Tag: 2016

Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average level of funding for GPs in (a) Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group, (b) comparator clinical commissioning groups and (c) England was in each of the last 3 years.

Alistair Burt

Data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that the funding for general practitioners (GPs) in Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was £31,892,320 in 2013/14 and £33,578,245 in 2014/15.

The comparator CCGs fall into the area of Wessex. The average level of funding for GPs in comparator CCGs was £40,243,811 in 2013/14 and £43,300,640 in 2014/15.

The average level of funding for GPs in England was £36,169,099 in 2013/14 and £37,868,835 in 2014/15.

Data is not available for earlier years.

01/01/2023
Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance he has given to HM Revenue and Customs on the use of powers in the Finance Act 2014 to issue accelerated payment notices for seeking retrospective tax payments.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has the power to seek upfront payment of disputed tax in certain avoidance cases.

The legislation is not retrospective. It does not create any new tax liability; it simply alters where the tax sits while the liability is being disputed.

The taxpayer can continue to dispute the case and will be repaid with interest should they win.

At 31 March 2016 HMRC had issued over 46,000 accelerated payments notices, representing over £4.8bn of tax in dispute; and over £2.5bn had been received.

01/01/2023
Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what support he has provided to local authorities and the construction industry to encourage the promotion of self-build schemes for constructing new homes.

Gavin Barwell

We have a strong commitment to supporting and encouraging the growth of self- and custom build homes.

The Government has implemented new legislation requiring most local planning authorities to hold and have regard to registers for those seeking to build their own home in a local authority area. Subject to Parliamentary processes, in the Autumn we will also introduce secondary legislation flowing from the Housing and Planning Act 2016 which will require local planning authorities to find and give permission to suitable land reflecting the demand demonstrated by the registers. We have made available £32 million in new burdens funding over the Spending Review period in order to support local planning authorities in meeting these new requirements.

In the 2015 Spending Review, the Government also announced a £3 billion loan fund of which £1 billion is specifically earmarked for short term loans to support small and medium builders and custom build projects and is designed to provide further support for the legislation that we have introduced.

01/01/2023
Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to what forms of hostel accommodation he plans to apply the housing benefit cap.

Caroline Nokes

The Secretary of State announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 15 September 2016 that we would be deferring the application of Local Housing Allowance Rates in the social sector for all those living in supported accommodation until 2019/20.

At this point we will bring in a new funding model which will ensure that the sector continues to be funded at current levels, taking into account the effect of Government policy on social sector rents.

The Secretary of State also announced that a formal consultation would be published shortly.

01/01/2023
Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2015-12-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will reduce the rate of VAT on tourism.

Mr David Gauke

The Government currently has no plans to alter the rates of VAT relating to the tourist industry.

I refer the Rt Hon gentleman to my comments during the Westminster Hall debate on 17th March 2015.

01/01/2023

Angela Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Smith on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Advice Note: 05/2015, paragraph 9 of the Harm-Benefit Analysis Process, how many project licences applications under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 were recommended by the Animals and Science Regulation Unit in each year since 2012.

Mr John Hayes

The Harm-Benefit Analysis (HBA) is undertaken, on behalf of the Secretary of State, by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors, all of whom are veterinary or medically qualified and trained in assessing research proposals. The HBA is the process of considering a research proposal to make a judgement whether the likely harms that the animals will experience are justified by the likely benefits. Under section 18 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, inspectors advise the Secretary of State who decides whether and on what terms a project licence should be granted.

The number of project licences which were recommended for grant by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors between 2012 and 2015 are shown in table 1, column (c).

The Secretary of State has not rejected any of the recommendations for granting project licences made by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors between 2012 and 2015.

The Home Office does not keep records of applications that have been rejected or withdrawn at the concept or drafting stage [24507]. The Home Office does not keep records of which applications were withdrawn as a result of advice from the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors.

The Home Office refers project licence applications to both the Animals in Science Committee and external independent assessors for critical review. The number of project licences referred to both is given in Table 1 columns (a) and (b) respectively for the years 2012-15.

Year	(a) Project licence applications referred to the Animals in Science Committee[1]	(b) Project licence applications referred to independent assessors	(c) Project licences granted
2012	9	4	626
2013	3	0	604
2014	4	1	474
2015	3	0	577

[1] Prior to 2013 the independent advisory body was entitled the ‘Animals Procedures Committee’

01/01/2023

Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effects of proposed changes to the way in which drugs are assessed for inclusion in the Cancer Drugs Fund on cancer drug patients.

George Freeman

NHS England has advised that it envisages, under the new arrangements for the Cancer Drugs Fund, that a greater number of cancer drugs will be funded from baseline commissioning. This will be as a consequence of more appropriate pricing arrangements proposed by pharmaceutical manufacturers and better evidence being available through the Fund as to longer term patient outcomes.

01/01/2023
Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on whether each local authority area should have at least one school with sixth form provision.

Nick Boles

There are a range of institutions which provide high quality 16-19 provision, including Sixth Form Colleges and Further Education Colleges as well as school sixth forms.

The Department for Education does not prescribe the exact balance of providers across a local area. Instead, it is crucial that we ensure that together the local provider base meets the needs of all young people in a local area with reasonable travel to learn distances. We are currently taking forward a series of area reviews which provide the opportunity to review post-16 provision with the aim of ensuring the provider base is strong and resilient.

The decision about which schools should have sixth forms rests with schools themselves in partnership with key local stakeholders, including Regional Schools Commissioners and local authorities. A maintained school can apply to its local authority if it wishes to extend the age range of its school to add a sixth-form. We would expect this decision to take account of a range of factors including breadth of provision and local demand.

01/01/2023
Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31117, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department’s policies of the 2016 paper by Mesher and others, Reductions in HPV 16/18 in a population with high coverage of bivalent HPV vaccination in England: an ongoing cross-sectional study; and whether such findings have been taken into account when assessing the differential impact of the bivalent and quadrivalent HPV vaccines on genital wart incidence.

Jane Ellison

The findings of Kavanagh and others, 2014, and of Mesher and others, 2016, are consistent with the reductions in human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18 that were expected in the assessments that informed the Department’s policies. Neither of these papers report findings about genital warts incidence, both report no decrease in HPV types 6 and 11; this is also consistent with expectations in assessments that informed the Department’s policies.

The answer of 23 March 2016 stated, ‘data reported to Public Health England (PHE) from genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics shows a reduction in rates of genital warts diagnoses at GUM clinics between 2009 and 2014.’ This analysis has been updated with data for 2013 and 2014. The reductions reported were in patients aged 15 years and older. As the introduction of the quadrivalent vaccine was in 2012, to 12 year olds, no impact on genital warts in 15+ year olds within this time period was expected due to this introduction. Use of the quadrivalent vaccine within this age group prior to its introduction in the national immunisation programme was assessed as a possible but highly unlikely cause of the reductions seen.

The latest data from PHE showing reductions in genital warts diagnoses in GUM clinics amongst ages offered the bivalent vaccine are data for 2014: the future duration of any protection from genital warts associated with the bivalent vaccine has not been (and cannot be) inferred.

01/01/2023
Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-05-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will call on the government of Israel to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on torture to visit places of arrest and holding of suspects in the West Bank, together with prisons and detention centres in Israel.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We have no plans to call on the Israeli authorities to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on torture to visit Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

01/01/2023