Tag: 2016

  • Patricia Gibson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Patricia Gibson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patricia Gibson on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his plans are for the £3.5 million funding announced for tackling nuisance calls in paragraph 2.289 of the March 2015 Budget, HC 1093 of Session 2014-15; how much of this funding has been allocated to which local authorities; what information his Department holds on the number of call blockers that this funding has paid for the installation of in domestic properties; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect of that funding in the volumes of nuisance calls received and reports of such calls made.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Government is taking forward a range of measures to tackle the problem of nuisance calls, including strengthening the regulators’ ability to take enforcement action against organisations that break the law and increasing consumer choice by consulting on making it a requirement for direct marketing callers to display their calling line identification. As part of the £3.5m package announced in budget, Government launched a competition for innovative solutions to tackle the scourge of nuisance calls – and contracts have been awarded to successful applicants, to help develop their products to launch on the open market and benefit customers right across the country. In addition, £0.5 million funding is going to the National Trading Standards Scams Team – via East Sussex County Council – to provide call blocking devices to vulnerable people nationwide and report its effects.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to limit the effect that engineering works on rail lines have on travel over long bank holidays.

    Claire Perry

    An independent review of how the rail industry plans and schedules major improvement work was carried out last year. The review concluded that Christmas, Easter and bank holidays were the best times to carry out upgrades requiring major line closures, particularly in and around London where the network is busiest and access for engineers is most difficult.

    Network Rail always looks to minimise the overall impact of these vital projects on passengers. As such, Network Rail and train operators are conscious that many people want to use the railway over holiday periods to reunite with their friends and families, so where possible they try to ensure the vast majority of services are kept running, as well as delivering passenger improvements on time. Network Rail will ensure around 96% of the network will be available during the next May bank holiday.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made in rolling out Project Griffin to security managers in the private sector and what budget has been provided to the National Counter Terrorism Security Office to promote Project Griffin.

    Mr John Hayes

    Project Griffin is the national counter-terrorism awareness initiative for business produced by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) to protect our cities and communities from the threat of terrorism. Since 2004, Project Griffin has held briefing events to increase public and staff awareness of how best to reduce and respond to the most likely types of terrorist activities.

    In 2015-16 these events were delivered to around 100,000 individuals. On 20 April, NaCTSO launched a new Griffin initiative to offer organisations the opportunity to self-deliver this training, and further increase awareness.

    The National Counter Terrorism Security Office is funded from the Counter Terrorism Policing Grant. We do not provide breakdowns of this funding for security reasons. As well as the work of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, Project Griffin is promoted through a variety of other mechanisms including by police Counter Terrorism Security Advisers and Counter Terrorism Awareness Advisers, who are employed in every region to raise awareness with businesses of the terrorist threat, appropriate responses to take, and mitigation measures

  • Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress he has made on bringing forward proposals for a modern public services ombudsman in the last three months.

    John Penrose

    The Government is making good progress and will publish draft legislation in due course.

  • Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her plans are to tackle trends in stress-related illnesses among police officers in Lancashire.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government recognises that policing can be a challenging job and it is the responsibility of chief officers – supported by the College of Policing – to ensure the welfare of all officers and staff. We welcome the work in forces, led nationally by Lancashire’s Deputy Chief Constable – to promote officer health and wellbeing. It is encouraging to see that all forces have signed up to the Workplace Wellbeing Charter.

    As part of a commitment to police welfare in October 2014 the Government allocated £10m to help support emergency services personnel and volunteers, focused on mental health, physical recuperation and bereavement support for those who need it.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking in regard to those Clinical Commissioning Groups which plan to cut the proportion of their budget spent on mental health services for 2016–17.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England has set a clear requirement of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that spending on mental health should increase year-on-year by an amount at least as great as the growth in their baseline allocations. CCGs are required through the NHS Operational Planning and Contracting Guidance 2017-2019 to increase their baseline spend on mental health. A copy of this guidance is attached. From this year, NHS England’s budget and financial reporting will be aligned to specific mental health priorities, increasing transparency and allowing additional resources to be tracked at CCG level.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure former aircraft carrier personnel do not become deskilled before the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers come into active service.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Comprehensive training programmes, including embedding personnel with the US and French Navies, ensure that skills are retained and developed in support of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers coming into service.

  • Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that best practice on diagnosing atrial fibrillation and preventing atrial fibrillation-related stroke is shared between Strategic Clinical Networks.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team, which has taken over the work of NHS Improving Quality, is taking action to promote the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within general practitioner (GP) practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the National Health Service, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. The Sustainable Improvement Team is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

    To support this work, an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF was recently published. A copy of this analysis is attached.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also published a Quality Standard on AF in July 2015, which sets out what a high quality AF service should look like and will help drive improvement locally. A copy of this Quality Standard is attached.

    There is also a wealth of information available on the detection and management of people who have AF. The NHS Atlas of Variation includes such data and similarly Public Health England (working with stakeholders) has produced information for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to enable them to identify and encourage poorly performing areas to improve their detection and management of people with AF. The Atlas is an online tool and therefore it is not possible to attach a copy.

    These resources are available to Strategic Clinical Networks to help them with their work to improve the prevention and diagnosis of AF locally.

    AF related stroke prevention has been a significant area of focus for the East Midlands Cardiovascular Strategic Clinical Network in recent years. Actions include:

    – providing individual advice to CCGs in the area, supporting CCGs to implement AF training for GPs;

    – supporting CCGs to implement GRASP-AF;

    – developing a non-valvular AF anticoagulation algorithm which has informed updates to local AF guidelines;

    – developing an electronic clinical template for the diagnosis and management of AF; and

    – promoting the use of the warfarin patient safety audit tool.

    AF is also covered as in the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network’s masterclass programme aimed at all NHS health professionals within CCGs, local authorities and clinical services with an interest in cardiovascular disease data tools and information.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the proposed public sector exit payments cap on the flexibility of academy chains to restructure their workforce.

    Greg Hands

    Voluntary redundancy and workforce restructuring is not contingent upon access to six-figure exit payments. As such, we do not expect the cap to have a widespread impact on the take-up of voluntary redundancy, and believe the cap will enable public sector employers to retain the tools to effectively make organisational changes to their workforce whilst offering those made redundant generous provisions for loss of employment.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contracts (a) have been agreed and (b) are still to be awarded by Highways England for (i) routine highway services and (ii) specialist goods and services.

    Andrew Jones

    For routine highways services and specialist goods and services, Highways England has awarded several contracts that cover the whole of England. One recently awarded contract was in the Area 7, for the East Midlands and Lincolnshire:

    • Maintenance and Response Contract- this was awarded to Amey Highways Ltd on 14th March 2016 and is now in mobilisation.
    • Design Contract – this was awarded to Kier Highways on 10th March.

    Contracts still to be awarded include:

    • Construction Works Framework – Award is scheduled for early May 2016.

    • Salt Saturators – Award is programmed for 15th April 2016.
    • Salt supply – Highways England intend to use the ESPO framework which is currently being tendered for the supply of salt. ESPO is a public sector owned professional buying organisation and Highways England are scheduled to award a task order for the supply of salt in mid May 2016
    • Structural Inspections – award is scheduled for early June 2016.
    • Technical Surveys and Testing – this is the non-OJEU process and Highways England has published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) in the Official Journal for the European Union detailing how firms are to register. Responses are currently being assessed and then assessed firms will be invited to tender for specific pieces of work.
    • Weather forecasting – this is currently out to tender, with the award date scheduled for mid-June 2016

    The Asset Led Delivery Model that is being adopted in Area 7 will also be rolled out in Areas 1 and 2 covering the South West of England and in Areas 13 covering Cumbria and Lancashire. These contracts will not be awarded until 2017.