The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2015-12-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make one of the qualifying criteria for children under three years of age to access the mobility component of the disability living allowance possession of a blue badge by either of a child’s parents.
Justin Tomlinson
I refer the honourable lady to the answer provided to her on 2 November (13660).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the second bullet point of page 26 of the report, entitled Getting it right in social welfare law, published by the Low Commission in March 2015, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of the Commission’s recommendation.
Mr Shailesh Vara
The Ministry of Justice welcomes the work done by the Low Commission in producing its reports, and notes its recommendation on Alternative Dispute Resolution. As part of our work to reform the courts we are considering how to make processes speedier and more accessible.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal Colleges on the possible connection between potato consumption and diabetes in pregnancy.
Jane Ellison
No such discussions have been held.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to increase public awareness of personal health budgets.
Alistair Burt
NHS England provides a comprehensive programme of training and support for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to help them to develop and publish a local offer of personal health budgets by April 2016. CCGs are now also required to include their personal health budget offer in their Health and Wellbeing Strategies, which are published in the public domain. To increase public awareness further, NHS England funds a national network of people with lived experiences of personal health budgets who champion their use both nationally and locally.
NHS England has made it clear that CCGs have a duty to inform people who are eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare that they have the right to have a personal health budget, for example including information in the letter that informs individuals they are eligible. NHS England is currently consulting on the new CCG Improvement and Assessment framework, which will ask CCGs to submit the number of personal health budgets in their local area. The results of this will be used to inform the public of how many personal health budgets have been given locally and how their area compares with the rest of the country.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Court of Appeal’s recent decision on domestic violence evidential requirements for legal aid, what interim steps his Department plans to make for victims of domestic violence whose evidence is more than 24 months old.
Mike Penning
We are carefully considering the judgment and will make a further announcement in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many road traffic accidents have been recorded over the last five years on the area of the A417 in Gloucestershire for which an upgrade is planned in 2020.
Andrew Jones
Highways England is starting full-scale options work on the A417 Missing Link ‘Air Balloon’ roundabout scheme this financial year (2016/17), with the intention that the scheme will be ready to start construction as early as possible in the next Road Investment Strategy period which starts on 1 April 2020.
A total of 65 personal injury road accidents were reported to the police between 2010 and 2014 in the vicinity of the A417 scheme.
The number of reported personal injury road accidents per year by severity are as follows:
|
Fatal |
Serious |
Slight |
Total |
|
|
2010 |
1 |
1 |
14 |
16 |
|
2011 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
10 |
|
2012 |
0 |
2 |
13 |
15 |
|
2013 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
|
2014 |
2 |
3 |
11 |
16 |
|
5yr total |
6 |
8 |
51 |
65 |
Figures for 2015 will be published on 30th June 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-06-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will hold discussions with major high street retailers on increasing their involvement in local enterprise partnerships.
Anna Soubry
The Future High Street Forum, a joint partnership between government and the retail, leisure and property industries, includes major high street retailers and Gloucester First – the Retail Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The Forum supports town centres, including market towns, in meeting the changing needs of today’s consumer. The Forum leads a range of work, including a local partnerships work stream.
LEPs define and champion their area’s offer, driving local economic growth through agreed local priorities set out in their Strategic Economic Plan.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Efford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to assess public safety on beaches in England; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Marcus Jones
Safety at public beaches is generally the responsibility of the local authority, who carry out risk assessments to determine appropriate safety measures. Generic guidance for the safe use of beaches is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-safe-at-the-coast-beach-safety-advice
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2016-10-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms his Department has in place to ensure that areas of deprivation receiving higher levels of health funding per head of population do not subsidise less deprived areas as a result of sustainability and transformation plan footprints covering a wide geographic area.
David Mowat
Sustainability and Transformation Plans are designed to set out a local roadmap for closing the health, care and quality and financial gaps faced by the National Health Service over the coming years. The health gap includes inequalities in health and healthcare, and we expect plans to set out how these will be addressed by NHS bodies working with local government. In addition, NHS England’s method for allocating funding to clinical commissioning groups corrects for inequalities by allocating greater funding to areas that have historically been underfunded.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when his Department was first made aware that employer pension payments were not being made by SSI UK.
Anna Soubry
There is a statutory process in place for the reporting of missing pension contributions. Managers of pension schemes are required to report any material non-payment of contributions to The Pensions Regulator within 90 days of those contributions falling due. There is no role for my department in this process.
In insolvency situations, such as SSI’s liquidation, unpaid pension contributions can be claimed from the Redundancy Payments Service within specified legal limits. If there are unpaid contributions, then the manager of the pension scheme will submit a claim to the Redundancy Payments Service on behalf of employees.
As part of his role as liquidator of SSI UK, the Official Receiver will look into all aspects leading to the company’s failure, including the directors’ conduct.