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Autism

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when his Department will conduct its second review of the adult autism strategy. [173869]

Norman Lamb: The Government are currently reviewing the 2010 Adult Autism Strategy for England. The review is an opportunity for us to assess whether the objectives of the strategy remain fundamentally the right ones, to take an honest look at what progress is being achieved by local authorities and the national health service, and consider what should happen to continue to make progress. We will issue a report after the end of November 2013 which summarises the investigative stage of the review and revise the strategy as necessary by the end of March 2014.

Steve Brine: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will ensure that the mandate for Health Education England includes reference to professional training needs relating to autism. [173887]

Dr Poulter: Health Education England (HEE) is required to have regard to national outcomes and priorities when carrying out its core functions of workforce planning and the commissioning of education, training and development activity.

The Government's mandate to HEE will be reviewed for 2014-15 to ensure that the objectives are current and meaningful to the needs of our health and care systems.

Breast Cancer

Mrs Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on how the advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and treatment guideline can be updated to include recent evidence on the effects of undertaking biopsies from breast cancer patients with recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. [173453]

Norman Lamb: We have had no such discussions.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for developing independent guidance for the national health service. NICE keeps its published guidance under review to take account of the latest evidence, and any stakeholder can draw NICE'S attention to new evidence that they believe it should consider.

NICE is currently conducting a rapid update to its clinical guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of advanced breast cancer to take into account new literature focusing on the safety and benefit of exercise for breast cancer-related lymphoedema. The update to the guideline is currently planned for publication in March 2014.

Mrs Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent assessment his Department has made of compliance by NHS England to the breast cancer quality standard statements relating to multi-disciplinary teams and cancer nurse specialists; [173454]

(2) what steps NHS England is taking to monitor the implementation of the Breast Cancer Quality Standard. [173485]

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Jane Ellison: The Department has not undertaken such an assessment and NHS England has advised that no assessment has been made in that organisation.

The structure and function of multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) and the role of the Cancer Nurse Specialist in care is subject to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's Improving Outcomes Guidance and its implementation is assured through the cancer peer review process. All MDTs have to submit evidence of compliance with the Improving Outcomes Guidance to NHS Improving Quality, the new NHS improvement body, and MDT compliance rates are publicly available through the National Peer Review programme website and the My Cancer Treatment website.

Clinical Commissioning Groups

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding each clinical commissioning group has received for 2013-14. [174069]

Dr Poulter: Clinical commissioning group allocations for 2013-14 have been placed in the Library.

Congenital Abnormalities

Mr Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of children are diagnosed at birth with congenital disease. [174091]

Dr Poulter: This information is not collected centrally. Data from the British Isles Network of Congenital Anomaly Registers (BINOCAR) Report 2011 suggests that the birth prevalence of congenital anomalies is approximately 2.5%. This figure includes major structural and chromosomal anomalies but excludes minor anomalies and congenital metabolic diseases. The report is based on six regional registers covering 36% births of England and Wales and is available at:

www.binocar.org/content/Annual%20report%202011_FINAL_040913.pdf

The BINOCAR report states that one third of congenital anomalies are diagnosed at or following birth and around three quarters of affected babies are live born.

Disability Aids: Children

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received from (a) charities, (b) individuals and (c) hon. Members regarding paediatric wheelchair provision in the last 12 months. [173644]

Norman Lamb: Since November 2012, the Department has received six items of correspondence about paediatric wheelchair provision. One was from a charity, four were from individuals and one was from an hon. Member.

Disability: Children

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of support for parents or carers of disabled children; and if he will discuss with the Secretary of State for Education steps to improve assessments of these carers' needs. [173917]

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Norman Lamb: The Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson), and I have recently had discussions on this issue in the context of both the Care Bill and the Children and Families Bill.

Policy on supporting disabled children and their families lies clearly with the Department for Education. This includes policy in relation to parent carers of disabled children. A key principle of the Children Act 1989 is that children are best looked after within their families. Under the Act, local authorities are required to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. Statutory guidance makes it clear that in assessments, local authorities should also look at the parent or carer's capacity to meet the needs of the disabled child.

Genetics: Screening

Mr George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the names of the members of NHS England's Molecular Diagnostic Testing Group. [173381]

Jane Ellison: The information will be published on the NHS England website in due course. NHS England will provide this information when the list of names is finalised and a copy will be placed in the Library.

Homeopathy

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy on the promotion of homoeopathy through the NHS Choices website is. [173639]

Jane Ellison: The purpose of homeopathy information on NHS Choices is to allow the public to make informed decisions, about their health care.

NHS Choices regularly reviews the content on the NHS Choices website to ensure the information is up to date as well as neutral, factual and objective. The content on homeopathy was updated for greater clarity, particularly about the underlying evidence.

Influenza: Vaccination

John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the take-up of the influenza vaccine among those entitled to a free vaccination in (a) England, (b) Cumbria and (c) Barrow and Furness constituency in each of the last three years. [173923]

Jane Ellison: The information requested is not collected in the format requested at a national and constituency level. Data from the Cumbria Teaching primary care trust (PCT), which existed until April 2013, have been used to estimate the uptake of the influenza vaccine in Cumbria and are available in the following tables:

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Mental Health Services

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with mental health problems who are victims of crime are properly supported; [173403]

(2) what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department of the conclusions and recommendations of the 2013 report from Mind, Victim Support and others entitled “At Risk, Yet Dismissed: The criminal victimisation of people with mental health problems” and if he will meet the authors of that report. [173482]

Norman Lamb: The Department agrees that mental health service users are much more likely to be the victims rather than the perpetrators of crime and this is why it welcomed the report “At Risk, Yet Dismissed: The criminal victimisation of people with mental-health problems” and its call for a system wide response to meet the needs of victims of crime with mental health needs.

