Category: Speeches

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the definition of paper-assisted digital applications is for the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme.

    George Eustice

    The new Common Agricultural Policy has been widely recognised as being more complex for farmers to understand and harder for Member States to administer. The new schemes have not yet been audited by the European Commission so it is too early to say what the level of any disallowance will be, but complexity tends to increase disallowance risk.

    For the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent pre-populated claim forms to farmers and land owners to allow them to submit their applications before the deadline. The RPA provided an unprecedented level of support to farmers and land owners through the Rural Payments Helpline and 50 Drop In Centres that allowed some 88,000 applications to be received within the deadline. ‘Paper-assisted’ means that forms were completed on paper but then entered on to a digital system by RPA staff.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect of the legacy of the troubles on changes to the number of deaths by suicide in Northern Ireland.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    I acknowledge the sense of devastation felt by families and communities bereaved by suicide. The Stormont House Agreement set out proposals to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past, including a Mental Trauma Service to be established and to work closely with the Victims and Survivors Service. This work is currently being taken forward by the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, in partnership with the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints his Department received about the standard of its recent consultation document on court closures.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    There has been one complaint about the standard of the recent consultation on the provision of court and tribunal estate in England and Wales.

    The complaint, received by email, was from a member of the judiciary and related to St Alban’s County Court. It noted that the consultation document was inaccurate as it stated that no enabling work was required at the receiving court, Watford County Court. On investigation, it was determined that some enabling work would be required. The written response to the complaint corrected this inaccuracy. The published consultation response document was updated to present corrected information.

    During the consultation process we were notified about inaccuracies in the consultation documents. These have all been corrected in the published response documents. All decisions were based on correct information together with the careful consideration of the consultation responses.

    The consultation response is available online at www.gov.uk/moj.

    “

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers are able to access mental health services.

    Alistair Burt

    No estimate has been made of the proportion of refugees and asylum seekers who require mental health treatment as this data is not routinely collected.

    Both refugees and asylum seekers are offered health assessments which include consideration of mental health issues, however we do not hold data on the outcome of these.

    NHS England and clinical commissioning groups are committed to ensuring fair and equitable mental health care services for all, which includes all Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, including vulnerable migrants, in particular, refugees and those seeking asylum.

    NHS England recently launched the Five Year Forward View Mental Health Task Force Report which clearly outlines action to be taken nationally, regionally, and locally to help improve mental health services for BME communities in England.

    The full report is available via the following link:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Mental-Health-Taskforce-FYFV-final.pdf

    NHS England supported MIND to co-produce the Guidance for commissioners – ‘Commissioning mental health services for vulnerable adult migrants’ September 2015 launched February 2016. The Guidance aims to ensure National Health Service commissioners and providers provide timely and good quality mental health services for vulnerable migrants in particular refugees and those seeking asylum. The full report is available at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/gov/equality-hub/migrants/

    “

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of changes in the number of nursing, medical and other shifts that have not been filled since the introduction of national price caps for NHS agency staff.

    Alistair Burt

    Information on temporary staff fill rates is not collected centrally.

    NHS Improvement has calculated that since the introduction of the price caps, agency spending by National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts has fallen from £303 million in October 2015 to £287 million in February 2016.

    Monitor has previously released information on the number of trusts reporting using shifts in excess of the price caps from 23 November to 28 December 2015. This can be accessed here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/497353/FOI_agency_staff_payments.pdf

    “

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to conduct a public consultation on the commissioning of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England is in the process of reconsidering its decision in relation to the commissioning of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The outcome of this decision, which is expected at the end of May, will determine whether NHS England will then conduct any form of public consultation on the commissioning of PrEP.

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he provides to local councils to help them secure faster build-out rates from new developments.

    Brandon Lewis

    The National Planning Policy Framework clearly sets out that local authorities should work proactively with developers to secure developments that improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of their areas. We are taking forward measures to speed up the process of discharging planning conditions, which will help ensure work starts on site quickly once planning permission has been granted. In addition, in their statement on 11 May 2016, the House Builder’s Federation announced steps they would take to improve transparency about build out and help inform both plan making and planning decisions.

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what advice his Department has issued on whether there are maximum or minimum permitted size of the population to be served by (a) district councils, (b) unitary councils and (c) combined authorities in England.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Where an area has plans for its governance arrangements to be changed and proposes this to the Secretary of State, it must provide evidence as to how its proposals are likely to result in the provision of better local public services, significant cost savings, greater value for money, stronger and more accountable local leadership, and sustainability in the medium to long term. It is of course open to any body or person to make representations to the Secretary of State either in support of or in opposition to such proposals.

    As we have made clear during discussions with areas, whilst size is an important consideration for areas considering governance changes, there are no maximum or minimum permitted sizes.

    The level of council tax of any new authority is a matter for the local councils concerned. The government will however maintain council tax referendum thresholds at a modest level in order to help keep bills down for hardworking people. This is always the case including in cases of governance change.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new junior doctors’ contract on patients’ safety.

    Ben Gummer

    The proposals are to introduce a safer, fairer contract for junior doctors that will help improve their training experience to better support patient care every day of the week.

    Our ambition for the National Health Service to be the safest healthcare system in the world is underpinned by reducing, not increasing, the number of hours junior doctors work each week. The new contract will include improved, legally (and contractually) enforceable safeguards – including that no junior doctor working full time will be expected to work on average more than 48 hours a week, unless they opt-out of the European Working Time Directive in which case it is maximum of an average 56 hours a week. The number of hours that can be worked in any single week by any junior will be limited to 72 (down from 91 currently) and there will be a limit of five consecutive long days or four consecutive nights.

    We will also bring the working hours and service delivery of junior doctors within the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection regime. Putting patients first is the responsibility of employers and staff. Juniors must feel confident that when they raise safety concerns they are listened to. Where doctors are asked to work in conditions that they believe are unsafe, including being asked to work patterns that put patient safety at risk, they will be asked to use the reporting mechanisms available to them (including alerting their line managers/clinical supervisors, reporting through the local incident reporting system which will upload to the National Reporting and Learning System) to raise the issue with both the board of their trust, and reporting data will be available for the CQC to use during inspections. We would expect trust boards to look at any such report and decide how to respond to it; and we would expect the CQC, when it carries out an inspection, to look at how the board has responded to this and other data reporting safety incidents and concerns.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on the provision of eye clinic care liaison officers in each year since 2010.

    Alistair Burt

    In England, eye clinics and their staffing, including Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLO), are commissioned and funded by individual clinical commissioning groups on the basis of local assessments of need.

    The Department does not collect data on the number of eye clinic liaison officers employed in hospitals or how much has been spent on funding ECLOs.

    The Government fully appreciates the impact that sight loss can have on a person’s life and the importance of information being available for those newly diagnosed with sight loss, including signposting patients to appropriate support and rehabilitation services.