Category: Speeches

Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what discussions he has had with other EU countries on the UK’s future trading relationship with those countries; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robin Walker

We are about to begin these negotiations and it would be wrong to set out unilateral positions in advance. At every step of these negotiations we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people.

01/01/2023
Baroness Altmann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Altmann on 2016-10-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that workers who are contributing to a workplace pension, and who earn less than £11,000 a year, are able to receive the government contribution to their pension for which they are eligible; and what action they are taking to ensure that such earners are not disadvantaged by losing out on the 25 per cent top-up to which they are entitled.

Lord Young of Cookham

The Pensions Regulator provides guidance to employers on choosing a pension scheme for their staff in order to discharge their statutory obligations under automatic enrolment. This guidance covers the choice between net pay and relief at source schemes, and the implications of net pay schemes for employees who do not pay tax.

The Government’s latest analysis of the eligibility of workers for automatic enrolment was published on 13 October 2016 in ‘Workplace Pensions: Update of analysis on Automatic Enrolment’. Information on age and earnings breakdowns for all workers can be found in table 3a on page 6, and is available in the report titled: Workplace pensions: Update of Analysis on Automatic Enrolment 2016, which is available on the gov.uk website.

The Government does not collect data on the number of workers earning less than the personal allowance who are also members of pension schemes that operate a net pay system. The Government does not hold employee level data on employees enrolled in net pay pension schemes, as such schemes are not obliged to report pension contributions to HM Revenue and Customs. The Government does not therefore hold information on the value of tax reliefs paid out to employees in net pay schemes.

01/01/2023
Lord Quirk – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Quirk on 2015-11-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and if so in what specific ways, they are sponsoring or encouraging research in forensic linguistics with a view to extending its use in the criminal justice system and the immigration services.

Lord Bates

A forensic linguistic process, known as “language analysis”, has been used by the Home Office for immigration purposes for over ten years. The capability is provided by two private suppliers, who were contracted following a competitive tender in 2014.

Language analysis is used to assist in identifying an individual’s true place of origin where it is in doubt, and to deter individuals from making fraudulent asylum claims based on false claims of origin for actual or perceived benefit. It is just one of the tools employed to help confirm an individual’s nationality.

01/01/2023
Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2015 to Question 13392, if he will make an estimate of the number of people with cancer who will be affected by the proposals to remove the work-related activity element of employment and support allowance.

Priti Patel

No current claimants will be affected by these proposals. We do not hold estimates on the number of future claimants of the work-related element of ESA with specific conditions.

The impact assessment can be found here: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006B.pdf.

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01/01/2023
Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 52 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what mechanisms he plans to use to ringfence the £40 million Discover England Fund.

Tracey Crouch

To date all English funding has been ringfenced within the British Tourist Authority. This will continue.The £40m Discover England funding will be separately maintained and accounted for to ensure it is used in support of product development in English destinations, and in accordance with the process and criteria to be published shortly. The progress and spend of the fund will be monitored through regular reports.

01/01/2023

Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of sepsis there were in each region of England in each of the last five years.

Ben Gummer

Data for finished discharge episodes (FDEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis for patients in each government office region of residence in England, in each year from 2010-11 to 2014-15 are provided below.

These figures relate only to hospital admissions and do not include those patients who were diagnosed in a primary care setting, or those who attended hospital as an Outpatient.

This is not a count of patients as the same patient may have had more than one episode of care within the same year.

Count of FDEs¹ with a primary or secondary diagnosis² of sepsis³ for patients in each government office region of residence for 2010-11 to 2014-15^4.Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector

Government office region	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
North East	4,798	5,074	5,655	6,275	7,388
North West	13,258	13,109	14,708	17,221	20,922
Yorkshire and The Humber	9,182	9,189	10,146	11,338	12,857
East Midlands	7,316	8,115	9,831	10,863	12,998
West Midlands	7,772	7,915	10,518	12,297	13,812
East of England	10,380	10,432	11,647	13,108	16,029
London	14,894	15,223	15,580	17,860	19,723
South East	13,945	15,344	16,604	19,239	21,378
South West	8,013	8,292	9,805	10,967	12,722
England – Not Otherwise Specified	48	83	75	84	102
Unknown/Non-England	2,275	8,239	9,716	3,570	3,841
Total	91,881	101,015	114,285	122,822	141,772

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

The increasing incidence of sepsis is likely to be due to people living longer and more medical and surgical interventions being performed. People with series co-morbidities are more likely to survive their illness, and for a longer period of time than in previous decades, which leads to much of the hospital-acquired sepsis that now occurs.

