Tag: 2016

  • Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to announce her decision on the Scottish Government’s consultation on the five remaining cross-border or offshore marine special protection areas.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    I wrote to the Scottish Government on 2 September giving agreement to public consultation starting on four proposed marine Special Protection Areas that are partly in offshore waters. I also informed the Scottish Government that Defra was not yet in a position to start consultation on the English part of the proposed Solway Firth Special Protection Area, but that we would keep them updated on our position.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Rachel Reeves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachel Reeves on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the Education Funding Agency budget has been allocated to fund the removal of asbestos from schools in (a) 2016, (b) 2017, (b) 2018, (d) 2019 and (e) 2020.

    Nick Gibb

    The Education Funding Agency (EFA) does not hold a breakdown of funding information, in the format requested, in relation to the removal of asbestos or renovation of school buildings.

    Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, the primary responsibility for managing asbestos lies with the person or persons responsible for the maintenance or repair of a building. For schools, this will be the local authority, school governors or academy trust.

    The table below summarises the capital budgets from 2011-12 to 2016-17 that were provided for school maintenance, refurbishment and rebuilding, including where appropriate the removal and/or safe containment of asbestos-containing materials. As these works are covered by the capital funding programmes listed below, the Department does not allocate a separate budget for this purpose; and there are no plans to do so in future years.

    The Department does not hold directly comparable allocation or expenditure data on prior years.

    (All values £m)

    2011-12 Budget

    2012-13 Budget

    2013-14 Budget

    2014-15 Budget

    2015-16 Budget

    2016-17 Budget

    School Condition Allocations (funding provided to local authorities and voluntary-aided schools)

    1,054

    861

    749

    699

    690

    661

    Devolved Formula Capital (funding provided direct to schools)

    185

    162

    149

    138

    134

    130

    Funding for academies, multi-academy trusts, state-funded special schools and other specialist providers for state-funded pupils (including DFC).

    161

    376

    504

    562

    576

    617

    Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP) (delivered by central government)

    0

    0

    90

    603

    999

    1,050

    Total

    1,400

    1,399

    1,492

    2,002

    2,399

    2,458
  • Baroness Sharp of Guildford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Baroness Sharp of Guildford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Sharp of Guildford on 2016-01-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the overall level of public funding for apprenticeships in (1) England, and (2) the construction sector, for apprentices aged (a) 16 to 18, (b) 19 to 24, and (c) 24 and over, for the latest year for which information is available.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Funding responsibility for the Apprenticeship Programme is shared between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which funds adult apprenticeships and the Department for Education which funds 16-18 year olds. This is a demand-led budget and not allocated to any particular sector. Employers and providers are relied upon to work together to offer sufficient opportunities to meet local demand.

    For the 2015/16 financial year, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will provide £770million to fund apprenticeships for those aged 19+ and the Department for Education will provide £797.5million to fund apprenticeships for those aged 16-18.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises in (a) West Sussex and (b) Mid Sussex that will have access to superfast broadband by completion of phase two of the superfast broadband programme.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    By the end of phase two of the Superfast Broadband Programme approximately 95% of homes and businesses in West Sussex will have access to superfast broadband. For the Mid Sussex constituency over 96% of premises will have access to superfast broadband by the end of the project.

  • Lord Harrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Harrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-03-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what work NHS England and Monitor are undertaking to develop new payment and incentives mechanisms that drive integrated care for diabetes across primary and secondary care settings; and what is the time frame for any new proposals to be published.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England and Monitor are working closely together to ensure that the payment system supports service developments in the vanguard sites (including those where integrated diabetes care is a focus) as well as monitoring local innovative approaches to supporting integrated care taken by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This is to ensure that the payment system keeps abreast with the development of future service models and is not a barrier to the development of new models of care.

    During 2016/17, NHS England will look at the current incentives and funding arrangements for diabetes to see how greater alignment could be achieved between the financial incentives for primary and secondary care.

