Tag: 2016

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will designate NHS Improvement as a public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS Improvement is the operational name for an organisation that brings together Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority. It is a combination of the continuing statutory functions and legal powers vested in these organisations. Both these bodies are public authorities for the purposes of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, and so NHS Improvement will continue to be subject to FOI requirements.

  • Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrea Jenkyns on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of (a) regional development funds and (b) structural funds that the UK is due to receive in each year to 2020 under the current EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework.

    Anna Soubry

    The amounts allocated by year for each operational programme for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) in the UK for the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework is set out in table 1.6 of the United Kingdom’s Partnership Agreement with the European Commission which can be found on GOV.UK at ‘European Structural and Investment Funds: UK Partnership Agreement’. The table is attached. Each annual allocation needs to be spent within three years.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-06-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the study by Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business that gender diversity benefits do not materialise in organisations where internal competition is prevalent.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    We are grateful to Lord Taylor for raising this; officials are considering the findings within the wider evidence base on women in business. We know that supportive workplace cultures are an important factor in progressing female career development.

    Our voluntary initiative Think, Act, Report promotes gender equality at work and has created a vast community of best practice on maximising female talent in the workplace. 300 businesses representing organisations of all sizes and sectors across Britain are signed up to the principles it embodies; collectively they employ over 2.5 million people.

  • Lord Eames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Lord Eames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consultations they have had with the government of the Republic of Ireland on a special arrangement for the land border between the EU and the UK as a result of Brexit.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    There has been a range of engagement with the Irish Government, including a meeting between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach in London on the 26 July and meetings between the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU and Irish Ministers in Dublin on 8 September. We have had a Common Travel Area between the UK and the Republic of Ireland many years before either country was a member of the European Union. There is a strong will in the UK Government, the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to preserve it, and it remains our intention to do so.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how access to pension provision at the age of 55 affects eligibility for benefits.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The rules relating to the treatment of pension funds in means-tested benefits have not changed. How someone’s (or their partner’s) pension fund is treated depends on whether they have reached the qualifying age for Pension Credit, and the way in which they have accessed the fund (released money can be treated as either income or capital). Each case is decided on its own circumstances.

    Information is available in terms of how income and capital are treated in the means-tested benefits. A factsheet on this subject can be found at

    www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-flexibilities-and-dwp-benefits.

    Further information can also be found in the decision-making guidance at www.gov.uk.

    “

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many referrals were made to coroners in England in respect of people who died in a care home or hospital and were subject to Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in 2015.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Ministry of Justice does not have operational responsibility for coroner services, as they are funded and run by local authorities. The level of funding for the Birmingham and Solihull, Black Country and Coventry coroner services is a matter for the relevant local authorities and the Ministry of Justice holds no information on this.

    Statistics for deaths reported to coroners, including deaths in state detention and those subject to Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, are published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coroners-and-burials-statistics.

    We do not have information on the number of deaths in state detention reported to coroners in 2010 as this information has only been gathered centrally since 2012. The statistics for 2015 will be published in due course.

    “

  • 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.