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Tag: 2015

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will review the current performance of the NHS 111 service and take steps in order to ensure that more qualified nurses are used to handle calls from the public.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Government has seen successes with the NHS 111 service since its launch, with over a million calls offered to the NHS 111 service in August, of which 93.6% were answered within 60 seconds.

    The Government expects all NHS 111 centres to be appropriately staffed to offer people safe care and advice and treatment at all times and has asked NHS England for assurances that the NHS 111 service is doing all it can to help patients. Furthermore the Care Quality Commission has announced it will inspect and rate NHS 111 services by September 2016 to give additional assurances that minimum levels of quality are attained.

    New Commissioning Standards for Integrated Urgent Care were published last week by NHS England. Developed jointly with commissioners and providers, the Commissioning Standards will support the transformation of urgent care services; introducing the clinical hub employing a broader range of clinical skills, direct booking into general practitioner appointments, improved clinical governance and staff development amongst other developments. Commissioners will now complete their plans to achieve the Commissioning Standards. A copy is attached.

    The commissioning of NHS 111 services is led by local Clinical Commissioning Groups and the safety and effectiveness of NHS 111 services are subject to constant review by local commissioners, monitoring performance and investigating complaints and clinical incidents through existing clinical governance arrangements.

  • Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2015-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many requests under the NHS England Standard Operating Procedures for funding requests for clinically critically urgent treatment outside established policy have been received so far in 2015–16, and how many of those requests have been approved.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England has advised that it received 31 clinically critically urgent applications in 2015-16 (April 2015 to September 2015) of which 18 were approved.

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what amendments were made to the formula for police funding following the consultation process with individual police forces.

    Lord Bates

    We received over 1,700 responses to our recent public consultation on proposed police funding reforms. The overwhelming view from respondents was supportive of a new formula and the principles we set out. We have carefully analysed the feedback received and, in light of this, are proposing a number of refinements to the model:

    – retain population volume and households with no adults employed and dependent children as core indicators;

    – clarify that the second population characteristic we intend to use is the updated ‘urban adversity’ version of the Acorn 5 indicator which has replaced the old ‘hard pressed’ version (this ensures that the model is in line with CACI Limited’s current Acorn classifications);

    – revise the bar density measure so that it takes account of bar volume as well as bar density, reflecting strong consultation feedback that this better captures scale and the impact of clusters of bars and the night-time economy within a force area;

    – remove ‘Band D equivalent properties’ as a core indicator, reflecting strong consultation feedback that this variable did not adequately capture the ability to raise additional precept income as intended;

    – add an Area Cost Adjustment (ACA) to the model to reflect regional variations in the cost base.

    These proposed refinements to the model produce an adjusted set of weightings across the remaining four core indicators as follows:

    Variable

    Weighting

    Population volume

    30%

    Households with no adults employed and dependent children

    31%

    Urban adversity/Acorn 5

    31%

    Volume and density of bars

    8%

    The Policing Minister wrote to all PCCs and Chiefs on 8 October to provide detail on the proposed refinements and to set out the indicative force-level impact and invite further comments.

    We will then finalise the model in light of further feedback received.

  • Baroness Gardner of Parkes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Baroness Gardner of Parkes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gardner of Parkes on 2015-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there is an authority that has the right to inspect properties with regard to the number of people living in the property; and what power that body has to act.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    Local authorities have powers under Part 10 of the Housing Act 1985 to tackle overcrowding. They can inspect a property to determine the number of people who are living there and have powers to take action against landlords of overcrowded properties on a tenant’s behalf, such as serve a notice to abate overcrowding.

    In addition the Housing Act 2004 introduced the Housing Health and Safety Rating System which is designed to assess the presence and severity of a range of hazards in the home, such as excess cold, fire, crowding and space. This allows action to be taken by local authorities, such as issuing an improvement notice, against individual properties which are substandard or dangerous.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he was first made aware of the fact that Caparo Industries was facing significant difficulties and was likely to enter administration.

    Anna Soubry

    We received confirmation of these developments when PwC announced on 19th October 2015 that a team of Administrators, partners and directors from PwC had been appointed Joint Administrators over certain companies within the Caparo Industries group.

  • Edward Leigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Edward Leigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Leigh on 2015-10-20.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the continuing viability of services offered by charities providing accommodation and life skills services to homeless adults, such as Caritas Anchor House in the London Borough of Newham, of unexpected demands for VAT payments arising out of the development of their premises; and if he will make a statement.

    Harriett Baldwin

    No assessment has been made.

  • Stewart Jackson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Stewart Jackson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2015-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the availability of (a) raw materials and (b) skilled labour in the construction industry on the Government’s housing targets; and if he will make a statement.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government’s Housing Implementation Task Force meets regularly to review issues, such as the availability of skills, relating to the delivery of new homes and industry reports such as the Construction Sector Network reports, produced by the Construction Industry Training Board, provide an indication of the skills the construction industry believes it will require between 2015 and 2019 for housing and wider construction. Statistics maintained by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills allow us to monitor key flows of construction materials such as bricks.

  • Angus Brendan MacNeil – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Brendan MacNeil – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Brendan MacNeil on 2015-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the area of North Uist was last used for military exercise prior to the North Uist Development Company applying for planning permission in 2013.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Ministry of Defence holds no records of a training area in North Uist in the past 10 years.

  • Ian Austin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Austin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the costs to schools of administering the reception baseline assessment will be funded by her Department in each year of the current Parliament.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department for Education is currently considering all spending, as part of the ongoing spending review.

  • Charles Walker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Charles Walker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2015-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the plans for the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon have been delayed; and if she will make a statement.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government is currently in the first phase of a Contract for Difference negotiation with the developer of the proposed Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project. This process of due diligence will enable us to gain a better understanding of the potential of a tidal lagoon programme in the UK.

    At present there is no timeframe for how long the negotiation process may take. The timeframe depends on a number of factors, many of which would be outside the control of the Department. Robust due diligence is needed to determine whether undertaking this proposed project would be in the best interests of the consumer long term.