Category: Speeches

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-07-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the National Audit Office (NAO) investigation into the collapse of the Uniting Care Partnership Contract in Cambridge and Peterborough, whether they intend to hold to account (1) the Strategic Projects Team, (2) Monitor, and (3) NHS England, for the failings identified in the NAO’s report.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department welcomes the National Audit Office (NAO) report. Decisions about the Strategic Projects Team (SPT) are, however, for NHS England. Following an internal review and the NAO report, NHS England identified concerns about the work of the SPT. As a result, the SPT will close and all its ongoing commitments will be reviewed with a view to bringing them to a conclusion.

NHS Improvement advises that it also welcomes the NAO report and is working closely with NHS England and the Department to consider assurance processes for such complex transactions. NHS Improvement further advises that its focus since May has been liaison with the NAO on its report and joint consideration with NHS England of the assurance issues raised.

NHS England confirms that the NAO investigation supports the findings of its previously published independent review. Before the NAO investigation, NHS England had already commissioned a follow-up review focusing on the role of external advisors, the effectiveness of the Gateway review process, and the role of the clinical commissioning group leadership and governing body. This work continues and NHS England expects to publish findings later this summer.

More widely, NHS England has been undertaking assessments of current and planned novel contracts and is developing an assurance framework for contracts of this sort. This is being informed by the findings of the Uniting Care reviews.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, who is responsible for approving sustainability and transformation plans.

David Mowat

The Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) are being developed by local areas. National Health Service providers, commissioners, local authorities, and other health and care services are coming together to propose how they, at local level, can close the health and wellbeing, care and quality and financial gaps. These plans are locally owned, but will be shared with the national health and care bodies, chiefly NHS England and NHS Improvement, so the national bodies can best develop support to enable footprints to deliver their plans. The National bodies have also published guidance on the STP process.

NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue to work closely with STP areas to provide them with support and expertise to develop robust plans which will meet the objectives set out in the Mandate. STPs will form the basis for operational planning for 2017/18 and 2018/19, which will be subject to NHS Improvement and NHS England assurance processes.

The local organisations will also be leading public engagement processes on their STP plans, in line with the engagement guidance.

01/01/2023
Barry Sheerman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his policy is on the application of working time regulations to aircraft maintenance engineers.

Nick Boles

All workers subject to the Working Time Regulations, including aircraft maintenance engineers, are entitled to a number of protections. These include entitlement to annual leave and rest breaks, a limit on weekly working hours, and restrictions on night work.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many employees were identified as being paid less than the national minimum wage following HM Revenue and Customs enforcement activity in each of the last five years; and how many of those employees were compensated in full.

Mr David Gauke

In 2014/15, HM Revenue and Customs identified 735 incidences of non-compliance and issued penalties of £934,660. They recovered arrears for 26,318 workers.

I refer the honourable member to the answer provided at UIN 218083 for numbers of workers for the previous years, to the answer provided to her on 6 May 2014 at Hansard Column 110W for information on arrears, and to the answer provided to her at UIN 205613 with regard to penalties.

I further refer the honourable member to the answer provided at UIN 211605 for information on recovery of arrears.

01/01/2023
John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of children who will be homeless between 1 December 2015 and 1 January 2016.

Mr Marcus Jones

We have maintained homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

We have increased central government funding for homelessness programmes to £139 million over the Spending Review period.

There were 103,430 children and expected children in temporary accommodation arranged by local authorities in England as at 30 September 2015. The Department does not produce forecasts of homelessness.

01/01/2023
Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-01-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Dunlop on 27 January (HL5017) concerning equality and parity of esteem, whether terrorists and members of the security forces who reside outside Northern Ireland do not have parity of esteem with those who reside there.

Lord Dunlop

The Government is committed to affording due respect and parity of esteem to all the people in Northern Ireland as underpinned by the 1998 Belfast Agreement and in accordance with the obligations on the Government to promote equality and prevent discrimination across the United Kingdom.

01/01/2023
Corri Wilson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Corri Wilson on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of employment and support allowance are (a) undergoing treatment for and (b) recovering from cancer.

Priti Patel

The specific information requested is not available as details of any treatment received are not recorded centrally.

The information we have for Employment and Support Allowance claimants by medical condition is published and available at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp

Guidance for users can be found at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp

“

01/01/2023

David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average duration has been of face-to-face consultations for personal independence payments in (a) Wales and (b) each postcode area in Wales in each of the last three financial years.

Justin Tomlinson

The average duration of Personal Independence Payment consultation times in (a) Wales and (b) by postcode area of Wales (in minutes) were:

Postcode	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016
CF	56	54	51
CH	58	57	57
GL	76	67	66
HR	76	73	59
LD	67	60	57
LL	58	57	56
NP	59	59	53
SA	61	60	54
SY	73	66	59
Wales (Total)	60	58	54

01/01/2023

Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that all blood cancer patients have access to a clinical nurse specialist or equivalent point of contact as part of their care.

Jane Ellison

The independent Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World Class Cancer Outcomes: A Strategy for England 2015-2020, in July 2015, and recognised the need to improve care and support for people living with and beyond all types of cancer, including blood cancers. In September 2015, we announced that by 2020, the 280,000 people diagnosed with cancer every year will benefit from a tailored recovery package. The packages will be individually designed to help each person, including those with blood cancer, live well beyond cancer. In April 2016, we also published guidance for commissioners on commissioning and implementing the recovery package effectively. Support for patients living with and beyond cancer should be tailored specifically to the needs of every patient.

In addition the strategy called for every person with cancer to have access to a clinical nurse specialist or other key worker from diagnosis onwards. NHS England is currently working with partners across the health system to determine how best to take forward the recommendations of the Cancer Taskforce, and has appointed Cally Palmer CBE as National Cancer Director. A National Cancer Transformation Board is overseeing the implementation of the strategy, and an implementation plan will be published shortly. An independent Cancer Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Harpal Kumar, the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK and Chair of the independent Cancer Taskforce, is advising and scrutinising the work of the Transformation Board.

01/01/2023
Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether patients on assessment and treatment units have access to independent mental health advocates.

Alistair Burt

Access to an independent mental health advocacy (IMHA) is a statutory right for people detained under most sections of the Mental Health Act, subject to Guardianship or on a community treatment order. We would expect Assessment and Treatment Units to follow their statutory obligations to ensure patients have access to an IMHA where appropriate.

The Learning Disability Assuring Transformation statistics data shows that of the 2,565 inpatients at the end of April 2016, 600 patients had a main diagnostic category of mental illness on admission.

Data on the numbers of formal complaints made about patient care; the management of assessment and treatment units; access to autism-specialist services and access to occupational and speech and language therapy are not held centrally. However, NHS England, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Local Government Association, published in October 2015, a Service Model for commissioners of health and social care services. This model sets out that when people are admitted to inpatient settings services should seek to minimise their length of stay and any admissions should be supported by a clear rationale of planned assessment and treatment with measurable outcomes. We would therefore expect all patients, irrespective of inpatient setting, to have access to the treatment and therapeutic interventions they require.

01/01/2023