The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-01-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the annual cost of the Probate Registry and the yield from fee income.
Lord Faulks
The cost of the Probate Registry in 2014/15 was £42.5m and the yield from fee income (after remission) was £41.5m.
The costs relate to probate for “non-contentious” cases, that is where the Will is not in dispute.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 26134, what the reason is for the difference between the data series given in that Answer in relation to suicides and suicide attempts on the Strategic Road Network and the data given in the Answer of 15 December 2015 to Question 19015 asked by the hon. Member for Huddersfield; and if he will update the figures given in the Answer of 15 December 2015 to include the number of suicides and suicide attempts on the Strategic Road Network in (a) 2015 and (b) 2016 to date.
Andrew Jones
The difference in the data given is due to the ‘Command and Control’ database, used by Highways England to record all incidents on the Strategic Road network, being reconfigured in April 2013 to improve the consistency of the data recorded. This has led to improved accuracy, particularly when logging types of incidents and the method for recording ‘suicides’ or ‘attempted suicides’ was also adapted.
In 2015 there were 790 incidents logged as suicides or attempted suicides.
In 2016 – from 1st January to 21st February – there have been 120 such incidents.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which non-governmental organisations have been involved in developing training materials for the training and accreditation of work coaches.
Priti Patel
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a registered centre for endorsed learning accreditation and has been delivering endorsed learning programmes for a number of years.
The accredited learning for Work Coaches builds on the qualifications developed for the Operational Delivery Profession, in association with City and Guilds and the Chartered Management Association.
DWP currently has a contract with Pearson Education Ltd to accredit the Work Coach learning journeys and to secure standards for those qualifications they certificate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-04-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department measures and demonstrates parity of esteem between mental and physical health in the NHS.
Alistair Burt
The Government accepted the Mental Health Taskforce recommendation to identify the gaps in provision between mental health and physical health and has increased funding for mental health to an estimated £11.7 billion last year and have introduced waiting time standards so people know they will be treated quickly.
This Government continues to hold NHS England to account through the NHS Mandate for the achievement of measurable progress towards the parity of esteem for mental health and clinical commissioning groups are required through the annual planning guidance to increase spending each year on mental health at least in line with the increase in their overall allocation.
In line with practice in physical health, from 1 April 2015, waiting times standards for mental health came into effect for:
– treatment within two weeks for more than 50% of people experiencing a first episode of psychosis; and
– treatment within six weeks for 75% of people referred to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, with 95% of people being treated within 18 weeks.
The National Health Service has already achieved waiting time standards for IAPT and we have made changes to the Mental Health Services Dataset to measure performance against the standard for Early Intervention in Psychosis.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that the benefits of breastfeeding will be included in the upcoming obesity strategy.
Jane Ellison
Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the summer, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-07-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of doctors from other EU countries who have inadequate clinical English language skills.
Lord Prior of Brampton
In June 2014 the General Medical Council (GMC) was given powers to carry out proportionate language controls on all applicants from the European Economic Area (EEA) to ensure that doctors have the necessary English language skills to practise safely in the United Kingdom. In addition the GMC was given powers to take fitness to practise action if a doctor working in the UK has insufficient language skills to carry out their job safely. Doctors must register with the GMC to practise in the UK.
Since June 2014 a total of 1,659 doctors from the EEA have been unable to demonstrate to the GMC that they have sufficient language skills to practise safely in the UK; 564 of those doctors have gone on to reach the standard required by the GMC and have been issued with a licence to practise.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timetable is for negotiations on the bilateral agreement regulating flights between the UK and the People’s Republic of China.
Mr John Hayes
Bilateral UK/China air services negotiations took place in London on 10 and 11 October 2016. An agreement was signed on behalf of the UK by the Minister for Aviation, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon. This agreement significantly increases the traffic rights available to airlines from both countries and enables airlines to operate more services to a wider range of destinations in each country.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department had with manufacturers prior to its decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service.
Anna Soubry
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills did not consult specifically on the decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service as this was a commercially sensitive decision. However, through our ongoing discussions with manufacturers and their representatives, there has been wide recognition that the best way for Government to support manufacturers is by getting the fundamentals of the economy right. We are creating a highly competitive business environment to make the UK an attractive location for manufacturing investment, supporting export success, boosting skills and protecting spending on innovation and the cutting edge smart digital manufacturing technologies which will drive the strong UK productivity growth in the future.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-01-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of any correlation between the non-enforcement of low-level road user penalties and the rate of serious offences.
Lord Bates
No assessment has been made of any correlation between the non-enforcement of low-level road user penalties and the rate of serious offences. It is an operational matter for the police to decide how they enforce road traffic legislation and what action may be appropriate in any particular case.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to review the governance arrangements of pension funds.
Justin Tomlinson
The draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 laid before Parliament on 1 February, include a review provision as required by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which will oblige the Secretary of State to carry out reviews at least every 5 years of all the governance requirements for occupational pension schemes covered in Part V of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 as amended by this instrument. Subject to Parliamentary approval the draft 2016 Regulations will come into force on 6 April 2016. We will consider in due course how this review would work in practice.
On the governance of workplace personal pension schemes, the Financial Conduct Authority propose to carry out a review of the effectiveness of independent governance committees in 2017.