Category: Speeches

  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total cost was of transferring the services previously provided by the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health and Care Professions Council after the GSCC was abolished in 2012.

    Alistair Burt

    The function for the regulation of social workers in England was transferred from the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) on 1 August 2012.

    The final set of accounts from the GSCC show that the total cost to the public purse of closing down the Council was £16.5 million. The HCPC also received £1.4 million to support it take on the functions for the regulation of social workers in England. Therefore, the total cost was £17.9 million.

    On the assumption that the costs of the GSCC remained broadly similar, the Department estimated that the closure of the GSCC saves £13.5 million each year.

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-04-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will extend the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme to Yazidi women who are Iraqi victims of Daesh; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    Only the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) registered Syrian refugees are eligible under the Syrian Resettlement Scheme, which has been expanded to resettle up to 20,000 during this Parliament. We work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to seven agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme.

    There are no current plans to widen the Syrian Resettlement Scheme but it is operated in addition to our global resettlement schemes: Gateway and Mandate, which are not nationality specific. We also announced on 21 April a new Children at Risk Resettlement Scheme designed to resettle refugee children and their families designated by UNHCR as being at risk. This scheme is not nationality specific but is targeted at children in the Middle East and North Africa.

  • Robin Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Robin Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robin Walker on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the health benefits of (a) regular supported activity for people with long-term neurological conditions and (b) the commissioning of services to support such activity.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department has made no such specific assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends the involvement of physiotherapists in the management of a range of neurological conditions including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease. The commissioning of services to provide supported physical activity, such as that provided by physiotherapists, is a local matter, as are the vast majority of services for neurological conditions.

  • Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Parminter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Parminter on 2016-07-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage, by total value, of government departments’ procurement contracts for relevant construction projects meet or exceed the mandatory Government Buying Standard level in 2014–15; and why that data was not included in the Greening Government Commitments annual report for 2014–15.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The Greening Government Commitments annual report for 2014-15 sets out the data reported by departments on the proportion of government procurement contracts in a number of key product groups which met or exceeded Government Buying Standards in that year. The information specifically on construction contracts is set out in Annex 2, procurement table 3 of the annual report. As with previous years’ annual reports, the available data is presented by department, rather than for the whole of government. It is not possible to provide a figure on the proportion which met or exceeded the Government Buying Standards for the whole of government, as not all departments were able to report complete information.

    It is the responsibility of each Department to put the Government Buying Standards into practice in its own procurement activity.

  • Amanda Solloway – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Amanda Solloway – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Amanda Solloway on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to locate missing refugee children in the UK.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The government takes the issue of missing children extremely seriously and has published a cross government strategy on missing children and vulnerable adults.

    Migrant children over the age of 5, including asylum seeking children have their biometrics captured by the Home Office. If a child goes missing, the local police and UK Missing Persons Bureau will be notified and the child’s details will be circulated on the Police National Computer.

    Home Office guidance requires staff to maintain contact with the local authority and the police until the child is found.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the ability of employees paid weekly to meet their living costs in the period between becoming unemployed and receiving their first payment of universal credit.

    Priti Patel

    Where a claimant’s earnings or income is insufficient to meet their living costs and in order to safeguard against financial hardship before the first Universal Credit (UC) payment, an advance payment of up to 50% of their UC award may be made.

    Personal Budgeting Support advice is also available to all claimants.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 1.123 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what assessment he has made of the effect of uprating the individual threshold in the minimum income floor for self-employed people on the household income of a tax credit claimant family with two children and one self-employed earner under the age of 25 earning £12,194 over the course of a year.

    Priti Patel

    There is no Minimum Income Floor (MIF) in the tax credit system.

    In Universal Credit the MIF is designed to address issues in the current system which enable self-employed claimants to receive full State support while declaring low or zero earnings indefinitely.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-01-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what revenue has accrued to the Exchequer from the use of fixed odds betting terminals in each of the last four complete financial years; and if he will make a statement.

    Damian Hinds

    Total Machine Games Duty (MGD) receipts for the years ending 31 March 2015 and 2014 were £562 million and £502 million. Total Amusement Machine Licence Duty receipts for the years ending 31 March 2013 and 2012 were £151million and £219 million.

    Receipts from fixed odds betting terminals are not separately identified in the figures published in HMRC’s Tax & Duty bulletin. The bulletin can be found here:

    https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/Pages/TaxAndDutyBulletins.aspx

    “

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to increase the percentage of GDP being spent on NHS and social care services.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Spending Review settlement, delivered by the Chancellor on 25 November 2015, set the Department’s overall budget for the remaining years of the Parliament and the level of funding that will be available to the National Health Service. It set absolute spending totals, not spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, providing certainty for financial planning over the period.

    As a result of the Spending Review, NHS funding will be £10 billion higher in real terms by 2020-21 than 2014-15. And the NHS will not have to wait until the end of the Parliament for much of this investment. We will be giving the NHS £3.8 billion more next year, over and above inflation, and almost £6 billion of the £10 billion in the first two years of the six year period. This shows that the Government has listened and responded to what the NHS has said about the profile of investment it needs to deliver the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View.

    In regards to social care, the Spending Review has shown our continued commitment to joining up health and care by confirming ongoing commitment to the Better Care Fund – making available further social care funds for local government from 2017, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019-20, which will be included in the Better Care Fund. As well as this, we are giving local government further access to the funding it needs by introducing a social care precept which could raise up to £2 billion by the end of the Parliament.

  • Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of lipreading and managing hearing loss classes available; and if he will ask Public Health England to investigate the availability of such classes.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills supports lipreading, British Sign Language (BSL) and managing hearing loss provision in England through the Adult Education Budget (AEB). Colleges and training providers have the freedom and flexibility to determine how they use their AEB, working with Local Enterprise Partnerships and local commissioners to determine the appropriate distribution of funding to best meet the needs of their local learners and businesses, this includes both lip reading and BSL qualifications where there is a local need for these.

    It is not Public Health England’s role to investigate the availability of lip reading and managing hearing loss classes. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is leading a review of the market for BSL and communication support for people who are deaf, deafblind or have a hearing loss. DWP is currently analysing the feedback received from a consultation on Communications for people who are deaf or have hearing loss: market review which ran from 4 January to 4 March.