Category: Speeches

  • Derek Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Derek Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Twigg on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to increase the retention rate of doctors working in general practice.

    Alistair Burt

    The number of full time equivalent doctors working in general practice has increased by 1,677 since September 2010.

    The Department has committed to further increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice. In January 2015, NHS England, Health Education England, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee published Building the Workforce, a ten point plan to address general practitioner (GP) workforce issues.

    The ten point plan includes actions to improve retention, as well as to increase recruitment and support GPs to return to practice. As part of this work, NHS England has commissioned a detailed review to identify the most effective measures to encourage experienced GPs to remain in practice.

  • Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests from his Department for evidence to inform a work capability assessment were (a) made and (b) responded to by GPs and other professionals, in each of the last three years; and what the professional discipline was that each of those requests were made to.

    Priti Patel

    Information requests made by Healthcare Professionals to inform a Work Capability Assessment:

    Year

    Requests made:

    Responses received:

    Apr. 2013 to Mar. 2014

    599,261

    396,847

    Apr. 2014 to Mar. 2015

    536,101

    314,170

    Apr. 2015 to Mar. 2016

    534,677

    280,736

    Source: Centre for Health Disability Assessments (CHDA)

    Information on the professional discipline of the individual from whom information is requested is not held

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness in delivering medicines savings in the community of the therapeutic substitution service for community pharmacies proposed by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.

    Alistair Burt

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Workington (Sue Hayman) on 14 June 2016 to Question 40161.

    “

  • Natalie McGarry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Natalie McGarry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Natalie McGarry on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect that the Government’s Troubled Families programme has had on meeting its objectives related to underprivileged communities.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Troubled Families Programme has an important role to play in tackling disadvantage and poverty through its focus on families affected by complex, multiple problems in England. The programme encourages services to consider the overlapping nature of problems which families face – tackling the root causes rather than responding to each problem in isolation. It promotes a new way of working, with services coming together – typically through one dedicated worker – working with and understanding the needs of the whole family instead of constantly reacting to their individual problems.

    Through the original programme, launched in 2012, over 116,000 families had their lives ‘turned around’ using the criteria of the first programme, with children back in school; youth crime and anti-social behaviour significantly reduced; and over 18,000 adults from troubled families into work. The new expanded programme now aims to support 400,000 families with multiple, complex problems by 2020, and transform for the long term the way that public services work with families facing multiple disadvantages.

  • Matthew Offord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Matthew Offord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2016 to Questions 47748 and 47749, on terrorism: British nationals abroad, how many people have been charged with terrorism offences.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    Pursuant to my answer of the 18 October, the number of individuals suspected of involvement in acts of terrorism or criminal matters who are arrested and then formally charged is recorded and collated in the Home Office Quarterly Statistical Bulletin which was last published on 22 September 2016.

    These statistics do not disaggregate arrests, charges and convictions relating exclusively to those charged whilst abroad, just as they do not for overseas returnees.

  • Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on (a) temporary agency staff, (b) consultants, (c) non-payroll staff, (d) administration and (e) marketing and advertising in real terms in each year since 2010-11.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Administration has been assumed to be the Departmental Expenditure Limit Administrative spend and has been taken from the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2014/15 (Table 4, page 184).

    The information that is available is in the table below:

    The Department for Work and Pensions spent the following amounts:

    Temporary Agency Staff £m

    Consultants £m

    Administration £m

    2010/11

    30.8

    14.3

    5,610

    2011/12

    11.5

    8.7

    1,333

    2012/13

    12.6

    8.4

    1,180

    2013/14

    13.1

    11.7

    1,091

    2014/15

    31.1

    10.5

    894

    Information on marketing and advertising costs could only be provided at disproportionate cost. To put this into context, the cost of temporary agency staff was just over 1% of the Department’s paybill in 2014-15.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what amount of National Insurance contributions (a) FTSE100 companies, (b) businesses qualifying for Small Employer’s Relief and (c) other companies claimed from HM Revenue and Customs to pay for statutory maternity pay for their employers for the (i) first six weeks of their employees’ leave and (ii) subsequent 33 such weeks.

    Priti Patel

    DWP data on the amount of National Insurance Contributions claimed by employers to pay for Statutory Maternity Pay comes from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

    The information is not available in the exact breakdowns requested as:

    • HMRC do not hold information on the amount of National Insurance contributions claimed for SMP from (a) FTSE100 companies; and
    • DWP are unable to provide an estimate of SMP recoveries by employer size and duration of employees’ leave. This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what contingency arrangements his Department has made for the eventuality of a majority leave vote in the upcoming EU referendum.

    Anna Soubry

    I refer my hon Friend to the reply given on 14 January by my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister’s answer to UIN 21952.

    “

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the announced closure of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ Sheffield office and their proposal to establish six new business centres across the country, where those proposed new centres will be located.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    As part of the Department’s change programme, BIS2020, we anticipate reducing the number of our locations from more than 80 to approximately 7 centres plus a regional footprint. Beyond the announcement made about our Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place on 28 January, we do not yet know exactly which sites will be retained or closed over the course of the Parliament. By 2020 the majority of employees in BIS and its Partner Organisations will continue to be based outside London through a number of centres – such as in Birmingham, Glasgow, and Swindon – as well as a regional footprint for the provision of local services.

  • 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 2016-02-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel regarding the use of tear gas at Qitoun checkpoint against Palestinian children on their way to school.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    While we have not made any representations to the Israeli authorities on this specific issue, we consistently urge Israeli contacts against the use of excessive force.