The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2015-11-05.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been paid from the public purse in backdated child benefit to people who have been granted refugee leave in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Damian Hinds
HMRC does not hold the requested information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blunkett on 2015-12-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 December (HL3996), what assessment is being made of the impact on the provision of child and adolescent mental health services, broader special needs support and psychological services, of reductions announced in the Autumn Statement to the provision for areas of education spending in England that are not ring-fenced.
Lord Nash
As set out in the response to the previous question from the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett (HL3996), the £600 million reduction to the Education Services Grant, announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement, should have no direct impact on the provision of child and adolescent mental health services, broader special needs support, or psychological services.
Support for special educational needs is funded from the core schools budget, which we are protecting in real terms.
The government has made children and young people’s mental health support a priority and we are investing an additional £1.4 billion in children and young people’s perinatal mental health services over the next five years. Each Clinical Commissioning Group has put in place a local transformation plan for children and young people’s mental health to set out how services will be improved. These have been drawn up in partnership with local authorities, schools and colleges to ensure they cover the full spectrum of interventions, from prevention to support and care for existing or emerging mental health problems, transitions between services, and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable.
Local authorities have statutory duties to provide services and support for children and young people with SEND, including providing educational psychologist expertise. Local authorities are best placed to judge local priorities and to make local funding decisions, and it is therefore for them, in consultation with local people and having regard to the range of statutory responsibilities placed on them, to determine the exact nature of provision in their areas, including how best to allocate resources and how to fulfil their obligations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the (a) surplus and (b) shortfall in childcare places in each London borough on 1 January of each year from 2010 to 2016.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Local authorities are required to report annually to elected council members on how they are meeting their duty to secure sufficient childcare, and make this report available and accessible to parents. The Department does not hold borough level estimates centrally.
The Department for Education’s Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey[1] collects data on all registered childcare places, including those in maintained schools and nurseries. However, data is only available at a national and regional level.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2013
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-02-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 4 February (HL5344) and on 11 February (HL5970), how many of the 8,000 expected clinical reports are in the cancer part of that project, as compared to the rare disease; and in the cancer part of that project, how many are planned for delivery by the end of (1) March, (2) June, and (3) September.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The 100,000 Genomes project cancer pipeline is still being evaluated and the precise proportion of the reports that will relate to cancer is not currently known.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the consolidated local transport budget for Greater Manchester after implementation of the devolution deal (a) in total and (b) per capita.
Andrew Jones
The Budget 2016 document set out that a total of £2.86bn would be provided to the places that had agreed devolution deals as unringfenced single pots. This includes the consolidated transport grants. A detailed breakdown of the grant for Greater Manchester will be set out by Ministers shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mancroft on 2016-04-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what impact assessment they made of the introduction of CQUIN scheme BI1 Improving HCV Treatment Pathways through ODNs, and whether they will publish a copy of that assessment.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence specifically requires Operational Delivery Networks to prioritise hepatitis C patients on the basis of clinical need, as part of a progressive rollout of treatments over the next five years and the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme (CQUIN) enables and ensures this take place. There is no separate assessment of impact. NHS England recognises that there is a very significant improvement in inequalities as a result of roll-out treatment for hepatitis C.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2016 to Question 37536, on Govia Thameslink Railway Reforms Standards, what the predefined contractual change referred to in that Answer is; and what changes have been made to the cancellation and train operating company Minute Delay benchmarks.
Claire Perry
When competing for the Thameslink Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) franchise the Department for Transport gave all bidders certain assumptions to use in relation to the train services to be provided until December 2015 and informed them where it would be a Change to the Franchise Agreement if the actual position was different. As a result of the Change, the benchmarks were reviewed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the rollout of the new submarines for the replacement Trident programme does not disrupt the Government’s commitment to having a constant at-sea deterrent.
Harriett Baldwin
As set out in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, we are taking steps to manage the defence nuclear enterprise and ensure the Successor submarines are delivered to time and budget. As part of this, we have established a new Director-General Nuclear to act as single and accountable focal point within the Ministry of Defence for all aspects of the defence nuclear enterprise. We are also establishing a new submarine delivery body for the procurement and in-service support of all nuclear submarines, including the Successor submarines. We have deliberately moved away from a traditional single ‘Main Gate’ approach, to a staged investment approach with multiple control points. This will enable us to better regulate and control programme funding and delivery.
The rollout of the Successor submarines supports the programme to maintain a Continuous at Sea Deterrent.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when and by whom the decision was taken to give heroin to heroin addicts in line with his Department’s policy set out on page 31 of Modern Crime Prevention Strategy, published by his predecessor in March 2016.
Nicola Blackwood
The prescribing of injectable opioids, such as methadone or diamorphine (pharmaceutical heroin) as substitutes for illicit heroin, as outlined in the Government’s Modern Crime Prevention Strategy, published in March by the then Home Secretary, has been an option for many years but since the late 1960s, prescribing of diamorphine for the management of addiction has been restricted to licensed addiction specialists.
The decision to prescribe injectable diamorphine for the treatment of dependence is a clinical matter, for a clinician to take in conjunction with the patient. Advice to guide these decisions is contained in Chapter 5 and Annex 8 of the 2007 UK Guidelines on the Clinical Management of Drug Misuse and Dependence. The guidelines advise that:
– “injectable opioid treatment may be suitable for a small minority of patients who have failed in optimised oral treatment.”;
– “clinicians providing injectable opioid treatment should encourage patients not to regard it as a lifelong treatment option and should regularly review their patients and the continuing necessity for this unusual and expensive treatment”; and
– The use of diamorphine “alone does not constitute drug treatment…it should be seen as on element or pathway within wider packages of planned and integrated drug treatment”.
The guidelines are currently being reviewed by an Expert Working Group, to take into account developments in the evidence base. In July 2016, the Expert Working Group published their draft update for consultation. The consultation has closed and the responses are being considered by the Expert Working Group.
Diamorphine is licensed as a medicine by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Clinicians wishing to legally prescribe it for the treatment of dependence need to obtain a licence for that purpose from the Home Office and to comply with all other legislation relevant to the safe management, use and supply of medicines which are controlled drugs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of people sleeping rough since 2010.
Mr Marcus Jones
This Government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society – one person without a home is one too many – that is why since 2010 we have invested more than £500 million to prevent and tackle homelessness in England.
More rough sleepers are being found and helped quicker. Our measures include supporting the roll-out of No Second Night Out across England through the Homelessness Transition Fund. In London, two-thirds of rough sleepers come off the streets after a single night. We have also commissioned the pioneering StreetLink service, which since its launch has helped over 14,500 rough sleepers by connecting them to local support services and avoid becoming entrenched in a life on the streets.
We are committed to do more to improve services for homeless people with complex needs. Our investment includes £5 million for the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond, which is reaching 830 entrenched rough sleepers in London.