Tag: 2016

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy that personal social health, economic and education be compulsory in all schools.

    Edward Timpson

    The Government wants all young people to leave school prepared for life in modern Britain. High quality personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) teaching has an important role to play in providing young people with a curriculum for life, which equips them with the skills and understanding they need to manage their lives, succeed and stay safe. We have made it clear in the introduction to the framework of the national curriculum that all schools should teach PSHE.

    We have committed to improving the quality of PSHE and intend to make significant progress on this issue during this Parliament. The Department for Education is currently working with headteachers and other experts to identify how we can continue to improve the quality of PSHE for every pupil.

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park on 26 January (HL5024), what systems are in place to ensure that a standardised approach is taken by higher education institutions in relation to dealing with cheating, and to encourage best practice relating to plagiarism.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    Higher education institutions are independent and autonomous bodies and are required to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which requires that ‘assessment is equitable, valid and reliable’. As such, institutions are expected to have clear policies on cheating and plagiarism.

    As part of its cyclical review of UK universities and colleges, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) reports publicly on its findings, including if there are concerns relating to plagiarism.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what average amount of time a prisoner spends on education or work-related activities at each (a) young offender institution and (b) secure training centre.

    Andrew Selous

    Under-18 YOIs

    Since 16 August 2015, education providers in public sector under-18 Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) have been required to provide 27 hours of education a week, supplemented by three hours of physical education. Whist the majority of education time is protected, young people will miss some lessons to attend appointments such as court appearances, medical appointments and legal visits and therefore the average hours of educations received will be less than the 27 provided.

    Although youth crime is down, reoffending rates are far too high and the care and supervision of young offenders in custody is not good enough. That is why the Justice Secretary has asked Charlie Taylor to conduct a review of youth justice.

    The following table provides the average number of classroom based education hours, alternative activities hours and physical education hours accessed by under-18 public sector YOIs since 16 August 2015.

    Table 1: Average hours of education or alternative activities and physical education at public sector under-18 Young Offenders Institutions since 16 August 2015

    Feltham

    Cookham Wood

    Werrington

    Wetherby

    Average hours accessed by young offenders

    23.15

    17.07

    24.78

    20.44

    Notes

    (1) Average hours includes alternative activities (interventions relating to offending behaviour, focus groups, release on temporary licence, unit cleaning and catering etc) and physical education.

    (2) Data are provided by the National Offender Management Service. These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and can be subject to change over time.

    (3) This table does not include outreach education provision, which is provided to young people who are not able to engage with class room based education. The YJB currently commissions up to 15 hours of this type of provision for a set number of young people at each YOI.

    Under-18 YOI Parc

    YOI Parc is operated by G4S and is currently contracted to provide 25 hours of education and 5 hours of interventions each week. The average number of hours of education or vocational training delivered per young person per school week at Parc YOI in calendar year 2015 was 23.7 (see notes below).

    Secure training Centres (STCs)

    STCs are currently contracted to provide 25 hours of education and 5 hours of interventions each week. From 1 April 2016 at Medway STC and 5 May 2016 at Rainsbrook STC new contracts will require 30 hours education and interventions a week, of which 25 hours must be education.

    Table 3: Average number of hours of education or vocational training delivered per young person per school week in each Secure Training Centre in calendar year 2015

    Medway

    Oakhill

    Rainsbrook

    Average hours accessed by young people

    24.9

    24.8

    24.9

    Notes

    (4) Data for YOI Parc and Medway, Oakhill and Rainsbrook STCs is taken from YJMIS from the figures submitted by secure establishments.

    (5) These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and can be subject to change over time.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many full driving licences have been issued to people in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland and (c) the city of Glasgow in the last 10 years.

    Andrew Jones

    The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) only issues licences to drivers in Great Britain. Since July 2007, 68,096,270 full driving licences have been issued to people in GB. This is the number of driving licences produced and despatched by the DVLA and includes new licences, renewals, exchanges and replacements. The DVLA does not hold statistics on the number of licences issued before July 2007 as this is when the current method of producing licences began.

