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105952

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he considers the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada to be a mixed agreement.
tabling member constituency	Paisley and Renfrewshire North
tabling member printed	Jim Sheridan
uin	212861
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2014 answer text <p>In the UK's view, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada includes policy areas that are Member State competence and as such should be a mixed agreement.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 17/11/2014 14:09:25 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1464 label Biography information for Jim Sheridan

105954

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	EU External Trade
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will urge the European Commission to make public the negotiating mandate for the Trade in Services Agreement.
tabling member constituency	Paisley and Renfrewshire North
tabling member printed	Jim Sheridan
uin	212862
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2014 answer text <p>The Government supports the new Trade Commissioner’s desire to bring greater transparency to trade negotiations. Official EU documents pertaining to trade negotiations should, in the Government’s view, as a matter of principle be published when to do so would not impact negatively on the EU’s ability to secure the best possible deal for Europe.</p><p>We have welcomed moves by the European Commission proactively to publish information on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). For the first time the Commission has published the full text of the EU initial offer and the proposal papers put forward by the EU during the negotiations. You may find the FAQs on this site a useful initial source of information. The website address is as follows; <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa" target="_blank">http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/tisa</a>.</p><p>It is the Government’s view that publication of the TiSA mandate at this stage could hinder these important negotiations but we will keep this under review.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 26/11/2014 14:16:38 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1464 label Biography information for Jim Sheridan

105961

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Bowel Cancer: Screening
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the results of pilots of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening for bowel cancer; and what plans he has for a nationwide rollout of such screening.
tabling member constituency	Crawley
tabling member printed	Henry Smith
uin	212890
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>A randomised controlled trial funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and National Health Service Research and Development took place in 14 United Kingdom and six Italian centres, and evaluated screening for bowel cancer using a single Bowel Scope Screening (flexible sigmoidoscopy) between 55 and 64 years of age, removing small polyps by Bowel Scope Screening and providing full colonoscopy for &quot;high risk&quot; polyps. The study concluded that Bowel Scope Screening is a safe and practical test and, when offered only once between ages 55 and 64 years, confers a substantial and long lasting benefit. The UK National Screening Committee reviewed the evidence, and in April 2011 concluded that screening for bowel cancer using Bowel Scope Screening meets the United Kingdom National Screening Committee criteria for a screening test. In England its implementation will be managed by National Health Service Cancer Screening Programmes.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As at 31 March 2014, 36.6% of Bowel Scope Screening centres in England were operational, exceeding the commitment of 30%<sup>1</sup>. As set out in the third annual report of <em>Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer</em> (December 2013), NHS England will work with Public Health England to help deliver the involvement of screening centres sufficient to meet the 60% commitment by March 2015 and to support preparatory steps in other screening centres to implement by the end of 2016.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As at the end of October 2014, 20,603 examinations had taken place. 919 people had gone on to have a colonoscopy with 20 cancers being detected. A further 365 people have had an advanced adenoma found and removed.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>[1] <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/latest-bowel-cancer-screening-technique-reaps-benefits" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/news/latest-bowel-cancer-screening-technique-reaps-benefits</a></p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 10/11/2014 17:54:15 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

105962

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	IVF
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce variation in the price of IVF cycles between clinical commissioning groups.
tabling member constituency	York Outer
tabling member printed	Julian Sturdy
uin	212894
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>For National Health Service funded in-vitro fertilisation treatment, it is for clinical commissioning groups to decide with which fertility clinics to contract and agree the price payable with the service provider.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 10/11/2014 17:39:40 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	4079 label Biography information for Julian Sturdy

105963

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Social Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to work with local councils to improve their recording and reporting of complaints against providers of social care.
tabling member constituency	Mid Bedfordshire
tabling member printed	Nadine Dorries
uin	212941
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>Each local authority is responsible for the quality of social care services it commissions. There is no national register or oversight of complaints in social care. However, local authorities are required, pursuant to the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service (England) Regulations 2009, to keep a record of each complaint received, the subject matter and outcome and timescales for responding.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They are also obliged to make a summary of this information available to the public via an annual report. The Government believes that we should be committed to ensuring the system for resolving complaints about care is compassionate, personal, responsive, timely and ensures lessons are learned.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department established a national complaints programme board in December 2013. A comprehensive programme has been developed with national partners, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, Healthwatch England, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman, the Local Government Association, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Association, to bring about important changes to the way complainants are supported and complaints are handled across the health and social care systems.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We are informed by the CQC that it is committed to strengthening its approach to assessing complaints and concerns during inspections. During an inspection, CQC inspectors will use key lines of enquiry to ascertain the standard of care. A mandatory key line of enquiry used during inspections of adult social care is whether the service routinely listens and learns from people’s experiences, concerns and complaints.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people, and to grow and diversify their share in the market.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Norfolk answering member printed Norman Lamb grouped question UIN 212937 212938 212939 212944 212945 question first answered 10/11/2014 16:42:56 answering member 1439 label Biography information for Norman Lamb
tabling member	1481 label Biography information for Ms Nadine Dorries

