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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2014, Official Report, column 766W, on electoral register, in which cases numbers of electors registered to vote in the transition from individual electoral registration will be monitored at an electoral ward level.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it will collect and publish the results of the confirmation data matching process for all electoral wards in Great Britain. These will be available in late-summer 2014.

The Commission also informs me that subsequently data will be collected and published at a local authority level. This will take place after the publication of the December 2014 register and at the time of the 2015 UK parliamentary general election. However, the Commission may choose to ask for more detailed ward statistics from individual EROs if it has concerns around the implementation of individual electoral registration in a particular area.

The Commission also expects electoral registration officers to be monitoring their own data on registrations at ward level, or below, throughout the transition to individual electoral registration, and to communicate them locally to elected representatives and others.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 10 April 2014, Official Report, columns 305-6W, on electoral register, if the Electoral Commission will start to collect the number of visits that ERO’s staff make to individual non-responding households as part of their activities to maintain the electoral register.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that as part of its monitoring of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER) it will collect data from all EROs at key stages during the transition which will demonstrate the progress EROs are making in implementing IER in their local area. This will not, however, include detailed operational information that EROs will record and monitor locally about the specific interactions they have with individual electors, including the numbers of household visits made by their staff.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what advice the Electoral Commission has given to electoral registration officers on the necessity of conducting local government data matching for the purposes of transition to individual electoral registration.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it has published comprehensive guidance for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) on their duties to maintain the electoral registers under Individual Electoral Registration (IER), including on using local data to identify and target potential electors and to verify and validate data held on the registers.

The Commission also informs me that the Lord President of the Council has issued Ministerial guidance on IER which EROs must, by law, have regard to. This includes guidance on using local data as part of the confirmation process of data-matching existing electors’ details and the verification process for verifying applicants’ identity.

The Commission’s guidance, which incorporates the Ministerial guidance, is available on its website at:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/electoral-administrator/running-electoral-registration

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many nursing staff were in post in each year since 1999.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The annual National Health Service workforce census, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, shows the numbers of qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff in the NHS in England as at 30 September each year. The Department does not hold information on the number of nursing staff in post in other settings.

The number of qualified nursing staff in each year from 1999 to 2013 is shown in the attached table. The latest data in the table relates to September 2013 and is taken from the annual census. The monthly workforce statistics provides more recent data but does not include primary care staff.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will introduce a maximum charge for homecare and other non-residential social services.

Norman Lamb

Through the Care Bill we are making the biggest change to the care and support system in more than 65 years. The Bill reforms what people pay for care and support and how they pay to create a system that is a fair partnership between people needing care, their families and tax-payers.

The reforms will place a cap on lifetime care costs. This means that people will no longer face the possibility of catastrophic care costs, providing peace of mind and enabling them to plan for their future. New regulations and guidance on how to financially assess people will ensure that, while they are contributing towards the cost of their care, they will only pay what they can afford.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the case for abolishing prescription charges in England.

Norman Lamb

The Department does not intend to abolish prescription charges in England, which raise in the region of £450 million each year. This is valuable income, which helps the National Health Service to maintain services for patients.

An extensive system of exemption arrangements are in place which mean that around 90% of all prescription items are already dispensed free of charge.

Prescription Prepayment Certificates (PPCs) are also available for those who have to pay NHS prescription charges and need multiple prescriptions. The cost of the annual and three-month certificates have been frozen for the fifth and third years running, at £104 and £29.10 respectively, and will also remain frozen next year. There is no limit to the number of items that can be obtained through a PPC. The annual certificate benefits anyone needing more than 12 items a year, and the three month certificate anyone needing more than three items in that three month period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the palliative care service ratings for England were in the most recent period for which information is available.

Norman Lamb

There is no national rating system for palliative care services in England. However, The National End of Life Care Intelligence network (NEoLCIN), part of Public Health England, works with partner organisations including NHS England to collect, analyse and present end of life care intelligence, drawing together data and information from a range of sources.

The NEoLCIN has published end of life care profiles at local authority and by clinical commissioning group level. These help commissioners and providers understand the end of life care needs of their populations. More information can be found at the following link:

www.endoflifecare-intelligence.org.uk/home

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Environment Agency is taking to reduce the time taken to update its flooding maps after the completion of flood defence projects.

Dan Rogerson

The Environment Agency produces and publishes maps showing areas at risk of flooding from rivers and sea, surface water and reservoirs in England. It reviews and updates these maps on a quarterly basis to ensure they are based on the most recent local mapping and modelling information.

To ensure new flood risk management schemes are included in the map updates as soon as possible, the Environment Agency has put in place changes to speed up the update process, together with a new Key Performance Indicator (introduced in October 2013) specifying that maps showing the risk of flooding from rivers and sea should be updated within six months of completion of a scheme.

Initial performance has been affected by the development and publication of new maps in December 2013 and by the winter floods, but significant efforts are being made to ensure that new defences will be taken into account more quickly in future.