Category: Speeches

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2015 to Question 7476, when he expects Public Health England and the National Offender Management Services’ health needs assessment of all prisons to be (a) complete and (b) published.

    Ben Gummer

    Public Health England (PHE), NHS England and the National Offender Management Service commission individual health and wellbeing needs assessments (HNAs) in all prisons and young offender institutions in England on a regular basis, as part of the commissioning timetable. The current NHS England procurement timetable runs to 2017 and the current round of HNAs are commissioned to inform this.

    In the procurement process for prison health services, an HNA identifies health needs for which health services will becommissioned in that establishment. All prisons have produced individual HNAs and these are now at various stages of review. NHS England anticipates that each prison would need to undertake a full HNA every three to five years and to complete a low level refresh of its HNA every year. HNAs are not currently published routinely, but some are published by PHE’s regional Public Health Observatories, with details of these available at:

    http://www.apho.org.uk/default.aspx

    All HNAs are available on request from the local NHS England Area Team commissioners.

    “

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they can consult the National Infrastructure Commission on applications for planning consent for nationally significant infrastructure projects, and if so, whether they will consult the Commission regarding such applications, and what criteria they would use in deciding whether to do so.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The National Infrastructure Commission is not currently consulted on nationally significant infrastructure projects, but the Government will consider carefully any request by the Commission to do so.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that antibiotics are prescribed in proportion to the severity of the illness.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England is undertaking work to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in general practice through low cost and scalable interventions designed by behavioural scientists. In addition, Public Health England has developed the Antibiotic Guardian campaign to improve behaviours around the use of antibiotics amongst both the public and healthcare professionals.

    Furthermore, in August 2015 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published guidelines on the effective use of antimicrobials (including antibiotics) in children, young people and adults. It aims to change prescribing practice to help slow the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and ensure that antimicrobials remain an effective treatment for infection.

    https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng15.

    “

  • Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many companies have signed up to the Veterans Guaranteed Interview scheme in each year since its inception.

    Priti Patel

    The Veterans Interview Programme was launched in November 2012 as a non-political, cross party initiative. It was purposefully set up with light governance arrangements to ensure the focus is on support for veterans and not on completing paperwork. Although DWP provides support for the scheme on this basis, employers are not required to let the Department know once they have decided to take part in the programme. As a result we do not have the information available to answer this question.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to HS2 Ltd’s Information Paper, G3: Construction Commissioner, published on 16 December 2015, what annual salary he expects to pay to the HS2 Construction Commissioner; to what body the Construction Commissioner will report; what steps he will take to safeguard the Commissioner’s independence from his Department and HS2 Ltd; for what reasons the Commissioner will not be able to consider claims for losses of over £10,000; and what the exemption from the role of matters considered by Parliament in approving the project is planned cover.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The HS2 Construction Commissioner will report to a steering group that will be entirely independent of HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport. The independent steering group will be responsible for agreeing the Commissioner’s terms of reference. It is envisaged that the steering group will include members who represent community interests and the construction industry. The Construction Commissioner and independent steering group will be appointed in time for when HS2 construction begins.

    The salary of the HS2 Construction Commissioner is expected to be £575 per day, based on working eight days per month, and is in line with other comparable roles. This will be subject to review by the independent steering group.

    The Commissioner will be responsible for investigating complaints relating to the construction of HS2 Phase One that cannot be resolved through HS2 Ltd’s corporate complaints procedure. In addition, it is anticipated that one of the roles of the HS2 Construction Commissioner will be to act as an arbitrator for the HS2 Small Claims Scheme in the event that a dispute cannot be resolved through the normal process. The Small Claims Scheme is expected to have an initial maximum claim value of £10,000. This figure is provisional, based on other infrastructure projects, and will be subject to review by the steering group.

    Further information regarding the HS2 Small Claims Scheme is available in HS2 Information Paper C10, which can be accessed via the following weblink:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/high-speed-rail-london-west-midlands-bill

    “

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will establish an awards scheme for schools that have excelled in supporting children with special educational needs and disability similar to the scheme for pupil premium awards.

    Edward Timpson

    It is crucial that schools are effective in identifying their pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and providing the right support to help these pupils fulfil their potential. We have recently made major reforms to the SEND system through the Children and Families Act 2014, so as to improve the support for children and young people with SEND. In the White Paper that we published on 17 March, Educational Excellence Everywhere, we have set out plans to embed those reforms and review our strategy to improve SEND provision. As part of this we will wish to look at options for how to identify and promote excellent SEND practice in schools. If My Honourable Friend has any specific proposals then I would be happy to receive them.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that they fulfil the pledge in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights and Democracy Report 2015 to continue to look at every available option to ensure accountability” for the crimes committed by Daesh.”

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We continue to look at every option to ensure accountability. In the meantime we are supporting the gathering and preservation of evidence that could in future be used in a court to hold Daesh to account.

    The UK co-sponsored the UN Human Rights Council resolution of September 2014 mandating investigation of Daesh abuses in Iraq. Working with international partners, we are doing everything we can to assist in the gathering and preservation of evidence that could in future be used by judicial bodies to make a judgement on this matter. It is vital that this is done now, before evidence is lost or destroyed.

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-06-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the Office of Road and Rail has adequately evaluated the impact of inter-city trains on the East Coast Main Line sharing the tracks approaching London with Thameslink services providing 24 trains per hour through the core section.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    No such assessment has been made by the Government. However, in making its own assessment, the Office of Road and Rail were aware of the requirements of the planned Thameslink service.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department has spent in addition to his Department’s obligations under franchise agreements on driver training or driver recruitment by each train operating company since May 2010.

    Paul Maynard

    None, as this falls under the franchise agreement and is for the Train Operating Companies to spend.

  • George Howarth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    George Howarth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many NICE highly specialised technology evaluations are expected to take place over the next two years.

    Nicola Blackwood

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently developing guidance on four drugs through the highly specialised technology (HST) evaluation programme which it expects to complete within the next year. NICE has capacity to develop guidance on three HST topics each year.