The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2016-09-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Delivery Authority for the replacement of the Vanguard-class submarines will be established.
Earl Howe
Options for establishing a new delivery body continue to be developed and assessed. We will announce further details once the relevant decisions have been made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is his policy that the day of the week on which claimants are asked to sign on for jobseekers allowance should be varied.
Priti Patel
The day of the week on which claimants are asked to sign on is typically fixed during a claimant’s new jobseeker interview.However, this may be varied because of the personal circumstances of the claimant or for operational reasons. This policy ensures that claimants are able to manage their lives and take advantage of work-related opportunities whilst remaining close to Jobcentre Plus support. Whatever signing day is agreed, be it linked to the NINO or otherwise, entitlement is not affected as this will still be tied to the date of claim.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-12-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to seek the views of pensioners on (a) his Department’s policies and (b) dementia since the closure of the UK Advisory Forum on Ageing.
Alistair Burt
We are committed to continuing to listen to and act on the wishes of older people. For example the Department plans to carry out an engagement programme with stakeholder groups representing older people as part of the forthcoming Carer’s Strategy.
The Government is clear that dementia remains a priority and will implement the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 in full to make sure that dementia care, support, awareness and research are transformed by 2020. The 2020 Challenge aims to build on the achievements of the Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia 2012-2015.
The Department continues to engage with a range of people with dementia and carers including stakeholders who represent them in both delivering the Prime Minister’s Challenge 2012-2015 and in developing and implementing the Prime Minister’s Challenge 2020. The Department also works closely people with dementia and carers through its work with the Dementia Action Alliance.
The Department has funded a number of projects on dementia education and training which have worked directly with people with dementia, in order to better understand the training needs of the staff who support and care for them.
More generally through the Health and Care Voluntary Sector Strategic Partner Programme, the Department, NHS England and Public Health England are already able to work directly in partnership with well-connected voluntary sector organisations. The programme provides a way for policy makers to reach thousands of voluntary and community sector organisations. Many of these groups whom support and represent older people within their communities through the extensive depth and reach of the partners’ networks. This helps to ensure that the voice of small voluntary and community sector organisations is in direct contact with national bodies at the heart of decision making. Age UK is one of the 22 strategic partners, ensuring that older people’s needs are strongly represented.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she expects the Government’s response to the impact assessment of reductions to feed-in tariffs to be published.
Andrea Leadsom
The Government published an impact assessment for the feed-in tariff review on 17 December 2015, alongside the Government response to the consultation on this review.
The impact assessment is available at:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what procedures are in place to ensure that headteachers follow the School Admissions Code.
Nick Gibb
An individual school’s admission authority is responsible for setting and applying its admission arrangements. The local authority is the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools; the school’s governing body is the admission authority for voluntary aided and foundation schools; and for academies, the admission authority is the academy trust.
Anyone who believes a school’s admission arrangements are unfair or unlawful can object to the Schools Adjudicator. If the Adjudicator finds the admission arrangements do not comply with the Code, the admission authority must amend their arrangements accordingly.
Any parent who believes the admission authority has not properly applied the school’s admission arrangements in the case of their child’s application and the child has, as a result, been refused a place at the school, has the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel. If the appeal panel upholds the appeal, the school must admit the child.
The School Admissions Code can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code–2
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing prefabricated new accommodation for service personnel.
Mark Lancaster
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has assessed the merits of providing pre-fabricated or modular constructed Single Living Accommodation (SLA). The advantages include simplicity and consistency of design, quality of manufacture in a controlled environment, speed of on-site construction and certainty in manufacturing cost.
The MOD has used modular construction extensively in respect of around 12,000 bed spaces in its Single Living Accommodation Modernisation (SLAM) Project. These have proved to be of good quality and durable.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to adopt a target encouraging the reclassification of medicines from (a) prescription only medicine to pharmacy medicine status, (b) pharmacy medicine to general sales list medicine status and (c) prescription only medicine to general sales list medicine status; and if he will make a statement.
George Freeman
The Government is committed to the continued reclassification of medicines from prescription only to pharmacy classification and from pharmacy to general sales list classification when it is safe to do so and there is a clear benefit to public health. This is an important part of empowering patients to manage their own care. The Government’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, is at the forefront of moves to reclassify medicines to non-prescription and is recognised as a leader in Europe in this regard.
Over the years reclassification has been facilitated by improving the regulatory environment for manufacturers to achieve successful reclassification of their products. Amendments to legislation were introduced in 2002 to reduce the legislative burden for reclassification; new guidance was published in 2012 to streamline the process; and in 2015 a United Kingdom platform was set up to maximise stakeholder engagement with the aim of encouraging further reclassification of medicines.
Patient safety remains the prime consideration in any decision to make a medicine available without prescription.
We are unable to calculate the total difference in cost to the public purse following these medicine reclassifications.
The attached tables contain the information for each of the last 25 years on medicines reclassified from prescription only medicine (POM) to Pharmacy (P) medicine and P medicine to general sales list (GSL) medicine. There are no examples of medicines which have been reclassified from POM to GSL. Where relevant, brand names have been included in brackets.
The lists represent the first reclassification either from POM to P or P to GSL of the product and further extensions such as wider indications, additional pack sizes or higher strengths have not been included.
Not all products listed are currently available, for various reasons, including both commercial and regulatory.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 32639, how she ensures that those most in need benefit from the Energy Company Obligation and Warm Home Discount; and whether she plans to change how households in fuel poverty are identified.
Andrea Leadsom
Currently, the Warm Home Discount and the Affordable Warmth Group under the Energy Company Obligation are targeted at low income households, using means-tested benefits as the basis for eligibility.
In April this year, Government consulted on plans to enable data sharing between government departments, specified public authorities and energy suppliers with the specific purpose of identifying and targeting assistance at fuel poor households. If successful, these proposals would allow DECC to use government-held data to identify more accurately low income households with high energy costs. This capability could then be used under a future Warm Home Discount.
There will be a reformed domestic supplier obligation (Energy Company Obligation) from April 2017, which will run for 5 years. It will upgrade the energy efficiency of homes and tackle the root cause of fuel poverty. Government will be consulting shortly on proposals for the 2017/18 scheme, including how households in fuel poverty would be identified.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to recruit specialist staff to facilitate the re-opening of the Antelope Centre in Southampton; by what date he plans for those staff to be recruited; and if he will make a statement.
Alistair Burt
These are matters for the National Health Service. NHS Improvement advises that the majority of patients requiring Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) care during the period of closure of the PICU at Antelope House will receive this at the Huntercombe unit in Roehampton, London.
The Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, which provides services at Antelope House, is working with partners to provide PICU bed capacity on another site for an interim period of eight months by redistributing staff from the PICU to the hospital’s other two wards. NHS Improvement further advises that the recruitment focus will be on addressing the root causes of staffing issues.
The Antelope House team has begun talking to patients, carers and family members to make sure they are fully aware of decisions that affect them.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will provide an update on the mission-led business review.
Mr Rob Wilson
The mission-led business review is in progress. We are reviewing the evidence gathered through the call for evidence and regional events and working with the advisory panel in order to publish findings in due course.