The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-06-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many people are signed off work as a result of depression.
Mike Penning
The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold information on the number of people taking sickness absence from work as a result of depression.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew George on 2014-06-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had on proposed changes to the disabled students’ allowance.
Mr David Willetts
The Interdepartmental Ministerial Group on Disability, which I attend, has discussed the proposed changes to the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA). The changes should improve the effectiveness of the scheme, and ensure that there is a proper balance between the responsibility of Higher Education Institutions to make reasonable adjustments and a central scheme, the DSA, that provides funding direct to students. The purpose of these allowances is not fundamentally changing.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department allocated to City of York Council for (a) local authority supported capital expenditure in housing stock and (b) major repairs allowance in each year since 2009-10.
Brandon Lewis
The information requested is as follows:
|
Year |
Major Repairs Allowance (£) |
|
2009-10 |
5,127,440 |
|
2010-11 |
5,242,423 |
|
2011-12 |
5,185,387 |
|
2012-13 |
5,266,485 |
The local authority received £1 million in Supported Capital Expenditure (Revenue) in both 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Following our reform and decentralisation of the Housing Revenue Account in April 2012, the system has fundamentally changed and no longer operates in that manner outlined in the Hon Member’s question. Councils now manage their housing stock without annual payments to or from central government. They now keep their rental income and use it to fund their housing stock (called ‘self-financing’).
In 2012, the move to self-financing included a one-off settlement payment to, or from, each council, giving each a level of debt it can support, based on a valuation of its council housing stock. Where the valuation was lower than the amount of housing debt supported through the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system, the government paid off the difference. Where the valuation was higher than the debt supported by the Housing Revenue Account subsidy, the council paid the difference to the government.
These payments were based on a valuation of each council’s stock, using a 30-year discounted cash flow model of income and expenditure. The costs in the model assumed that councils will need to spend on average 15 per cent more on managing, maintaining and repairing their stock than was assumed under the subsidy system. The self-financing settlement took into account an assessment of local authorities’ needs, including major repairs.
These reforms have given councils the resources, incentives and flexibility they need to manage their own housing stock for the long term and to improve quality and efficiency, and they have also provided a clearer relationship between the rent a landlord collects and the services they provide.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the pupil-teacher ratio was in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in York Unitary Authority area in 2008-09 and in each year since.
Mr David Laws
The following table provides the pupil to teacher ratios (PTR) in publicly-funded primary and secondary schools in York local authority, in each January, 2008 to 2010 and November 2010 to 2012, which is the latest information available. 2013 figures will be available in late July 2014.
Figures for November 2010 and later are not comparable to those in January 2010 and earlier due to the change in the data collection to the School Workforce Census .
|
York |
||
|
Primary PTR[1] |
Secondary PTR1 |
|
|
January |
||
|
2008 |
21.4 |
15.7 |
|
2009 |
21.6 |
15.7 |
|
2010 |
21.8 |
15.3 |
|
November |
||
|
2010[2] |
24.6 |
16.0 |
|
2011[3] |
23.7 |
15.5 |
|
2012 |
22.8 |
15.0 |
Source: School Workforce Census and School Census
[1] Up to January 2010 PTRs are calculated by dividing the total full time equivalent (FTE) number of sole registered pupils on roll in schools by the total FTE number of qualified teachers regularly employed in schools. From November 2010 figures are calculated using the FTE number of sole and dual registered pupils on roll.
[2] In the November 2010 the source of the teacher numbers upon which the PTR is calculated was changed to the School Workforce Census. The completeness of the November 2010 teacher numbers for York local authority is in question as teacher numbers fell compared with the previous January 2010 figure based on the School Census and this is reflected in the higher PTR figures for the year. Subsequent teacher numbers reported by the authority in 2012 have seen the numbers return to previous levels.
[3] Excludes one secondary school in York which did not provide a return for inclusion in these figures.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much Government spending there was on public forest estate in each year since 2008-09.
