The Headquarters and The Association of The Parachute Regiment are closely engaged with our in-country staff in co-ordinating a series of events taking place in and around Arnhem over the period 20-22 September 2019. Both the Chief of the General Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff will be in attendance at the main Dutch event in Arnhem at the invitation of their respective opposite numbers within the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces.

As part of the commemorations, both the Mercian Regiment and the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment will be providing substantial representation; given their antecedent Regiments’ involvement in the form of the South Staffordshire Regiment and the Border Regiment, respectively, as glider-borne troops who made up the 1st Air Landing Brigade.

Her Majesty's Government's plans to formally commemorate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day in 2019 have yet to be decided. Elements of Defence routinely support annual local events both in the UK and in France.

No.

No.

All 18 files have been examined by officials and I can confirm that Rendlesham Forest is mentioned. However, this is only in relation to replies to parliamentary questions and responses to enquiries from members of the public advising that the Ministry of Defence could not confirm Colonel Halt's account.

None of the files contain radar reports or any type of tapes.

In 2014, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published updated guidelines on the management of atrial fibrillation (AF), which covers the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of the condition. NICE is also developing AF Quality Standards which it expects to publish this summer.

In addition, the NHS Health Check programme’s best practice guidance recommends that a pulse check is carried out as part of the process of taking a blood pressure reading and that individuals who are found to have an irregular pulse rhythm should be referred to their general practitioner (GP) for further investigation.

NHS Improving Quality’s (NHS IQ) is also taking action on AF. It is promoting the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within GP practices in England. GRASP-AF is a simple and effective audit tool developed by and trialled in the National Health Service, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. NHS IQ is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

To support this work, NHS IQ recently published an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF. A copy of this analysis is attached and can also be found at:

http://www.nhsiq.nhs.uk/media/2566750/af_economic_analysis_final.pdf

Data for 2014 is not available until October 2015.

New HIV diagnoses in the United Kingdom in 2013, by probable exposure category and sex:

New HIV diagnoses in the United Kingdom in 2013 among those infected through heterosexual contact, by sex and age group:

New HIV diagnoses in the United Kingdom in 2013 among those infected through homosexual contact, by sex and age group:

Further data tables for 2013 are available from the Public Health England webpages:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hiv-surveillance-data-and-management

Notes:

1. New HIV diagnoses data includes individuals who have an existing infection as well as those who have a newly acquired infection and therefore the data do not present incidence of infection.

2. Data will include some records of the same individuals which are unmatchable because of differences in the data supplied.

3. Numbers will rise as further reports are received.

4. Per question, ‘homosexual men’ are men who report having had sex with men and ‘homosexual women’ are women who report having had sex with women.

Data for 2014 is not available until October 2015.

Latest data from the national human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) surveillance system shows that in 2013, of 5,594 adults (aged 15 years old or above) newly diagnosed with HIV in England and Wales, nine were newly diagnosed with HIV at a prison service. An additional 210 patients living with a diagnosed HIV infection (diagnosed before 2013) were resident in prison.

Notes:

The numbers are likely to be under-reported because prison status is not routinely collected. Prisoners were identified if the residential information provided related to a prison setting. Therefore the completeness and accuracy of the numbers depends on the clinicians’ reports. Furthermore, most prisoners have short custodial sentences and consequently may not be included in the national HIV surveillance system which collects information relating to a patients’ most recent attendance at an HIV service.

The Department holds a contract with the Terrence Higgins Trust to deliver targeted HIV prevention programmes for those groups most at risk of HIV which in the United Kingdom is men who have sex with men (MSM) and black African communities. The current contract delivers the HIV Prevention England programme. In 2014-15 the value of this contract was £2.450 million and of this £550,000 was spent on social marketing activity including advertising.

It is for NHS England, working with Public Health England (PHE) and other stakeholders, to implement the actions set out in the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy. NHS England has established a working group with PHE which meets quarterly to discuss progress on the strategy and is taking action on all the recommendations, some it has prioritised over others.

For example, on making benchmarked data on CVD risk factors available, PHE has established a CVD National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network and a Partnership Board. These bring together a variety of stakeholders which hold or have an interest in this type of data, including the leads of the existing clinical audits covering cardiovascular disease.

PHE also continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of CVD by running campaigns such as Act FAST. This has been the Department’s and PHE’s most successful campaign and continues to help people experiencing the signs and symptoms of a stroke get to hospital quicker. The campaign will be run again during 2014-15.

NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cardiac Disease established a Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) advisory group which has identified some of the barriers to identifying more families with FH and will continue to develop and spread good practice in this field.

At a local level, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are being encouraged to implement the Strategy with the support of the twelve Strategic Clinical Networks. These networks are working with CCGs and other partners in the health and care system to identify local and regional priorities for cardiac and renal disease, diabetes and stroke.

All 152 local authorities are offering the NHS Health Check programme, which aims to present heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. Local authorities have a legal duty to deliver the programme to all of their eligible population once every five years. In 2013-14 a total of 2.8 million people (18.5%) of the five years eligible population were offered an NHS Health Check while just fewer than 1.4 million received an NHS Health Check, equating to 49% of those offered. This is the greatest number of NHS Health Checks offerred and received in one year since the programme began.

