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Dr Poulter: As with all major projects and programmes on the Health and Social Care Information Centre portfolio of work, the programme adheres to the Major Projects Authority assurance process, led by the Cabinet Office.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what audits he will carry out on care.data after extraction of patient records begins. [190956]

Dr Poulter: The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is responsible for ensuring that it does not disclose information to bodies that do not have secure data handling procedures. The HSCIC requires all bodies requesting information to meet published information security standards and to sign an agreement that enables the HSCIC to conduct follow up audits where stronger assurance is desirable.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what types of organisation (a) will and (b) will not be permitted to access patient records extracted as part of care.data; [190957]

(2) under what circumstances and for what purposes amber data can be disclosed to companies under care.data. [190959]

Dr Poulter: Any organisation can make an application to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) for identifiable data (‘red data’) or de-identified data for limited disclosure or access (‘amber data’) and each application is considered individually.

Data collected under care.data will only be released by the HSCIC for commissioning purposes and where applicants can demonstrate that they will be used for the benefit of health and social care.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who will be responsible for taking decisions on the disclosure of identifiable and potentially identifiable data under care.data. [190958]

Dr Poulter: Decisions will be made by the Health and Social Care Information Centre within a policy framework agreed with the Department and NHS England. This framework is currently being reviewed to reflect proposed changes to the current Care Bill and will ensure that all disclosure of data are lawful, ethical and appropriate.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health under what circumstances (a) the Department for Work and Pensions and (b) HM Revenue and Customs can access patient information extracted as part of care.data. [190960]

Dr Poulter: Data can only be used for the purposes of health and care or adult social care provision, or the promotion of health. The Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs would fall outside these purposes.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many meetings he has had with commercial companies on care.data in the last two years; and when such meetings took place. [190972]

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Dr Poulter: The Secretary of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), has not held any meetings with commercial companies on care.data.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many meetings he has had with the hon. Member for Mid Norfolk to discuss care.data in the last two years; and when such meetings took place. [190973]

Dr Poulter: Details of all ministerial meetings with external parties are published quarterly in arrears on the Department's website. The latest publication can be found on the Department's website:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-external-meetings-2012-to-2013?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procedures are in place to retrieve or destroy NHS patient data which has been wrongly provided to companies. [190974]

Dr Poulter: The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has strict assurance processes in place which are completed before any data are passed to an organisation that has requested them. The HSCIC has recently revised the strict assurance processes for releasing data and has a robust checking mechanism in place to ensure the correct data are sent to the correct organisation.

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he will take to test the technology used to extract patient records as part of care.data before full data extraction takes place. [191045]

Dr Poulter: The care.data primary care extract will be assured in line with the General Practice Extraction Service certification process. The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) will produce the Extraction Requirement which is circulated to general practice system suppliers and sets out the data that will need to flow to the HSCIC for this requirement.

The certification process tests whether general practice system suppliers interpret and implement the Extraction Requirement in the manner it should be interpreted and implemented.

Obesity

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to ensure that psychological support is always provided alongside medical interventions for Tier 3 obesity treatment of children, adolescents and adults. [191200]

Jane Ellison: Local health and care service providers are responsible for the provision of tier 3 obesity services to meet the needs of their population. As part of the obesity care pathway, Public Health England and the Department would expect local services to be developed taking into account both NHS England's and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance for tier 3 assessment and support; namely that a tier 3 service for children, adolescents and adults, is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) of specialists, led by a clinician and including psychological support.

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For children and adolescents it is recommended that the MDT has a paediatric obesity focus and in addition to clinical treatment, to also provide support on family lifestyle behaviours.

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the NHS is taking to tackle obesity among members of its workforce. [191360]

Jane Ellison: National health service organisations are encouraged to lead the way in supporting staff to address their own weight and health issues, in addition to helping patients do the same. NHS England has committed to supporting the NHS Sports and Activity Challenge which aims to support the importance of staff well-being, as well as the opportunities which it offers to deliver the very best care we can to patients, carers and the public more generally.