    The DVLA only retains information about the number of full and provisional driving licences issued and does not record how many of these licences were issued by country or region.

    However, it is possible to extract figures from the DVLA’s drivers’ database to show the number of people who hold full driving licences for countries and regions of GB. There are 38,571,679 full driving licence holders in Great Britain, 3,205,868 in Scotland and 651,045 in Glasgow.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to conduct an annual review of the effect of the Tobacco Products Directive.

    Jane Ellison

    Comprehensive tobacco control measures act in concert. The Government monitors the impact of all tobacco control measures using a range of data sources, some of which are reported annually. The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and The Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Regulations 2015, which implement most elements of the Tobacco Products Directive in the United Kingdom, contain a review clause, with the first review of the operation of the legislation falling before 2021.

  • Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the cardiac nursing workforce is comprised of heart failure specialist nurses.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre provides information on the number of nursing staff employed in the National Health Service in England, but it does not separately identify the cardiac nursing workforce or heart failure specialist nurses.

    It is for local NHS organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he last met Simon Kirby, Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd; and when he was made aware of Mr Kirby’s decision to resign as Chief Executive of that company.

    Andrew Jones

    The Secretary of State last met with Simon Kirby on 20 July 2016. He was made aware of Simon Kirby’s resignation as CEO of HS2 Ltd on the afternoon of Friday 9 September 2016.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20502, if she will make it her policy to update the Veterinary Medicine Regulations and the Summary of Product Characteristics of antibiotic products in order to end the preventative administration of antibiotics where no disease has been diagnosed in any of the animals in the group being to treated.

    George Eustice

    The Government will consider the need to revise the Veterinary Medicines regulation after the conclusion of the current review of the EU legislative framework on veterinary medicines and medicated feedingstuffs.

    In the meantime the Government has reissued guidance on the responsible use of animal medicines on the farm to emphasise that we do not support the routine preventative use of antibiotics, or the use of antibiotics to compensate for poor animal husbandry.

    In the UK, antibiotic veterinary medicines are only available through a prescription from a veterinary surgeon, who in turn can only prescribe to animals under their care following a clinical assessment. Using antibiotics responsibly is a requirement of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Code of Professional Conduct for Vets.

  • Baroness Walmsley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Walmsley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assurances the Department of Health has received that neurology services will not be disadvantaged in comparison to other condition areas by the absence of national clinical leadership for neurology services, in the light of NHS England’s decision not to renew the role of National Clinical Director for adult neurology.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s Medical Director, has undertaken a review of the National Clinical Director (NCD) resource designed to focus clinical advisory resources on areas where major programmes of work are currently being taking forward, or areas identified as priorities for improvement. As a result of the review, NHS England has proposed to change the way in which clinical advice is received in speciality areas in the future.

    Where there will no longer be a specific NCD role, NHS England will secure expert clinical advice from its Clinical Networks and through its relationships with professional bodies and by appointing clinical advisors. For neurology it is planned that access to advice will be through clinical leads and members of the NHS England-funded neurology clinical networks, the Neurology Clinical Reference Group and Royal Colleges. It is expected that these new arrangements will be in place from 1 April 2016.

    The Neurology Intelligence Network (NIN) is a joint partnership programme between Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England to support the generation and dissemination of neurology related health intelligence. PHE currently funds the on-going design, development and management of the NIN.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what safeguards his Department has in place to ensure that people with mental health problems who are unable to attend a work capability assessment or report to the jobcentre when requested due to their mental health problems do not have their benefits sanctioned as a result.

    Priti Patel

    Claimants with mental health conditions are considered “vulnerable”, therefore if they failed to attend a Work Capability Assessment, attempts will be made to contact them by telephone and, if appropriate, to arrange a “safeguarding home visit” before a decision on entitlement is made.

    The Jobcentre Plus sanctions regime has a range of safeguards for vulnerable claimants, including ensuring all requirements are reasonable and taking into account individual capability and circumstances, such as mental health conditions.