Dan Rogerson
Government spending on the public forest estate since 2008-09 has been as follows:
|
Financial year |
2008/9 |
2009/10 |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
|
£ (million) |
18.7m |
14.3m |
7.9m |
14.6m |
26.1m |
19.9m |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many admissions there were for alcohol-related illnesses in (a) York, (b) North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust area and (c) England in 2008-09 and in each year since.
Jane Ellison
The following tables contain the sum of the estimated alcohol attributable fractions (AAFs) for admissions for patients in (a) York (b) North Yorkshire and York primary care trust (PCT) area and (c) England over for the years 2008-09 to 2012-13.
It should be noted that these figures are not a count of people and represent an estimated number of admissions that were attributable to alcohol.
AAFs are based on the proportion of a given diagnosis or injury that is estimated to be attributed to alcohol. Some diagnoses or injuries will, by definition, be wholly attributable to alcohol and have an AAF of one, others will only be partly attributable to alcohol and have an AAF greater than zero, but less than one. Diagnoses or injuries that are not attributable at all to alcohol will have an AAF of zero.
These figures are derived by summing all AAFs for the relevant admissions and should therefore only be interpreted as an estimate of the number of admissions that can be attributed to alcohol.
In addition, partially AAFs are not applicable to children aged under 16 years, therefore figures for this age group relate only to wholly – attributable admissions.
The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care – Statistics on Alcohol: England, 2014 report manually implemented new methodology against the 2012-13 data in their report. However, no change to the underlying Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data has been currently made.
Sum of partially and wholly alcohol attributable fractions1 for finished admission episodes (FAEs)2 for patients for York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, North Yorkshire and York PCT of treatment and England for 2008-09 to 2012-133
|
York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust |
Sum of wholly alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1 |
Sum of partially alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1 |
Total |
|
2008-09 |
1,185 |
3,775.21 |
4,960.21 |
|
2009-10 |
1,259 |
3,673.31 |
4,932.31 |
|
2010-11 |
1,268 |
4,065.70 |
5,333.70 |
|
2011-12 |
1,225 |
3,952.58 |
5,177.58 |
|
2012-13 |
2,217 |
7,936.95 |
10,153.95 |
|
North Yorkshire and York PCT |
Sum of wholly alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1 |
Sum of partially alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1 |
Total |
|
2008-09 |
2,669 |
7,480.90 |
10,149.90 |
|
2009-10 |
3,029 |
9,246.72 |
12,275.72 |
|
2010-11 |
3,124 |
10,340.52 |
13,464.52 |
|
2011-12 |
3,097 |
10,846.87 |
13,943.87 |
|
2012-13 |
2,930 |
11,465.32 |
14,395.32 |
|
England |
Sum of wholly alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1 |
Sum of partially alcohol Attributable fractions (FAEs)1 |
Total |
|
2008-09 |
237,820 |
707,649.50 |
945,469.50 |
|
2009-10 |
265,246 |
791,716.34 |
1,056,962.34 |
|
2010-11 |
287,198 |
881,067.56 |
1,168,265.56 |
|
2011-12 |
304,206 |
916,087.40 |
1,220,293.40 |
|
2012-13 |
294,786 |
937,677.63 |
1,232,463.63 |
Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.
Notes:
1Alcohol –related admissions
The number of alcohol-related admissions is based on the methodology developed by the North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO), which uses 48 indicators for alcohol-related illnesses, determining the proportion of a wide range of diseases and injuries that can be partly attributed to alcohol as well as those that are, by definition, wholly attributable to alcohol. Further information on these proportions can be found at:
www.nwph.net/nwpho/publications/AlcoholAttributableFractions.pdf
The AAF is set to 1 (100%) where the admission is considered to be entirely due to alcohol, e.g. in the case of alcoholic liver disease – these records are described as wholly alcohol attributable. The AAF is set to a value greater than 0 but less than 1 according to the NWPHO definition, e.g. the alcohol fraction of an admission with a primary diagnosis of C00 – malignant neoplasm of lip, where the patient is male and between 65 and 74 is 0.44 – these records are described as partly alcohol attributable.
