Typically, at least half of the money that a General Medical Services practice receives is in the form of 'Global Sum' derived through the Carr-Hill formula. The Carr-Hill formula, as agreed with the British Medical Association, is used to allocate the Global Sum and related payments on the basis of the practice population, weighted for factors that influence relative needs and costs.

Currently, the Carr-Hill formula includes a weighting for deprivation factors. It includes adjustments for levels of chronic disease and premature mortality, both of which are highly correlated with social deprivation. This was based on academic research to establish which factors – in addition to age and sex – best predict variations in workload between GP practices. A national review of the Carr-Hill formula is ongoing.

NHS England is in the process of reviewing Personal Medical Services (PMS) contracts to ensure fair funding for all general practices and its East Anglia Area Team will be carrying out a full review of the Millfield Medical Centre’s PMS contract in early 2015.

The Department has made no such analysis.

NHS England is in the process of reviewing Personal Medical Services (PMS) contracts to ensure fair funding for all general practices. Area teams will work with PMS practices to assess the impact of any reduction in payments on its registered patients.

NHS England holds a budget of £13 billion with which to commission 145 specialised services. NHS England does not separately identify the costs of the treatment of rare diseases because many of the specialised services – for example neurosciences – include treatments for patients who have both rare diseases and traumatic injuries.

The Rare Diseases Advisory Group (RDAG) was established in March 2014 by NHS England. It was set up to provide NHS England and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with consistent advice on developing and implementing the strategy for rare diseases and highly specialised services. The RDAG will also provide advice to NHS England and the devolved administrations to enable it to respond to consultations issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Highly Specialised Technology Programme and to provide advice to NHS England and the devolved administrations on the most appropriate services to deliver those highly specialised technologies that receive a positive technology appraisal determination from NICE.

At the three meetings held by RDAG in 2014 the group has addressed proposals for some new treatments to be considered for provision in the National Health Service. It has also considered a number of services, currently provided within the NHS, that meet the criteria of Highly Specialised Services (HSS) and should be considered as highly specialised and re-configured to be provided in expert centres. The group has also considered a number of service specifications for HSS. Recommendations have been made to the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group based on these decisions. Any recommendations agreed by NHS England will go out for a full three month consultation.

All known new drugs, which include new antibiotics, coming onto the United Kingdom market are considered as part of the process for determining whether they can be added to the list of high cost drugs that are reimbursed outside of national prices. This process takes a forward look for drugs likely to come onto the market when the National Tariff comes into effect, to ensure that the high cost list remains clinically relevant.

We are commissioning an external review of the pathways for the development, assessment, and adoption of innovative medicines and medical technology. This review will consider how to speed up access for National Health Service patients to cost-effective new diagnostics, medicines and devices.

The National Offender Management Service's central accounting system does not separately identify details of budgets allocated for the provision of courses for all prisoners serving indeterminate sentence, or by conviction categories. Budgets associated with such expenditure are primarily met through establishment baseline funding and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost by examining locally held records at each establishment, disaggregating and then collating the costs that relate to the relevant categories of offenders and courses.

There is no set departmental guidance on the proportional allocation of individual budgets. Prison budgets are compiled annually based on an assessment of operational business needs and may vary from year to year according to changes in Departmental priorities.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) have been receiving high quality research applications in mesothelioma. The Government is implementing a package of measures to stimulate an increase in the volume of applications and funded research in mesothelioma.

In the last five financial years (2009-10 to 2013-14) the MRC has received 10 applications for grants or fellowships that relate to research on mesothelioma. Of these 10 applications four were successful resulting in a success rate of 40%. This is higher than the overall success rate for applications to the MRC which during the same period has been between 20% and 25%.

In the last five financial years, 11 applications relating to mesothelioma have been submitted to research programmes managed by the NIHR. Of these 11 applications four were successful resulting in a success rate of 36%. Success rates for NIHR-managed programmes are available on the NIHR website and are typically lower than 36%.

The annual budget set by the Department for Transport for its Bikeability programme is: £11.7 million in 2014-15; and £11.9m in 2015-16.

The annual budget provided by the Department for Transport to Cycling England in 2010-11 was £63 million.

Information on the total expenditure on education and training of the adult social care workforce is not available centrally.

It is the responsibility of individual social care employers to ensure their staff are appropriately trained and competent to carry out their role. The Department of Health has supported employers to train their staff through the sponsorship of Skills for Care, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and the National Skills Academy for Social Care.

Funding to develop the social care workforce (both regulated and non-regulated) has been made available to these organisations as follows:

Notes:

Figures include some social work programmes and in the case of SCIE are funding for e-learning only. The Department does not hold figures for non-regulated care staff only.

On behalf of the Secretary of State, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) deals with academy special educational needs (SEN) admission determination requests involving pupils in receipt of a statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care plan. Between January 2013 and November 2014 the EFA handled 56 admission determination requests.

The EFA does not categorise complaints about the teaching of children with SEN by academy schools, or whether a request for an SEN admission determination was received because an academy refused to admit a child owing to budgetary constraints.

The Government is clear that there is more to be done for victims and to minimise the risk of such terrible events occurring in Rotherham or anywhere else in the future. What happened in Rotherham was a complete dereliction of duty.

This is why the Home Secretary has been chairing a series of Secretaries of State meetings alongside colleagues from the Ministry of Justice, Department for Education, Communities and Local Government and Department of Health, and the Attorney General and Solicitor General to analyse the failures identified in the Jay report and consider how all parties, including the police and local government, can work together more effectively on the issue of child sexual exploitation to protect vulnerable children and bring offenders to justice.

This will build on the existing work of the Home Office-led National Group to tackle sexual violence against children and vulnerable people, which is ensuring agencies are working together to better identify those at risk.

The Jay report made a ‘conservative estimate’ that there were over 1400 victims of CSE during the 15-year period. The 1400 figure was based on a reading of 66 case files, out of a total of 988, and includes some who were forced to watch others being assaulted and abused as well as those who were physically harmed.

The Government is determined that appalling cases of child abuse should be exposed so that perpetrators face justice and the vulnerable are protected. Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are able to apply for Special Grant if the police force they are responsible for faces an unexpected and exceptional event that places a significant financial burden on the force.

Artificial pancreas research continues to progress in the United States, the United Kingdom and worldwide. Clinical studies have shown that artificial pancreas systems can improve blood sugar control, especially overnight, and reduce the number of episodes of low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia). Systems have been successfully used at home for the overnight period in adolescents and young adults but significant challenges arise from 24 hour use that remain to be solved, particularly around exercise, food and physical activity.

Artificial pancreas device systems and technologies could be made available through National Health Service commissioning once they have gone through the appropriate regulatory process to demonstrate safety and efficacy.

UK research in this field is supported by funders including the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the Wellcome Trust, Diabetes UK and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), in collaboration with industry. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including artificial pancreas systems. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

The NIHR biomedical research centres at Cambridge and Imperial College London are making a significant contribution to international research in this field. Dr Roman Hovorka, University of Cambridge, and Dr Nick Oliver, Imperial College London are members of the Artificial Pancreas Consortium organised by the JDRF. This consortium meets annually with monthly conference calls providing a forum for discussions between researchers from the US, UK and Australia. There have been no formal interchanges between government-funded researchers in the UK and the US.

I believe the noble Lord is referring to the £40 million Veterans Accommodation Fund as announced by my hon. Friend, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, in February 2014.

As I advised in the answer I gave on 3 December 2014 (Official Report, column WA282) the entire £40 million has now been allocated. Twelve of the projects have already been announced and these are detailed in the table below.

The remainder will be announced in due course.

G4S have not been considered for any aspect of the delivery for Universal Credit.

The payments made to G4S in relation to delivery of the Child Maintenance Options Contact Centre service, since the inception of the contract in September 2013 through to 31 October 2014, total £5.707m.

The Department does not publish financial information at provider level for Community Work Placements Programme because in conjunction with performance data it allows the calculation of unit prices which are commercially confidential. Release of this information would reduce the department's ability to gain best value for money in future procurement exercises.

I can confirm that total payments to G4S Group are as follows:

2010/11 - £81,433

2011/12 - £17,947,271

2012/13 - £32,123,087

2013/14 - £46,377,724

G4S have not been considered for any aspect of the delivery for Universal Credit.

The payments made to G4S in relation to delivery of the Child Maintenance Options Contact Centre service, since the inception of the contract in September 2013 through to 31 October 2014, total £5.707m.

The Department does not publish financial information at provider level for Community Work Placements Programme because in conjunction with performance data it allows the calculation of unit prices which are commercially confidential. Release of this information would reduce the department's ability to gain best value for money in future procurement exercises.

I can confirm that total payments to G4S Group are as follows:

2010/11 - £81,433

2011/12 - £17,947,271

2012/13 - £32,123,087

2013/14 - £46,377,724

G4S have not been considered for any aspect of the delivery for Universal Credit.

The payments made to G4S in relation to delivery of the Child Maintenance Options Contact Centre service, since the inception of the contract in September 2013 through to 31 October 2014, total £5.707m.

The Department does not publish financial information at provider level for Community Work Placements Programme because in conjunction with performance data it allows the calculation of unit prices which are commercially confidential. Release of this information would reduce the department's ability to gain best value for money in future procurement exercises.

I can confirm that total payments to G4S Group are as follows:

2010/11 - £81,433

2011/12 - £17,947,271

2012/13 - £32,123,087

2013/14 - £46,377,724