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

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 19 November (HL3562), in the absence of centrally collected data on the occupancy levels of registered care homes, on what data the Care Quality Commission relies to discharge its oversight function for the publicly-funded nursing and residential care sectors.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The purpose of market oversight, amongst other things, is to protect people who may be placed in vulnerable circumstances due to the failure of a ‘difficult to replace’ adult social care provider. It does this by monitoring in arrears the quarterly financial returns of those providers captured by the scheme. Since inclusion in the scheme is a reflection of provider size, by definition it is the larger providers that are captured by the scheme and as such market oversight is concerned with the overall consolidated financial performance. Consequently, it would not ordinarily consider occupancy levels for individual registered care homes.

    The types of information the Care Quality Commission collects from registered care providers as part of its Market Oversight Scheme is included in published guidance – Market Oversight of ‘difficult to replace’ providers of adult social care. The guidance is attached.

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 19 November (HL3563), what provision was made in the 2015 Spending Review in the Department for Communities and Local Government allocation for local authorities in 2016–17, and in each subsequent year, for the introduction of the National Living Wage.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    Spending Review decisions took the National Living Wage into account along with a range of other financial and economic factors. I refer the noble Lord to the provisional local government finance settlement, published on 17 December, which builds on the Spending Review outcome and also took account of pressures on adult social care. Policies to provide funding for social care include:

    • The social care precept in council tax, which puts money raising powers into the hands of local areas who understand the need in their area and who are best placed to respond. This could raise up to £2 billion a year for social care by 2019/20;

    • Making an extra £1.5 billion available for social care by 2019-20 in an improved Better Care Fund – with funding going direct to councils to ensure health and social care services work together to support older and vulnerable people;

    • More than doubling the Disabled Facilities Grant to over £500 million a year by 2019/20.
  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have had discussions with the Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission concerning railway links between London and south-west England.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The government has had discussions on a range of topics with the Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission. The commission will examine all forms of economic infrastructure, including rail transport.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many manufacturing companies in the UK employing more than 500 people are foreign-owned; and what is their assessment of the implications of such ownership for the development of indigenous management.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Draft Answer

    There are 320 manufacturing enterprises in the UK with more than 500 employees that are foreign owned (i.e. have over 50% foreign control). This is 61% of manufacturing companies with over 500 employees. The UK welcomes foreign direct investment and enjoys the benefits of jobs and skills that it brings and UK manufacturing continues to be globally attractive and competitive. However, the Government is not aware of any evidence which indicates that foreign-owned companies treat UK management any differently to British-owned companies.

    We are taking a number of steps to increase indigenous management skills and capability. Apprenticeships standards are now available or being developed in senior level and management occupations. These include degree level qualifications and cover such areas as Manufacturing Engineer, Chartered Manager and Project Manager.

    The apprenticeships levy will come into effect from April 2017. It will apply to all UK employers with a pay bill in excess of £3 million and incentivise them to train their apprentices in the technical and professional skills their businesses need, including quality management and leadership.

    The Government is also supporting work being undertaken by senior industry leaders to examine ways to increase manufacturing productivity in the UK, which is part of the business-led action referenced in the Government’s Productivity Plan published in July 2015. This work will look at how indigenous performance could be improved in areas such as leadership, management and employee engagement, and will also consider what steps could be taken to develop a stronger culture that embraces innovation and new technologies such as digitisation. We will consider the findings when they are produced by industry later in 2016.

  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the relationship between criminal offending and literacy levels.

    Lord Bates

    There is no single factor which explains crime. As the Home Secretary has said, the evidence suggests that there are six main drivers of crime: alcohol; drugs; the effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System; opportunity; profit; and character. Character, or an individual’s propensity to commit crime, appears to be influenced by a range of social and environmental influences as they grow up. However, the Home Office has made no specific assessment of the relationship between crime and literacy levels.

    The most recent crime statistics published by the Office for National Statistics showed that overall crime fell by 8% in the year to June 2015, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Crime has now fallen by more than a quarter since June 2010, with just over 2.9 million fewer crimes a year.

  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 14 December (HL4086), whether their next Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report in April 2016 will contain an assessment of the effectiveness and outputs of project funding on human rights and democracy in their priority countries in the most recent full year; and if so, whether it will be subject to independent audit.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The 2015 Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report will include references to project funding on human rights and democracy in priority countries where appropriate. All Foreign and Commonwealth Office funding, including human rights and democracy project funding, is subject to robust monitoring and evaluation, and like all government spending is subject to scrutiny by the National Audit Office.

  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 14 December (HL4088), what proposals they have also to consult travellers who use the railway line between London, Salisbury and Exeter.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Network Rail undertook public consultations for a period of 90 days on the Wessex and Western Route Studies prior to their publication in August 2015.

    The Government expects to set out in July 2017 its investment plan for the railways during 2019 to 2024 (CP6). The Office of Road and Rail (ORR) will undertake public consultation as part of the process to develop plans for CP6.

  • Lord Morris of Aberavon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Morris of Aberavon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Morris of Aberavon on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to recent research by Professor Jeffrey Bluestone and others at the University of California on the immune system of those with type 1 diabetes; and whether funding will be made available to diabetes researchers in the UK to keep pace with such developments.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Research relating to immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes is being carried out by researchers at the University of California and at other institutions internationally. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funding research relating to immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes at the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. In addition, the NIHR funds a wide range of other research relating to diabetes.

    The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

  • Lord Lennie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Lennie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lennie on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many households that currently claim tax relief on income from residential property finance costs also claim child benefit.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The information requested is not available.

  • Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the financial year 2003–04, what was the total cost of each public inquiry conducted; and what was paid to each inquiry chairman, including expenses and VAT.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The information in relation to this time period is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the total cost on completion of those inquiries which span this time period is available as part of the evidence provided by the Government to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005:

    http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldinquiries/143/14318.htm