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228808

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
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, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the level of substance abuse by teenagers.
tabling member constituency	Upper Bann
tabling member printed	David Simpson
uin	228516
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>The Department jointly leads, with the Home Office, the Reducing Demand strand of the Government’s 2010 Drug Strategy ‘Reducing demand, restricting supply, building recovery: supporting people to live a drug-free life'. The third annual review of the drug strategy published last month highlights recent and planned developments in our programme of work to create resilience amongst those who do not take drugs and to support those that do misuse drugs to stop.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The strategy includes universal actions aimed at all young people, and targeted actions for those most at risk of using drugs or who have already started using drugs, and tackles the range of risk factors that make people vulnerable to substance misuse. Key elements of the strategy are:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>- Talk to FRANK, which provides up-to-date impartial information and advice about drugs and how to resist them;</p><p> </p><p>- ‘Rise Above’, recently launched by Public Health England (PHE), which is an online resource and social movement for young people, designed to build their resilience and empower them to make positive choices for their health;</p><p> </p><p>- Helping schools to draw on expert advice and develop evidence-based practice, including funding the Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service (ADEPIS), run by Mentor UK; and</p><p> </p><p>- PHE providing support for the development of Joint Strategic Needs Assessments by local areas to help ensure that young people’s substance misuse services target vulnerable young people.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 26/03/2015 15:13:21 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	1597 label Biography information for David Simpson

228809

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Video Games: Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will commission research on the long-term effects of video game addiction on primary school-aged children.
tabling member constituency	Upper Bann
tabling member printed	David Simpson
uin	228517
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>We have no plans to commission further research into video game addiction.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Children who spend more time on computers, watching television and playing video games tend to experience higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression. This relationship is particularly negative among those who engage in high levels of screen use (more than four hours a day).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Following an in-depth look at mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, the Government has set out a blueprint for improving care over the next five years. The Government report of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being Taskforce’s findings, Future in mind, published on 17 March 2015, sets out a clear national ambition in the form of key aspirations that the Government would wish to see by 2020.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency North Norfolk answering member printed Norman Lamb question first answered 26/03/2015 12:22:13 answering member 1439 label Biography information for Norman Lamb
tabling member	1597 label Biography information for David Simpson

228810

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Sugar
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage confectionery retailers to reduce the sugar content of their products.
tabling member constituency	Upper Bann
tabling member printed	David Simpson
uin	228518
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2015 answer text <p>We are working in voluntary partnership with the food and drink industry to cut calories, including sugar, across a range of products including confectionery and fizzy drinks. Businesses have taken billions of calories out of their products, including by cutting sugar in juice and fizzy drinks, and by reducing the size of single serving confectionery.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 25/03/2015 16:29:52 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	1597 label Biography information for David Simpson

228811

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to provide support and assistance to the families of chronic alcoholics.
tabling member constituency	Upper Bann
tabling member printed	David Simpson
uin	228519
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>Health and Wellbeing Boards bring together councils, the National Health Service and local communities to understand local needs and priorities, which are expressed in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. This should include the need for support to families of those in alcohol treatment.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Public Health England has funded the “Alcohol and other Drug use: The Roles and Capabilities of Social Workers” guidance which sets out the key roles for social workers in relation to substance misuse.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>One of the social workers’ three key roles is “to motivate people to consider changing their problematic substance using behaviour and support them (and their families and carers) in their efforts to do so”.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>The 2014 Care Act also makes provision for carers to be entitled to an assessment to have their needs met.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 26/03/2015 14:50:32 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	1597 label Biography information for David Simpson

228812

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Bowel Cancer
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to provide support and assistance for patients with bowel cancer.
tabling member constituency	Upper Bann
tabling member printed	David Simpson
uin	228520
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2015 answer text <p>The National Cancer Survivorship Initiative (NCSI) has set out to understand the numbers, needs, and experiences of people living with and beyond cancer, including bowel cancer, and the most effective service solutions to meet the growing numbers of survivors. The NCSI has recommended four priority areas: recovery packages; consequences of treatment and Patient Report Outcome Measures; stratified pathways of care; and physical activity. To support this work NHS England, in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, has established the Living with and Beyond Cancer Programme, a two-year programme of work to embed the four priority areas from NCSI into mainstream commissioning.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Living with and beyond cancer has also been identified as a key theme by the independent Cancer Taskforce, which is developing a new cancer strategy to be published in summer 2015.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 25/03/2015 16:42:35 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	1597 label Biography information for David Simpson

228813

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Nutrition: Health Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with the Department for Education on increasing the level of healthy-eating advertising within primary schools.
tabling member constituency	Upper Bann
tabling member printed	David Simpson
uin	228540
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2015 answer text <p>Officials from the Department of Health and Department for Education meet regularly to discuss public health issues including food in schools. Formal discussions have not included increasing the level of healthy-eating advertising in primary schools, however they have included the Change4Life programme.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>Change4Life is Public Health England’s social marketing programme which aims to support families to eat well, move more and live longer. The programme works with schools by providing teachers with resources, which include recipes and ideas for including healthy eating messages across the curriculum.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 25/03/2015 16:15:30 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	1597 label Biography information for David Simpson

