The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many applications to the Healthy New Towns programme were made from each local authority area.
Jane Ellison
The Department does not hold information on the applications to the Healthy New Towns programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential health risks of the use of lasers by driverless vehicles.
Andrew Jones
The General Product Safety Regulations prohibit a product from being placed on the market, or otherwise supplied, unless it is safe. The lead department for these regulations is the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Will Quince on 2016-05-09.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to set target levels of reformulation for soft drinks manufacturers under the soft drinks industry levy.
Damian Hinds
The Chancellor announced at Budget 2016 that the soft drinks industry levy will be charged on drinks with added sugar and a total sugar content above 5g/100ml, with a higher charge for drinks with more than 8g/100ml of sugar.
These sugar thresholds provide a strong incentive for companies to reformulate and are set to give industry certainty over the next two years. If companies reformulate their products, as many already have, then they will pay less. But it is up to companies how they respond to the levy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-06-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance they have issued to ensure that HIV clinics also test patients annually for hepatitis C.
Lord Prior of Brampton
In February 2014 the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASSH) convened an expert working group, including representation from Public Health England, to formally review evidence and produce Recommendations for testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) men who have sex with men (MSM). The recommendations are attached.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has also published Hepatitis B and C testing – people at risk of infection, recommending testing to all services users at increased risk of infection. A copy of the guidance is attached.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Rebuck on 2016-09-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the finding in the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Committee’s Fifth Report of Session 2014–15 that the ability to gain literacy and numeracy skills is a fundamental right of all adults, what steps they are taking to ensure that the one in six of the population with poor literacy skills have opportunities to gain at least entry level literacy skills.
Lord Nash
This Government understands the importance of strong literacy skills and makes English provision a priority for support within the adult skills system. We fully fund, through a statutory entitlement, all adults to achieve their first English GCSE at grade C or above as well as other qualifications which help them get to that level. We also support English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision, in addition to DCLG’s community-based programmes and investment in Syrian refugees’ English Language training through the Syrian resettlement programme.
This provision is available for a wide range of learners including:
Prisoners, through the Offender Learning and Skills Service;
Learners in the community, including through Family English, Maths and Language;
People who need ESOL;
Trainees as part of their traineeship;
Apprentices as part of their apprenticeship;
Jobseekers.
To enable these learners to improve their literacy skills, we have embedded English at the heart of all our major programmes. This means:
Learners who did not achieve a good GCSE pass in English by the age of 16 are now required to continue to study the subject post-16;
Since 2014/15, the English requirement for Intermediate Apprenticeships has been stronger, with all apprentices who have already achieved level 1 English having to work towards level 2;
Since 2014/15, young people undertaking a traineeship have been required to study English unless they already have level 2 qualifications in the subjects;
We have reformed GCSEs to ensure they are more stretching and provide greater assurance of core literacy skills than the old GCSEs. In line with the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee recommendation, we recognise that some people are not ready to take GCSE so we are also improving the rigour and relevance of English Functional Skills qualifications, which are taken by many students and apprentices aged 16 and over. We have commissioned the Education and Training Foundation to revise the National Literacy (and Numeracy) Standards and reform Functional Skills with the new qualifications being delivered from September 2018.
To ensure high quality provision is delivered, we have invested over £30m over the past 3 years to improve the quality of the English (and maths) workforce in further education, driving forward improvements in governance and leadership.
To ensure prisoners have the opportunity to improve their literacy skills, Government accepted in principle the recommendations of the review led by Dame Sally Coates on prison education which will include developing a new curriculum for the teaching of basic literacy in prisons.
Lastly, we are undertaking a range of research to better understand where Government investment in English has the greatest impact and delivers value for money. As recommended by the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee in their 14/15 report, Government is using behavioural insights to identify how to motivate adults to improve their English and encourage learners to keep studying once enrolled on a course. I am pleased to report that very positive trial results will be published shortly by the Behavioural Insights Team. This report includes trial findings working with the Army as a significant provider of workplace literacy training.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of ticket machines were fitted with labels advertising ticket offices of each train operating company on the most recent date for which figures are available.
Claire Perry
Under the terms of the Ticketing Settlement Agreement
“the opening hours of each Ticket Office must be prominently displayed at a location nearby that is accessible to members of the public at all times unless the Authority agrees otherwise” (s6-16, p.144).
It is for the operator to decide where the times are displayed. Therefore, the Department has no information as to how many would be on ticket machines.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated radiological dose uptake was in terms of (a) individual whole equivalent dose in milli-Sievert and (b) collective dose in man-Sievert for (i) Services and his Department’s civilian personnel involved in and responding to the incident, (ii) civilian emergency services personnel responders attending and (iii) members of the public during each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
Penny Mordaunt
The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that refugees arriving in other EU member-states who have family in the UK are identified and supported in being reunited with their relatives.
James Brokenshire
All migrants arriving in other EU Member States who wish to seek asylum should do so in those States and provide information to the asylum authorities about any family members in the UK or other Member States so that the family unity provisions in the Dublin Regulation can be applied.
We are providing further resources to the European Asylum Support Office, including help in border “hotspots” in Greece and Italy, to identify and register asylum applicants, including children at risk on first arrival in the EU.
We will consider any request made to us by other Member States to take responsibility for asylum applicants because they have close family who are legally in the UK in accordance with the terms of the Dublin Regulation.
If not claiming asylum, individuals outside the UK are entitled to apply under the Immigration Rules to join relatives in the UK by making the appropriate visa application.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Tracey on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy for palliative care funding to provide universal access to bereavement services for bereaved families of children and young people.
Ben Gummer
A review of the allocation methodology of the annual children’s hospice grant is being considered to support an equitable, transparent and evidence based formula making use of data from all children’s hospices in 2016/17. The aim is to provide clear advice to hospices on the grant for 2016/17 and a proposed way forward to review the formula and how hospices can contribute to that process.
Adult hospices, including voluntary sector hospices, receive on average around a third of their funding from the National Health Service and it is for local commissioners to ensure that the services they commission meet the needs of their local populations, including in end of life care.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have responsibility for ensuring that they are meeting the needs of those requiring children’s palliative care services, considering the full range of local provision, both statutory and voluntary sectors, and the wishes of children and young people and their families. CCGs will need to make sure that they provide information on the support available locally for children with palliative care needs and their families.
Many maternity units have specialist bereavement midwives and dedicated bereavement suites to support parents but we know that this support is not available in every unit and we are currently considering the actions that we can take to improve bereavement services further. For families of older children and young people chaplaincy services may be able to provide support.
It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. It is the responsibility of employers to ensure staff receive appropriate development to deliver safe and effective healthcare. This includes training in providing care to children and young people with life-shortening conditions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he plans to take to address installation issues arising from the satellite broadband subsidy scheme.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Customers can report any installation issues to the supplier, BT or BDUK. BT and BDUK work with suppliers to ensure that any customer issues are addressed.