The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the statement of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 206, on student visas, whether she is seeking financial compensation from the Educational Testing Service.
James Brokenshire
Investigations are on-going and all potential remedies are being pursued.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish all impact assessments his Department has made on privatising the Ministry of Justice Shared Services in Newport.
Mr Shailesh Vara
The Ministry of Justice are entering into detailed discussions with Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL) regarding the future delivery of their back office services, with the intention of awarding a contract in August 2014. We expect this to bringincreased savings and efficiency in back-office functions, provide further benefits across wider Government and offer better value for money to the tax payer.
Prior to this decision, the two private sector options were compared against the option to remain a standalone organisation and assessed using evaluation criteria that considered IT, cost, staff impacts and the service to our customers. The assessments will not be published as they are commercially sensitive documents.
We will continue to work with staff, trade unions and other stakeholders to assess any impacts on staff.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what role (a) his Department and (b) local authorities will have in (i) specifying and (ii) managing the new franchises for rail passenger services on the (A) TransPennine Express and (B) Northern Rail lines.
Stephen Hammond
The specification for each franchise is being developed collaboratively by the Department for Transport’s Rail Executive and Rail North. Rail North are representing all the local transport authorities in the North of England. This is line with the partnership agreement confirmed between the Secretary of State and leaders of the local transport authorities in the North of England in January 2014. An integrated partnership structure between Rail Executive and Rail North is being developed with a view to managing the franchise once it has been let.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the (a) Competition Commission and (b) Office of Fair Trading spent on assessing mergers in the NHS in (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14.
Jo Swinson
The Competition Commission’s (CC’s) inquiry into the proposed merger between Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals Foundation Trust and Poole Hospital Foundation Trust, which was concluded in 2013/14, was the Commission’s only assessment of an NHS Foundation Trust merger. The cost of this inquiry was £710,000, which includes the cost of the staff on the inquiry amounting to £639,000 and direct costs of £71,000 (including survey costs).
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) did not collect specific information on the resources used in considering mergers involving NHS Foundation Trusts. However, the average approximate cost involved in scrutiny of a merger by the OFT was £20,000; in total, the OFT considered four mergers involving NHS Foundation Trusts in 2012-13 and 2013-14, of which only one was referred for further scrutiny by the CC.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen O’Brien on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the explicit monetary value per quality-adjusted life was in the context of the Fire and Resilience Directorate, as quoted as part his Department’s submission to the Inter-departmental Group for the Valuation of Life and Health review in 2008.
Brandon Lewis
The information requested is not held by my Department. I refer my rt. hon. Friend to the answer given by my rt. hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Care and Support (Norman Lamb) on 26 June, Official Report, Column 283W, which explains the historical context to this Review under the last Administration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will meet environmental groups and specialists in the field to discuss the trade of legal hardwood timber and associated environmental concerns.
Dan Rogerson
Defra recently hosted a stakeholder event on the European Timber Regulation and the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Regulations, at which Lord de Mauley met interested parties, including several NGOs. Next month he will be speaking at a launch event for WWF’s major upcoming timber campaign, which will be another chance to engage directly with a range of interested parties.
As responsible minister, Lord de Mauley would be happy to consider any invitations to meetings on this subject.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Kendall on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many calls to 999 were made by or on behalf of residents of care homes in each of the last four years.
Norman Lamb
Information is not held centrally on the number of calls to 999 made by or on behalf of residents of care homes, or the number of residents of care homes attending accident and emergency departments.
Information on the number of residents of care homes who had an emergency admission to a hospital in each of the last four years shown in the following table.
Number of finished admission episodes for emergency admissions by source of admission in England, 2009-10 to 2012-13
|
2009-10 |
2010-11 |
2011-12 |
2012-13 |
|
|
NHS run care home (from 1 April 2004) |
3,428 |
3,396 |
3,086 |
3,538 |
|
Non-NHS (other than local authority) run care home |
10,965 |
10,510 |
11,806 |
15,158 |
|
All sources of admission |
5,177,887 |
5,287,032 |
5,242,839 |
5,336,043 |
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre
Notes:
1. Includes activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.
2. A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
3. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage, improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice.
4. FAEs recorded as "The usual place of residence, including no fixed abode" may contain a number of episodes where patients may have resided in care homes, subsequently designating it as their usual place of residence. Such FAEs were not recorded as admissions from a care home. The number of times this may have occurred is unknown.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce premature mortality from respiratory disease in Peterborough constituency.
Jane Ellison
The NHS Outcomes Framework 2014/15 sets out the Department’s priority areas for the National Health Service. It includes reducing deaths from respiratory disease as a key indicator and highlights the need to reduce unplanned hospital admissions due to asthma.
The Mandate for NHS England, set by the Government, requires NHS England to improve outcomes, including the prevention of premature deaths from respiratory disease and to support people with long term conditions.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) plan, develop and improve local NHS services for their population, taking into account local priorities. We are advised by NHS England that reducing premature mortality from respiratory disease is included in one of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG’s key priorities – reducing coronary heart disease. Activity is concentrated in the more deprived areas of Cambridgeshire, including Peterborough.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to credit check people with unpaid court fines.
Mr Shailesh Vara
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service regularly check the details of offenders who have outstanding financial impositions against a credit reference agency database as part of the standard process of enforcing financial court orders.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachel Reeves on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the IT system developed by his Department for universal credit will be fully operating; and when this system will start to be decommissioned to make way for the digital solution developed by the Cabinet Office.
Esther McVey
As part of the wider transformation in the development of digital services, the Department will further develop the work completed jointly with the Government Digital Service to test and implement an enhanced digital service. This enhanced digital service will integrate work and benefits activity allowing us to deliver the full scope of Universal Credit for all claimant types.
Our single target operating model sets out how we will transform our approach and ways of working to ultimately make the Universal Credit service fully available online. Where it is both practical and operationally sensible to do so, we will integrate together the enhanced digital service with the existing Universal Credit service.
We expect an early version of the digital service to be introduced to a limited number of claimants and staff by the end of 2014.