The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Beresford on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many confirmed cases of oro-pharyngeal cancer there were in the last five years for which figures are available; and how many of those cases resulted in death.
Mr Nick Hurd
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for David Anderson on Communities and Local Government.
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Brandon Lewis
On 12 June I published all of the costings that the Fire Brigades Union requested the Government Actuary’s Department to undertake on their behalf. The costings and related communications can be found at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/firefighters-pension-schemereforms.
I also placed copies in the Library of the House.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on what date the Legal Aid Agency first informed Aman Solicitors that its bid was successful for a contract to provide publicly-funded immigration services in Luton in the 2010 tender round.
Mr Shailesh Vara
These questions relate to ongoing litigation against the Lord Chancellor and in the circumstances it would be inappropriate to respond at the current time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for David Winnick on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
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Dan Rogerson
As independent charities, handling correspondence is entirely a matter for the Canal & River Trust and other similar trusts. However, I have asked my officials to draw this issue to the attention of the Trust at their next meeting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame M. Morris on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the National Probation Service will be responsible for the provision of court reports after the introduction of the Transforming Rehabilitation Agenda in England and Wales.
Jeremy Wright
Pre-Sentence Reports currently fall into three categories; Standard Delivery (SDR), Fast Delivery (FDR), and Same Day (or Oral) reports. This process allows Courts the flexibility to deliver sentencing decisions in the appropriate timeframe, depending on each individual case, reducing the number of adjournments and expediting the criminal justice process.
The Transforming Rehabilitation reforms will introduce a new Risk of Serious Recidivism (RSR) tool which will be used to inform the allocation of cases to new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) or the National Probation Service (NPS) and complements the pre-sentence report process. Our testing with operational staff in Trusts of the RSR tool indicates that it is straightforward to use, in line with our commitment to minimising bureaucracy for frontline staff.
The new National Probation Service (NPS) will be responsible for advice to courts and, prior to sentence, the NPS will advise courts on sentencing options for cases as part of a pre-sentence report (in accordance with the reserved function of advice to court under section 4 of the Offender Management Act 2007).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for James Morris on Cabinet Office.
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Mr Francis Maude
The number of public service mutuals has increased from 9 in 2010 to nearly 100 today, operating in sectors ranging from youth services to social care. My department’s Mutuals Support Programme continues to provide professional support and training to live and developing mutuals, supporting over 65 to date.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress has been made on his Department’s child maintenance arrears and compliance strategy for 2012 to 2017; and if he will make a statement.
Steve Webb
Since 2008 we have considerably slowed down the growth of arrears via faster case processing and better enforcement. The successful introduction of the new 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme allows most paying parents to be assessed more quickly, which reduces the number of cases that accrue arrears. The new Child Maintenance Scheme is also built to trigger notification of missed payments so we can investigate non-compliance earlier, reducing the time in which arrears could build.
We are also looking at new techniques for collecting older debt. The trial of the process of reclassifying arrears has concluded and we are analysing how this initiative might be used in the future.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the performance of Capita in the delivery of personal independence payments in Wales.
Mike Penning
Personal independence payment (PIP) is a new benefit and processes are currently bedding in. The Department’s contracts with Capita and Atos Healthcare for the delivery of assessments for personal independence payment include a full set of service level agreements setting out the Department’s expectations for service delivery, including quality of assessments and the number of days to provide advice to the Department.
Officials meet regularly with both assessment providers to discuss performance. We are closely monitoring their progress against the Department’s expectations for service delivery and are taking action to drive up performance where this does not meet the required standards. In particular, for both providers, the end-to-end process for many claimants is taking significantly longer than originally anticipated. We are working with the providers to ensure that they are taking all necessary steps to improve performance, speed up the process and ensure claimants receive a satisfactory experience. Special rules claims for terminally ill claimants are dealt with urgently by our assessment providers. The latest published statistics show that over 99% of people with terminal illnessess who have applied have been awarded the benefit, which means over 9,500 terminally ill claimants are now receiving personal independence payment.
Although limited data has started to feed through, we need to wait until the Department has quality assured, meaningful figures for publication. We intend to publish official statistics on PIP from spring 2014 in line with our publication strategy. An ad-hoc release of PIP information was published on 11 February 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to inform claimants about delays they may experience while plans to improve performance of personal independence payment take effect.
Mike Penning
The Department does not have a target for completion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims whilst processes are bedding in. Clearly, we want to minimise the length of time claimants have to wait for assessments but the key requirement is to produce high quality assessments, to enable DWP decision makers to make the right decisions about benefit entitlement.
We are committed to driving up PIP performance and are in regular contact with our assessment providers to do this. We already monitor performance closely and liaise with assessment providers on a daily basis, supplemented by formal monthly performance review meetings. We will continue to work closely with assessment providers on an ongoing basis to monitor quality.
Our original Departmental operational delivery plans assumed a larger volume of assessment provider referrals than we are currently receiving and we have retained this surplus capacity using it to consolidate learning or carry out other duties. This will be available for deployment as cases are returned to the Department for decision maker action. The Department has contingency plans in place to secure additional capacity from other areas of the Department should assessment provider volumes exceed plans.
From 10 March we have included with the PIP2 ‘How your disability affects you’ questionnaire, issued to PIP claimants, communications explaining how long they might be expected to wait for a PIP assessment. This information is also available on Gov.uk.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2014-04-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that young people with autism are accurately assessed and supported into work; and whether they plan to ensure guaranteed access of such young people to trained careers and employment advisers.
Lord Freud
DWP is committed to supporting disabled people to find a suitable, sustainable job in their local area, and delivers support through its network of advisers, including Disability Employment Advisers. All advisers in Jobcentres receive training enabling them to support people with disabilities, including those with autism. They help people identify and overcome their personal barriers to work rather than assessing disabled people purely according to their health condition. We ensure that anyone with autism and/or other hidden impairments can access the services of the Disability Employment Adviser and will continue to do so.
Those customers with autism spectrum conditions who require greater support have access to specialist services including specialist provision or the support of Work Psychologist services via the Disability Employment Adviser.
As part of the “Think Autism” review DWP has been involved in a number of stakeholder consultation events at which people with autism and other interested stakeholders were given the opportunity to put forward their views and opinions on how DWP could improve its services for people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions and associated Hidden Impairment Conditions.
DWP is the Lead Department supporting the Disability Confident campaign. This is a positive action campaign launched by the Prime Minister to promote the skills, talents and abilities of disabled people, including those with autism, to the widest possible business community.
Access to Work provides additional support for individuals whose health or disability affects the way they do their job. It provides individuals and their employers with advice and support with extra costs which may arise because of an individual’s needs.