The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the performance of the Cheshire Patient Transport Service in the last 12 months.
Mr Philip Dunne
No assessment has been made. Assessment of the performance of patient transport services in Cheshire is the responsibility of its commissioners and the Care Quality Commission as the regulator of health services in England.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2015-12-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any of those staff at the Department for International Development involved in small business grant funding have hands-on experience of business development.
Baroness Verma
DFID employs cadres of sector-specific technical experts in a range of disciplines in order to provide intellectual and professional rigour to underpin our poverty reduction work. DFID has a cadre of over 80 private sector development advisers who lead our work to support private sector growth, including small business grant funding. Over 80% of private sector development advisers have worked in the private sector, bringing to DFID a first-hand understanding of business development.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pendry on 2016-01-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the extent of evidence and support, nationally and internationally, for a sugar tax as an element of tackling obesity, and why they do not support such a tax.
Lord Prior of Brampton
As part of its review to identify possible actions to reduce sugar intakes and inform the Government’s thinking on sugar, Public Health England considered the current evidence around fiscal measures such as a tax on sugary foods and drinks. We are considering this alongside other evidence as we develop our childhood obesity strategy which will be launched shortly. It will look at everything, including sugar, that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese. It will also set out what more can be done by all sides.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to reduce the number of fires caused by an electrical source of ignition in domestic dwellings.
Mike Penning
The Department’s Fire Kills campaign, run in close partnership with fire and rescue authorities in England, promotes a range of domestic fire safety messages, including on electrical fire safety, to ensure householders take appropriate action to prevent accidental fires and understand how best they can protect themselves and their families.
Fire Kills and Electrical Safety First have a longstanding and close partnership to promote electrical fire safety messages, including through the annual Electrical Fire Safety Week, which runs in November each year.
The campaign also supports the Register My Appliance initiative, run by the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Electrical Appliances. This is designed to improve recall rates and ensure a greater number of faulty products can be traced and either repaired or removed from homes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what estimate the House of Commons Commission has made of the number of senior House officials who will potentially fall under the provisions of the 4th EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849.
Tom Brake
The Commission has made no estimate of the numbers, if any, of senior House officials who might be held to fall within the definition of “politically exposed persons” for the purposes of the 4th EU Money Laundering Directive, nor would there be any reason for it to do so. Several senior House officials will themselves be aware of the provisions of the Directive as a result of their parliamentary work.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on the introduction of citizenship-for-investment schemes by EU member states.
James Brokenshire
I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answers I gave on 22 March to Questions 31324 and 31325 from my Hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) and the answers I gave on 9 March to Question 29833 from the Hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) and to Question 29873 from my Hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood (Kelly Tolhurst).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with medical organisations on the use of aspirin to prevent strokes.
George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) clinical guideline on stroke and transient ischaemic attack in over 16s: diagnosis and initial management (CG68), published in July 2008, recommends that all people presenting with acute stroke who have had a diagnosis of primary intracerebral haemorrhage excluded by brain imaging should be given aspirin 300 mg as soon as possible but certainly within 24 hours.
Thereafter, aspirin 300 mg should be continued until two weeks after the onset of stroke symptoms, at which time definitive long-term antithrombotic treatment should be initiated.
This guidance is due to be reviewed by NICE in July 2016 to see whether it needs to be updated.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-07-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the National Audit Office investigation into the collapse of the Uniting Care Partnership Contract in Cambridge and Peterborough, what further reviews are being undertaken into the circumstances of the failure, and whether the outcomes of those reviews will be published.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department welcomes the National Audit Office (NAO) report. Decisions about the Strategic Projects Team (SPT) are, however, for NHS England. Following an internal review and the NAO report, NHS England identified concerns about the work of the SPT. As a result, the SPT will close and all its ongoing commitments will be reviewed with a view to bringing them to a conclusion.
NHS Improvement advises that it also welcomes the NAO report and is working closely with NHS England and the Department to consider assurance processes for such complex transactions. NHS Improvement further advises that its focus since May has been liaison with the NAO on its report and joint consideration with NHS England of the assurance issues raised.
NHS England confirms that the NAO investigation supports the findings of its previously published independent review. Before the NAO investigation, NHS England had already commissioned a follow-up review focusing on the role of external advisors, the effectiveness of the Gateway review process, and the role of the clinical commissioning group leadership and governing body. This work continues and NHS England expects to publish findings later this summer.
More widely, NHS England has been undertaking assessments of current and planned novel contracts and is developing an assurance framework for contracts of this sort. This is being informed by the findings of the Uniting Care reviews.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many instances of Islamophobic abuse have been recorded in each of the last 12 months.
Sarah Newton
The Home Office does not hold the requested information. The Home Office has published data for 2011/12 to 2014/15 on hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales for the five centrally monitored strands (race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity) but these data cannot be broken down by religion of the victim. The 2015/16 data will have been published on 13 October 2016.
From April 2016, the Home Office began collecting data from the police on the targeted religion of religious hate crime offences in order to help forces build community trust, target their resources and enable the public to better hold them to account. This information will be provided voluntarily in 2016/17, but we intend to make it mandatory from the following year. We will publish the first data from this collection in the 2016/17 Hate Crime statistics publication in 2017.
This Government is committed to tackling hate crime. The UK has one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world to tackle hate crime. We are working across Government with police, (including National Community Tensions Team), the Crown Prosecution Service and community partners to send out a clear message that hate crime will not be tolerated and we will vigorously pursue and prosecute those who commit these crimes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-12-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the financial year 2003–04, what was the total cost of each public inquiry conducted; and what was paid to each inquiry chairman, including expenses and VAT.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The information in relation to this time period is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the total cost on completion of those inquiries which span this time period is available as part of the evidence provided by the Government to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldinquiries/143/14318.htm