Tag: 2016

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what estimate he has made of the cost of (a) fraud and (b) financial error in his Department in each of the last five years.

    David Mundell

    The Scotland Office keeps the risk of fraud and financial error under constant review and is subject to audit by the National Audit Office. There have been no confirmed cases of fraud or known financial errors in the Scotland Office in each of the last five years.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment has been undertaken of the effect on the earnings of people employed under the Experts by Experience programme of implementing the new Care Quality Commission contracts on 1 February 2016.

    Ben Gummer

    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and adult social care in England. It is responsible for its own staffing requirements and decisions on contracts around the supplying of Experts by Experience for its inspections of providers. The CQC is not the employer of Experts by Experience and does not set rates of pay. The Experts by Experience service has been an outsourced service since its inception.

    The CQC has advised that contracts were awarded on the basis of a formal procurement that focused on quality and value for money. Whilst negotiating the new Experts by Experience contracts, the CQC worked closely with suppliers to ensure that there was minimum impact on the individual earnings of existing Experts by Experience as well as on the rates for newly appointed Experts by Experience.

    The CQC is aware of concerns amongst some Experts by Experience in relation to moving between organisations, including rates of pay, in order to continue participating in the work. However, the CQC’s decision to award these new contracts focussed on expanding the numbers of Experts by Experience involved in the CQC’s inspections, ensuring that the high quality contribution Experts by Experience have provided to date is maintained and delivering value for money.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bridget Phillipson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many responses to freedom of information requests have been reviewed by her Department’s special advisers before being issued to the individual or organisation requesting information in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

    Nick Gibb

    Special advisers do not routinely review responses to all FOI requests, nor have figures in relation to this been routinely collected. The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-06-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 June (HL645), why no information is available of the number of patients who have died to date, particularly for those patients who consented prior to that answer.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Genomics England participants have consented to the collection of long term health data via the Health and Social Care Information Centre. This includes data on death but these data are collected and checked in accordance with standard procedures which means that there is a delay in linking to the whole genome sequencing data.

  • Lord Mawson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Mawson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2016-09-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an assessment of the upkeep and tidiness of the rail network in Japan; and if so, what lessons they have learnt that could be adopted within the UK.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Her Majesty’s Government has not made any such assessment.

  • James Berry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    James Berry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Berry on 2016-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what arrangements his Department has in place to ensure that organisations are not able to provide both training for and assessment of the standards for the same apprenticeship; and if he will make a statement.

    Nick Boles

    The Department is fully committed to the principle that end point assessment should either be delivered by an independent third party, or in such a way that no party involved in the management or training of an apprentice can make the sole decision on competence and passing the end-point assessment.

    We are working to ensure the Register of Assessment Organisations and Register of Training Providers, which govern who can conduct training and assessment, support this principle.

  • Nick Clegg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nick Clegg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Clegg on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary school budgets have been spent on tackling mental health problems in each of the last five years; and if the Government will take steps to protect such spending in future.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The most recent prevalence survey estimated that 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and more have lower level problems. This is why the Government has made good mental health, character and resilience a high priority. The Department of Health is commissioning a new prevalence survey to update this estimate for a wider range of ages, from 2-19. It is due to report in 2018. We do not routinely collect data that allows us to measure the amount schools spend specifically on addressing mental health issues.

    We are committed to better understanding what schools are doing on this matter, which is why my department is commissioning an extensive survey. This survey will provide a robust national picture of mental health support provided by schools and colleges.

    It is for head teachers to determine how they spend their individual school budgets to best meet the needs of all their pupils. In the Spending Review we announced that the core schools budget will be protected in real terms through this Parliament. We are also protecting the Pupil Premium, which many schools use to fund mental health provision, at current pupil rates. Within these protections, we announced in December 2015 that an additional £92.5 million will specifically be provided in the high needs element of the Dedicated School Grant (DSG) next year.

    We have also made £1.4 billion available over the next five years to transform local children and young people’s mental health services to deliver more integrated and accessible services. Clinical Commissioning Groups have been required to work with others services locally, including schools, to produce plans that set out how they will transform children and young people’s mental health services locally to make them more accessible and increase the focus on prevention.

    We are also contributing to a £3 million joint pilot with NHS England for training single points of contact in schools and specialist mental health services, to ensure that children and young people have timely access to specialist support where needed. There are 22 pilot areas covering more than 200 schools across 27 CCGs.

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations his Department has received on the incidence of refusals by taxi drivers to carry assistance dogs; and if he will introduce compulsory disability awareness training for drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles.

    Andrew Jones

    I am aware of the ongoing problems passengers accompanied by assistance dogs encounter when using taxis and private hire vehicles.

    The Department has issued comprehensive guidance to both licensing authorities and the licensed industry in respect of the relevant duties in the Equality Act 2010. Any allegations of breaches of the Act must be reported to the local licensing authority to enable them to take appropriate action.

    Although there is no legal requirement for taxi and private hire vehicle drivers to undertake disability awareness training, the Department’s Best Practice Guidance on taxi and private hire vehicle licensing recommends that local licensing authorities to work with the industry in their area to improve drivers’ awareness of the needs of disabled people. This includes encouraging their drivers to undertake disability awareness training.

  • Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to make oral contraceptive pills available without a doctor’s prescription.

    George Freeman

    The Government has no plans to make oral contraceptive pills available without a prescription.

    Any applications to reclassify specific products from prescription only to non-prescription supply would be considered in accordance with its usual procedures by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

  • Richard Benyon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Richard Benyon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Benyon on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what data her Department holds on the number of (a) seals, (b) cetaceans and (c) other marine species killed by tidal energy installations.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The monitoring of the impacts of tidal energy installations is a requirement of marine licences issued by the relevant body for such infrastructure.