The Public Health Responsibility Deal health at work pledges include one on Healthier Staff Restaurants which makes it easier for people to choose and maintain a healthier diet while at work. The food and drink available and promoted in the workplace, for example in staff restaurants and cafes, vending machines and buffets for staff, can play a vital role in influencing people's choices and behaviour about what they eat at work and outside of work. There are now 57 NHS trusts signed up to at least one of the health at work collective pledges and of these, 21 are signed up to the Healthier Staff Restaurants pledge.

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many officials at Public Health England are tasked specifically with tackling obesity. [191377]

Jane Ellison: Public Health England (PHE) obesity related workforce complements the Department's Obesity and Food Policy team and local public health teams.

PHE has approximately 12 full-time staff working on obesity from the following teams: obesity and healthy weight, obesity knowledge and intelligence and staff working on childhood obesity in the children, young people and families' team.

PHE delivers its programmes, through teams working together across the life course and on specific subject areas. A range of teams make a significant contribution to the work on obesity including: Diet and Obesity; Children; Health Equity; Adults and Older People; and its Regional and Centre teams, who also support local public health teams to deliver action to prevent.

Out-patients

Julie Hilling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many out-patient appointments were cancelled in each NHS trust in England in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [190999]

Jane Ellison: The information has been placed in the Library.

Palliative Care

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the development of the Transform programme in hospitals. [190902]

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Norman Lamb: The Transform programme was launched in 2011 to provide practical support to managers and clinicians in acute trusts in England with the aim of delivering real improvements to the quality of end of life care for individuals and their carers. The aim was also to promote the quality improvement approach and the dissemination of best practice.

Evaluation of the programme started in August 2013 and included a rapid review of all the data and published documents that had been captured in relation to Phase I. A series of interviews took place in October and November 2013 with members of the Transform programme steering group to scope plans for a further evaluation of the programme from April 2014 onwards. Additionally, a series of case studies have been generated to highlight innovative practice and to help share learning. The executive summary of the evaluation of the Transform programme is due to be published at the end of March 2014.

Pancreatic Cancer

Ms Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he has taken to include pancreatic cancer in the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative. [191079]

Jane Ellison: Achieving earlier diagnosis of cancer is key to our ambition to save an additional 5,000 lives per year by 2014-15.

The focus of Be Clear on Cancer campaigns so far has been on cancers with the largest number of avoidable deaths, compared with countries with the best survival rates. We know early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer can be very difficult as the symptoms are shared with a wide range of benign conditions. We will continue to keep campaigns under review and work with relevant experts to see what might be done to tackle other cancers, including pancreatic cancer.

Skin Cancer

Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the clinical effectiveness of ipilimumab as a first line treatment for patients with advanced melanoma; and if he will make a statement. [190933]

Norman Lamb: We have made no such assessment. Ipilimumab (Yervoy) is licensed for the treatment of advanced (unresectable or metastatic) melanoma in adults.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently appraising the use of ipilimumab for previously untreated unresectable stage III or IV malignant melanoma. Details of NICE's draft guidance for consultation for this appraisal are at:

http://guidance.nice.org.uk/TAG/209

Stakeholders have until 18 March to comment on NICE's draft recommendations.

Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that patients with advanced melanoma have access to all appropriate, innovative and clinically effective treatments; and if he will make a statement. [190968]

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Norman Lamb: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended ipilimumab (Yervoy) as an option for treating advanced melanoma in people who have received prior therapy and vernurafenib (Zelboraf) for the first-line treatment of advanced melanoma in patients with a particular gene mutation.

National health service commissioners are legally required to fund those treatments recommended by NICE in its technology appraisal guidance.

Where a drug is not routinely funded by the NHS, patients may be able to access it via the Cancer Drugs Fund. NHS England is responsible for administering the fund, and decisions on which treatments are afforded priority funding status are taken by an expert clinical panel. For cancer drugs not on the national cohort

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policy list, regional clinical panels can consider individual applications for funding in exceptional cases.

Surgery

Julie Hilling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many finished admission episodes there were in each NHS trust in England in the last five years for which figures are available; what the (a) mean and (b) median time waited was in days for (i) hip replacement, (ii) hysterectomy and (iii) cataract removal procedures in each such area; and if he will make a statement. [190997]

Jane Ellison: The information has been placed in the Library.