Tag: 2016

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take under the Northern Powerhouse schools strategy to expand the best academy chains in the North; what the timetable is for that expansion; and how much funding will be allocated for that expansion.

    Nick Gibb

    Our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, sets out the range of support we will offer to schools across England.

    Where schools are failing, Regional Schools Commissioners will identify a suitable academy sponsor to turn them around. In areas where there are too few sponsors, we will recruit new sponsors, including high-performing schools and more sponsors from business, charity and philanthropy. We will also encourage existing sponsors to expand, increasing incentives and minimising barriers, learning from the investment we have already made through the Northern Sponsor Fund.

    For other struggling schools, we will ensure there is nationwide coverage of system leaders (teaching schools and National Leaders of Education), who will be expected to work with weaker schools to support them to improve. To help achieve this, we will improve how we designate system leaders by introducing a more sophisticated approach based on timely and accurate data rather than relying heavily on Ofsted judgements. We will also partner schools with the potential to become strong system leaders with existing teaching schools and National Leaders of Education.

    Through the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, we will target our existing programmes to secure sufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders, sponsors and members of governing boards on the areas of greatest need. At the Budget, the Government announced that we will invest an additional £20 million a year to build on this strategy to raise education standards across the Northern Powerhouse. The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence.

    For the additional funding announced in the budget, decisions on how the funding will be allocated for the 2016-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller. We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s review shortly.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to make the Cefaly headband for the treatment of migraines available on the NHS.

    Jane Ellison

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published interventional procedure guidance (IP) on transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the supraorbital nerve (which the Cefaly headband provides) for treating and preventing migraine in May 2016. Current evidence on its use raises no major safety concerns, but the evidence on its efficacy is limited in quantity and quality. The NICE has therefore recommended that this procedure should only be used with special arrangements for clinical governance, consent and audit or research.

    IP guidance does not consider how much the procedures would cost the National Health Service, or whether the NHS should allocate funding for them. These decisions are made at a local NHS level and usually on a case-by-case basis. This means that if the NICE has issued guidance recommending any given IP, the NHS is not obliged to provide it.

  • Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether welfare claimants receive refunds for postage and other costs incurred in obtaining a doctor’s certificate as required by his Department and ensuring its safe transmission by post.

    Caroline Nokes

    For DWP purposes a statement of fitness for work (SOFFW) can be obtained from a GP at no cost to the claimant.

    DWP does not refund postage or other costs associated with obtaining a SOFFW. Claimants are notified when making a claim that there is a requirement to supply a SOFFW to meet the ESA entitlement conditions. To support this DWP provides options for postage, either a Freepost Licence code or a pre-paid envelope at no cost to the claimant. These are handled by Royal Mail and subject to their governance and safeguarding arrangements.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments in scrutinising the suitability of business appointments for former Ministers in government.

    Ben Gummer

    The Government believes that the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments discharges its remit effectively and efficiently.

  • Stewart Jackson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    Stewart Jackson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Church Commissioners

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what recent progress has been made on (a) residential development and (b) infrastructure planning on Church Commissioner land allocated as an urban extension by Peterborough City Council at (i) Paston Reserve and (ii) Norwood; and if she will make a statement.

    Mrs Caroline Spelman

    There are no further developments to report since the answer given by the Church Commissioners to question 16388 on the 20 November 2015.

    “

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to support the implementation of the Family Test.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office has incorporated the Family Test into the impact assessment process, which directs officials to the Family Test guidance published by the Department for Work and Pensions in October 2014.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of people requiring wheelchair accessible homes in (a) Easington, (b) the North East and (c) England.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government has published data on the housing need of older and disabled people in England to support local authorities in assessing likely need in their local area. This can be found at link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-regulations-guide-to-available-disability-data

    It is for local authorities to determine specific needs in their local areas.

  • Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burgon on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many full-time equivalent GPs were employed in general practices in Leeds East constituency in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12, (d) 2012-13 and (e) 2013-14.

    Alistair Burt

    This data is not collected at constituency level. Such data as is available can be found in the table below.

    Total general practitioners (GPs) in selected area: full time equivalents 2009-14

    2009

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    Leeds Primary Care Trust1

    502

    506

    514

    516

    .

    .

    NHS Leeds South and East Clinical Commissioning Group1

    .

    .

    .

    .

    164

    169

    Notes:

    Data as at 30 September for each year

    1 GP workforce figures are not available by constituency. Leeds East constituency is contained within and serviced by NHS Leeds South and East CCG and prior to the formation of CCGs, Leeds East was contained within Leeds PCT. These two National Health Service organisations are not geographically co-terminus and therefore 2009-12 figures are not comparable to 2013-14 figures.

    ‘.’ denotes not available

    Data Quality:

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data but responsibility for data accuracy lies with the organisations providing the data. Methods are continually being updated to improve data quality where changes impact on figures already published. This is assessed but unless it is significant at national level figures are not changed. Impact at detailed or local level is footnoted in relevant analyses.

    Source:

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre General and Personal Medical Services Statistics

  • Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of the revised European School Milk Scheme on dairy farmers in the UK.

    George Eustice

    The UK has operated the existing EU school milk scheme since the 1970s. This has made an important nutritional contribution, encouraging children to adopt healthy eating habits. The new scheme will operate from 1 August 2017 with an enhanced focus on educational measures to strengthen the links between the farming community and children, parents and teachers. The total budget for the scheme has been increased from €80 million to €100 million to encourage higher milk consumption. Now that the scheme has been voted through, we will consider the new requirements and consult industry.

    Indicative allocations for each Member State for the period 1 August 2017 to 31 July 2023 are set out in the new school schemes regulations. The UK’s indicative allocation for school milk is €9,804,331 annually. Participation in the scheme is voluntary at the national level. Final allocations will depend on the amounts that Member States request as there is provision for re-allocating amounts that are not taken up in Member States programmes.

    In addition to the European School Milk Scheme, the Department for Health funds a much larger domestic scheme that provides free school milk to the under 5s at a cost of around £60 million a year.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the Government’s policy is on the use of child advocates to support social workers working with unaccompanied migrant children.

    Karen Bradley

    Unaccompanied migrant children are looked after by local authorities, which provide social work support and access to legal representation. Such children are also referred to the Refugee Council’s Children’s Panel for specialist support.

    In addition, the Government ran a trial of independent child trafficking advocates from 8 September 2014 for a period of 12 months across 23 local authorities in England. The trial provided a valuable contribution to our understanding of this area of work and we are currently working with a broad range of interested parties as well as Parliamentarians to further develop our thinking so that we ensure we support trafficked children appropriately. We will update Parliament in due course.