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  • Lord Trefgarne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Trefgarne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Trefgarne on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what powers are available to ministers to order the release of prisoners duly sentenced and held in England and Wales.

    Lord Faulks

    Prisoners are held in accordance with the type and length of sentence they are given by the courts and legislation prescribes when and how they are to be released. The majority are released automatically, with standard determinate sentence prisoners released at the half-way point in their sentence. Some prisoners are released at the discretion of the independent Parole Board – for example, all prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence and some extended sentence prisoners – once they have reached the point in their sentence when they are eligible to be considered for parole.

    Legislation also gives the Secretary of State discretion to release sentenced prisoners in certain circumstances. In practice, these decisions are taken on behalf of the Secretary of State by prison governors or other officials in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). For example, some shorter sentenced, low risk offenders may be considered for release before their automatic release date under the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme, at the discretion of prison governors.

    There is also a statutory power for the Secretary of State to release any sentenced prisoner if there are exceptional circumstances which justify release on compassionate grounds. Decisions on whether to grant early compassionate release are taken on a case-by-case basis by senior officials in NOMS.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what definition is used by HM Revenue and Customs to define an EU migrant family, and for what purposes such classifications are used; and which other government departments use similar definitions and classification, and for what purposes.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    EU migrant family is not a technical term that HM Revenue & Customs use in their calculations.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications for participation in the democratic processes as a consequence of reports that 8000,000 names have dropped off the electoral roll following the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now published the statistics for the December 2015 electoral registers. The full report can be found here:
    http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/elections/electoralregistration/bulletins/electoralstatisticsforuk/2015
    The number of entries on a register is not a measure of success – entries need to be up-to-date and accurate. That is why completing the transition to Individual Electoral Registration was so important; it meant we could remove out of date or inaccurate entries from the register and retain those that had already been confirmed as genuine. Any eligible elector missing from the register can apply to register to vote at any time and with online registration it is now easier and more convenient than ever before.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to providing support for the estimated 2.5 million children being brought up by parents who are heavy alcohol drinkers.

    Lord Nash

    We are clear that all children at risk of abuse or neglect – including those children who may be a risk because of their parent’s alcoholism – must be identified early, have timely and proportionate assessments of their individual needs, and have the right services provided at the right time.

    That is why the Government has put in place a range of cross-Government programmes and funding to support children and families, including children of alcoholics. We have invested more than £8 billion to help councils put services in place to protect children at risk of abuse or neglect, including from alcoholic parents. We have encouraged councils to find new ways to tackle problems through our £100m children’s social care Innovation Programme. And we have expanded the Troubled Families programme launched in April 2015, which offers support on health issues to up to 400,000 families, including for alcohol and drug misuse.

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

    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 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider suspending their consultation on how to implement grants and tuition fees for nursing, midwives and allied health professional healthcare students, and instead consult fully on a range of proposals that would best deliver a sustainable future workforce with access to high quality education and clinical training.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    In the Spending Review 2015 the Government announced that from 1 August 2017, new nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students will no longer receive National Health Service bursaries and will move onto the standard student loans system.

    The Government has set out its intention for these changes to be implemented in August 2017. Ahead of this, the Government will issue a public consultation on how we most successfully implement these reforms. The consultation will welcome a range of views from stakeholders, which the Government will consider before publishing its consultation response later in the year.

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

    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 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the quality and experience of inspectors of the decision by the Care Quality Commission to outsource services to Remploy.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Experts by Experience provide an important role in the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspections programme, working alongside the CQC’s professional inspectors. Experts by Experience provide valuable insights and judgements, talking to people who use the service and observing the environment and the quality of care hospitals and care homes provide.

    In December 2015, the CQC announced the successful winners of the new contracts to provide Experts by Experience, Choice Support and Remploy Ltd. The Experts by Experience service has been an outsourced service since its inception. The CQC’s professional inspectors are not outsourced and are unaffected by these contracts.

    The delivery of these services from 1 February 2016 by Remploy is as a result of a compliant procurement of these services. The procurement process included a rigorous evaluation of each of the tendering organisations response to delivering the service requirements against quality standards for service delivery.

    The CQC’s decision to award these new contracts focussed on expanding the numbers of Experts by Experience involved in the CQC’s inspections, ensuring that the high quality contribution Experts by Experience have provided to date is maintained and delivering value for money.

    The CQC is the independent regulator for health and adult social care in England. It is responsible for its own staffing requirements, including any decisions on contracts around the supplying of Experts by Experience for its inspections of providers. In line with Cabinet Office approvals processes, the Department:

    – gave approval for the CQC to invite tenders for the Experts by Experience programme; and

    – reviewed and approved the CQC’s business case, to enable the CQC to proceed with finalising new contracts for Experts by Experience.

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

    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 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what pressure, if any, they have placed on Health Education England to penalise NHS Foundation Trusts in respect of the funding of training places if they do not implement the junior doctors’ contract consistently.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Government has not pressured Health Education England to penalise National Health Service foundation trusts. The emphasis of the letter sent by Health Education England’s Chief Executive, Professor Ian Cumming OBE, to all trusts on 15 February this year, was clear on the need for consistent implementation to ensure that patients get the care they need where they need it and junior doctors get the training they need across the whole of the NHS:

    “A single national approach is essential to safeguard the organisation and delivery of postgraduate medical training to ensure all doctors can secure the professional development they require to complete their training programmes. We are not prepared to see a system where a competition based on a local employer’s ability to offer different terms is part of the recruitment process. The recruitment process should be based on patient and service need and quality of training as it always has been. Therefore implementation of the national contract will be a key criterion for Health Education England in making its decisions on our investment in training posts.”

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

    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 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government by what authority the chief executive of NHS Improvement is able to instruct NHS Foundation Trusts to enforce the junior doctors’ contract consistently.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Chief Executive did not instruct National Health Service foundation trusts to enforce the new national junior contract. On 15 February he wrote to NHS foundation trust and NHS trust Chief Executive Officers and Chairs and said that: “We must all now work together, across all professional groups, to help the service implement the contract consistently and address the concerns raised by junior doctor colleagues”.

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

    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 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government under what legal power the Secretary of State for Health is able to impose junior doctors’ contracts on NHS Foundation Trusts.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Secretary of State is not imposing the junior doctors’ contract on National Health Service foundation trusts which are free to determine the terms and conditions, including pay, for the staff they employ. Most choose to use national contracts. Senior NHS leaders have advised that the new contract, 90% of which was agreed with the British Medical Association, will be fair and reasonable for doctors in training and for the service and will be safer for patients. Health Education England has made clear that a single national approach is essential to safeguard the organisation and delivery of postgraduate medical training. NHS Improvement has stated that it will support trusts to ensure the new national contract is implemented consistently.

  • Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Electoral Commission will be given a role in checking the accuracy of returns from accredited campaigners in a Recall Petition under the Recall of MPs Act 2015.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Returns from accredited campaigners will be publicly available and can be inspected by the public. The enforcement of the rules will be broadly a matter for the police. The Government has no plans to amend the Recall of MPs Act 2015 to give the Electoral Commission a role in checking the accuracy of returns from accredited campaigners.