    Information on how much money the National Health Service invested in structured education for diabetes patients is not collected centrally.

    Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England has a statutory duty to conduct an annual assessment of every CCG. Since April 2013, CCGs have been assessed twice, for the period 2013/14 and for 2014/15.

    For 2016/17, NHS England will introduce a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This new framework will align with NHS England’s mandate and planning process, with the aim of driving improvements in a number of key areas including the management and care of people with diabetes.

    NHS England has been working with Diabetes UK on including diabetes indicators in the CCG IAF. The proposed diabetes indicators are:

    – the percentage of diabetes patients that have achieved all three of the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets; and

    – newly diagnosed diabetes patients referred to, or attending, a structured education course.

    Under the proposals, diabetes will also be one of the six clinical priority areas in the CCG IAF that will be overseen by an independent group.

    The CCG IAF proposals are subject to the outcome of an engagement process which closed for comments on February 26 2016. More information can be found at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-improvmnt/

    “

  • James Cartlidge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    James Cartlidge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cartlidge on 2016-04-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of new buy-to-let mortgage loans over the next five years which will be advanced on an (a) capital repayment and (b) interest-only basis.

    Harriett Baldwin

    HM Treasury has not made any estimates of the proportion of new buy-to-let mortgage loans over the next five years which will be advanced on a (a) capital repayment and (b) interest-only basis.

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

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the border policy is for the Sovereign Base Areas.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Those entering the Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) including the two crossing points from north Cyprus are subject to immigration checks conducted by SBA Customs and Immigration personnel to confirm their identity, nationality and permissibility to enter the SBA. These border crossings are recognised points of entry into the EU. This process is consistent with the current procedures used in the Republic of Cyprus. No border control exists between the SBA and the Republic of Cyprus.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment his Department has made of the barriers that prevent women from attending cervical screening.

    Jane Ellison

    There is a range of work going on to understand the reasons for the decline in cervical screening uptake amongst women aged 25 to 29 and to try to address them. They include:

    a) Data and information – access to data, cleansing, benchmarking for providers, timely and useful information for commissioners;

    b) Behavioural insight – communication with commissioners, providers, patients and public;

    c) Commissioning levers – commissioning contracts in public health (S7a) and primary care;

    d) Partnership work – relationships with commissioners and providers; and

    e) Sharing best practice – what works well, evaluation and how to embed quality improvement

    Public Health England (PHE) is working with colleagues in NHS England and Health and Social Care Information Centre to implement the Accessible Information Standard which is intended to improve access to services for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Through the re-development of cervical Information Technology systems opportunities will arise to review how to help improve uptake.

    PHE supports providers to help meet the Accessible Information Standard through the provision of high quality information for people with learning disabilities or sensory loss. A national group of experts and service users has been set up to oversee this work and will be updating the existing easy read leaflets and developing new materials over the next 18 months.

    PHE is aware that there are a range of factors which may act as barriers in hindering women from attending cervical screening. It is hoped that through the STRATEGIC (Strategies to Increase Cervical screening uptake at first invitation) interventions will be identified to help minimise barriers and assist women to attend screening whilst increasing uptake across all quintiles. The STRATEGIC trial was completed in 2015 and researchers are expected to publish findings later this year.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many full-time equivalent staff his Department employs in the evidence gathering process of investigating acts of alleged genocide by Daesh in Iraq and Syria; and with which countries and international bodies such staff are liaising on that process.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff are not directly employed in the evidence gathering process. We support the activities of a range of actors, including non-governmental organisations, to gather and preserve evidence of alleged war crimes in Iraq and Syria. On 21 July, the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) announced that the UK will work with our international partners to drive a global campaign to bring Daesh to justice.

  • Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her oral contribution of 18 October 2016, Official Report, 301WH, whether she plans for the UK’s participation in Natura 2000 to continue; and if she will make a statement.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    The Government is currently considering the impacts of leaving the EU, including future arrangements for existing legislation. This will include future arrangements for the Natura 2000 suite of sites.