Tag: 2015

Steve Rotheram – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what level of funding his Department has provided for mental health services in (a) Liverpool, Walton constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) England in the last three years.

Alistair Burt

NHS England does not split the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) programme allocation across service categories. CCGs receive an annual allocation calculated by reference to the size of population they commission for, and it is up to the CCG to decide how to spend it, taking into account national policy considerations and a local assessment of need.

CCGs are required to submit their spending plans and their annual accounts to NHS England. NHS England reviews spending, including for mental health (MH), through the CCG assurance process.

NHS England has made a requirement of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the planning guidance for 2015/16, The Forward View Into Action: Planning Guidance for 2015/16, that each CCG’s spending on MH services in 2015/16 should increase in real terms, and grow by at least as much as each CCG’s overall funding allocation increase.

CCG actual and planned spend (not funding) can be split between MH and other categories of expenditure. The table below shows CCG MH spend for Liverpool CCG, for Merseyside CCGs and nationally for all CCGs. These figures are actual spend for 2013/14 and 2014/15 and planned spend for 2015/16:

	2013/14 Outturn £k	2014/15 Outturn £k	2015/16 Outturn £k
Liverpool CCG Total	76,335	85,500	89,609
Merseyside CCGTotal	181,521	209,004	217,948
EnglandCCGsTotal	7,818,924	8,289,153	8,602,990

Specialised health services, primary care and other directly commissioned services includes some spend on MH services. This direct commissioning spend on MH services is not routinely split into the different categories of expenditure and is not included in the figures in the table above.

January 1, 2023

Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the waiting time for spouses seeking visas to undertake English language tests.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office is not aware of any issues with regards to waiting times for Secure English Language Testing (SELT).

In the UK, customers should be able to book a test within 28 days, often within a few days. In countries where there are permanent test centres customers should again be able to book tests within 28 days. In busy periods, the centres will test more frequently.

January 1, 2023
Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) arrests for and (b) successful prosecutions of individuals charged with counter-terrorism offences in (i) Coventry and (ii) the West Midlands in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

Mr John Hayes

The Home Office releases a quarterly statistics bulletin on the operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000. It contains information on the numbers of arrests, charges and convictions for terrorism-related offences. The latest bulletin was released in September 2015 and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/operation-of-police-powers-under-the-terrorism-act-2000-financial-year-ending-march-2015

The data is not broken down by geographic location. To do so could give an indication of the deployment of police resources and might prejudice ongoing operations.

January 1, 2023
Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how he plans to hold to account clinical commissioning groups whose transformation plans do not include key performance indicators or estimated costs.

Alistair Burt

As part of improving transparency, all Local Transformation Plans must be published locally and made widely available.

NHS England’s guidance Local Transformation Plans for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing – Guidance and support for local areas is explicit about the need to promote equality and address health inequalities, and states that plans should ‘address the full spectrum of need including children and young people who have particular vulnerability to mental health problems for e.g. those with learning disabilities, looked after children and care leavers, those at risk or in contact with the Youth Justice System, or who have been sexually abused and/or exploited’.

The assurance process requires local areas to evidence how they are meeting the needs of vulnerable groups including looked after children and children who have experienced abuse.

An analysis of Local Transformation Plans has been commissioned and will include a thematic review of how the mental health needs of children and young people in vulnerable groups have been addressed.

As set out in the guidance for Local Transformation Plans an integral part of the locally developed Children and Young People’s Mental Health Transformation Plans includes a tracking template that sets out local progress milestones and financial spend. This tracker will be used as the basis for assurance assessment in 2015/16 and from 2016/17 onwards progress on local transformation will become part of the mainstream planning assurance process.

Local Transformation Plansrequire all key partners in a local area to agree how best to meet the mental health needs of children and young people in their local populations. 122 Local Transformation Planshave been developed that cover all 209 clinical commissioning groups.

The assurance process for Local Transformation Plans for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing was undertaken by NHS England regional teams and included assurance against each plan of standard self-assessment and tracker templates to enable a comparison of plans against objective success criteria.

