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170416

registered interest
date	15/12/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the savings to his Department from the Q&A system in the (a) 12 months and (b) five years since 4 June 2014; what additional ICT systems or improvements to existing systems his Department has introduced or plans to introduce that would not have been feasible without the Q&A system; and what assessment he has made of the extent to which the system has made it easier to answer questions from hon. Members on time.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	218783
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/01/2015 answer text <p>We have made no estimate of savings specifically arising from the introduction of the Q&amp;A system, and have not improved or added to existing systems. The Q&amp;A system allows us to receive questions directly from the Table Office, and for hon. Members to receive answers more quickly by removing the need for the delivery of printed versions.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>One of the potential benefits of the new system is for the reporting of the timeliness of answers to Parliamentary Questions to be delivered with greater consistency and accuracy across all answering bodies.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It will be for the Procedure Committee to evaluate the effectiveness of the new system in improving performance when it assesses the evidence following the end of the session.</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 Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 06/01/2015 14:53:45 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

228815

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	Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2015 to Question 223927, if he will review the range of data collected centrally within his Department and the subjects of Parliamentary Questions received by his Department in the present Parliament to ensure that a higher proportion of hon. Members' Questions can be answered with substantive information.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Mark Hendrick
uin	228557
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2015 answer text <p>The Department answers parliamentary questions where it is able to, based on the information it collects. Transparency in public services and access to open data are key Government priorities. Transparency in the health and social care sector is important to support public accountability of services and choice for service users.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 25/03/2015 12:39:09 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

156603

registered interest
date	19/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Veterans: Visual Impairment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2014 to Question 210999, if he will publish the timetable for his further consideration of the collection of data on people registering as visually impaired who are veterans.
tabling member constituency	Colchester
tabling member printed	Sir Bob Russell
uin	215161
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2014 answer text <p>The Department has received initial advice from NHS England and Blind Veterans UK on the collection of this data.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A formal meeting with NHS England, Blind Veterans UK, the Health and Social Care Information Centre and Primary Health Care Optometry leads will be arranged in the next few weeks to consider the options for collecting data on veterans registering as visually impaired and plan the best mechanism for doing so.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter grouped question UIN 215162 question first answered 26/11/2014 12:44:51 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	35 label Biography information for Sir Bob Russell

156604

registered interest
date	19/11/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Veterans: Visual Impairment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to include an option to identify vision-impaired veterans on the registration document with NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
tabling member constituency	Colchester
tabling member printed	Sir Bob Russell
uin	215162
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2014 answer text <p>The Department has received initial advice from NHS England and Blind Veterans UK on the collection of this data.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A formal meeting with NHS England, Blind Veterans UK, the Health and Social Care Information Centre and Primary Health Care Optometry leads will be arranged in the next few weeks to consider the options for collecting data on veterans registering as visually impaired and plan the best mechanism for doing so.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter grouped question UIN 215161 question first answered 26/11/2014 12:44:51 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	35 label Biography information for Sir Bob Russell

169853

registered interest
date	11/12/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Veterans: Rehabilitation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much funding his Department has provided to each charity involved in the rehabilitation of veterans of the armed forces in (a) each year since 2010 and (b) 2014 to date.
tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
uin	218369
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2014 answer text <p>The Department has not provided any direct funding for Service Charities to provide rehabilitation services to veterans of the armed forces.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>However, since 2010 the Department has invested over £22.5 million to improve both mental and physical health services for veterans and used additional funding from LIBOR fines to banks to broaden the range of services available, including £2 million to Combat Stress to provide specific services for those veterans with alcohol problems and £2.7 million to help for Heroes for their Hidden Wounds programme providing mental health support for veterans.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 18/12/2014 17:07:29 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne

227540

registered interest
date	16/03/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Vanguard
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reason Vanguard was given a new NHS contract; what steps he plans to take to ensure that the problems which arose on Vanguard's previous contract with the NHS do not recur and that patient safety is not put at risk; and what assessment he has made of the company's financial liability for its under-performance in respect of that previous contract.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hall Green
tabling member printed	Mr Roger Godsiff
uin	227632
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2015 answer text <p>NHS Supply Chain has launched a framework agreement for mobile and strategic services. This framework agreement does not constitute a centralised national contract with any providers. Contracting for such services to meet temporary needs and maintain service standards are decisions for individual National Health Service organisations as opposed to politicians and civil servants in Whitehall.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>All suppliers on the framework are Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered, hold Monitor licences as a minimum and have been vetted via the Disclosure and Barring Service. They will also have insurance cover to a minimum of £5 million as well as ISO9001 certification.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The CQC registration includes a number of measures which need to be periodically satisfied in order to continue providing services to the NHS. The CQC also has the power to act if it determines that services are not of a sufficient quality.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>More generally, we have brought in tougher independent inspections for all hospitals so any service that is not providing the desired quality of care, whether it is run by the NHS or privately, will be forced to turn things around or be put into special measures. The CQC, as the independent regulator of quality and safety, through its rigorous inspection regime is doing exactly what it was established to do.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The NHS Litigation Authority has no record of any claims payments made in connection with negligence incurred by Vanguard Healthcare Ltd, and no assessment has been made of any financial liabilities they may have incurred from previous contracts.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter grouped question UIN 227631 227646 question first answered 19/03/2015 14:39:22 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	304 label Biography information for Mr Roger Godsiff

