Author: admin

Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure an acceptable level of care for patients in Ashfield constituency following changes to the provision of urgent out-of-hours GP and care home support services provided by Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services.

Ben Gummer

This is a matter for the National Health Service locally. Mansfield and Ashfield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) advises that the needs of people in Ashfield are now being met by Nottingham Emergency Medical Services, which is providing urgent and
out-of-hours care, and by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s care home support service.

The CCG advises that it took all necessary action as soon as it knew that Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services (CNCS) was no longer in a position to continue providing services. Despite very short notice of the extent of CNCS’s difficulties, the CCG states that it has safely executed a smooth handover of services. It has rigorously monitored the quality of the caretaker providers’ performance during the handover, and will continue to do so.

The CCG will now review procurement options for the long-term delivery of local out-of-hours and urgent care services.

01/01/2023
Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 19 April 2016 to Question 34024, whether the matter of family ties to the UK being considered only after substantive interview is in compliance with the Dublin Regulations.

James Brokenshire

Following an application for asylum in the UK, the first stage in the asylum process is the Screening process, which includes collection of fingerprints and bio data, travel history, health, summary of claim, security checks and family background. If at this first stage evidence emerges that an applicant’s asylum application should be more correctly dealt with by another European state in accordance with the Dublin Regulation, then, we would seek to transfer the applicant to the member state responsible for deciding the application.

It is, however, possible that evidence concerning responsibility of another state emerges after the screening process, in which case a request to another state to take responsibility under the Dublin Regulation can be made, providing that the Regulation’s time limits for making requests are met. In cases involving family unity Article 17(2) of the Regulation make special provision for requests to take responsibility to be made at any time before a first decision is made on the substance of the asylum claim.

For individuals who claim asylum in another EU member stage and who seek to rely on family connections to the UK as part of their application, application and compliance with the Dublin Regulation would be a matter for the individual state concerned.

01/01/2023
David Lammy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to extend the terms of reference of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to investigate the abuse of children in mainstream schools.

Karen Bradley

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse already has wide-ranging terms of reference to examine the extent to which public and other bodies in England and Wales have failed in their duty to protect children from sexual abuse. Decisions around what it investigates, and the specific terms and scope of the investigations, are a matter for the Independent Inquiry. There are no plans to extend the terms of reference further.

01/01/2023
Diane Abbott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diane Abbott on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the implications are of the findings of the report from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, entitled DFID’s efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls, published on 17 May 2016, for her Department’s work on strengthening women’s rights organisations and networks in the developing world.

Justine Greening

I welcome ICAI’s recent review, which awarded my Department their highest rating, a green review score, for our work on tackling violence against women and girls. The review highlights the important contribution UK Aid makes to the lives of women and girls around the world and recognises the significant achievements of DFID to date on this vtial issue. My Department will provide a formal response to the ICAI findings in due course.

01/01/2023

Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers for what reasons have taken long-term sick leave in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous

Long-term sick leave is defined within the Civil service as periods of absence of more than 28 calendar days. The number of Band 3-5 prison officers to have taken at least one period of long-term sick leave in each of the last five years for which information is available is shown in the table below.

Table: Number of Band 3-5 Officers who had an incidence of sick leave of 28 or more days, by type of sickness, 2010/11 to 2014/15

Type of Sickness	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Blood and Blood-Forming Organs	~	~	~	10	10
Circulatory System	120	130	120	120	110
Digestive System	150	140	140	110	90
Ear and Mastoid Process	20	10	20	10	10
Endocrine, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases	10	20	20	20	~
Eye and Adnexa	20	20	20	10	20
Genitourinary System	60	60	50	70	60
Infective and Parasitic Diseases	50	40	50	40	50
Injury and Poisoning	300	310	300	380	380
Mental and Behavioural Disorders	840	850	850	960	920
Musculoskeletal System	920	800	730	610	550
Neoplasms	40	40	40	40	40
Nervous System and Sense Organs	60	70	70	60	50
Pregnancy Complications	50	40	40	30	30
Respiratory System	50	50	60	40	40
Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue	20	20	30	20	10
Symptoms Ill-Defined	670	750	790	790	680
Not Recorded	80	80	90	80	160
Grand Total	3490	3430	3410	3390	3200

Where an officer has more than one period of long-term absence within a year for the same reason, they are counted once. Where multiple absences were for different reasons they are counted more than once.

All figures are rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic, and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate, and to present unrounded figures would be to overstate the accuracy of the figures. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures.

Totals are formed from unrounded parts prior to rounding. For this reason, rounded totals may not equal the sum of their rounded parts.

~ denotes suppressed values of 5 or fewer. Low numbers are suppressed, in conjunction with the rounding policy to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998.

01/01/2023

Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether UK citizens will have automatic right to mutual recognition of pension contributions in EU countries in the event of the UK leaving the EU and prior to the completion of exit negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

Stephen Crabb

At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU. If the result of the referendum is a decision to leave, the Government would have two years under the Article 50 process to seek to negotiate the terms, including those concerning pensions, of the UK’s exit, with the possibility of extending this time frame with the agreement of the other 27 Member States.

01/01/2023
Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) employment and support allowance and (b) personal independence payment appeals his Department conceded prior to their being heard at the First-Tier Tribunal in the last 12 months.

Justin Tomlinson

The requested information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

01/01/2023
Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government plans to take to reduce the number of occupation illnesses.

Justin Tomlinson

Tackling ill health is one of six strategic themes in the new strategy for the health and safety system, ‘Helping Great Britain work well’. The strategy is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/index.htm

“

01/01/2023
Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether a jobseeker’s allowance claimant can be sanctioned for failing to attend an interview at an unspecified time.

Priti Patel

Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants can incur a sanction if they fail to participate in an interview, without good reason. However, in accordance with the Jobseeker’s Allowance legislation, where a claimant is required to participate in an interview, they must be notified, of the time and place of that interview.

Therefore, Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants cannot be sanctioned for failing to attend an interview at an unspecified time.

01/01/2023
Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 3 May 2016 to Question 35165, on Personal Independence Payments, what steps his Department is taking better to understand why sufficient documentary evidence is not being sought during the assessment and mandatory reconsideration stages.

Justin Tomlinson

The 75% can be broken down as follows:

Cogent oral evidence – 66%

Cogent documentary evidence supplied at the appeal – 9%

These figures are from internal DWP systems, where only one of possible multiple reasons can be recorded, and are derived from unpublished information and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics standard.

The Department encourages claimants to provide as much relevant evidence as necessary to support their claim. The “How your disability affects you” form and accompanying guidance sets out the range of information that can help the Department reach a decision. The guidance for Health Professionals also sets out sources of further evidence which could help inform their advice to the Department.

At the Mandatory Reconsideration stage, again claimants are encouraged to provide any further evidence about their disability. Following the first independent review of Personal Independence by Paul Gray, the Department is reviewing all communications (including those used by Assessment Providers) it has with claimants throughout the claim, assessment and reconsideration process to ensure that claimants clearly understand the importance of providing sufficient evidence to support their claim and application.

Further, once a claimant has submitted their claim, the Department has created a new Standard Work Instructions (SWI) for its decision making staff to gain further evidence, where appropriate. For Mandatory Reconsideration, the SWI puts a process in place to establish what the areas for dispute are, consider any gaps in the evidence, ensure any expected further medical evidence is received and referring that to the Assessment Provider. “

01/01/2023