105964

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Social Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to increase standards of social care; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Mid Bedfordshire
tabling member printed	Nadine Dorries
uin	212942
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>In July 2012, the Government set out its vision of the development of high quality care services in the White Paper, <a href="http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm83/8378/8378.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Caring for our future: Reforming care and support</em></a>. This was reinforced in the Care Act. It set out clearly the care and support system we want to achieve – with the support of care and support organisations, charities, carers, volunteers and the public. The Adult Social Care Workforce programme supports delivery of this vision, through increasing capacity, improving capability and developing leadership.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>On the recommendation of the Cavendish report into the failings at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, we are introducing the new Care Certificate, to help ensure that healthcare assistants, social care support workers and their employers can deliver a consistently high quality standard of care.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health launched the pilot for the Care Certificate on 28 April 2014. The pilot is taking place across a range of health and social care settings, and, subject to evaluation, the national introduction of the Care Certificate is planned for March 2015.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In order to make sure that people are held to account for the quality of care they provide, we are introducing measures to ensure that company directors who consent or turn a blind eye to poor care will be liable for prosecution. In the future, they and provider organisations could face unlimited fines if found guilty.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>To ensure that social care providers and services employ and are run by people with the right values and skills, we are introducing a ‘fit and proper person’ test for Directors. Where the Care Quality Commission (CQC) considers a Director not to be fit to run a provider organisation, it will be able to insist on his or her removal.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government realised that the regulation and inspection of social care provision needed to improve. As a result, the CQC has introduced a new system of inspection of social care providers, backed by new fundamental standards of care. This new system of inspection is based on five important questions that matter most to people: whether services are safe, caring, effective, well-led and responsive to their needs. CQC inspections now result in a provider being rated on a four-point scale - ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’, for each of the five domains that it inspects. This results in clear, straightforward information that commissioners of services and the public can understand.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The new inspections are carried out by expert inspection teams, which include people who have personal experience of care. The CQC piloted the new approach from April 2014 and began to inspect and rate all providers against the new standards in October.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people and to grow and diversify their share in the market.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Employers are responsible for ensuring that any potential employee has the required level of communication skills for their role. It is essential that a workers’ command of English should be considered as part of the recruitment process. Under CQC’s current approach to inspection and regulation, it is stipulated that workers in adult social care should be able to communicate effectively with people who use services and other staff and to ensure that care, treatment and support of service users is not compromised. This applies to all workers, whatever their background or nationality.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Norfolk answering member printed Norman Lamb question first answered 10/11/2014 16:47:57 answering member 1439 label Biography information for Norman Lamb
tabling member	1481 label Biography information for Ms Nadine Dorries

105965

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Social Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what central records are kept of complaints against social care providers; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Mid Bedfordshire
tabling member printed	Nadine Dorries
uin	212945
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>Each local authority is responsible for the quality of social care services it commissions. There is no national register or oversight of complaints in social care. However, local authorities are required, pursuant to the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service (England) Regulations 2009, to keep a record of each complaint received, the subject matter and outcome and timescales for responding.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They are also obliged to make a summary of this information available to the public via an annual report. The Government believes that we should be committed to ensuring the system for resolving complaints about care is compassionate, personal, responsive, timely and ensures lessons are learned.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department established a national complaints programme board in December 2013. A comprehensive programme has been developed with national partners, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, Healthwatch England, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman, the Local Government Association, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Association, to bring about important changes to the way complainants are supported and complaints are handled across the health and social care systems.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We are informed by the CQC that it is committed to strengthening its approach to assessing complaints and concerns during inspections. During an inspection, CQC inspectors will use key lines of enquiry to ascertain the standard of care. A mandatory key line of enquiry used during inspections of adult social care is whether the service routinely listens and learns from people’s experiences, concerns and complaints.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people, and to grow and diversify their share in the market.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Norfolk answering member printed Norman Lamb grouped question UIN 212937 212938 212939 212941 212944 question first answered 10/11/2014 16:42:57 answering member 1439 label Biography information for Norman Lamb
tabling member	1481 label Biography information for Ms Nadine Dorries