228817

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Medicine: Research
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using artificial human organs in medical testing.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne East
tabling member printed	Mr Nicholas Brown
uin	228545
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2015 answer text <p>The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the competent authority responsible for authorising Clinical Trial Applications in the United Kingdom and for the issuing of Marketing Authorisations (licences) for medicinal products.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>One of the joint MHRA and National Centre for 3 Rs (NC3Rs) projects involved surveying the global safety assessment community to better understand the current use of human tissue and what barriers exist to prevent wider uptake. For the purpose of the survey, human tissue was defined broadly as any material derived from human sources, including organs, tissues, (stem) cells, biofluids, <em>etc</em>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The development and use of human tissue-based assays provides an obvious alternative to current approaches used to predict human pharmacological responses. Despite this however, very little drug development is conducted using human tissues.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The NC3Rs and MHRA are working together to increase the uptake of human tissue-based approaches to replace the use of animals and provide more predictive tools to determine the safety of drugs entering clinical studies. An expert working group was convened to generate an evidence base to support this project. The initial work has highlighted that human tissue use for safety assessment is currently limited, but there is increasing interest in adopting this approach.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A number of barriers to further developing work with human tissues have been identified, but these could potentially be overcome by sharing data, experiences and information.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The project identified that the development of human-based non-animal technologies is a rapidly evolving field, with advances being made in the development of tissue engineering, microfluidics and organ on chip technologies for many of the organ systems relevant to the safety assessment of new drugs.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The project is now looking for ways to ensure that the safety assessment community does more to connect with these technology developers to help shape the research and development of new technologies to meet their needs.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The initial work on this project has been summarised in a number of papers that are scheduled to be published in scientific journals during 2015. The results are also being discussed at a number of international scientific meetings to further publicise the project and encourage more involvement from the international safety assessment community to engage in the project and to share data, experiences and information.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Norfolk answering member printed George Freeman question first answered 25/03/2015 12:45:19 answering member 4020 label Biography information for George Freeman
tabling member	523 label Biography information for Mr Nicholas Brown

228818

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	NHS 111
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions 999 ambulance call handlers have been diverted to assist with 111 calls in (a) England and (b) the North East Ambulance Service area in the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne East
tabling member printed	Mr Nicholas Brown
uin	228546
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2015 answer text <p>This data is not held centrally. NHS England has advised that this would be a matter for local providers.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Battersea answering member printed Jane Ellison question first answered 25/03/2015 16:44:54 answering member 3918 label Biography information for Jane Ellison
tabling member	523 label Biography information for Mr Nicholas Brown

228819

registered interest
date	20/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Ambulance Services: Sick Leave
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the level of sickness and absence of 999 ambulance call handlers was in (a) England and (b) the North East Ambulance Service area in the last year.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne East
tabling member printed	Mr Nicholas Brown
uin	228547
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>The level of sickness in the last year (November 2013 to October 2014) for ambulance service clerical and administrative staff which includes 999 call handlers was: (a) 6.3% for England and (b) 7.5% for the North East Ambulance Service.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Information on the level of absence for 999 ambulance call handlers is not available centrally.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>Notes: </em></p><p> </p><p>1. Sickness absence rate is calculated by dividing the sum total sickness absence days (including non-working days) by the sum total days available per month for each member of staff.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>2. While lower sickness absence figures, in general, indicate lower levels of sickness absence it should be noted that lower figures can also indicate under reporting of sickness absence.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>3. Data presented is full-time equivalent days lost to sickness absense including non-working days.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>4. The latest sickness absence data available from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is to the end of October 2014 so the latest available full year figures would be from the previous November.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Data Quality:</p><p> </p><p>The HSCIC seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data but responsibility for data accuracy lies with the organisations providing the data. Methods are continually being updated to improve data quality where changes impact on figures already published. This is assessed but unless it is significant at national level figures are not changed. Impact at detailed or local level is footnoted in relevant analyses.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><em>Source:</em> HSCIC</p><p> </p><p>Processed using data taken from the Electronic Staff Record Data Warehouse</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Norfolk answering member printed George Freeman question first answered 26/03/2015 11:25:03 answering member 4020 label Biography information for George Freeman
tabling member	523 label Biography information for Mr Nicholas Brown

228556

registered interest
date	19/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Pay
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average hourly pay is of employees at each grade within his Department identified as (a) White or White British and (b) from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic group.
tabling member constituency	Ashfield
tabling member printed	Gloria De Piero
uin	228312
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>The average hourly rates of pay by grade for individuals identified as White or White British and those from a Black, Asian or other minority group, in the Department, as at 28 February 2015 is presented in the table below.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Grade</p></td><td colspan="3"><p>Average Hourly Rate of Pay</p></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p>Overall by Grade</p><p>£</p></td><td><p>White or White British</p><p>£</p></td><td><p>Black, Asian or other minority group <br> £</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>AO</p></td><td><p>10.0</p></td><td><p>10.1</p></td><td><p>10.0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>EO</p></td><td><p>12.4</p></td><td><p>12.2</p></td><td><p>12.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>HEO</p></td><td><p>14.7</p></td><td><p>14.5</p></td><td><p>15.1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Fast Stream</p></td><td><p>14.1</p></td><td><p>14.1</p></td><td><p>14.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>SEO</p></td><td><p>18.3</p></td><td><p>18.2</p></td><td><p>18.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Grade 7</p></td><td><p>24.2</p></td><td><p>24.2</p></td><td><p>24.0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Grade 6</p></td><td><p>30.7</p></td><td><p>30.8</p></td><td><p>30.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>SCS</p></td><td><p>39.6</p></td><td><p>39.2</p></td><td><p>33.8</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>7% of civil servants had taken the option of not declaring their Ethnic Background as at 28 February 2015.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Norfolk answering member printed George Freeman question first answered 26/03/2015 11:19:46 answering member 4020 label Biography information for George Freeman
tabling member	3915 label Biography information for Gloria De Piero