Category: Speeches

  • Lord Mancroft – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Mancroft – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mancroft on 2015-12-16.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the national framework for hepatitis C, due for release in spring 2015, will be published, and why it has been delayed.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    A date for publication of the hepatitis C improvement framework has not yet been set. Public Health England continues working with NHS England and Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) to establish a process of monitoring hepatitis C treatment access and uptake.

    Following their establishment in August 2015, ODNs will need to continue to be developed as a mechanism for ensuring equitable access to expert multidisciplinary team care and treatment for hepatitis C. ODNs are working to develop their plans, based on the published service specification and with the support of local specialised commissioning teams and regional clinical directors of specialised commissioning. Work is also underway to establish by February 2016 a national network of ODN clinical leads to share good practice. In addition, the draft hepatitis C improvement framework includes a number of areas pertinent to ODN operation and will therefore support further development of their role.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Sharon Hodgson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many local authorities have been identified by her Department as being non-compliant with the statutory requirements relating to the content of Education, Health and Care plans since September 2014.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities have made good progress complying with the statutory special educational needs duties in the Children and Families Act 2014 since they came into force in September 2014. We continue to monitor progress.

    All local authorities have published a Local Offer of the services and support available to children and young people in their area with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Responsibility for publishing and maintaining Local Offers lies with each local authority. The Department supports local authorities to help make sure they meet all statutory requirements for their Local Offer, and that the quality of services continues to improve.

    In summer 2014, the Department conducted a review of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and plan templates from half of local authorities. The majority of the EHC plan templates we reviewed were judged likely to meet the requirements in the SEND Code of Practice. Where changes were needed, this was often due to inaccurate labelling of the required sections. Feedback was provided to individual local authorities alongside information to all local authorities about the key areas for focus. Since September 2014, EHC plans have been continually monitored. Where individual EHC plans are considered not to be fully compliant, advice on improvement is provided to the local authority.

    Figures returned by local authorities and published in the Statements of SEN and EHC plans Statistical First Release[1] in May 2015 show that, of the 1,360 new EHC plans issued between 1 September 2014 and 15 January 2015, 64.3% were within the statutory 20 week time limit when excluding exception cases.

    The Department for Education is providing specific additional funding to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to support their inspection of the effectiveness of local areas in fulfilling their new SEND duties. We are in the process of setting individual budgets as part of our internal business planning process.

    Ofsted and CQC conducted pilots as part of their wider consultation on their inspection proposals. These pilots explored different approaches to securing evidence in what is a complex area, involving a range of education, social care, and health providers at the local level. Ofsted and CQC will publish their response to the consultation on these new inspection arrangements in spring 2016. In addition, they will evaluate the impact of inspections, which will begin later in 2016.

    The Department draws on a wide range of evidence to determine whether the SEND provisions of the Children and Families Act have improved outcomes for children. Our intention is that a combination of local accountability measures; data and analysis; and independent inspection will show how the SEND system is performing and whether outcomes are improving for children and young people.

    The SEND inspections will evaluate local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people. We will draw on a wide range of statistics[2], including information on educational attainment, absence and exclusions and research into families and young people’s experience of the new system.

    A summary of the available data on SEN and disability is available at

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/472575/Special_educational_needs-_an_analysis_and_summary_of_data_sources.pdf

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015

    [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen

    “

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases were being dealt with by his Department’s Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit in the most recent period for which figures are available.

    Priti Patel

    Since the 1 April 2015 Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigations Unit received 2,800 referrals for investigation and 3,150 investigations were completed (including cases received prior to 1 April 2015).

    Note:

    1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10

  • Lord German – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord German – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord German on 2016-03-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 14 March, how long they estimate tolling on the Severn Bridges will have to continue in order to collect the additional £63 million beyond the date of the end of the concession on these bridges.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    This depends on traffic levels and on maintenance costs, both of which may change over time. However our current estimates suggest the £63m could take around 18 months to recoup at the toll levels announced in the recent Budget.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many structures funded in the Occupied West Bank through the EU Consortium have been demolished by the Israeli government since 1 January 2016.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    None of the structures constructed under the EU multi-donor programme for social and public infrastructure in Area C have been demolished to date.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of hotel bookings her Department made for (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in each of the last five years.

    Karen Bradley

    We refer the Honourable Member to the answer to PQ 37638, given by the Cabinet Office.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she would expect a Regional School Commissioner, having arranged, following a formal notice, for an Academy to move from one multi-academy trust to another, to carry out an investigation of the stewardship of the original Trust; and if she will make a statement.

    Edward Timpson

    Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) act in the name of the Secretary of State. Where a RSC takes the decision to transfer an academy from one trust to another, there will have been several discussions with both trusts involved. If such a move is due to concerns over performance, the RSC will hold the outgoing trust to account, ensuring that any remaining academies are receiving the best support and the trust is regularly monitored.

    This information is publicly available and can be found in the RSC decision-making framework on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/517565/RSC-Decision-Making-Framework.pdf

    “

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to manage the levels of stress experienced by school support staff.

    Nick Gibb

    When well deployed and supported, teaching assistants can make a valuable contribution to the education of our children. They are entitled to a suitable work-life balance and it is regrettable if they are experiencing excessive stress in their work.

    Responsibility for managing teaching assistants and other support staff rests at local level. Head teachers best understand the needs of their schools and the support staff who work within them.

    The Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) guidance report; “Making Best Use Of Teaching Assistants”, offers the latest evidence and makes a number of recommendations to help schools make best use of their teaching assistants. The EEF report is available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/TA_Guidance_Report_Interactive.pdf.

    “

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-11-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider North Korean citizens and refugees as South Korean citizens.

    Lord Bates

    The Constitution of Republic of Korea (South Korea) stipulates that all North Koreans are citizens of the Republic of Korea.

    As citizens of South Korea, North Korean asylum seekers are able to seek the protection of the South Korean authorities. A person who simply expresses an unwillingness to avail themselves of such protection would not bring them within the scope of the UN Refugee Convention.

  • Lord Bradley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Bradley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradley on 2015-12-16.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will publish data about actual spending on mental health services for each Clinical Commissioning Group in England in 2015–16.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    As part of the mental health parity of esteem requirement for 2015-16, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were asked to plan for an increase in spend on mental health services at least in line with the increase in their overall funding allocation for the year, which set a higher bar than achieving a real terms increase in spending, though not all CCGs were able to achieve this target. 192 of the 209 CCGs achieved a real terms growth in mental health planned spend measured against the 1.4% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deflator for 2015-16.

    The list attached shows which CCGs have achieved real terms increases in spending on mental health in 2015-16.

    The final data for CCGs’ spending on mental health in 2015-16 will be submitted to NHS England by commissioners in May 2016, and it is anticipated NHS England may be in a position to provide final spend information by around the end of the first quarter of 2016-17.

    NHS England has not yet published CCG planning guidance for 2016-17. Consideration will be given to holding commissioners to account for spending on mental health.

    CCG and NHS England mental health spending information is now routinely collected as party of NHS England’s monthly financial reporting regime. Monthly financial reports by CCGs are scrutinised and quality assessed by NHS England’s regional teams. The monthly reports also form part of the CCG assurance process. NHS England is also in the process of setting up the financial plan assurance process for 2016-17, which will incorporate the review of planned spending on mental health services for future years.