The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how much his Department has spent to date on legal advice; and how much he estimates will be so spent during 2016-17.
Mr David Jones
The Department has been billed for £12,711 in relation to legal fees since it was established. Detailed work is underway to establish the Department’s future budget requirements, including for legal advice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to provide support for (a) junior doctors and (b) other medical staff employed in hospitals who are experiencing stress.
Mr Philip Dunne
Employers across the National Health Service are responsible for the health and wellbeing of all their staff. They will provide access to a range of services and support to staff including doctors who feel they are experiencing stress.
The Department continues to commission NHS Employers to provide advice, guidance and good practice to the NHS on improving staff physical and mental health and wellbeing. This includes an emotional wellbeing toolkit enabling staff to check their own emotional wellbeing and encourage discussion with colleagues. NHS Employers is also working with NHS England who are investing £5 million in a new NHS staff physical and mental health and wellbeing initiative, with the support of Public Health England.
There are particular additional issues for junior doctors relating to the need for them to move between different hospitals in the course of their training. Health Education England, which is responsible for doctor training arrangements has a programme of work to address these issues. This includes looking at reducing the number of training rotations to help balance doctors’ work and other responsibilities such as family and caring commitments, giving doctors ten weeks’ notice of new placements and reviewing the process for the annual review of competence progression to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Fabricant on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy to provide aid to Barbados; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Desmond Swayne
Barbados does not qualify for Official Development Assistance (ODA) by the Department for International Development under internationally agreed ODA criteria.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-01-29.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when his Department’s discussions with Capgemini and Fujitsu began on the replacement of the HM Revenue and Customs IT Aspire contract.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs’ discussions with its IT partners have taken place on a regular basis since the Aspire contract began in 2004. The Department created the Aspire Replacement Programme in 2013 to manage discussions with its partners, following the Memorandum of Understanding in 2012 which led to the adaption of the Aspire contract.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people with severe and long-term mental health issues and whose care is coordinated through the Care Programme Approach in each year since 2010 had had a formal meeting to review their care in the previous 12 months.
Alistair Burt
Information on the number of people using National Health Service funded adult secondary mental health services, including those who spent time on the Care Programme Approach (CPA), is shown in the following table.
|
England |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
|
Total People |
1,287,730 |
1,607,153 |
1,590,332 |
1,746,698 |
1,835,996 |
|
People on CPA |
263,935 |
407,370 |
359,368 |
357,732 |
335,727 |
These figures includes people who have been on CPA for a number of months or years as well as people who had only recently been assigned to CPA. These figures count each individual once, regardless of the number of times they accessed services in the year.
Because of major changes to the Mental Health Minimum Dataset and submission process, figures for these years are not directly comparable. The scope was expanded to include independent sector providers in 2011/12 and learning disability services in 2014/15. Major changes to the submission process between 2010/11 and 2011/12 also contributed to an overall increase in numbers.
A snapshot count of people on CPA at the end of 2014/15 who had been on CPA for at least 12 months and the number and proportion of these who had received a CPA review within the last 12 months is shown in the following table. It has not been possible to provide data for earlier years.
|
England |
March 2015 |
|
People on CPA at the end of the month who had been on CPA for 12 months |
126,679 |
|
People on CPA for 12 months with a review in the previous 12 months |
101,592 |
|
Percentage of people on CPA for 12 months with a review |
80.2% |
The process of the CPA recognises that reviews should be held at least every year. However, where an individual’s needs are sufficiently complicated to require more complex care co-ordination, the frequency of review meetings will be increased.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Smeeth on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which companies have been issued with more than 50 Tier 2 (ICT) visas in a calendar year for each of the last five years; and how many visas for each such company were issued.
James Brokenshire
A list of the sponsors that have assigned more than 50 Tier 2 (ICT) Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) in a calendar year for each of the last five years, which also provides the figures of how many of those CoS were used in support of an individual Tier 2 (ICT) application, are to be placed in the House Library.
To break these figures down further into in and out of country applications, and whether the application was successful would require manual intervention and would exceed cost limits.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-04-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Executive Remuneration Working Group’s conclusions that executive pay is not fit for purpose” and that extensive reform is needed to allay “widespread scepticism and [the] loss of public confidence”.”
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government has noted the views set out in the interim report of the Executive Remuneration Working Group.
Government reforms introduced in 2013 provide a significantly more transparent and robust governance framework for executive pay. The reforms give shareholders a binding vote at least every three years on company pay policies and an annual vote on the remuneration report which sets out exactly what directors have been paid. The annual vote is advisory but if the shareholders vote down the report, the company has to bring a revised pay policy to the next Annual General Meeting.
These reforms give shareholders effective powers to challenge excessive executive pay and to hold boards to account on pay policies and it is now for investors and companies to engage constructively to ensure that pay policies are fit for purpose and that they align the interests of executives, shareholders and companies.
Evidence from the current round of Annual General Meetings is that the reforms are having an impact and that shareholders are increasingly willing to use these powers where they are dissatisfied. BP and Smith and Nephew’s shareholders, for example, voted against their companies’ remuneration reports and the shareholders of Weir Group voted against that company’s remuneration policy in a binding vote. There have been significant shareholder votes against the remuneration reports at a number of other companies.
The Government has no current plans for further legislation or regulation, but expects to see companies liaising effectively with shareholders and adjusting pay policies where there is shareholder dissatisfaction.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-06-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will seek assurances from the government of Iran that Nazanin Ratcliffe will be granted access to a lawyer and due process rights.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We regularly lobby the Iranian government on all of our consular cases; requesting consular access for our officials, and to ensure that they have access to lawyers and are receiving appropriate medical care. Most recently the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the issue with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif on 17 May, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), raised the subject with the Iranian Charge d’Affaires in London on 18 May. The Iranian government do not recognise dual nationals of any country, therefore we cannot gain direct access to dual nationals held in custody.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what preparations have been made for the UK having its own representative at the World Trade Organisation.
Greg Hands
The UK has been a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in its own right since the establishment of the WTO in 1995. The UK Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO is currently Julian Braithwaite.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the levels of the use of (a) illegal drugs and (b) legal highs in prisons in the UK in each of the last 5 years.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Prisons should be places of safety and reform. The increase in psychoactive substances in prisons has contributed to a rise in prison violence, making offenders more volatile and their reactions more difficult to judge and manage. Improving safety and decreasing violence is an urgent priority for the Government.
We have introduced legislation to restrict the supply and possession of psychoactive substances in prisons, and put in place new penalties for possession of a psychoactive substance in custody. Following a successful trial in 34 prisons over the summer, we have introduced an innovative new programme of mandatory drug testing for psychoactive substances in all prisons.
Mandatory Drug Testing (MDT) figures for prisons in England and Wales are published by financial year on gov.uk. MDT for psychoactive substances began in September 2016 and figures will be published in due course.