These wholly and partly AAFs can be aggregated to supply an estimate of activity which can be considered wholly or partly attributable to alcohol.
Partly AAFs are not applicable to children under 16. Therefore figures for this age group relate only to wholly-attributable admissions, where the attributable fraction is one.
2Finished admissions episodes
A 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.
3Assessing growth through time (Admitted patient care)
HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Tami on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Decision Notice of 14 May 2013 on the extension of the reserved legal activities, what steps he is taking to educate consumers on (a) the different types of providers, (b) their respective protections and (c) options for redress.
Mr Shailesh Vara
In the Lord Chancellor’s Decision Notice of 14 May 2013, as well as confirming that he had decided not to make will writing a reserved legal activity, he indicated that further efforts should be made to see if alternatives to regulation could be made more effective in improving standards in relation to will writing.
Since then, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has taken a number of steps, with the intention of encouraging and supporting measures to improve standards, in both the regulated and unregulated legal service sectors.
In relation to the regulated sector, the LSB has written to the approved regulators, to encourage them to take steps to address concerns about the quality of will writing by authorised persons. In May 2014, the Solicitors Regulation Authority issued guidance for solicitors on will-writing.
In relation to the unregulated sector, the LSB convened a roundtable with industry stakeholders, including leading will writing trade bodies, in January 2014, to explore ways to improve the coverage and effectiveness of voluntary schemes and codes. At this roundtable, the LSB and stakeholders also discussed how to improve consumer information, to better educate consumers about the differences between regulated and unregulated will providers, and related protections and redress routes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is currently pursuing plans for jam jar bank accounts under the universal credit programme; and if he will make a statement.
Esther McVey
We are looking at a wide range of support options and considering the best outcomes for Universal Credit claimants which provide value for the taxpayer.
We are continuing to have discussions with providers of financial products and other stakeholders and we will make an announcement once those discussions have concluded.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stone of Blackheath on 2014-06-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Northover on 26 June (WA 177), what were the exact amounts of money given by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development to the Arab Partnership Economic Facility in the financial years 2012–13 and 2013–14; and what are the projected amounts for 2014–15 and 2015–16.
Baroness Northover
The FCO and DFID support Egypt through the Arab Partnership Economic Facility (APEF), which is funded and managed by DFID, the Arab Partnership Participation Fund (APPF), which is co-funded by the FCO and DFID and is managed by the FCO, and the tri-departmental (FCO, DFID, MoD) Conflict Pool. We estimate that since 2011 approximately £17m has been spent in Egypt through regional programmes funded by the APEF; due to the regional nature of this funding we are not able to further disaggregate the amounts spent. A small amount of APEF funding has been spent by the Embassy on local-level economic projects, as follows: £129,538 in 2012-2013; £784,801 in 2013-14; and £629,000 in 2014-2015. All APEF funds for 2014/15 have now been allocated.
Through the Arab Partnership Participation Fund (APPF), £1.5m was provided in financial year 2012-2013; £1.3m in 2013-14; and £1.3m has been allocated for 2014-15.
Through the tri-departmental (FCO, DFID, MOD) Conflict Pool (CP) £264,386 was provided in 2012-13; £458,370 in 2013-2014; and approximately £2m is allocated for 2014/15.
We are not currently able to provide projected amounts for 2015/16. From 2015/16 onwards, the Conflict Pool will be replaced by the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), which will have a global budget of £1billion. CSSF allocations by country and according to government department will be finalised in early 2015. FCO and DFID funding for the Arab Partnership for 2015/16 has not yet been agreed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many applicants for the Start-Up Loans Scheme have been received from Northern Ireland; and what value of such loans have been provided for new businesses in Northern Ireland since the scheme was launched.
Matthew Hancock
To date there have been 913 applications for Start-Up Loans in Northern Ireland including applications that have been withdrawn, declined or still in progress. Of these applications, 120 loans with a value of £562,110 have been drawn down to date.