The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on what local government services can be funded by the two per cent social care precept.
Mr Marcus Jones
The Chancellor’s Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 (Cm9162), presented to Parliament on 26 November 2015, makes clear that the two per cent social care precept must be spent entirely on adult social care.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Crisp on 2016-02-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proportion of the Department for International Development funding for mental health in low- and middle-income countries has increased or decreased in the last year for which figures are available.
Baroness Verma
Tracking of inputs, allocations and expenditure is based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) codes, which are used for reporting official development assistance.
The UK’s health focus in developing countries is on improving the provision of basic health services for the poor by strengthening and supporting health systems, health worker capacity and access to essential medicines. Increasing coverage, equity, access and quality will strengthen health services to address all health problems including non-communicable diseases, like mental disorders and dementia.
DFID is helping countries to make fairer, transparent and evidence-based decisions about how to set priorities and allocate resources in health. We support research on mental health through our PRIME (Programme for Improving Mental Health Care) programme. This research is providing world class evidence on implementation and scaling up for treatment programmes and having this adopted by policy makers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many consultants’ contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.
Harriett Baldwin
Since April 2011, the department has maintained a contracts database. A search of that database by the Crown Commercial Service has not identified any consultancy contracts that have been terminated early.
Prior to April 2011, the department did not hold a central record of contracts. To attempt to extract the information from local records would be at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to limit the effect that engineering works on rail lines have on travel over long bank holidays.
Claire Perry
An independent review of how the rail industry plans and schedules major improvement work was carried out last year. The review concluded that Christmas, Easter and bank holidays were the best times to carry out upgrades requiring major line closures, particularly in and around London where the network is busiest and access for engineers is most difficult.
Network Rail always looks to minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers. As such, Network Rail and train operators are conscious that many people want to use the railway over holiday periods to reunite with their friends and families, so where possible they try to ensure the vast majority of services are kept running, as well as delivering passenger improvements on time. Network Rail will ensure around 96% of the network will be available during the next May bank holiday.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made in rolling out Project Griffin to security managers in the private sector and what budget has been provided to the National Counter Terrorism Security Office to promote Project Griffin.
Mr John Hayes
Project Griffin is the national counter-terrorism awareness initiative for business produced by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) to protect our cities and communities from the threat of terrorism. Since 2004, Project Griffin has held briefing events to increase public and staff awareness of how best to reduce and respond to the most likely types of terrorist activities.
In 2015-16 these events were delivered to around 100,000 individuals. On 20 April, NaCTSO launched a new Griffin initiative to offer organisations the opportunity to self-deliver this training, and further increase awareness.
The National Counter Terrorism Security Office is funded from the Counter Terrorism Policing Grant. We do not provide breakdowns of this funding for security reasons. As well as the work of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, Project Griffin is promoted through a variety of other mechanisms including by police Counter Terrorism Security Advisers and Counter Terrorism Awareness Advisers, who are employed in every region to raise awareness with businesses of the terrorist threat, appropriate responses to take, and mitigation measures
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress he has made on bringing forward proposals for a modern public services ombudsman in the last three months.
John Penrose
The Government is making good progress and will publish draft legislation in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her plans are to tackle trends in stress-related illnesses among police officers in Lancashire.
Brandon Lewis
The Government recognises that policing can be a challenging job and it is the responsibility of chief officers – supported by the College of Policing – to ensure the welfare of all officers and staff. We welcome the work in forces, led nationally by Lancashire’s Deputy Chief Constable – to promote officer health and wellbeing. It is encouraging to see that all forces have signed up to the Workplace Wellbeing Charter.
As part of a commitment to police welfare in October 2014 the Government allocated £10m to help support emergency services personnel and volunteers, focused on mental health, physical recuperation and bereavement support for those who need it.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking in regard to those Clinical Commissioning Groups which plan to cut the proportion of their budget spent on mental health services for 2016–17.
Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has set a clear requirement of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that spending on mental health should increase year-on-year by an amount at least as great as the growth in their baseline allocations. CCGs are required through the NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-2019 to increase their baseline spend on mental health. A copy of this guidance is attached. From this year, NHS England’s budget and financial reporting will be aligned to specific mental health priorities, increasing transparency and allowing additional resources to be tracked at CCG level.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 15 of the Office of Rail and Road’s report, Monitoring Highways England, published in October 2015, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of existing data on the delivery of the road investment programme.
Andrew Jones
A key element of the recent Roads Reform work was the appointment of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) as the independent monitor of Highways England. The ORR will be working with Highways England to ensure that they have the necessary data and information to perform their role effectively.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-30.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to commission a review into the obstacles that prevent more people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds from reaching senior positions in business, similar to the Women on Boards review by Lord Davies of Abersoch.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Government believes that businesses benefit from a rich and wide talent pool including people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Government is fully supportive of the private led Diversity initiative chaired by Sir John Parker who are currently considering this issue. We expect the group to report on their findings in 2016.
There are no current plans for Government to commission a separate review into the obstacles that are preventing more people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds from reaching senior positions in the boardroom.