The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Bacon on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has paid Cerner in the last 10 years.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Department has not, over the last 10 years, made payments to Cerner for National Health Service systems. The Department does not hold information centrally about contracts that are held by NHS Trusts locally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-10-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the ratio of front-line medical staff to administrators in the NHS.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The ratio of medical staff to administrators in the National Health Service is 1:1.05. The number of medical staff includes only doctors and does not include roles such as nurses, midwives and other non-medical clinicians. Administrative staff are managers, senior managers and central functions staff who perform administrative and clerical duties.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-01-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent representations his Department has received about exit fees from retirement homes and villages; and if he will bring forward legislative proposals to regulate such fees.
Brandon Lewis
Following representations on this issue and an investigation by The Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority) in 2013, my Department passed this issue to the Law Commission to investigate in 2014. Their remit was to consider the problems caused by exit fees, consider whether greater protections were needed, and to make recommendations to Government. The Law Commissioners issued a consultation, which is due to close on 29 January; I would urge all interested parties to respond to this.
Once the Law Commission has completed its work the Government will consider any recommendations and respond as appropriate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-02-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made any acknowledgement of the achievement by Network Rail in completing successfully over 99 per cent of its Christmas and New Year programme of 500 projects without impact on passengers.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, has indeed acknowledged the achievements of Network Rail over the Christmas period on no less than three separate occasions.
Network Rail issued a press release on 4 January in which my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Transport stated: "Network Rail and the operators have delivered essential improvements to the rail network over the Christmas period. These are crucial for providing better journeys for passengers, progressing key projects such as Crossrail and the Thameslink Programme and nearly £100m of improvements in Lincolnshire, as part of our record investment in the railways.
I welcome the news that this has been completed on time. I would like to thank passengers for their patience, and pay tribute to the men and women who have been working in challenging weather conditions for much of the time."
On 19 January my Rt Hon Friend informed the other place: “Over the Christmas period, Network Rail also successfully carried out its biggest ever works as part of the railway upgrade plan that is so essential to the future of the British rail industry. I pay tribute to the thousands of staff who gave up their Christmas to improve our railways.”
And on 28 January my Rt Hon Friend remarked in the other place: “I pay tribute to Network Rail and its hard-working orange army of more than 20,000 staff who successfully delivered £150 million of essential improvements to the network over the holiday period, as part of our record programme of investment in the railways. Planning for Easter is well advanced, and the good practice demonstrated over Christmas is being embedded in the planning process for Easter and beyond.”
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.
Harriett Baldwin
The cost of Employment Tribunals can be found within the HMCTS annual accounts published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433948/hmcts-annual-report-accounts-2014-15.pdf.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether an impact assessment has been carried out on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s proposals to reduce the number of marine offices in the UK.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Guidance from Cabinet Office indicates that there is no requirement to complete a Business Engagement Assessment on this activity.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department is offering advice to African countries on desertification.
Mr Nick Hurd
DFID supports the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) which has had a strong impact on raising awareness of land degradation in Africa. The UK will hold the EU Presidency during the next UNCCD Conference of Parties and will champion the achievement of the land degradation targets agreed within the 2015 Global Goals.
DFID supports countries on desertification through our forestry and resilience work. For example the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme works with farmers in the Sahel on better natural resource management and regeneration. DFID also provides support to the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, through the International Forestry Knowledge programme (KNOWFOR), to help operationalise the ambitious targets of the Bonn Challenge. KNOWFOR helps countries assess the potential for restoration in their countries, developing tools and carrying out a range of analyses to support decision making, planning and attracting financing. 11 countries in Africa have so far pledged restoration targets (including Niger, Rwanda, Uganda, DRC and Ethiopia); the demand is growing as countries see the potential adaptation as well as mitigation benefits of restoring degraded land.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many job vacancies in his Department have been reserved as internal posts in the last 12 months.
Matthew Hancock
For the 12 month period between 8/6/15 and 7/6/16, Cabinet Office advertised 26 vacancies for internal applicants on its intranet site. In the same period, 469 Cabinet Office vacancies were advertised on the Civil Service Jobs search internet page.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to remove international students from the Government’s migration targets following the decision to leave the EU.
Mr Robert Goodwill
International students are included in net migration statistics that are produced by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). In line with the internationally agreed UN definition, these statistics define a migrant as someone changing their normal place of residence for more than a year. Students are therefore included in the same way as other migrants. Other countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia also include students in their net migration figures.
Like other migrants, students who stay for longer than 12 months have an impact on communities, infrastructure and services while they are here, so it is right that they are included in the net migration count.
We are committed to reducing non-EU migration across all visa routes in order to bring net migration down to sustainable levels as soon as possible.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawhinney on 2016-10-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is (1) their policy, or (2) the policy of NHS England, that primary care centres should be amalgamated into larger units.
Lord Prior of Brampton
As part of the New Care Models Programme, NHS England is supporting local health and care commissioners and providers to come together to improve the health and care they provide. This includes the development of population-based care models known as integrated Primary and Acute Care Systems and Multispecialty Community Providers (MCPs). Where and how to develop new care models are decisions taken by local partnerships, in response to local conditions. The Programme is not directing or requiring the amalgamation of primary care centres.
There are 14 MCP vanguards, with a single organisation accountable for joined-up General Practitioner (GP) and community services and some specialist care, mental health services, and social care for a defined population. The building blocks of a MCP are the ‘care hubs’ of integrated teams. Each typically serves a community of around 30,000-50,000 people. These hubs are the practical, operational level of any model of accountable care provision. The wider the scope of services included in the MCP, the more hubs you may need to connect together to create sufficient scale. All 14 MCP vanguards now serve a minimum population of around 100,000.
The majority of GP practices are already working in practice groups or federations. This provides opportunities to expand services, stabilise practice income and work at scale, which has benefits for patients, practices and the wider system. These include economies of scale, quality improvement, workforce development, enhanced care and new services, resilience and system partnerships.
A new voluntary MCP contract will be introduced from April 2017, to integrate general practice services with community services and wider healthcare services. Measures from the GP Access Fund and vanguard sites that are currently piloting this approach, will be learned from to support mainstreaming of proven service improvements across all practices, and funding will be provided for local collaborations to support practices to implement new ways of working.