Category: Speeches

  • Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2016-03-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what factors led to the change of plans about keeping a warship building capability in Portsmouth as discussed prior to the last General Election.

    Earl Howe

    Following a review of its business needs, Magma Structures, the company considering commercial use of shiphall A in HM Naval Base Portsmouth, has decided it does not want to proceed with a lease. It has confirmed its intention to lease office space within the naval base in order to develop a centre of excellence for composite materials on site and to develop a broad range of composite projects within the defence and other sectors.

    Instead, the shiphall will be used by the Royal Navy (supported by BAE Systems (BAES) as part of contracts that are already in place) for maintenance works that support wider frigate and destroyer maintenance programmes on the base. It provides the ideal under cover facility to support the BAES/RN Centre of Excellence by providing a weather-protected maintenance area immediately adjacent to the operational repair facilities.

    Shiphall B will be used to create a centre of excellence for minehunter maintenance. Royal Navy minehunter HMS Brocklesby moved into the hall for a year-long comprehensive maintenance programme on 9 March, marking the return of engineering to the site which has been vacant since BAES relocated its shipbuilding activities to Scotland in 2014. The upgraded facilities will provide the opportunity for vessels to be maintained on the site under cover, which allows the work to be completed more efficiently and will result in ships being returned to the operational fleet more quickly.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage homeless people to be screened for tuberculosis.

    Jane Ellison

    The Collaborative Tuberculosis (TB) Strategy for England 2015-2020 was launched in January 2015[1]. It lays out 10 key ‘areas for actions’ which include improving TB awareness raising, TB case finding (screening) and treatment for under-served populations such as the homeless; which are being delivered across England by seven TB Control Boards supported by a national TB team.

    These actions are underpinned by collaborative working between third sector organisations, local authorities, Public Health England and the National Health Service. The work focuses on targeted awareness-raising of symptoms and curability of TB; the range of local health and care services; and eligibility for free treatment. Specific and targeted outreach interventions for under-served populations (informed by proven models such as ‘Find and Treat’ in London) include specific services for active case finding for pulmonary TB among homeless people, use of mobile X-ray units (MXUs) with incentives for people to have chest X-rays, enhanced case management and return to service interventions to prevent loss to follow up.

    [1]Public Health England. Collaborative Tuberculosis Strategy for England 2015 to 2020 [Internet]. 2015. Available from:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/collaborative-tuberculosis-strategy-for-england

    “

  • MiDavies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    MiDavies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to take steps to increase diagnosis rates of familial hypercholesterolemia.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England and Public Health England (PHE) are working to raise the profile of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) and break down the barriers to genetic testing.

    NHS England’s national clinical director (NCD) for heart disease chairs an FH steering group which comprises representatives from relevant stakeholder organisations. This group, with funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), has established FH specialist nurses in many areas of England, aimed at increasing FH cascade testing so that more affected families can be identified. The NCD has worked closely with BHF in their appointment of the FH Nurses, and with the other major charity in this field – HEART-UK. Software to support cascade testing and provide a database for FH is available and will be increasingly used in England as FH services are established.

    NHS England has also identified FH as a possible condition that it could focus on as part of the work looking into personalised medicine and how the National Health Service might make better use of increased genetic testing.

    Furthermore, the Healthcare Public Health Team at PHE is working in collaboration with national and local partners and experts in the field through an FH Steering Group chaired by the National Clinical Director for Cardiology, and led by the BHF, to develop a systems approach to the detection and management of FH.

  • Gary Streeter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Gary Streeter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gary Streeter on 2016-07-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the conclusions of his Department’s consultation on proposed changes to National Planning Policy will be published before the summer recess.

    Gavin Barwell

    We are carefully considering the 1,100 responses to the consultation, and expect to publish the response to the consultation and to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee report in the Autumn.

  • 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 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of secondary modern schools is rated by Ofsted as (a) outstanding, (b) good, (c) satisfactory and (d) inadequate.

    Nick Gibb

    These are matters for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I have asked him to write to the Hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House libraries.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the set of proposals sent to his Department during the summer from local authorities, industry bodies and others about a long term alternative to Operation Stack.

    Andrew Jones

    I am very grateful to the local authorities, industry bodies and other members of the European Gateway Strategic Delivery Group for their hard work developing the proposals which they put forward this summer. This has informed subsequent work my Department and Highways England have been doing, working closely with stakeholders, to consider in further detail options for a long term alternative to Operation Stack. This work is progressing and we will continue to take on board stakeholders’ views to broaden our engagement and fully understand their views.

  • 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 what steps they are taking to ensure that NHS England and Public Health England provide data demonstrating that there is equitable access to the new hepatitis C treatment.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Public Health England is working with NHS England and the Clinical Leads of the Operational Delivery Networks to ensure that a minimum data set is collected to allow monitoring of patients being treated. Limited demographic information will be requested to help interpret this information in the context of the whole infected population to help assess whether treatment access is as equitable as possible.

  • 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, what proportion of the Ofsted budget has been allocated for the purpose of carrying out local area inspections of provision for children with special educational needs and disability for each of the next three years.

    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 full-time equivalent staff are employed within his Department’s Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit.

    Priti Patel

    Child Maintenance Group currently has 33.01 full-time equivalent staff working within the Financial Investigations Unit.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether their review of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) contract with UnitingCare LLP for older people’s and adult community services will consider the role and advice given to the CCG by the Strategic Projects Team.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England is responsible for the review of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG’s) contract with UnitingCare LLP. NHS England confirms that its review will look at the role of the Strategic Projects Team and the advice that it gave to the CCG.

    NHS England advises that it has commissioned an independent review, so the Strategic Projects Team’s role can be considered objectively.