Tag: 2016

  • John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his oral contribution of 21 March 2016, Official Report, column 1268, on welfare, whether he plans to implement his Department’s proposal to cap housing benefit paid to social tenants at the level of local housing allowance.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Government intends to implement policies that have already been announced. This includes the proposal to cap social sector Housing benefit at the level of the local Housing Allowance.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to schools engaging in consultation processes on the Government’s policy that all schools should become academies to allow maximum stakeholder participation; and if she will make a statement.

    Edward Timpson

    It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

  • Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Lewis on 2016-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2016 to Question 39039, how many of the 193 off-payroll contingent staff employed by her Department since May 2015 were paid through limited companies; and what the total amount paid through limited companies was in that period.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Contingent workers include contractors, agency workers and interims. Our contingent workers are engaged via approved provider frameworks and not directly through limited companies.

    The response to Question 39039 has been revised and reissued. There were 152 contingent workers in core DECC during the period 1 May 2015 to 30 April 2016 (source: legacy HR system).

    As at 1 May 2016 core DECC had 39 off-payroll (contingent) workers. All of these are engaged via an approved provider framework and not directly through limited companies.

  • Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that women suffering from metastatic HER2 breast cancer receive (a) the Kadcyla form of Trastuzumab emtansine and (b) other required medication.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Improving the availability and use of effective medicines for all cancers, including breast cancer, is a key priority.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations on whether selected drugs and treatments represent a clinically and cost effective use of National Health Service resources. Commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and treatments for the treatment of metastatic HER2 breast cancer recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of its final guidance being issued.

    NICE technology appraisal guidance, published in December 2015, does not recommend trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) for the treatment of HER2-positive, unresectable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after treatment with trastuzumab and a taxane. In the absence of guidance from NICE, it is for commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund new medicines based on an assessment of the available evidence.

    Trastuzumab emtansine continues to be available to patients in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund, subject to certain clinical criteria.

    The new arrangements for the Fund, which came into effect on 29 July 2016, will ensure that the most promising and innovative medicines get to patients as quickly as possible. In particular, NICE will issue draft guidance on new cancer drugs or significant new licence indications before they have received marketing approval in the United Kingdom. Any drug that receives a positive draft recommendation would then be funded from the point of licence.

  • Lord Teverson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lord Teverson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Teverson on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the Environment Agency is taking to ensure that decisions relating to the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme receive director-level attention and remain adequately staffed.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Implementation of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme remains an Environment Agency priority and there has been no change to the amount of resource assigned to this or to the level of oversight within the Agency.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much funding his Department has made available for back-to-work support for people with mental health problems in each of the last five years.

    Alistair Burt

    We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions and other government departments through the Work and Health Unit. Over the next three years the Work and Health Unit are investing over £43 million in a range of voluntary mental health and employment trials to test what works in improving both the employment and health outcomes for people with common mental health problems. The Work and Health Unit will also invest around £115 million in testing wider support to improve health and employment outcomes. Additionally, The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme has already helped over 100,000 people to move off sick pay and benefits, with nearly 25,000 moving off in 2014/15.

    In each of the last five years the Department of Health has not provided specific central programme funding for back-to-work support for people with mental health problems.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-02-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to overcome the problem of race hate crimes on Britain’s railway networks in the light of the figures collected by the British Transport Police that show an increase in such crimes of 37 per cent in the past five years.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Government considers the safety of passengers on the railway to be of paramount importance. The British Transport Police (BTP) is committed to providing policing services that meet the needs of all passengers and people who work on the railways. In line with the College of Policing’s National Hate Crime Strategy, BTP is working with partners to reduce hate crime and the harm that it causes, increasing the confidence of victims to report, and to identify and prosecute those who commit such crimes.

    BTP will also work with Train Operating Companies and Network Rail to improve awareness, vigilance and reporting on hate incidents, and to identify locations and patterns.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2016 to Question 27757, whether he plans to take steps to mitigate the potential effect of the public sector exit cap proposed in the Enterprise Bill on employees of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

    Greg Hands

    The public sector exit payment cap will apply to organisations classified as within the public sector by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), this will include the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

    Restrictions imposed by the cap can be relaxed in exceptional circumstances for individuals or groups of individuals, subject to Ministerial approval. These circumstances will be set down in guidance and directions alongside the secondary regulations that will give effect to the cap.

    The Government can also confirm that the regulations will not come into force before 1 October 2016 and therefore all exits before that date will not be within the scope of the public sector exit payment cap.

    The public sector exit payment cap will apply to organisations classified as within the public sector by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), this will include the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

    Restrictions imposed by the cap can be relaxed in exceptional circumstances for individuals or groups of individuals, subject to Ministerial approval. These circumstances will be set down in guidance and directions alongside the secondary regulations that will give effect to the cap.

    The Government can also confirm that the regulations will not come into force before 1 October 2016 and therefore all exits before that date will not be within the scope of the public sector exit payment cap.

  • Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in Scotland who reach state pension age in 2016-17 will receive the full flat rate of the new state pension.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department cannot model the impact of the new State Pension at a regional or country specific level. Results for the whole of Great Britain can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/491845/impact-of-new-state-pension-longer-term-reserach.pdf

    “

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to increase the installation of home insulation.

    Andrea Leadsom

    We have made a commitment to insulate 1 million more homes this Parliament.

    We are providing support for households to improve their energy efficiency through a reformed domestic supplier obligation (ECO) from April 2017. This will run for five years, with a value of around £640 million per year.

    Additionally, our Private Rented Sector Energy Efficiency Regulations, made law from March 2015, will help domestic tenants in the private rented sector by making it illegal to rent out a property with an energy efficiency rating below band E from April 2018 onwards.