NHS England have commissioned a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Local Transformation Plans, in order to support policy makers, local commissioners and services to understand and use the data that is contained within the plans to drive further improvements. Local Transformation Plans will be reviewed from a narrative, analytical and financial perspective, with thematic reviews carried out in key focus areas that align with Future in mind principles.

January 1, 2023
Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to raise awareness of the right to statutory paternity leave.

Nick Boles

The Government provides comprehensive guidance on statutory paternity leave and pay on the GOV.UK website.

The right to take paternity leave is now well established. The latest information from the Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey undertaken in 2009-10 suggests that 91% of fathers take some time off after their babies’ birth.

The Coalition Government undertook a campaign to raise awareness of the introduction of Shared Parental Leave, which came into force on 1 December 2014 for parents of children due (or placed for adoption) on or after 5 April 2015. Shared Parental Leave enables fathers to play a greater role in raising their child and enables mothers to return to work at a time that is right for them.

January 1, 2023
Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many early service leavers received the increased settlement package in each year since 2010.

Mark Lancaster

We do not recognise the term increased settlement package, but have interpreted this as meaning the Early Service Leaver provision (termed the Future Horizons Programme with effect from October 2013):

FY 2013-14 (October 2013 – March 2014) – 806

FY 2014-15 (April 2014 – March 2015) – 2,254

FY 2015-16 (April 2015 – 15 December 2015)

(includes CTP Future Horizons with effect from 1 October 2015) – 1,906

January 1, 2023
Kwasi Kwarteng – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kwasi Kwarteng on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will exempt companies which show a serious and sustained commitment to measurable and successful training from additional application and reporting requirements under the apprenticeship grant scheme.

Nick Boles

The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) is a £1,500 grant per apprentice payable to eligible businesses with fewer than 50 employees who hire an apprentice aged 16 to 24.

To minimise burdens on employers, AGE is claimed through the training provider.

AGE funding has been devolved to some city regions as part of increasing local decision-making powers.

January 1, 2023
Keith Vaz – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lorries were scanned by lorry body scanners in Calais before entering the UK in each month of 2015.

James Brokenshire

To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border, Her Majesty’s Government cannot provide port specific statistics.

Border Force operates a multi-layered search regime using a range of interventions to screen all freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed ports. This includes the use of specialist technologies such as Passive Millimetre Wave Imaging devices, heartbeat monitors and carbon dioxide detectors as well as physical searches by sniffer dogs, Border Force staff and specialist search contractors.

January 1, 2023
Anna Turley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2015-11-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Enterprise Investment Scheme, Venture Capital Trust, tax relief or Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme have offered low-risk investment opportunities in energy generation; and what his Department’s definition of low-risk is in this context.

Mr David Gauke

The purpose of the tax-advantaged venture capital schemes is to provide funding to smaller, higher-risk companies that would otherwise struggle to access finance to develop and grow. To target the schemes at these companies, and to ensure investment is not crowded out by low-risk investment opportunities, the schemes exclude certain activities from qualifying for investment under the schemes.

The list of excluded activities is updated as necessary to exclude activities that are able to access finance from the market and which may therefore be regarded as lower risk. These include asset-backed activities, such as property dealing and development, leasing of assets or exploiting acquired copyrights, general financial and professional services, and financing activities that can divert the tax reliefs to non-qualifying activities. For these activities, a lack of proven track record is unlikely to affect the company’s ability to access finance. In addition, such activities are likely to have collateral against which loans can be secured.

In recent years, the Government has been concerned about the disproportionate amount of tax-advantaged investment in certain energy generation activities. Their asset-backed nature makes it easier for these activities to access mainstream finance. Therefore the Government has taken several steps to exclude certain types of energy generation from the schemes, including in 2012, 2014 and 2015.

The Government keeps all tax-advantaged venture capital schemes under review, and makes changes where necessary to ensure the schemes remain well-targeted and effective.

January 1, 2023
Angus Brendan MacNeil – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Brendan MacNeil on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-UK (a) nations and (b) planes were flying combat missions in Syria against ISIS on the last date for which figures are available.

Michael Fallon

In addition to the UK, the other coalition partners that have flown combat missions in Syria against Daesh are the United States of America, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The number of aircraft that our coalition partners have in the region flying combat operations in Syria is not held by the MOD.

January 1, 2023