The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-09-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that work status is routinely recorded in health records.
Nicola Blackwood
This matter is under consideration as part of work on the forthcoming Green Paper on work and health.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what guidance his Department gives to apprenticeship providers on supporting apprentices with dyslexia.
Nick Boles
Apprenticeships are covered by the Equality Act 2010, therefore employers and providers are required to make reasonable adjustments. Assessment centres (for example colleges) are responsible for ensuring that they understand and apply access arrangements.
Ofqual provides guidance for awarding organisations in England on reasonable adjustment. The Joint Council of Qualifications publishes arrangements annually on special considerations and adjustments. The current version has a number of examples of how to apply arrangements to learners with dyslexia.
The Education and Training Foundation provides guidance for training providers, including advice on supporting apprentices with dyslexia. This can be found in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) section of the Excellence Gateway on the Education and Training Foundation website http://send.excellencegateway.org.uk/.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2015-12-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of reductions in funding to local public health budgets on the outcomes achieved by drug treatment services.
Lord Prior of Brampton
A table which shows trend data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System for individuals completing treatment free of dependence for the years 2009-10 to 2014-15 is attached.
For the first time in 2014-15, the annual report brought together information on people receiving specialist interventions for drugs and alcohol. Many people experience problems with both substances and receive interventions for both, and drugs and alcohol services are often commissioned together. The figures therefore include the substance group ‘non-opiate and alcohol’, as well as those seeking services for drug-only related dependency, to ensure all individuals leaving treatment drug-free are captured. This new methodology has been applied to the years prior to 2014-15 to ensure comparable figures.
We have provided both the total numbers leaving treatment successfully free of dependence as well as the numbers that left successfully not using drugs or alcohol at the time of exit (which is a subset of the larger number), as some individuals may, for example, be occasionally drinking when they are discharged but it will have been judged by a clinician to be non-problematic and not dependent use and that therefore they no longer require treatment.
Public Health England will continue to support local authorities to provide effective and efficient drug treatment services, by providing bespoke data to assist the joint strategic needs assessment and to show the effectiveness of the local treatment system, as well as value for money tools, topical briefings, advice on good practice and on the benefits of investing in alcohol and drug treatment. Across the country, councils have already begun to develop new ways to deliver public health, showing that it is possible to deliver better health for local people and also better value for the taxpayer.
The evidence-base for the effectiveness of drug treatment is robust, with United Kingdom and international evidence showing that treatment provides value for money, improves public health and reduces crime.
The Building Recovery strand of the Government’s Drug Strategy recognises the importance of non-medical interventions, such as recovery networks, employment, housing, family support and reduced re-offending, in helping people recover and to participate more fully in society. Every person in structured drug treatment has a personal care plan based on an assessment of their needs, which maps out the steps they will take towards recovery. It covers their drug use, health, social functioning, criminal involvement, housing, employment and any other barrier to recovery.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Jones on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Israeli counterpart on the transfer of protected persons from the West Bank to prisons inside Israel.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We regularly raise our concerns about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners with the Israeli authorities, including routine detention of Palestinians from the West Bank in prison inside Israel. We are particularly concerned about the detention of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons. We welcome recent improvements made by the Israeli authorities, including increasing the age of majority from 16 to 18 years old. However, we remain concerned at the number of Palestinian minors held in Israeli detention.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) details of contractor, (b) scope, (c) value and (d) cost overrun from the original estimate are of contracts awarded for the Successor Trident programme.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Ministry of Defence manages a wide range of contracts to support the Successor submarine programme. The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many qualified teachers returned to the teaching profession in each year since 2010.
Nick Gibb
The full-time equivalent number of qualified teachers returning to the state funded sector in each year from 2011 to 2014 is as follows:
|
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
|
|
Returners to publicly funded sector[1][2] |
11,710 |
12,940 |
13,990 |
14,100 |
The data can be found in Table C1b of the additional tables in the statistical first release ‘School Workforce in England, November 2014’, available at the following web link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014
[1] Entrants with prior experience of teaching in the state funded sector.
[2] Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria were used in selecting the members of the Guidelines Development Group who advised the Chief Medical Officer on the evidence base for the updated guidelines concerning alcohol consumption.
Lord Prior of Brampton
A group of 13 independent scientific experts were commissioned to report back to the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers and make recommendations on new low risk drinking guidelines. The members of the Guidelines Development Group were chosen according to the type of expertise they had and their individual ability.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how the reforms to the Capacity Market announced on 6 May 2016 will provide investment incentives for new gas plants to be built in the UK.
Andrea Leadsom
The purpose of the Capacity Market is to ensure security of electricity supply by providing all forms of capacity the right incentives to be on the system to be prepared to deliver energy when needed. On 6 May we announced that we would buy more capacity and buy it earlier, enhancing the opportunities for new plant such as gas.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce health inequalities in areas of high deprivation.
Jane Ellison
Reducing health inequalities is a priority for this Government.
The Department takes a comprehensive and strategic approach to tackling health inequalities that addresses the wider social causes of ill health, promotes healthier lifestyles for all, tackles differences in both access to, and outcomes from, health and public health services. Action is led locally to ensure that the solutions put in place reflect the needs of individual communities.
Achieving measureable and sustained reductions in health inequalities is integral to the Department’s Shared Delivery Plan 2015-20, and reflected in the Government’s mandate to NHS England, Public Health England’s (PHE’s) Evidence into Action and supporting strategic and business plans at national and local level. NHS England’s Business Plan for 2016/17 prioritises closing the gap for groups experiencing poorer health outcomes, a poorer experience of, and access to, healthcare. PHE is supporting local and national efforts to address health inequalities by providing knowledge and intelligence, and evidence-informed tools and advice.
To support this, the Department has published Improving outcomes and supporting transparency: A public health outcomes framework for England 2013-16. The framework’s vision is to improve and protect the nation’s health and wellbeing, and improve the health of the poorest fastest. It is focused on the two high-level outcomes we want to achieve across the public health system and beyond. The first is increased healthy life expectancy; the second is reduced differences in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy between communities through greater improvements in more disadvantaged communities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-09-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his Department’s policies of the report, Seeing through the gloom, UK solar seeks stability after subsidy cut, published in July 2016.
Jesse Norman
Solar in the UK has been a success story with 11 gigawatts deployed, over 99% of which has been delivered under Conservative-led Governments since May 2010.
Changes to the Feed-in Tariff scheme were introduced in 2016 to manage costs and ensure value for money. We note the efforts that the solar industry is making to adapt to the revised scheme. We have received the report ‘Seeing through the gloom’ and noted its findings.