The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Mackinlay on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much was collected from local authorities at all tiers from non-domestic property tax levied on public conveniences in each of the last three years.
Mr Marcus Jones
My Department does not collect that data.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Griffiths on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of (a) all pupils, (b) white British boys receiving free school meals and (c) children in care achieved no A* to C grades at GCSE, excluding equivalents, in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Nick Gibb
The information is not held in the required format.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the security situation in Somalia of al Shabaab’s seizure of Buqda.
Grant Shapps
We assess that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM’s) withdrawal from Buqda, and its consequent re-occupation by Al Shabaab, will have little impact on the security situation in Somalia, given Buqda’s limited strategic importance within the context of the overall AMISOM campaign.
AMISOM and Somali National Security Forces (SNSF) have regained 75% of the territory formerly controlled by Al-Shabaab, forcing it out of many of its traditional strongholds, including major urban centres and its former headquarters in Baraawe. The current AMISOM offensive is designed to remove Al Shabaab from their strong holds in the Gedo, Bakool and Bay regions of Somalia. But Al Shabaab still holds ground in the lower Juba Valley and retains the ability to infiltrate other areas and cause instability.
We continue to support African Union and SNSF efforts to defeat Al Shabaab, including through the provision of stipends, training, equipment and infrastructure enhancements, and capacity-building. We are also supporting stabilisation and countering violent extremism efforts, including working with the Federal Government of Somalia to develop counter-terrorism legislation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to improve the quality of adult social care; and if he will make a statement.
Alistair Burt
The Government is committed to improving the quality of adult social care. We have taken a number of recent steps to do so.
In October 2014, we introduced a tougher inspection system by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Following inspections, the CQC now also awards each care service a single quality rating with providers rated as “Outstanding”, “Good”, “Requires Improvement” or “Inadequate”. Services rated “Inadequate” are being placed into Special Measure which means they could face closure if they fail to improve.
These new ratings and other information about the type and quality of care at every care home and homecare service in the country are now available on NHS Choices and the MyNHS Transparency website, making it much easier for people to compare the quality of services.
This year we introduced a Certificate of Fundamental Care, now known as the Care Certificate. This will help ensure that care workers can deliver a consistently high quality standard of care.
The Department is funding and working with a number of organisations including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Skills for Care, the Social Care Institute for Excellence, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association on a range of projects to help adult social care organisations and staff improve the quality of care. These resources include new NICE Quality Standards and Guidelines which bring clarity to what excellence looks like in care and Commissioning for Better Outcomes – A Route Map* that sets out a series of commissioning standards that will be used as part of local government sector-led improvement to drive best practices in local authority commissioning under their new duties in the Care Act 2015.
*Available at:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department paid in spectrum charges in each financial year from 1999-2000 to 2014-15.
Mike Penning
The table below details the amount the Department paid in spectrum charges from 2009/10 to 2014/15. The variation in charges from 2010 is the result of Home Office reducing its holdings by sharing and releasing spectrum. Use of spectrum in the years from 1999 to 2009 remained at a constant level and our records indicate this was charged at £2,916,000 per annum.
Financial Year/ Cost:
2009-2010 £2,916,000
2010-2011 £2,819,820
2011-2012 £2,317,836
2012-2013 £1,779,309
2013-2014 £1,816,022
2014-2015 £1,325,654
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-09-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the reasons were for each application made by local authorities in England and Wales for care orders in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014 and (f) January to March 2015.
Caroline Dinenage
This information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they take into account the volume of smuggled cigarettes and other tobacco products when calculating the percentage of the United Kingdom’s population who smoke.
Earl Howe
The Government’s national ambition to reduce smoking prevalence among adults in England is measured using data from the Office for National Statistics “Integrated Household Survey”.
This survey asks the following two questions relating to smoking: “Have you ever smoked a cigarette, a cigar, or a pipe?” and “Do you smoke cigarettes at all nowadays?”
Background, methodology and other information relevant to this survey is available online at:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/specific/social-and-welfare-methodology/integrated-household-survey/index.html
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps will be taken by NHS England and other national health bodies to encourage the local commissioning of fracture liaison services, in the light of the advice issued by NHS England that the Fracture Liaison Services model represents best practice.
Earl Howe
NHS England’s National Clinical Director for musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, Peter Kay, is currently working in partnership with the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA), to develop new MSK clinical networks across England.
The work ARMA has done to date has been very successful in capturing examples of best practice in MSK care across England, bringing together health professionals and commissioners and building a strong consensus on the way forward for models of care for MSK patients across the entire MSK community. Work is ongoing in this area and NHS England and ARMA are in dialogue about the nature of such support.
NHS England is undertaking a review of the role, purpose and function of the sub-regional infrastructure that it funds, which is focussed on supporting commissioners and providers to improve the quality of services including Strategic Clinical Networks (SCN), Clinical Senates and Academic Health Science Networks. The purpose of the review is to understand how the best value can be secured from the investment in these functions, in support of commissioners and providers in improving quality. This review is ongoing and is expected to reach its conclusions by the end of March.
Regarding plans to introduce MSK networks as part of the SCN programme, NHS England has made clear that as priorities change, or should the work of one of the initial SCNS conclude, it will identify new conditions or patient groups that would benefit from an SCN approach.
The provision of fracture liaison services (FLS) and falls services is a matter for local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). NHS England advises that it is aware that provision of good FLS is not uniform across the country and it continues to work with CCGs to support them to develop appropriate local FLS services. It also advises that the FLS model recommended by the International Osteoporosis Foundation and the National Osteoporosis society is recognised as best practice and is being promoted.
In addition to this, the guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Falls: assessment and prevention of falls in older people sets out best practice for clinicians on the management of patients aged 65 and over who are susceptible to falls.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 2015-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the United for Wildlife’s follow-up to the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, what representations they are making to ensure that subsistence hunters are not being criminalised or evicted from their lands in the name of conservation.
Lord De Mauley
We have not made any specific representations on this issue.
The UK is one of the global leaders in the response to the illegal trade in wildlife. At the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade held in February 2014 more than 40 Governments committed to action designed to strengthen law enforcement, reduce demand and support alternative livelihoods of communities affected by poaching and trafficking. These Governments recognised the illegal trade in wildlife as a major barrier to sustainable, inclusive and balanced economic development that damages ecosystems, undermines good governance and the rule of law, threatens security, and reduces the revenue and local benefits earned from economic activities such as wildlife‐based tourism and the sustainable utilisation of and legal trade in wildlife. They recognised that sustainable livelihoods will be best supported by engaging with communities living in and around protected areas to reflect their needs alongside those of local wildlife.
We welcome the leadership of the Botswana Government in hosting the Kasane Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade on 25 March as a follow-up to the London Conference.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Curran on 2015-02-11.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what safeguards he plans to put in place to ensure the security of Scottish NHS data shared with HM Revenue and Customs.
Mr David Gauke
Any taxpayer data held by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is subjected to strict safeguards.
HMRC take their duty of confidentiality very seriously and cannot disclose any information acquired or held unless specifically provided for by law. All HMRC information is subject to stringent data security controls and unlawful disclosure of taxpayer information is potentially a criminal offence.