UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Speeches

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve the personal fitness and health of police officers.

    Mike Penning

    The Winsor review of police officer and staff pay and conditions, which the Home Secretary commissioned, recommended in March 2012 that fitness testing should be introduced. Following consideration by the Police Advisory Board, mandatory fitness testing was implemented on 1 September 2014.

    The management of initiatives that support officers to improve fitness is a matter for individual police forces and the College of Policing has issued guidance in this area.

  • Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many beds are (a) funded for and (b) provided by the Youth Justice Board at Medway Secure Training College.

    Andrew Selous

    The Youth Justice Board funds all 76 beds at Medway Secure Training Centre. The beds are provided by the contractor, G4S.

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Nursing and Midwifery Council on extension of their remit to include root cause analysis of complaints and investigations.

    Ben Gummer

    In 2015-16, Health Ministers have not met the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) specifically to discuss extending its remit to include root cause analysis of complaints and investigations. However, Ministers do keep the issue of professional regulation under regular review and the Department has frequent discussions with professional regulators, including the NMC. Such discussions can cover a range of subjects including complaints handling and fitness to practise (FtP) processes.

    The NMC has a statutory duty to investigate if an allegation is made that a nurse or midwife does not meet its professional standards and, where necessary, to take action to safeguard the health and well-being of the public. Such investigations do not extend to investigating concerns, or their root cause, beyond determining the FtP of the individual registered nurse or midwife involved.

    The NMC reports that it works closely with other regulatory bodies, such as the Care Quality Commission and shares information that raises systemic concerns. As part of its 2015-20 strategy the NMC committed to sharing its data with other bodies responsible for quality and safety and to make anonymised data available to third parties where appropriate.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current average waiting time is for a decision on a naturalisation application in (a) the UK and (b) Leeds.

    James Brokenshire

    The average length of time taken to consider naturalisation applications in the UK is 135.12 days. In Leeds postal code area the average length of time is 167 days. Both of these figures relate to the period 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015, which is the most recent period for which statistics on the number of applications considered have been published.

    For straightforward applications where the customer has met all their obligations, the service standard is that 98.5% of cases will be processed within 6 months (183 calendar days).

  • Lord Palmer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the The Lord Chairman of Committees

    Lord Palmer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the The Lord Chairman of Committees

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Palmer on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Chairman of Committees, further to his Written Answer on 23 March (HL7048) about the change of use of the Peers’ TV Room, what happened to the armchairs that used to be in that room.

    Lord Laming

    The chairs are in existing storage facilities.

  • Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what treatments are commissioned by specialist centres for severe asthma.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England commissions severe asthma services in line with national specifications to ensure that patient numbers are sufficient to support safe, quality service provision. It is revising the severe asthma service specification which is expected to be published later in 2016.

    Nationally there are 27 trusts that have identified themselves as providing severe asthma services.

    NHS England does not specify travel distances for patients attending treatment for severe asthma.

  • Gill Furniss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gill Furniss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gill Furniss on 2016-07-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make representations to the relevant French authorities to ensure that humanitarian convoys destined for Calais refugee camps are not impeded.

    James Brokenshire

    The decision to allow entry to France is a matter for the French authorities.

  • Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for not taxing the income from interest-bearing savings whilst interest rates are low.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    Since April 2016 savers have benefitted from a new Personal Savings Allowance of up to £1,000 for basic rate taxpayers, and £500 for higher rate taxpayers. They can also save up to £15,240 tax-free in ISAs this tax year. Together these measures mean that 95% of taxpayers have no savings tax to pay at all.

  • Bob Stewart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Bob Stewart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bob Stewart on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will bring forward proposals to increase the level of fines available to local authorities for fly-tipping.

    Rory Stewart

    The fine for fly-tipping is unlimited.

    Tackling fly-tipping is a priority for the Government. As set out in our manifesto, next spring we will be giving councils the power to tackle small scale fly-tipping through fixed penalty notices as an alternative to prosecutions.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients attending A&E departments aged 0 to 18 years in 2014-15 were diagnosed with psychiatric conditions in 2014-15.

    Alistair Burt

    18,673 accident and emergency (A&E) attendances by patients aged 0 to 18 had a diagnosis of a psychiatric condition in 2014-15.

    Notes:

    1. These figures are from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

    2. A&E Diagnosis

    The main diagnosis recorded for A&E attendances. Please note that the recording of the diagnosis field within the A&E data set is not mandatory. It is not known to what extent changes over time are as a result of improvements in recording practice. The following codes were used in this enquiry: 35 = Psychiatric conditions

    3. Provisional data

    The data are provisional and may be incomplete or contain errors for which no adjustments have yet been made. Counts produced from provisional data are likely to be lower than those generated for the same period in the final data set. This shortfall will be most pronounced in the final month of the latest period. It is also probable that clinical data are not complete, which may in particular affect the last two months of any given period. There may also be errors due to coding inconsistencies that have not yet been investigated and corrected.

    4. Official source of A&E activity data

    HES is not the official source of total A&E activity, this is the NHS England Situation Reports Collection-

    http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/

    However, HES permits further analysis of A&E activity as there are a range of data items by which HES can be analysed.