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  • Lord Willis of Knaresborough – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lord Willis of Knaresborough – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to retain key staff during the migration of back-office Research Council services to a new platform.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The details of these reforms are being worked through, but we will ensure that the longstanding expertise of our partner organisations is not lost. Appropriate transition arrangements will be put in place for those staff transferring and normal legal protections will apply. We will be maintaining open communication with staff and trade unions throughout the process to enable long term planning within the organisations concerned.

  • Lord Porter of Spalding – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Porter of Spalding – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Porter of Spalding on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the publication of Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, whether they intend to publish a national Mental Health Strategy.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Government welcomed the independent taskforce’s recommendations for mental health and fully endorses the report. We continue to work across Government departments to progress taking the taskforce recommendations forward.

  • Lord Porter of Spalding – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Porter of Spalding – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Porter of Spalding on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in creating parity of esteem between mental and physical health and how they are currently measuring this.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Government is committed to achieving parity of esteem for mental and physical health. The Government welcomed the publication of The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and Future in Mind: Promoting, protecting and improving our children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing to transform mental health services by 2020, which is a significant step forward in achieving parity of esteem between mental and physical health. We continue to work with NHS England and other arm’s length bodies to embed the recommendations set out in these reports into our national policies and we are committed to reporting regularly and transparently on our progress. Copies of both reports are attached.

    We will be holding NHS England to account through the NHS Mandate to ensure that we deliver the commitments set out in these reports.

  • Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kennedy of Cradley on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government in which countries UK aid is being used to fund private healthcare provision.

    Lord Bates

    The UK supports developing countries across Africa and Asia to make faster progress towards universal health coverage, with a focus on ensuring that poor people can use the health services they need without the risk of financial hardship associated with direct out-of-pocket payments. Poor people often rely on non-state service providers for much of their health care. The UK therefore supports private providers where this offers the best value for money in reaching the poor with good quality services.

  • Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kennedy of Cradley on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role of private healthcare providers in delivering government aid programmes.

    Lord Bates

    In most low income countries the non-state sector delivers a substantial share of healthcare, with poorer people often relying on informal providers. This is usually in response to insufficient, poor quality or inaccessible state provision.

    However, informal and unregulated private providers can sometime provide low quality health services and commodities, and out-of-pocket payments can contribute to further impoverishing low income groups. Ensuring that services are accessible and affordable to the poor usually requires government or external funding arrangements.

    The UK Government uses its aid programmes to support the strengthening of mixed public and private health systems to deliver quality, accessible and affordable healthcare to the poor and uses thorough monitoring and evaluation processes to ensure that results are achieved and lessons learned.

  • The Earl of Listowel – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The Earl of Listowel – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Listowel on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to continue to improve quality of early education for two-, three- and four-year olds, including increasing graduate leadership.

    Lord Nash

    The Government wants all children to have access to quality early education, as this makes a difference to their outcomes in later life. That is why we have taken the following steps to support the quality of early years provision:

    The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) helps early years providers to prepare young children for school and improve their life chances by requiring them to deliver high-quality provision. The 2015-16 EYFS Profile results show that the proportion of children achieving a good level of development continues to increase – 69% in 2016 compared to 52% in 2013.

    We work closely with Ofsted to ensure a robust regulatory and inspection framework to drive continuous improvement in quality. The sector has responded positively and the latest statistics show that 86% of early years providers were rated “good” or “outstanding” as of 31 March 2016.

    The quality of the workforce continues to improve, with 87% of staff in full day care settings now qualified to level 3. The Department is also developing a workforce strategy that will aim to remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing staff.

    The Government recognises that graduates play an important role in improving quality in the early years, and that is why in 2013 we introduced the early years initial teacher training programme which leads to the award of Early Years Teacher Status. We have made a significant investment in this programme by providing funding for course fees and bursaries to eligible trainees, and also funding for employers to support trainees. As such, the number of graduates in the workforce continues to rise, and between 2008 and 2013 the proportion of full day care staff with a degree or higher increased from 5% to 13%.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether any proportion of Air Passenger Duty revenue is used to fund the UK’s commitment to Unitaid.

    Jane Ellison

    The government does not hypothecate revenue collected from Air Passenger Duty.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much has been spent from the public purse on advertising the Government’s Own Your Home scheme.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government is committed to supporting home ownership and the Own Your Home campaign is designed to increase awareness of government home buying schemes amongst first time buyers.

    In 2015/2016 spend on the campaign has been approximately £4 million. Activity consisted of radio, press and consumer advertising, out of home on-street bus stop posters, digital and Facebook advertising and a series of ‘How to’ online videos promoted through You Tube.

    On average around 140 people are helped through government home buying schemes every day and over 335,000 households have been helped to buy a property since 2010, through schemes like Help to Buy and the reinvigorated Right to Buy.

  • Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff of his Department are involved in the renegotiations of the UK’s tax treaties with developing countries.

    Jane Ellison

    HM Revenue and Customs’ Tax Treaty Team, which at October 2016 has 10.3 full time equivalent members of staff, is responsible for negotiating the UK’s tax treaties. The make-up of the negotiating programme will vary from year to year which means it is not possible to put an exact figure on the number of staff involved with negotiations with developing countries.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on moves to reduce Air Passenger Duty by 50 per cent in the near future.

    Jane Ellison

    Like all taxes Air Passenger Duty is kept under review with any changes being announced at fiscal events.