The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to publish statistics on national food bank usage.
Justin Tomlinson
The Government has no plans to collect or publish statistics on food bank usage.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carolyn Harris on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the costs to the NHS of the treatment of people with addiction to fixed odds betting terminals.
Alistair Burt
No such estimate has been made.
We have no current plans to make such an assessment. We know that gambling addiction can potentially have a harmful impact on both a person’s physical and mental wellbeing and problem gamblers can access services in primary care and secondary care including specialised mental health and addiction services.
The Prime Minister recently announced £1 billion to start a revolution in mental health, including £247 million to make sure that every emergency department has mental health support (following £30 million invested in 2015/16).
Also, over £400 million for crisis resolution home treatment teams will help to improve the management of admissions to acute psychiatric inpatient care, as well as ensure the routine availability of 24/7 intensive home treatment support as a safe and effective alternative to hospitals.
Commissioners must continue to increase investment in mental health services each year at a level which at least matches their overall allocation increase.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of schools employ a mental health specialist as a permanent member of staff.
Mr Sam Gyimah
This is a matter for schools to decide. We have recently commissioned an extensive survey which will provide nationally representative estimates of what provision schools and colleges offer for mental health and character education. The fieldwork will begin in the summer term.
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.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many enlisted soldiers gained A-levels while serving in the armed forces in each of the last five years; and in which subjects those A-levels were obtained.
Mark Lancaster
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 April to Question 33691. Like GCSEs, individual soldiers are free to pursue A-levels as part of their elective personal development with the support of learning credits schemes, but the details of such A-level qualifications are not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to make available to people without online access guidance on comparisons of energy prices among different energy providers.
Andrea Leadsom
Consumers without access to the internet can shop around to find a better deal for their energy by using a price comparison company, which is accredited to the Confidence Code operated by Ofgem and provides a free telephone price comparison service. In addition Citizen Advice offers advice and support on energy switching.
The following companies offer such a service:
Energyhelpline 0800 074 0745
Moneysupermarket 0800 177 7087
SimplySwitch 0800 011 1395
UK Power.co.uk 0800 188 4906
uSwitch 0800 051 5493
Energylinx 0800 849 7077
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-07-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made to bring forward regulations to introduce electrical safety checks, as set out in the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is committed to protecting tenants and, as part of this, introduced the enabling power into the Housing and Planning Act 2016, allowing regulations to protect private sector tenants from electrical hazards in the home to be set at a later date.
This is a highly technical area and we need to explore appropriate options with relevant experts in the sector to test the most effective approach. My Department intends to set up a working group to identify what, if any, legislative requirements are needed and envisage this work being completed this year. This will ensure any introductions are beneficial and strike the right balance by protecting tenants while not over burdening the sector.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps NHS England is taking to encourage local communities to input into individual sustainability and transformation plans; and if he will publish contact details for lead officers co-ordinating proposals on the way maternity services are delivered in each NHS area.
David Mowat
NHS England, with other national health and care bodies, released guidance to the local areas developing Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP) entitled ‘Engaging local people’ in September 2016 which can be found on their website. Local proposals for health and care transformation are not expected to have gone through formal local National Health Service or other organisations’ board approval and/or formal public engagement or consultation at this early stage. We expect that areas will publish a version of their Sustainability and Transformation Plans between late October and the end of the year. We would also expect that most areas will undertake public engagement during this period, building on the engagement they have already done to shape thinking. Every area will be working to a different timeframe, based on its own circumstances and how well-progressed its plan is.
As with the current arrangements for planning and delivery, there are layers of plans which can sit below STPs, with shared links and dependencies. STPs act as an umbrella, holding underneath them a number of different specific plans to address key local issues. Clinical commissioning groups remain accountable for securing high-quality healthcare services for their local populations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the difference between the public finance forecasts for 2015–16 and the actual financial figures available to date, and what assessment have they made of the reasons for the difference.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) jointly with HM Treasury publish the public sector finances statistical bulletin on a monthly basis, which provides the latest available estimates for key aspects of Public Sector Finances.
The latest release was published on 22 December covering the November 2015 public sector finances.[1]
Borrowing for the 8 months to November is £6.6 bn less than the same period last year against an Autumn Statement forecast of a £15.7bn full year fall. It’s clear that there is no shortcut to fixing the public finances. That’s why the Chancellor used the Autumn Statement and Spending Review to set out our plan to finish the job and build a resilient economy.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) are responsible for producing the forecasts of the public finances. They have published a detailed commentary on 22 December, which assesses the latest estimates included in the bulletin against their latest forecast[2].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-sector-finances-bulletin
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-01-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice they received from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute during the set-up phase of Genomics England regarding the appropriateness in cases of cancer of using comparisons of tumour to normal whole genome sequencing at moderate sequence coverage, as opposed to focused actionable gene panel testing at deep sequence coverage; and what current technology is used by Genomics England.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The set up phase of the 100,00 Genomes Project was based on advice from Expert Working Groups which included experts from across the United Kingdom, including the Sanger Centre. The Working Group concluded that a more fundamental understanding of cancer would be delivered by whole genome sequencing compared to gene panels. This approach is part of the wider aim of the 100,000 Genomes Project to transform the National Health Service diagnostic pathway for patients and to build a dataset which will enable new scientific research. Adopting whole genome sequencing has already catalysed a fall in the costs which was also anticipated by the Expert Working Group.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of offences under sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 related to abortions in each year since 2009-10.
Mike Penning
Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (only applies in England and Wales) makes it an offence to intentionally procure a miscarriage, including for a woman to procure her own miscarriage.
The Abortion Act 1967 creates exceptions to the offences of procuring a miscarriage. The Act makes an abortion legal where the pregnancy is terminated by a registered medical practitioner and where two registered medical practitioners agree that the grounds specified in the Act are satisfied.
The number of offenders found guilty at all courts for offences relating to sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861, in England & Wales, from 2009 to 2014 (the latest data available) can be viewed in the attached table.