The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Attorney General, what steps his Department has taken to embed the family test into its policy making.
Jeremy Wright
The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014. DWP published guidance for Departments and officials on how the test should be applied when formulating policy and whenever appropriate the Law Officers’ Departments would follow that guidance.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Howe of Idlicote on 2015-12-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will place in the Library of the House the report of, or other documentation from, Ofcom’s strategic review that led to the decision that Ofcom should regulate video-on-demand programme services from 1 January 2016.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
From 1 January 2016, Video on Demand (VOD) services will be regulated by Ofcom, following an internal review to ensure the regulation of broadcast is as effective and efficient as possible, for the benefit of customers, audiences, and the industry. Ofcom will act as the sole regulator for VOD services, rather than two separate bodies carrying out this work, creating operational efficiencies and allowing editorial content on VOD services to sit alongside Ofcom’s existing regulation of broadcasting.
Ofcom has communicated the outcome and reasons for its decision to stakeholders. More information can be found here :http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2015/1520333/
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-01-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress the Chief Scientific Officer of NHS England is making towards the introduction of a national molecular pathology service.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Independent Cancer Taskforce recognised the need for more accessible molecular diagnostic provision in their report ‘Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, published in July 2015, a copy of which is attached. In September 2015, the Department confirmed a commitment from NHS England to implement the Taskforce’s recommendations on molecular diagnostics.
NHS England is currently working with partners across the healthcare system to determine how best to take forward the recommendations of the Taskforce.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support the work of Taste of Ulster; and if she will introduce similar organisations throughout the UK to promote food products.
George Eustice
I fully support the excellent work that Taste of Ulster is doing to showcase the finest food and drink from Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink is running concurrently with the Year of Great British Food, and we are working closely with colleagues from Northern Ireland which includes some food pioneers from Northern Ireland’s food industry to ensure that our shared message about the wonderful food and drink produced throughout the UK and the outstanding food heritage of our nation reaches the widest possible audience.
This year’s celebrations of food include promoting Protected Food Names. I am delighted that there are three Protected Food Names from Northern Ireland: Armagh Bramley Apples, New Season Comber Potatoes and Lough Neagh Eels and that there are four more in the pipeline.
Food NI and the Taste of Ulster campaign provides a strong model of the food sector taking the lead in forming a consortium to promote the excellence of Northern Irish food. Similar initiatives exist in other parts of the UK, and I strongly encourage and support their work.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Questions 26129 and 26130, how much community engagement funding to tackle female genital mutilation (a) was allocated in 2013-14 and (b) has been allocated for 2015-16 through schemes operated by (i) her Department and (ii) the Department for Communities and Local Government; how many and which community projects applied for funding in these years; and which such applications were (A) accepted and (B) rejected.
Karen Bradley
In 2014-15, the Government provided over £380,000 to community organisations through the Home Office’s female genital mutilation (FGM) Community Engagement Initiative and the Department for Communities and Local Government’s FGM and forced marriage prevention projects.
A total of 179 applications were received, and 29 of these applications were funded. The Answer of 11 February 2016 to Questions 26129 and 26130 provides a list of the organisations whose applications were successful. The Government did not provide specific funding for FGM community engagement projects in 2013-14 or 2015-16.
We know that changing attitudes within communities is key to ending FGM and we will continue to work with community organisations and survivors through the FGM Unit’s stakeholder group and ongoing outreach programme to drive this work forward.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to encourage the use of faecal calprotectin in primary care to facilitate prompt and appropriate referral of people with suspected inflammation of the bowel.
Jane Ellison
The IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) Registry provides a United Kingdom-wide repository of anonymised IBD adult and paediatric patient data for prospective audit and research purposes. Patients must consent for their data to be added to the registry. The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) has allocated transitional funding this year to incorporate IBD audit data collection into the IBD Registry, providing an enhanced system for data capture and quality improvement that will be available to every hospital in the UK. This will allow the entry of data locally and support service improvement. Initially the focus will be for IBD patients receiving biologic treatments, but the system will address other key aspects of IBD care in the future.
The second step of data collection will be to focus on new patients with IBD to begin to understand the incidence of IBD in the UK. This picture will build up over a number of years and be dependent on the engagement of clinicians.
No specific assessment of the potential effects on healthcare due to the introduction of a registry of patients with IBD in England has been made. However, the data provided through the register can support National Health Service services in areas such as the assessment of local IBD populations as well as in measuring incidence and outcomes with services in other parts of the UK.
Although there is no direct Department funding, HQIP have given £290,000 for a year’s transition funding to join the audit data with the registry.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends faecal calprotectin testing as an option to help doctors distinguish between inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and non-inflammatory bowel diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome.
The NICE IBD Quality Standard states that general practitioners (GP) and GP practices should ensure that testing is offered and clinical commissioning groups should ensure the diagnostic services are in place to support this.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-05-04.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.4 of the minutes of the Social Security Advisory Committee meeting held on 9 March 2016, if he will publish the impact assessment of increasing maximum recovery rates from ongoing tax credit awards.
Damian Hinds
There are no plans to publish an impact assessment in relation to the Tax Credits and Child Benefit (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2016.
The government carefully considers all relevant legal obligations when formulating welfare policy
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Bottomley on 2016-06-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Metropolitan Police have provided her with a copy of the memorandum of a conviction/order entered in the Register of Lambeth East Juvenile Court that records the proving on 1 April 1987 of offences or complaints by PC Markwick by a defendant aged over 16 on 7 November 1986.
Mike Penning
The Metropolitan Police Service has not provided this document to the Home Office.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Helic on 2016-09-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made since the Supporting Syria and the Region conference in February in implementing loans by multilateral development banks and bilateral donors to help vulnerable Syrians and host communities in the Middle East.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Syria Conference raised a record amount of more than $12 billion – the largest amount raised in one day for a humanitarian crisis. This was supported by Multilateral Development Banks and donors’ pledges of around $41 billion loans, including $1.7 billion on highly concessional terms.
The World Bank launched the MENA Finance Initiative to support Syrian refugees and host communities in Jordan and Lebanon at the Spring Meetings in April. Donors pledged $140 million in grants and over $1 billion in concessional loans. Grant pledges have since increased to $225 million.
As part of this initiative, the UK is providing an £80 million concessional loan to the World Bank MENA Finance Facility to support employment opportunities for Syrian refugees in Jordan. In July, a successful first meeting of the Steering Committee saw two Jordan projects approved.
The UK continues to urge donors to deliver on the commitments made at the London Conference in London. The Department for International Development has set up a tracking mechanism that will report on the delivery of the financial commitments made at the London Conference, including humanitarian and development funding and loans. The first report from the tracking mechanism will be published in September.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will list the members of the neuroscience clinical reference group of NHS England.
David Mowat
Clinical Reference Groups (CRG) are currently undertaking a process of recruitment. Once all appointments have been made, a full list of members for each CRG will be published on NHS England’s website. However, for the Specialised Neurosciences CRG, the Chair and Lead CRG Commissioner have been confirmed as Adrian Williams and Jacquie Kemp respectively.