The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many officials in his Department have applied for special leave to carry out work for non-governmental departments in the last 12 months.
Matthew Hancock
The information requested is not held.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to include students from other EU countries in the eligibility criteria for student loans in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 admissions years.
Joseph Johnson
The UK has a long-established higher education system that supports, and therefore attracts, the brightest minds, at all stages of their careers. Existing rules on EU and other EEA students remain in force. Future arrangements for EU students wishing to study in the UK will need to be considered as part of wider discussions about the UK’s relationship with the EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawhinney on 2016-10-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is their intention to amalgamate local primary care centres into larger units; and if so, when.
Lord Prior of Brampton
As part of the New Care Models Programme, NHS England is supporting local health and care commissioners and providers to come together to improve the health and care they provide. This includes the development of population-based care models known as integrated Primary and Acute Care Systems and Multispecialty Community Providers (MCPs). Where and how to develop new care models are decisions taken by local partnerships, in response to local conditions. The Programme is not directing or requiring the amalgamation of primary care centres.
There are 14 MCP vanguards, with a single organisation accountable for joined-up General Practitioner (GP) and community services and some specialist care, mental health services, and social care for a defined population. The building blocks of a MCP are the ‘care hubs’ of integrated teams. Each typically serves a community of around 30,000-50,000 people. These hubs are the practical, operational level of any model of accountable care provision. The wider the scope of services included in the MCP, the more hubs you may need to connect together to create sufficient scale. All 14 MCP vanguards now serve a minimum population of around 100,000.
The majority of GP practices are already working in practice groups or federations. This provides opportunities to expand services, stabilise practice income and work at scale, which has benefits for patients, practices and the wider system. These include economies of scale, quality improvement, workforce development, enhanced care and new services, resilience and system partnerships.
A new voluntary MCP contract will be introduced from April 2017, to integrate general practice services with community services and wider healthcare services. Measures from the GP Access Fund and vanguard sites that are currently piloting this approach, will be learned from to support mainstreaming of proven service improvements across all practices, and funding will be provided for local collaborations to support practices to implement new ways of working.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the political situation in Kurdistan and the effect this situation has on the threat from Islamic State; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK Government is following the political situation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq closely. Her Majesty’s Ambassador in Baghdad and Consul General in Erbil are encouraging Kurdish political leaders to resolve their differences peacefully, in the spirit of compromise and respecting democratic principles. We welcome the major contribution made by the Kurdistan Regional Government and Kurdish people to counter ISIL, and encourage them to continue to unite against this threat.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reason his Department sets an age limit for the receipt of funding for Masters degrees; and if he will make a statement.
Joseph Johnson
The new loan to support Master’s study has an upper age limit to ensure the scheme overall is affordable and offers value for money. The new postgraduate loan will be repaid from earnings on an income contingent basis, in this case 6% of earned annual income above the threshold of £21,000. We are therefore limiting eligibility to cover those likely to continue in employment and enter repayments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2016-02-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the grant awarded to Action on Smoking and Health for 2015–16 relates to activities to be delivered beyond the end of the financial year; and, as the grant conditions stipulate that such activities must be delivered prior to that day, whether they will investigate.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The proposed budget estimates received from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) for each of the last five years for a Section 64 grant is attached. Commercially sensitive information has been redacted.
As the agreed project outputs make clear, the 2015-16 Section 64 grant funding awarded to ASH will be spent in the current financial year, including work relating to preparation for legislation coming into force later in 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much his Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Sums paid to Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) staff for overtime for the last 24 months, for which figures are available, were as follows:
|
£000s |
January |
February |
March |
April |
May |
June |
July |
August |
September |
October |
November |
December |
|
2014 |
– |
5.1 |
10.9 |
2.6 |
6.8 |
4.3 |
7.3 |
23.7 |
7.0 |
7.1 |
3.7 |
10.8 |
|
2015 |
2.2 |
3.9 |
28.0 |
6.2 |
31.0 |
5.8 |
4.3 |
8.3 |
6.6 |
4.3 |
8.6 |
7.1 |
|
2016 |
6.3 |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
DCMS is the smallest government department, with 509 full time equivalent (FTE) permanent employees (as of 31 January 2016). Overtime is a cost-effective way of managing peaks in workload in order to reduce the need for contractors or adding to the department’s headcount. Annual expenditure on overtime accounts for just under 0.3% of the DCMS paybill.
DCMS has responsibility for high profile policy, which includes staging national First World War commemoration events – this is reflected in our overtime figures for August 2014 and May 2015.
Recent machinery of government changes has also seen DCMS take on additional policy areas, including the digital economy unit, digital inclusion, data protection, the sponsorship of the National Archives and the Information Commissioner. The figure for March 2015 reflects the addition of the 2014-15 total overtime cost for the Digital Economy Unit following its Machinery of Government transfer to DCMS; monthly analysis of this sum is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to industry of the proposal in Question 35 of the Department for Health consultation on the extension of charging overseas visitors and migrants using the NHS in England.
Alistair Burt
In relation to the Department’s recent consultation on extending charging to overseas visitors using the National Health Service in England, a lack of available data means that it has not been possible to estimate the cost to industry of the proposal to remove the exemption from charge category for overseas visitors working on United Kingdom-registered ships. However, the proposal was included in the Impact Assessment and is thought to be small overall.
We are currently analysing responses to the consultation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to further restrict the use of drones to ensure (a) the safety of aircraft and (b) privacy of members of the public.
Mr Robert Goodwill
There are existing regulations in place that require users of drones to maintain direct, unaided visual contact with their vehicle and to not recklessly or negligently cause or permit their craft to endanger any person or property. There are also tough existing penalties, including up to five years imprisonment for endangering an aircraft. Guidance on tackling the risks of criminal drone use has been provided to constabularies across the UK. The Secretary of State has written to the Police to request their assistance in raising awareness of drone risks and restrictions.
The Department continues to work with the CAA and industry partners to assess the safety risk of drones. It is also currently working with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to develop consistent, EU-wide safety rules for drones. A public consultation is planned for the summer. This will look at a range of options including registration and licensing options, and the potential for restrictions on purchase and use.
Operators of drones that might collect personal data must comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) unless a relevant exemption applies. The requirements of the DPA are regulated by the independent Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and their website provides clear guidance to operators.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library the raw data from each English Housing Survey detailing the nationalities of the Household Representative Person.
Brandon Lewis
Raw data from the English Housing Survey are publicly available via the UK Data Service (archive for survey and economic data). These publicly available datasets undergo rigorous disclosure control to ensure the anonymity of our respondents is protected and, as such, do not include individual level nationality data.