The Government have conducted a review of the victim's services, including the Code of Practice for Victims of .Crime to ensure that all victims receive the most appropriate support throughout the criminal justice system process. The Code will provide an enhanced service for three categories of victim: victims of the most serious crime; the most persistently targeted; and vulnerable or intimidated victims.

The Department is working with the Ministry of Justice to establish ways in which victims of crime with mental health problems can receive the most appropriate support.

Departmental officials will be meeting with the authors of the report and Ministry of Justice officials.

Mental Health Services: Young People

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many under 18 year olds have been admitted to adult mental health wards in each of the last five years. [173870]

Norman Lamb: We do not hold the information in the form requested.

From 2007-08 until the end of the previous financial year (2010-11), the Department collected statistics under

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the NHS Operating Framework's Vital Signs Monitoring Returns. This showed that the number of bed days for under 18-year-olds on adult psychiatric wards were as follows:

This data collection on children on adult wards referred only to those patients under the care of a psychiatric specialist. It excluded those patients who were in a part of an adult psychiatric ward specifically set aside to meet the needs of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) patients.

Data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that the following number of bed days in adult specialist mental health facilities were spent by patients under 18 years of age in 2011-12 in each region:

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From 2011-12, the Health and Social Care Information Centre has been reporting figures based on the Mental Health Minimum Dataset, and publishing this in their quarterly publication Mental Health Trusts' Service Performance Indicator 10. This is defined as the number of bed days for children and adolescents on adult psychiatric wards during the reporting period. This has no exclusion criteria so any patients on an adult ward which has been set aside for CAMHS patients would be included in. the count. The data for 2011-12 are therefore not directly comparable with those for the period 2007-11.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many under 18 year olds have accessed cognitive behavioural therapy in each of the last five years. [173871]

Norman Lamb: These data are not collected centrally by the Department.

Midwives

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many midwives were working in the NHS (a) in Greater Manchester and (b) nationally in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012 and (iv) 2013. [173806]

Dr Poulter: The information requested is included in the table.

It should be noted that we are unable to accurately map organisation level workforce figures to the Greater Manchester area, but the individual organisations listed are those which cover the hon. Member's constituency area.

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Musculoskeletal Disorders

Mr Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how Public Health England plans to incorporate the health and wellbeing of people with musculoskeletal conditions into its work-streams and framework for health and wellbeing. [173443]

Norman Lamb: The Global Burden of Disease study showed the significant burden of musculoskeletal conditions on the nation's health. Public Health England (PHE), working with local government, NHS England, the Department and others, is developing a Health and Wellbeing Framework for England to develop a common understanding of the public's health, in order to outline contributors to poor wellbeing and the actions we can take to address them.

PHE is focusing on the prevention of musculoskeletal disease and injury through its work to promote physical activity, tackle obesity, reduce smoking and improve workplace health.

NHS: Finance

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding each local authority has received for health provision in each year since 2010. [174068]

Jane Ellison: A ring-fenced public health grant of £5.46 billion for 2013-14 and 2014-15 was announced on 10 January 2013 to support upper tier and unitary local authorities in carrying out their new public health functions from April 2013.

The following table sets out the public health allocations to upper tier and unitary local authorities for 2013-14 and 2014-15:

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Sepsis

Mr Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will implement a national awareness campaign surrounding early diagnosis of sepsis. [173999]

Dr Poulter: The Department has already taken steps to raise awareness of sepsis. This includes setting objectives in the NHS mandate requiring the national health service to provide a high quality of patient care and ensuring that the NHS outcomes framework for 2013-14 includes patient safety outcomes and corresponding indicators.

Furthermore, we understand that NHS England is also collaborating with Dr Ron Daniels, who was instrumental in developing the “Sepsis Six” protocols for treating sepsis, to embed awareness of these protocols in NHS practice. The protocols set out six key steps in the effective diagnosis and treatment of sepsis.

The recognition and management of sepsis is also part of a clinical audit of emergency departments by the College of Emergency Medicine, which will be concluded by 31 January 2014. This audit is listed in the Department's quality accounts for 2013-14, which requires providers in England to report on their participation in national clinical audits.

Skin Cancer

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of skin cancer were diagnosed in each year for which data is available. [173964]

Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

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Letter from Glen Watson, dated November 2013:

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of skin cancer were diagnosed in each year for which data is available. [173964]

Table 1 provides the number of newly diagnosed cases of malignant melanoma of skin for men, women and all persons in England, for each year from 1971 to 2011.

The latest published figures on cancer incidence in England are available on the National Statistics website at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/cancer-statistics-registrations--england--series-mb1-/index.html

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Women and Equalities

Marriage

Tim Loughton: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what recent discussions she has had with the Church of England on allowing blessings for same sex unions in Church of England premises. [173872]

Mr Vaizey: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Ministers and officials have had regular discussions with the Church of England in the context of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. These have not addressed the question of whether blessings of same sex couples should be allowed, which is entirely a matter for the Church of England.