169862

registered interest
date	11/12/2014
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Travel
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has spent on (a) taxis, (b) first class train tickets and (c) business class air travel in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Manchester Central
tabling member printed	Lucy Powell
uin	218477
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2014 answer text <p>The Department’s travel and expenses policy clearly states that taxis are an expensive form of publicly available transport and should only be considered if their use is cost effective and delivers a business benefit.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Taxis must not be used for journeys of more than five miles unless no other form of public transport is available. Only exceptionally should taxis be used for journeys between the Department’s London offices, or in Leeds when the Leeds Shuttle Bus is unavailable.</p><p> </p><p>The combined total amount spent on taxi travel by all calendar years was £877,542 between 2009 and December 2014 and the total expenditure is comprised of management information through I-Expenses and Business Management System (BMS) as noted from the tables below.</p><p> </p><p>The following table is as taken from I-Expenses:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Taxi Expenditure</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009</p></td><td><p>£138,332</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>£122,035</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>£87,110</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>£73,213</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>£54,442</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>£44,390</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>£519,522</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The following information has been drawn from the Department’s Business Management System (BMS). BMS is a centralised database which was introduced in July 2008. It allows the Department to collect detail on the categorisation, purpose and value of orders and purchases.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Taxi Expenditure</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009</p></td><td><p>£298,286</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>£31,688</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>£5,430</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>£7,841</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>£9,550</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>£5,225</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>£358,020</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department’s travel policy states that all rail travel must be standard class regardless of grade unless there is a clear business need to travel first class. First class rail tickets will require senior civil servant approval.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The total amount spent on first class travel by calendar year was £5,570,735 between 2009 and up to December 2014 as noted in the following table.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Total Spend</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009</p></td><td><p>£3,139,973<strong> </strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>£1,967,616</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>£264,490</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>£95,727</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>£58,067</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>£44,862</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>£5,570,735</p></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For comparison, equivalent spend on first class trains from 2005 to 2008 was:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Total Spend</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2005</p></td><td><p>£2,935,301</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2006</p></td><td><p>£3,425,383</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2007</p></td><td><p>£3,450,536</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2008</p></td><td><p>£4,469,270</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>£14,280,490</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>The Department books the following classes of flights; economy, premium economy, and business class. Economy class is the default booking and an approved business case is required to book business class. If a flight is upgraded free of charge to business class, a business case is not required, although the management information will record a business class flight was taken.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The total amount spent on business class flights by calendar year was £1,090,466 between 2009 and December 2014.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Total Spend</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009</p></td><td><p>£552,342</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>£217,674</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>£161,198</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>£98,752</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>£38,050</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>£22,450</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>£1,090,466</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>For comparison, equivalent spend on business class flights from 2005 to 2008 was:</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Total Spend</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2005</p></td><td><p>£636,595</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2006</p></td><td><p>£483,724</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2007</p></td><td><p>£491,936</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2008</p></td><td><p>£596,350</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>£2,208,605</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 18/12/2014 17:17:03 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	4263 label Biography information for Lucy Powell

179610

registered interest
date	12/02/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Training
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department spent on training in each of the last three financial years.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	224515
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2015 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p /> <p>The total spend on staff learning and development in the last three financial years, combining both central spend by the learning and development section of Human Resources (HR) and by local directorates, is presented in the table below. The figures in the table below include payments for Civil Service HR expert services which in turn includes Civil Service Learning fees.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Financial Year</p></td><td><p>Annual Learning and Development Expenditure £</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>976,527</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>1,037,196</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14</p></td><td><p>779,461</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>1 April 2014 – 31 January 2015</p></td><td><p>644,335</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The information in the above tables does not include costs incurred for programme-funded training, or training for non-permanent workers within the Department.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 27/02/2015 11:40:15 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

179620

registered interest
date	12/02/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Training
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average number of days training of full-time equivalent staff employed in his Department was in each of the last three financial years.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	224477
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/02/2015 answer text <p>The Department is committed to developing its staff. Individuals and local teams arrange a variety of developmental activities, including formal training courses. The number of hours/days for each individual is not recorded centrally. To gather this information would incur disproportionate costs.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 26/02/2015 15:48:23 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

179631

registered interest
date	12/02/2015
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Training
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department provides to its managers on how many days training should be made available to staff.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	224428
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/02/2015 answer text <p>The Department is committed to developing its staff and encourages staff to take five days learning a year. It does this in a variety of ways including staff communications; learning at work weeks and through line-managers.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Central Suffolk and North Ipswich answering member printed Dr Daniel Poulter question first answered 26/02/2015 15:49:28 answering member 3932 label Biography information for Dr Dan Poulter
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah