It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

The Department does not hold this information centrally.

We have no plans to review the governance structures of the district councils in Greater Manchester. It is of course entirely open to those councils to consider for themselves the model of governance that is the most appropriate to their circumstances at any particular time, and should they wish to make changes, to do so in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 2000.

Waiting times for general practitioner appointments and information about how many walk-in centres have closed are not collected centrally.

Waiting times for general practitioner appointments and information about how many walk-in centres have closed are not collected centrally.

Information is not available in the format requested.

Information on the average (median) time to treatment for Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls is shown in the attached table. This is the time, in minutes, until arrival of an ambulance-dispatched health professional. These times are collected for the whole area covered by each Ambulance Service, but not for towns or cities within those areas.

We have not made a specific assessment of Approved Premises. As part of the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme, we decided that Approved Premises should remain within the National Probation Service because of their focus on the supervision of high- and very high-risk offenders. That is because, for certain high risk offenders who have completed the custodial part of the sentence, requiring them to reside in an Approved Premises delivers more effective public protection than could be provided in alternative accommodation elsewhere in the community.

A review of Approved Premises operations is now under way. Its aim is to promote greater consistency of practice and improve the efficient use of resources in the Approved Premises estate.

Information is not available in the format requested. Information showing the mean and median durations to assessment, treatment and departure for accident and emergency (A&E) departments at the hospital providers in the areas requested is attached.

We have no such plans. The Government has no role in the review of elected representation in local authorities. All such matters are the responsibility of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, a body entirely independent of Government and directly responsible to Parliament. The Commission has a statutory duty to keep electoral arrangements in local government, including councillor numbers, under review and it decides how and when any review will take place.

My Lords, the noble Lord makes an extremely good point. I am very happy to take that back with me to the department.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guideline, Recognition, referral and diagnosis of children and young people on the autism spectrum aims to improve the diagnosis, and experience of children, young people and those who care for them. It recommends the establishment of multidisciplinary autism teams in local areas. Health Education England has developed the online MindED portal, which contains learning resources for enhancing the effectiveness of working with children, young people, and young adults who are on the autistic spectrum.

The draft statutory guidance on implementing the updated Adult Autism Strategy sets out the Government’s intention to require health bodies to develop adult autism diagnostic pathways. NHS England is planning to use their local audit teams to provide assurance that the diagnostic process is suitable.

Health Education England (HEE) does not hold information around which universities provide learning disability courses at a national level. Learning disability courses are commissioned locally by the 13 Local Education Training Boards (LETBs) through universities within their geographical area. At a national level HEE only holds total commissions for learning disabilities nursing.

In December 2014, HEE published its Workforce Plan for England which includes its planned Education & Training Commissions for 2015-16.

Within learning disabilities nursing they will increase commissions from 653 in 2014-15 to 664 in 2015-16. This represents an increase of 1.7%.

Estimates of defined contribution wealth in the accumulation phase have been made by DWP using the Wealth and Assets survey (WAS). The analysis excludes individuals with zero DC wealth and includes all adults aged 16 and over.

Table 1: Distribution of individuals with wealth in DC pensions not yet in payment, 2010/12

Source: DWP analysis of ONS WAS data from 2010-12 (Wave 3)

I was not aware of that survey but the noble Lord’s point is well made. Guidance for the management of both common and complex skin conditions set out by NICE and NHS England makes it very clear that access to psychological services for patients should be considered where appropriate. Through the IAPT—Improving Access to Psychological Therapies —programme, NHS England is looking at how best to support people with psychological problems arising from their physical problems, including, very significantly, skin conditions.

The table below shows the proportion of local authority income raised from council tax by the metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester for each year from 2009-10 to 2013-14. Income is defined as the sum of council tax, specific grants inside Aggregate External Finance, Revenue Support Grant, and for the relevant years, redistributed business rates, retained business rates, Local Services Support Grant and Area Based Grant. Council tax amounts are gross of payments of council tax benefit for years up to 2012-13.

Source: Revenue Outturn returns

The figures have fallen in 2013-14 due to a technical, accounting consequence of the localisation of council tax benefit. Councils now apply local council tax support in the form of a council tax discount and receive a DCLG grant through Revenue Support Grant. Previously, councils received a grant from the Department for Work and Pensions, which refunded the tax revenue that was ‘paid’ by the council through council tax benefit.

Mental health nurses are not identified separately in the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s (HSCIC) workforce statistics. Mental health nurses work predominantly in psychiatric services but also across a range of settings and the independent sector.

The following table shows the full time equivalent number of nurses who work in the community psychiatry and other psychiatry areas of work in the National Health Service in each of the last five years. The data is taken from the HSCIC’s monthly workforce statistics and is for 31 August in each year.

Nurses working in Community Psychiatry and Other Psychiatry August 2010 to August 2014

Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre

This is a matter for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Greater Manchester.

The deadline for responses to the public consultation on Healthier Together passed on 24 October. Over 23,000 responses were received and the feedback is now being analysed.

On 17 December 2014, the Greater Manchester CCG Committee in Common will consider what further work is required following the close of the public consultation.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the largest United Kingdom funder of mental health research. The NIHR has already increased its investment in this field from £40.3 million in 2009-10 to £71.7 million in 2013-14.

NIHR funding for experimental medicine infrastructure is contractually committed for five years to March 2017. This includes £48.9 million for the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry.

Five NIHR research programmes are currently open to researcher-led funding applications within their respective remits, including applications in mental health:

- Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation;

- Health Services and Delivery Research;

- Health Technology Assessment (HTA);

- Public Health Research; and

- Research for Patient Benefit.

In addition, the HTA programme has issued current calls for research proposals on the following topics:

- improving the mental health of children and young people with long term conditions; and

- lithium or an antipsychotic as adjunctive therapy to an antidepressant for patients with treatment resistant depression.

My Lords, it is unacceptable for a child in a mental health crisis to be taken to a police cell. The mental health crisis care concordat, launched in February this year, reinforces the duty on the NHS to make sure that people aged under 18 are treated in an environment that is suitable for their age, according to their needs. It also makes it clear for the first time that adult places of safety should be used for children if necessary so long as their use is safe and appropriate. We have seen a reduction in the use of police cells across the country but there is still further work to do.

National Health Service trust boards and all other NHS boards are required to hold their meetings in public. The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 sets out the requirement for most NHS bodies to have their meetings in public. NHS foundation trusts and clinical commissioning groups are governed by the NHS Act 2006 (as amended by the Health & Social Care Act 2012), which sets out similar requirements for these bodies.

The public body may exclude the public from a meeting where publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business of the body or for other special reasons as decided by board resolution.