Tag: 2016

  • The Lord Bishop of St Albans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The Lord Bishop of St Albans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2016-01-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the recent extensive flooding, they intend to review the sections of the planning practice guidance relating to flood risk.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    Our planning guidance is clear that councils need to consider the strict tests set out in national planning policy, and where these are not met, new development on flood risk sites should not be allowed. These tests, set out in the National Planning Policy Framework, are designed to protect people and property from flooding and give councils the robust ability to reject inappropriate planning applications.

    Councils are expected to avoid inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding by directing development away from areas at highest risk, including floodplains. Where development is necessary, it must be demonstrated that it is safe and will not increase flood risk elsewhere.

    We are always looking to see what lessons can be learned and what changes should be considered including how local councils plan for development, where they allow building and the account they take of the strict tests set out in national policy to protect people and property from flooding.

    My rt. hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Oliver Letwin), has already announced that he will chair a National Flood Resilience Review to assess how the country and our communities can be better protected from future flooding and extreme weather events. Additionally, my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Elizabeth Truss), has announced that the new Cumbria Floods Partnership group will consider and identify what additional flood protection measures may be needed in Cumbria.

  • Angela Rayner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Angela Rayner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 26069, when the Government and the Financial Conduct Authority plan to publish the evidence received on transaction costs for pension trusts; and what the timetable is for determining the next steps referred to.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Government remains committed to ensuring that members of pension schemes are able to obtain information about the costs and charges which they bear. Although it is not a legal requirement, the Government expects that many schemes will choose to publish their annual Chair’s Statement. In due course, the Government intends to make regulations requiring information about scheme costs and charges to be published.

    Trade unions that are recognised to any extent for the purposes of collective bargaining in relation to members of the scheme are entitled to receive a copy of the Chair’s Statement. Trade unions which do not meet these criteria are not entitled to receive a copy of the Chair’s Statement. However, beneficiaries of pension schemes who are members of trade unions which are not recognised for collective bargaining purposes may still request the information and pass it on to their union or any other person.

    We intend to publish a summary of the evidence received on transaction costs in pension schemes when we announce our next steps, which will follow in due course.

  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to ensure the early referral of ex-offenders on day one of release onto specialist employment support provision under the proposed work and health programme from 2017.

    Priti Patel

    The details of the policy for referral criteria and eligibility for the Work and Health Programme are still in development and we are looking to ensure that claimants with different circumstances receive the right support at the right time.

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the prevalence of mental health issues among firefighters; and if she will make a statement.

    Mike Penning

    The physical and mental well being of fire fighters is of utmost importance and we recognise that from time to time some fire fighters may experience challenging times because of the stressful and demanding functions of the role. The responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of fire fighters rests with individual fire and rescue authorities. The Chief Fire Officers’ Association supports them in this work through its lead on fire and rescue occupational health matters.

    The Government announced in October last year the allocation of nearly £10 million to help support 200,000 emergency services personnel and volunteers, funded through the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) fines. Of this funding up to £4 million was allocated to mental health charity MIND to develop a programme of targeted mental health support and information for all emergency services personnel across England. The programme includes an anti-stigma campaign, a confidential advice line for emergency service staff, training, peer learning events and other resources to help promote better mental health in the work place.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the extent of access to biological treatments for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

    George Freeman

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended four different biological drugs for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the collective term for Crohn’s disease and colitis, for use after the failure of conventional therapies or in patients for whom such therapies are not appropriate. The National Health Service is legally obliged to fund medicines and treatments recommended by NICE’s technology appraisals.

    Although information concerning the exact number of people with IBD who have been treated with biological drugs in each of the last five years is not available, and no specific assessment of access has been made, some data are collected as part of the IBD audit. The IBD audit programme is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership on behalf of NHS England and Wales (with additional funding from Healthcare Improvement Scotland), as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, and carried out by the Royal College of Physicians.

    The biological therapies part of the IBD audit aims to assess nationally: the efficacy of biological therapies in the treatment of IBD; the safety of biological therapies in the treatment of IBD; and IBD patients’ views on their quality of life at defined intervals throughout their use of biological therapies. The latest round of audit findings, published in September 2015, showed treatment continued to be effective and that patients were receiving treatment with biological therapies at earlier stages of disease. More information can be found at the following link:

    www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/ibd-biological-therapy-audit

    “

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-07-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Department for Work and Pensions report of the Household Below Average Income Statistics was over 100 pages in length in previous years and this year is 13 pages in length; and why this year’s report contains details published in Excel tables only.

    Lord Freud

    The change in publication format for the 2014/15 Households Below Average Income (HBAI) National Statistics release was made to bring this report into line with the new standard DWP Statistics template, with the aim of giving more focussed and accessible publications, without sacrificing the breadth of statistical analysis previously published.