Notes:

¹Finished Discharge Episode (FDE) – A discharge episode is the last episode during a hospital stay (a spell), where the patient is discharged from the hospital or transferred to another hospital. Discharges do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one discharge from hospital within the period.

²Number of episodes in which the patient had a primary or secondary diagnosis – The number of episodes where this diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.

³ICD-10 codes for Sepsis – A02.1 Salmonella sepsis, A20.7 Septicaemic plague, A21.7 Generalized tularaemia, A22.7 Anthrax sepsis, A26.7 Erysipelothrix sepsis, A28.0 Pasteurellosis, A28.2 Extraintestinal yersiniosis, A32.7 Listerial sepsis, A39.2 Acute meningococcaemia, A39.3 Chronic meningococcaemia, A39.4 Meningococcaemia, unspecified, A40.- Streptococcal sepsis, A41.- Other sepsis, A42.7 Actinomycotic sepsis, B37.7 Candidal sepsis, O85.X Puerperal sepsis, P36.- Bacterial sepsis of newborn
The following pair of codes is a dagger/asterisk code pair (D and A) which must be present together:
A39.1 Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome; E35.1 Disorders of adrenal glands in diseases classified elsewhere

⁴Assessing growth through time (Admitted patient care) – HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so no longer include in admitted patient HES data. Conversely, apparent increases in activity may be due to improved recording of diagnosis or procedure information.

Note that HES include activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, e.g. 2012-13 includes activity ending between 1st April 2012 and 31st March 2013.

01/01/2023

Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to review the efficacy of the 111 service in ensuring that 999 is not used in medical non-emergencies.

Alistair Burt

NHS 111 services are commissioned by local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that should ensure all the services they commission are effective.

NHS England’s monthly published data for the period April to September 2015 show that 11% of calls handled by NHS 111 resulted in dispatch of an ambulance.

Most recent figures show that nationally 90.4% of NHS 111 users are satisfied with the service they get.

01/01/2023
Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-03-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what regulations govern parental consent for the recording of interviews with lone children in cases involving Cafcass.

Caroline Dinenage

There are no regulations governing parental consent for the recording of interviews with lone children in cases involving the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). The extent of the role and responsibilities of Cafcass officers is set out in the Family Procedure Rules 2010 and Practice Direction 16a, and this refers to the duty to “make such investigations as may be necessary”. Cafcass practitioners are aware that they must consider the best interests of the child in all aspects of their casework, including dealing with a request from a parent to record an interview.

01/01/2023
Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the payment of senior NHS staff through limited companies; and what estimate he has made of the number of senior NHS staff paid off-payroll.

Alistair Burt

Our policy is to comply with the guidance from HM Treasury on senior staff engaged on an off-payroll basis. Engaging staff off-payroll can be a useful flexibility for employers but the guidance is clear that the most senior staff should be on the payroll of the organisation they lead, except in exceptional circumstances and then for no more than six months. The latest figure for staff in National Health Service trusts within the scope of the Treasury guidance indicate there were 1,193 off-payroll staff in 2014/15. The latest figure for NHS foundation trusts was 1,109 in 2013/14. These figures may include staff engaged off-payroll other than through limited companies. Figures for staff in clinical commissioning groups are not collected centrally.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to increase the number of locations with paid toll crossings in England.

Andrew Jones

The Government has a longstanding policy of funding estuarial crossings through tolls. Work on a new Lower Thames Crossing has assumed that it will be tolled, although no decisions have yet been made. Beyond this, there are no plans for further tolled crossings in England. The £15 billion to be invested in strategic roads over the period 2015 to 2020, set out in the Road Investment Strategy, is wholly funded by Government.

The new Mersey Gateway Bridge and existing Silver Jubilee Bridge will be tolled when the new bridge opens in 2017, although these are the responsibility of Halton Council.

01/01/2023