The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce delays in payment of tax credits and other benefits as a result of administrative errors; and if he will make a statement.
Priti Patel
Tax Credits are the responsibility of HMRC.
The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to ensuring payments are made in a timely manner and benefit payment times are improving year on year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 23 July 2015 (HL1549) and 12 February (HL5902), why there has been a delay in publication of proposals to repeal section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which, according to Written Answer HL1549, was due by the end of 2015.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government is still considering its response to the balance of payments consultation which asked a number of questions on a range of topics. We will publish a response in the coming months.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether she plans to take forward talks on reaching an intergovernmental agreement with Ireland on expanding electricity interconnection capacity in response to the conclusions of the National Infrastructure Commission’s report on Smart Power, published in March 2016.
Andrea Leadsom
The Government is ambitious for the market to deliver an increase in electricity interconnection capacity where projects demonstrate value for money and provide benefits to consumers. We are primarily focused on facilitating developer-led delivery. Already one interconnection project to Ireland, Greenlink, has been approved by Ofgem in the first round of cap and floor applications. More projects, including to Ireland, can apply to Ofgem’s second cap and floor application window which opens this month.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department has issued to councils on the payment of homecare workers for their travel time.
Alistair Burt
It is for providers to ensure that they are complying with legislation and paying workers for the time they are legally entitled to be paid for.
The Care Act 2014 is clear that local authorities should ensure that care workers are paid at least minimum wage, and are paid for travel time between appointments.
We are working with local authorities and the care sector to improve social care commissioning, including supporting the sector to commission in a way that promotes quality, including meeting legal requirements on staff pay in relation to travel time.
There is clear Government Guidance on the issue of payment for work related travel time. It can be found in full on this website:
http://www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-different-types-work/overview
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-05-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people with epilepsy there are in Plymouth.
Jane Ellison
There are no national measures or means by which the Department monitors frequency of patients reviews, either by consultants or nurses. Guidance is issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence however this does not replace the skills and knowledge of health professionals in managing patients. The arrangements for the management and follow up of people with epilepsy are a local matter and decisions on the frequency with which patients are seen should be made on a case by case basis, taking into account the individual circumstances of each patient.
NHS England advises that the maximum wait for outpatients to receive a neurology appointment is 12 weeks currently. Additionally 92% of patients are being seen under the specified ‘Referral To Treatment’ waiting times of 18 weeks which is within the national target.
The information on the number of people with epilepsy in Plymouth is not available in the format requested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Listowel on 2016-07-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the value of Discretionary Housing Payments made to care leavers up to the age of 25 in each local authority area in England in 2015–16.
Lord Freud
The information requested is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects NICE to publish guidance on the use of bisphosphonates for the indication of preventing secondary breast cancer.
Nicola Blackwood
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline on early and locally advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and management (CG80) recommends the use of adjuvant bisphosphonates for the management of breast cancer treatment-induced bone loss in specified clinical circumstances. This guideline is currently being updated and the use of adjuvant bisphosphonates has been identified as one of the key areas that will be covered in this update. NICE expects to publish its updated guideline in July 2018.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the School Direct programme is ensuring a sufficient supply of teachers for schools in England.
Lord Nash
Teaching continues to represent an attractive choice for top graduates and career changers – last year we recruited over 1,000 more secondary teachers than the previous year, and we exceeded our target for new primary teachers.
Our best schools have a crucial role to play in training the next generation of outstanding teachers. That is why we introduced the School Direct training programme, which gives schools the opportunity to recruit and select their own trainee teachers, and to play a central part in both the design and delivery of teacher training. School Direct is only one of a range of routes through which new teachers can choose to train.
We initially piloted the School Direct programme with a cohort of 351 trainees in the academic year 2012/13; thanks to its popularity with schools the scheme rapidly expanded to deliver 6,676 training places the following year. This has continued to rise each year, and provisional data show that 10,252 trainees have commenced School Direct programmes in the current academic year. This represents 39 per cent of all postgraduate teacher training places in the current year, and makes a significant contribution to the 51 per cent of all postgraduate training places that are now school-led.
We recognise that recruitment to teacher training is becoming increasingly challenging as the economy improves and the graduate labour market strengthens. That is why we are giving schools greater direct involvement in selecting and training the high-quality teachers they need.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-02-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment has been made of the coalition document The Compact, and whether there are any plans to review or revise this.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Compact continues to be an important guide for effective engagement and collaboration between public bodies and voluntary, charitable and social enterprise sector organisations. An announcement on the next steps will be made in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of officials of her Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in each of the last five years; and what proportion of total sick leave that leave was in each such year.
George Eustice
The table below provides details of the number and proportion of officials that took sick leave relating to Mental Health Disorders in the core-Department as at 31st December in each of the last five years.
|
Number of Staff |
Proportion of All Core Defra Staff |
|
|
31-Dec-11 |
69 |
2.9% |
|
31-Dec-12 |
70 |
3.3% |
|
31-Dec-13 |
76 |
3.5% |
|
31-Dec-14 |
52 |
2.5% |
|
31-Dec-15 |
70 |
3.6% |
We are unable to disaggregate stress from the category mental disorders. This category includes personality and behavioural disorders and lists 24 descriptors of which stress is one.