    No information has been lost from this publication, rather this restructuring is intended to allow the lay user to better understand these important statistics.

    This approach is in line with the UK Statistics Authority’s “Better Statistics, Better Decisions” strategy and the specific change in format for HBAI was trailed in a Statistical Notice released in April 2016.

  • Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of isolation in the workplace on disabled people and the effect of such isolation on developing skills and career progression for disabled people.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Department for Work and Pensions has not made a recent assessment of the effect of isolation in the workplace on disabled people.

    However, we are committed to halving the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people. The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health have created a cross departmental Work and Health Unit to develop a strategy for system-wide reform on health, disability and employment, in order to reduce the numbers of people who are economically inactive due to a health condition or disability. The treatment of disabled people in the workplace will be among the factors the unit takes into account.

    Meanwhile, employers and disabled employees continue to benefit from the support offered through Access to Work, which provides practical support, advice and guidance for both disabled people in work or entering work and their employers.

    In addition, the Government’s Disability Confident scheme supports our commitment to halve the disability employment gap by focusing on employers, who have a crucial role to play in ensuring disabled people are recruited, retained and developed in their careers. Employers signing-up to Disability Confident on Gov.UK get access to a wide range of information, good practice and other resources, including links to DWP programmes which offer practical support.

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-12-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of children who will be homeless between 1 December 2015 and 1 January 2016.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    We have maintained homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

    We have increased central government funding for homelessness programmes to £139 million over the Spending Review period.

    There were 103,430 children and expected children in temporary accommodation arranged by local authorities in England as at 30 September 2015. The Department does not produce forecasts of homelessness.

  • Lord Lingfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Lingfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lingfield on 2016-01-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they are taking to ensure that Education Health and Care plans, in particular for young people transferring to post-16 and post-19 provision, meet the requirements for what must be specified under sections 37–48 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

    Lord Nash

    The Department is monitoring the implementation of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) reforms and securing a wide range of feedback. This feedback is collected through statutory data collection; regular surveys of local authorities, parents and carers; regular inputs for the Special Educational Consortium (which represents more than 30 organisations); and reports from contractors such as the Council for Disabled Children, which provides Independent Support services in all local authority areas, and Contact a Family, which runs a national helpline for parents of children with SEND.

    The Department provides support to local areas in a range of ways, such as voluntary and community sector experts and a team of specialist SEND Advisers.

    Local authorities must include information about Personal Budgets in their Local Offers, including information on how to request one. Parents and young people have the right to request a Personal Budget for elements of an Educational Health and Care (EHC) plan; local authorities are under a duty to prepare a budget when requested. Our termly surveys collect responses on the number of EHC plans which carry a Personal Budget.

    Since April 2013, the Government has provided nearly £1.5 million in funding to a number of projects with voluntary sector organisations to develop materials to support local areas to introduce Personal Budgets. We regularly promote these projects in our communications to families and to organisations in the sector. For example, KIDS produced guidance in 2015, through the Making it Personal 2 project. The Department is currently funding KIDS to build on this project, to develop further guidance and training resources, including some specifically aimed at young people with SEND, in a range of accessible formats. The SEND Gateway, which is run by the National Association for Special Educational Needs, also offers practical resources on Personal Budgets to assist both users and professionals.

    Through our regional support networks, we have funded a number of workshops aimed at local authorities, parents and others about Personal Budgets and we will continue to offer support for of this kind.

    Following publication of the Children and Families Act 2014, the Government set out the statutory duties to which local authorities and those working with children and young people must adhere, in the SEND Code of Practice: 0-25 years[1]. The Code of Practice includes clear information on the processes of EHC plan assessment and production. The Department’s team of specialist SEND Advisers are working with local areas to improve the quality of EHC plans, and are currently leading workshops on this across England.

    The SEND Code of Practice includes clear requirements that all local authorities must meet when developing, publishing and reviewing their Local Offer. All local areas have Local Offers in place, but we recognise that the quality varies. This is another area we are monitoring through our termly surveys, our voluntary and community sector experts and specialist SEND Advisers. We have provided regular advice to local areas about how to improve the quality of Local Offers. We are confident that local authorities are working with their partner bodies and with families and young people to continue to improve their Local Offers to ensure they respond to local needs.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398815/SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf

    “

  • Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what amount of direct pay arrears has accrued on the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme; and to how many case groups those arrears relate.

    Priti Patel

    A case is classed as ‘Direct Pay’ when the maintenance calculation has been derived by the Child Maintenance Service (after assessment of the case) and the Paying Parent pays child maintenance directly to the Receiving Parent. These cases are assumed to be fully meeting their current liability since clients can come back to the CMS if there is a default on their payment or to request a revised calculation.