Category: Speeches

  • Lord Harrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Harrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-03-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current primary performance management mechanism through which NHS England hold Clinical Commissioning Groups to account for achieving progress in diabetes service improvement and quality of care.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England and Monitor are working closely together to ensure that the payment system supports service developments in the vanguard sites (including those where integrated diabetes care is a focus) as well as monitoring local innovative approaches to supporting integrated care taken by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This is to ensure that the payment system keeps abreast with the development of future service models and is not a barrier to the development of new models of care.

    During 2016/17, NHS England will look at the current incentives and funding arrangements for diabetes to see how greater alignment could be achieved between the financial incentives for primary and secondary care.

    Information on how much money the National Health Service invested in structured education for diabetes patients is not collected centrally.

    Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England has a statutory duty to conduct an annual assessment of every CCG. Since April 2013, CCGs have been assessed twice, for the period 2013/14 and for 2014/15.

    For 2016/17, NHS England will introduce a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This new framework will align with NHS England’s mandate and planning process, with the aim of driving improvements in a number of key areas including the management and care of people with diabetes.

    NHS England has been working with Diabetes UK on including diabetes indicators in the CCG IAF. The proposed diabetes indicators are:

    – the percentage of diabetes patients that have achieved all three of the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets; and

    – newly diagnosed diabetes patients referred to, or attending, a structured education course.

    Under the proposals, diabetes will also be one of the six clinical priority areas in the CCG IAF that will be overseen by an independent group.

    The CCG IAF proposals are subject to the outcome of an engagement process which closed for comments on February 26 2016. More information can be found at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-improvmnt/

    “

  • Hannah Bardell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Hannah Bardell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hannah Bardell on 2016-04-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the devolved administrations on the Government’s change to the discount rate applied to student loans.

    Greg Hands

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) applies HM Treasury’s long term discount rate to calculate the carrying value of English student loans shown in the BIS financial statements.

    Loans issued by devolved administrations are shown in their respective financial statements. The accounting treatment and discount rates applied are a matter for them.

    HM Treasury is always open to discussion with the devolved administrations about such matters.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations her Department received on exempting the armed forces from providing recruits under the age of 18 with the minimum standards required under the Education and Skills Act 2008; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Boles

    The Education and Skills Act 2008 requires young people to participate in education or training until they are 18. Young people can participate through full-time education, work combined with part-time education or training, or by undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship.

    The 16 and 17 year olds joining the armed forces are under a contract of employment but they are not exempt from their duty to participate. Most of these young people meet their duty to participate by undertaking an apprenticeship.

    We have agreed with the Ministry of Defence that serving in the armed forces is a valid and valuable career route which provides relevant training for young people.

    Apprenticeships are embedded across initial training in the armed forces, with over 95% of all young recruits (no matter what their age or prior qualifications) enrolling in an apprenticeship each year.

    All apprenticeships require a minimum of 280 Guided Learning Hours (GLHs) within a 12 month period. The same GLH requirement applies to the small number of young people in the armed forces who are not on an apprenticeship.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Civil Service employees of her Department were based in Coventry in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Gibb

    The numbers of employees of the Department for Education based in Coventry in each of the last five years is shown in the table below.

    Year

    2012

    2013

    2014

    2015

    2016

    Number at 31st March

    182

    411

    369

    367

    373

    Source: RM

  • Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the expected lifespan is of the Sea Ceptor Anti-Air Missile System.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Sea Ceptor system is currently being fitted to the Royal Navy’s Type 23 Frigates as the principal anti-air missile system and will also be fitted to the Royal Navy’s future Type 26 Frigates as they enter service. The capability will remain in service for over 40 years to align with the out of service date for the Type 26 Frigate.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 7 March 2016 to Question 29379, whether she has had discussions with sporting bodies in the last six months on reducing instances of corruption in sport.

    Tracey Crouch

    The Government hosted an international anti-corruption summit in May this year where tackling corruption in sport was a central feature. In the lead-up to, and at the Summit, the Government was, and continues to be, in discussion with a range of sporting bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency on this matter.

    The communique published following the Summit can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-corruption-summit-communique.

    “

  • Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will meet providers of (a) supported housing and (b) specified housing to discuss the effect of the proposed change to social rents on the viability of those types of housing.

    Brandon Lewis

    We welcome the opportunity to engage with the supported housing sector to understand how the sector’s views can best be accommodated as we implement our policy. Ministers and officials have been discussing this issue with the National Housing Federation and a number of providers.

    We plan to except specialised supported housing, residential care homes, nursing homes and PFI-funded Extra Care housing from the rent reductions. We are continuing to work with the sector on this issue to ensure the most vulnerable are protected.

  • James Cartlidge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    James Cartlidge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cartlidge on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to amend the current East Anglian rail franchise tender to reflect the closure of the Sudbury to Marks Tey railway line and other branch lines in Suffolk in November 2015 as a result of leaf damage to diesel rolling stock.

    Claire Perry

    No specific discussions with bidders have taken place in regard to leaf fall damage to diesel rolling stock. As a minimum, we expect bidders to deliver on the ambitious performance benchmarks we have set, and to minimise delay and disruption for passengers across the franchise.

    The East Anglia Invitation to Tender issued in September sets out that train performance will receive a weighting that is reflective of the level of improvements we want to see.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-01-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the level of improvement in the conditions of children in prisons in Israel since the publication in 2012 of the report by British lawyers Children in Military Custody.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) progress report of October 2013 noted that Israel has taken some positive steps towards addressing the recommendations in the 2012 report by updating the existing Standard Operating Procedures and policies in relation to the arrest of minors. These updates included changing the policy on methods of restraint and the use of blindfolds. Israel also increased the age of majority for Palestinian children. The Israeli military committed to conducting a pilot of using written summons instead of night-time arrests.

    We welcome the steps taken to date, but we continue to call for further measures, including the mandatory use of audio-visual recording of interrogations, investigation into continued reports of single-hand ties being used, and an end to solitary confinement for children.

    We are also funding a follow up mission by the British lawyers who conducted the report in February.

  • Glyn Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Glyn Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Glyn Davies on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans she has for supporting the development of tidal energy projects.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government recognises the potential that tidal energy could play as part of the UK energy mix.

    We are considering how best we can support the development of tidal stream energy, following my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State’s autumn speech.

    On 10 February the Government announced that it will commission an independent review to assess the strategic case for tidal lagoons and whether they could represent good value for consumers. We anticipate that the review will be completed in due course.