NHS England is taking a number of actions to improve the care and management of people with atrial fibrillation (AF). It has published Our Ambition to Reduce Premature Mortality: A resource to support commissioners in setting a level of ambition, which identifies improved management of AF as a priority for reducing premature mortality. The resource can be found at:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/sop/red-prem-mort/

National Health Service Improving Quality’s Living Longer Lives programme includes promoting the use of a simple but effective audit tool called Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation (GRASP-AF) which simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right treatment. NHS Improving Quality is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

This work will be supported by the publication of an economic analysis commissioned by NHS Improving Quality using GRASP data which demonstrates both the current and potential impact of atrial fibrillation management on the number of AF related strokes.

Discussions are also underway to consider whether opportunistic testing for atrial fibrillation (AF) should be encouraged nationally as part of the NHS Health Check programme.

NHS England is taking a number of actions to improve the care and management of people with atrial fibrillation (AF). It has published Our Ambition to Reduce Premature Mortality: A resource to support commissioners in setting a level of ambition, which identifies improved management of AF as a priority for reducing premature mortality. The resource can be found at:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/sop/red-prem-mort/

National Health Service Improving Quality’s Living Longer Lives programme includes promoting the use of a simple but effective audit tool called Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation (GRASP-AF) which simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right treatment. NHS Improving Quality is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

This work will be supported by the publication of an economic analysis commissioned by NHS Improving Quality using GRASP data which demonstrates both the current and potential impact of atrial fibrillation management on the number of AF related strokes.

Discussions are also underway to consider whether opportunistic testing for atrial fibrillation (AF) should be encouraged nationally as part of the NHS Health Check programme.

Information is not held centrally on the number of people treated with warfarin or novel oral anticoagulants. The following table provides information on the number of prescription items written in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom, for the latest calendar year, for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium.

Source: ePACT and Hospital ePACT, NHS Prescription Services, part of the NHS Business Services Authority

Notes:^1. The figures include prescriptions written in a hospital in England but dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom.^2. These medicines are also used in secondary care, however no equivalent measure to a prescription item is available for secondary care data.

Some patients treated with warfarin may receive prescription items for two or three different strengths of warfarin to allow the dose to be altered in response to monitoring of INR. (NB: warfarin is available as 0.5mg, 1mg, 3mg and 5mg tablets).

Information is not held centrally on the number of people treated with warfarin or novel oral anticoagulants. The following table provides information on the number of prescription items written in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom, for the latest calendar year, for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium.

Source: ePACT and Hospital ePACT, NHS Prescription Services, part of the NHS Business Services Authority

Notes:^1. The figures include prescriptions written in a hospital in England but dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom.^2. These medicines are also used in secondary care, however no equivalent measure to a prescription item is available for secondary care data.

Some patients treated with warfarin may receive prescription items for two or three different strengths of warfarin to allow the dose to be altered in response to monitoring of INR. (NB: warfarin is available as 0.5mg, 1mg, 3mg and 5mg tablets).

Decisions on the prescribing of medicines are a matter for clinicians in discussion with their patients.

National Health Service commissioners are legally required by regulations to fund those anticoagulant treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence(NICE) in its technology appraisal guidance.

The NICE Implementation Collaborative published a consensus statement on supporting the use of novel oral anticoagulants in non-valvular atrial fibrillation on 18 June 2014. This is available at:

www.nice.org.uk/resource/CG180/pdf/c/cg180-atrial-fibrillation-nic-consensus-statement-on-the-use-of-noacs?id=gvyb3hjdqrcjtn6ytpwx3ydb64

NICE published its updated clinical guideline on the management of atrial fibrillation on 25 June 2014 which recommends that novel oral anticoagulants should be offered where appropriate.

The latest data from the Innovation Scorecard show that uptake of new anticoagulants across England is increasing. Further information is available at:

www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB13669

This Government does not believe that being lesbian, gay or bisexual is an illness to be treated or cured. We have no current plans

to ban or restrict conversion therapy via legislation as we do not feel this would be an effective preventive measure.

We do, however, fully recognise the importance of this issue. Therefore, the Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb, convened a roundtable with professional bodies and charities in February of this year to discuss collaborative measures to help prevent the use of such therapies. The Department continues to work with these organisations.

On 14 February 2014, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority jointly published Special Measures—update report, a report summarising the progress made at the National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts placed in special measures following Sir Bruce Keogh’s review of persistently high hospital mortality rates (“the Keogh review”). This includes Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. A copy of the report has been placed in the Library.

Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has put a range of measures in place to ensure that patient safety and care issues are identified and addressed at the earliest stage.

The Trust is committed to continuing to improve the quality of services and care provided at its hospitals, and will ensure it listens and is responsive to patient concerns. The Care Quality Commission's Chief Inspector of Hospitals will re-inspect the Trust later this year to assess the improvements in its services. The noble Lord may wish to contact the Trust directly for information about further improvements.

We have made no estimate of the extent of the use of reparative or conversion therapies on gay people. This Government does not believe that being lesbian, gay or bisexual is an illness to be treated or cured. We are therefore strongly against the practice of so called ‘reparative' or ‘conversion' therapy.

No assessment has been made of the role of cat ownership in the provision of therapy for people with special needs.

This is a matter for Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

We have written to the trust's chair, Ian Luder, informing him of your enquiry. He will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.