset County Council of my decision shortly.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have been treated with the gamma knife at University Hospital, Bristol, since it opened in October 2013; and whether NHS England approved those patients' treatment through individual funding requests.
Answered by Jane Ellison
University Hospital Bristol has advised that it has treated the following number of patients with gamma knife since it opened in October 2013:
Time period | Number of patients |
2013-14 (October 2013 – March 2014) | 95 |
2014-15 (April 2014 – December 2014) | 148 |
Total | 243 |
Gamma knife is delivered as one treatment per patient. As these patients were all treated under NHS England commissioning policies, individual funding requests were not required.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what is the minimum number of annual procedures NHS England requires hospitals to deliver before they are allowed to treat cancer patients with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England’s radiotherapy service specification states that providers of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy must serve a minimum population of 2 million and treat 25 cases per year. It should be noted that a range of other factors could also influence the outcome of these discussions, including referral pathways and quality requirements.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that all stakeholder submissions to NHS England's review into stereotactic radiosurgery are made available to the public.
Answered by Jane Ellison
All feedback received via the online consultation for NHS England's Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Radiotherapy Services Needs Assessment and Service Review will be collated and summarised and a report of the consultation findings will be considered by the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group.
NHS England will publish a report outlining the key themes of the consultation findings on its website.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to limit the use by local authorities of personal service limited companies for hiring personnel.
Answered by David Gauke
The government is committed to tackling all forms of tax avoidance and evasion and to ensuring that everyone pays their fair share of tax.
Off-payroll workers including those working for limited companies play an important role in helping public sector organisations meet short term needs for specialist advice and interim services. However, it is essential that these workers are meeting their tax obligations.
Decisions on recruitment are a matter for individual Local Authorities. However, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government published guidance in 2012 and 2013 which said local authorities should actively review their use of arrangements which could be seen to minimise tax payments.
In addition, the Government has made it increasingly difficult for payments made to sole traders or contractors working in local government to be hidden from the public. The Transparency Code 2014 now means authorities are legally bound to disclose information on all payments of £500 or more to bodies acting in a business capacity.
New tighter rules governing ‘off-payroll’ appointments in central government were established in May 2012 when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury published the Review of the Tax Arrangements of Public Sector Appointees. The recommendations of the Review mean that the most senior staff must go on the payroll, and departments will be able to seek assurance in relation to the tax arrangements of their long-term, high paid contractors.