105966

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Drugs: Misuse
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library the responses to Public Health England's consultation on drug misuse and dependence.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Eric Ollerenshaw
uin	212946
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>Public Health England (PHE) has convened an expert group, chaired by Professor John Strang, to consider the responses to the consultation on a possible update to the United Kingdom guidelines on the clinical management of drug misuse and dependence.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>PHE is providing secretariat to the group, and we will place consultation responses in the Library after the expert group has had the opportunity to review them in full. The expert group has not yet determined when this will be.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 10/11/2014 17:27:54 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	4141 label Biography information for Eric Ollerenshaw

105967

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Social Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has put in place to improve the level of English language proficiency required for providers of social care.
tabling member constituency	Mid Bedfordshire
tabling member printed	Nadine Dorries
uin	212943
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>In July 2012, the Government set out its vision of the development of high quality care services in the White Paper, <a href="http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm83/8378/8378.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Caring for our future: Reforming care and support</em></a>. This was reinforced in the Care Act. It set out clearly the care and support system we want to achieve – with the support of care and support organisations, charities, carers, volunteers and the public. The Adult Social Care Workforce programme supports delivery of this vision, through increasing capacity, improving capability and developing leadership.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>On the recommendation of the Cavendish report into the failings at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, we are introducing the new Care Certificate, to help ensure that healthcare assistants, social care support workers and their employers can deliver a consistently high quality standard of care.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health launched the pilot for the Care Certificate on 28 April 2014. The pilot is taking place across a range of health and social care settings, and, subject to evaluation, the national introduction of the Care Certificate is planned for March 2015.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In order to make sure that people are held to account for the quality of care they provide, we are introducing measures to ensure that company directors who consent or turn a blind eye to poor care will be liable for prosecution. In the future, they and provider organisations could face unlimited fines if found guilty.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>To ensure that social care providers and services employ and are run by people with the right values and skills, we are introducing a ‘fit and proper person’ test for Directors. Where the Care Quality Commission (CQC) considers a Director not to be fit to run a provider organisation, it will be able to insist on his or her removal.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government realised that the regulation and inspection of social care provision needed to improve. As a result, the CQC has introduced a new system of inspection of social care providers, backed by new fundamental standards of care. This new system of inspection is based on five important questions that matter most to people: whether services are safe, caring, effective, well-led and responsive to their needs. CQC inspections now result in a provider being rated on a four-point scale - ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’, for each of the five domains that it inspects. This results in clear, straightforward information that commissioners of services and the public can understand.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The new inspections are carried out by expert inspection teams, which include people who have personal experience of care. The CQC piloted the new approach from April 2014 and began to inspect and rate all providers against the new standards in October.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people and to grow and diversify their share in the market.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Employers are responsible for ensuring that any potential employee has the required level of communication skills for their role. It is essential that a workers’ command of English should be considered as part of the recruitment process. Under CQC’s current approach to inspection and regulation, it is stipulated that workers in adult social care should be able to communicate effectively with people who use services and other staff and to ensure that care, treatment and support of service users is not compromised. This applies to all workers, whatever their background or nationality.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Norfolk answering member printed Norman Lamb question first answered 10/11/2014 18:10:54 answering member 1439 label Biography information for Norman Lamb
tabling member	1481 label Biography information for Ms Nadine Dorries

105968

registered interest
date	03/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Social Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will work with local authorities to improve oversight of agency companies providing social care to elderly and vulnerable people.
tabling member constituency	Mid Bedfordshire
tabling member printed	Nadine Dorries
uin	212944
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>Each local authority is responsible for the quality of social care services it commissions. There is no national register or oversight of complaints in social care. However, local authorities are required, pursuant to the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service (England) Regulations 2009, to keep a record of each complaint received, the subject matter and outcome and timescales for responding.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They are also obliged to make a summary of this information available to the public via an annual report. The Government believes that we should be committed to ensuring the system for resolving complaints about care is compassionate, personal, responsive, timely and ensures lessons are learned.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department established a national complaints programme board in December 2013. A comprehensive programme has been developed with national partners, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, Healthwatch England, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman, the Local Government Association, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Association, to bring about important changes to the way complainants are supported and complaints are handled across the health and social care systems.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We are informed by the CQC that it is committed to strengthening its approach to assessing complaints and concerns during inspections. During an inspection, CQC inspectors will use key lines of enquiry to ascertain the standard of care. A mandatory key line of enquiry used during inspections of adult social care is whether the service routinely listens and learns from people’s experiences, concerns and complaints.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people, and to grow and diversify their share in the market.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Norfolk answering member printed Norman Lamb grouped question UIN 212937 212938 212939 212941 212945 question first answered 10/11/2014 16:42:57 answering member 1439 label Biography information for Norman Lamb
tabling member	1481 label Biography information for Ms Nadine Dorries