Tag: 2016

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the experience that Bain and Company has to assess evidence to support transformation and potential for replication in terms of health services in the NHS context.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) commissioned Bain and Company to support vanguards as an extension to work previously commissioned from the company as part of a programme called Future Focused Finance, an initiative sponsored by the Department of Health and arm’s length bodies. This earlier work for the HFMA had focused on the design of a value-based decision effectiveness tool, piloted in Mid-Cheshire and Liverpool. The HFMA, in partnership with NHS England, commissioned the extension to this work so that the tool could be used to support value-based decision-making in the 2016-17 New Care Models programme.

    Alternatives were not sought from competitors because the vanguard support built on the original Bain and Company work for the HFMA.

    The value of the vanguard support contract is £650,000. Value for money was obtained by negotiation, having been benchmarked with other commissions made by the National Health Service to external health consultancies.

    As part of the contract, Bain and Company will be handing over its approach to NHS England, so that NHS England can support other areas in implementing new care models.

    Bain and Company has not been commissioned to assess evidence to support transformation and potential for replication of new care models in other areas. The company is commissioned to develop and implement a framework that appropriately experienced NHS staff can use to assess such evidence. Intellectual property rights in respect of the framework in the future are assigned to HFMA under the terms of the contract. The NHS is entitled to use the framework free of charge in perpetuity.

    Bain and Company is involved in the development of the tool used to make the assessment, and in the implementation of the process to use that tool. The company is specifically commissioned to help vanguard sites to use the tool and to summarise the resulting value propositions to facilitate decision-making by NHS England.

    No conflict of interest arises as decisions concerning funding allocations for individual vanguards are made by NHS England’s Executive Team and Investment Committee and not Bain and Company.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 January 2016, Prime Minister pledges to transform sink estates, what progress has been made since that announcement on the estates regeneration programme.

    Brandon Lewis

    Work has progressed well since the announcement. The Advisory Panel, which the noble Lord, the rt. hon. Lord Heseltine and I jointly chair, has been set up and is already engaging with the key issues and will be undertaking a planned programme of site visits across the country. The Government has issued a Statement inviting expressions of interest from prospective estates; proposals are being received and considered by the Government’s advisory team.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) received from the Government in the last three years; for what reasons that funding is provided; against what criteria the decision to fund that organisation was made; and what obligations the ETI places on its member companies with respect to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    In the last three years the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) has received £1.2m in funding from DFID, through a Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA). PPA funding supports ETI to improve working conditions for poor and vulnerable people, this includes workers in top tier farms and factories, as well as those in the lower tiers of supply chains (such as women homeworkers, smallholders and migrant workers) who are harder to reach and more vulnerable to exploitation. PPA funding is not tied to specific initiatives or interventions but ETI are expected to meet objectives set out in a robust performance framework, agreed between DFID and ETI.

    PPA funding was based on competitive selection and open to organisations who were regarded as leaders in their field and who could deliver on DFID’s objectives. Organisations were selected following a rigorous assessment and quality assurance process.

    Freedom of Association and collective bargaining is a component of the ETI Base Code and therefore every ETI member commits to taking action to support this right.

  • Antoinette Sandbach – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Antoinette Sandbach – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Antoinette Sandbach on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 35403, on High Speed 2 railway line: Eddisbury, for what reasons no intrusive geological surveys have been carried out at this stage; when HS2 Ltd commissioned from a mining engineer, in consultation with the Cheshire Brine Subsidence Compensation Board, a study of the historical subsidence effects and ongoing extractive processes in relation to salt; on what date HS2 Ltd received or will receive that report; and when he expects to receive the conclusions of the re-review of the usefulness of satellite interferometry to evaluate historical ground movement across Cheshire.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    HS2 will negotiate access to land with landowners to undertake geological surveys as a part of the Hybrid Bill process following the decision of the route as done on Phase 1 and Phase 2a. It would not be appropriate to intrude on landowners where there is no confirmation of the route.

    Both the study and the re-review will be used to support technical decisions contributing to a route announcement scheduled for later in 2016.

  • Alan Mak – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Alan Mak – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Mak on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that school standards in England match those of the best international competitors.

    Nick Gibb

    In 2014 we introduced a new, ambitious national curriculum to match the best education systems in the world. We are also reforming GCSEs, A Levels and primary school assessment to represent a new gold standard which enables students to compete with their peers in the world’s best school systems. From summer 2017 the standard of a GCSE “good pass” will be in line with the average performance in high-performing countries.

  • Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrea Jenkyns on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times the Junior Doctors’ Committee of the British Medical Association has (a) left negotiations already in progress and (b) refused written requests to return to negotiations on the proposed junior doctors’ contract since any negotiations on that proposed contract began.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee walked away from negotiations twice. The first time was after almost a year of negotiations on 16 October 2014. The second time was on 4 January 2016 during negotiations following an agreement at ACAS.

    Ministers wrote to the BMA on a number of occasions – four of these letters, between July and November 2015, were explicit requests to enter negotiations. The BMA refused on each occasion.

  • Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how his Department is working with the voluntary sector to reduce the level of rough sleeping.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government remains committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. That is why we are maintaining homelessness funding over this Spending Review period, building on our significant investment since 2010. We will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We have also protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

    But one person without a home is one too many, and I have had the opportunity to see first hand the vital role that voluntary sector organisations play in supporting vulnerable homeless people off the streets and into independence. I will continue to work closely with the voluntary sector and local authorities on how we improve the impact of homelessness services and break the cycle of homelessness. This includes the Department’s programme of work with Homeless Link, the national umbrella body for single homelessness organisations in England. I also host a regular forum with Chief Executives from the sector on how we best meet the needs of vulnerable homeless people, including rough sleepers, which is next meeting on 1 February.

  • Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many farmers were not in receipt of the Basic Payment Scheme payments by the end of January 2016; and whether any of those payments are expected to be paid to those living in areas affected by flooding in 2016.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The Rural Payments Agency started making Basic Payment Scheme payments to farmers from December 2015. At the end of January 2016 we had paid 66,800 some £1 billion, leaving just under 20,300 not paid. We had paid 600 farmers affected by the floods by the end of January and are prioritising the remainder for payment as promptly as possible.

    Farmers affected by flooding from Storm Desmond and Eva can apply for up to £20,000 grant funding from the Farming Recovery Fund (until 1 April) to help restore damaged agricultural land. Farmers wanting to apply for the grant can find the application form and guidance on GOV.UK or call the Rural Services Helpline on 03000 200 301.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will commission independent research on the (a) economic, (b) environmental and (c) technical viability of building ultra-supercritical coal fired power stations in the UK.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Coal is the most carbon intensive form of electricity generation. I have no plans to commission independent research on the viability of building ultra-supercritical coal fired power stations in the UK.

  • Jim Fitzpatrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jim Fitzpatrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with Chief Crown Prosecutors on the decision not to prosecute any individuals for suspected electoral and financial fraud committed in Tower Hamlets during the mayoral election there in 2014.

    Andrew Selous

    The Ministry of Justice has not had any discussions with Chief Crown Prosecutors on this matter.

    Decisions on whether to charge or to prosecute individuals suspected of electoral and financial fraud in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets are matters for the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service. I refer my Honorable Friend to Mr. Marcus Jones’ response to Parliamentary Question 29350.