Tag: Andrew Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2016 to Question 20586, for what reasons the draft Hepatitis C Improvement Framework has been withdrawn.

Jane Ellison

The Department continues working with Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England to advance the public health ambitions set out in the initial framework to establish a strategic approach to tackle hepatitis C.

Both PHE and NHS England are fully committed to improving hepatitis C outcomes including the long-term reduction in transmission of the virus in which treatment has a potentially major role to play.

NHS England has been working on plans for access to treatment during 2016/17 and has committed to produce an operational framework for the treatment of hepatitis C during 2016/17. This will set out NHS England’s commitment to improving outcomes in hepatitis C across England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was to decide fee waiver applications in the last 12 months.

James Brokenshire

The average time taken between January 2015 and December 2015 to consider whether an application meets the fee waiver requirements is 95 calendar days. These results represent the time taken with both asylum and non asylum based fee waiver considerations.

January 2015 – December 2015 was taken as the 12 month time frame to fall in line with data that is published.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consultation her Department has undertaken on the draft adults at risk policy for vulnerable people detained under immigration powers.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Stephen Shaw carried out a comprehensive consultation in preparing his report of his review of the welfare of vulnerable people in immigration detention and the adults at risk policy, which will come into force on 12 September 2016, forms part of the Government’s response to Mr Shaw’s review. The Government has seen no reason to duplicate this in developing the adults at risk policy. However, when the draft policy was published on 26 May 2016, the Government wrote to a wide range of relevant non-governmental organisations and offered them the opportunity to discuss it. Subsequently Home Office officials held meetings with a number of interested organisations, and received written representations, and the views of these organisations have been taken into account as the policy has been developed further.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the national consultation on the future of children’s centres will be launched; what its terms of reference will be; and what the timetable is for responses to be received and the Government to announce its proposals.

Mr Sam Gyimah

We value the services provided by children’s centres. We intend to consult to see what role children’s centres should play to ensure they are able to have the most impact as part of integrated local services for families. An independent survey carried out by the national children’s charity, 4Children (published October 2015) estimated more than a million children and families are now using children’s centres.

The consultation will offer parents, carers, local authorities and key stakeholders the opportunity to influence and drive what we expect from children’s centre services and where we see them having the greatest impact. We plan to launch the consultation shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will discuss with his Indonesian counterpart the restriction on non-governmental organisations working in West Papua.

Mr Hugo Swire

We welcome the Indonesian government’s commitment to improving the situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. President Joko Widodo has visited 3 times since his election, most recently spending New Year in Papua. During his visit in May 2015, he granted clemency to a number of prisoners and announced the lifting of travel restrictions for foreign journalists and international organisations. Since then, a number of foreign journalists have successfully visited and reported from Papua and West Papua. Our Ambassador in Jakarta last visited Papua in January. As well as raising these issues, he also discussed ways to ensure the sustainable and equitable development of the provinces with members of the police, and religious and community leaders.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2016 to Question 20586, what discussions his Department has had with NHS England on achieving the aims of the draft Hepatitis C Improvement Framework and the decision to withdraw that draft framework.

Jane Ellison

The Department continues working with Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England to advance the public health ambitions set out in the initial framework to establish a strategic approach to tackle hepatitis C.

Both PHE and NHS England are fully committed to improving hepatitis C outcomes including the long-term reduction in transmission of the virus in which treatment has a potentially major role to play.

NHS England has been working on plans for access to treatment during 2016/17 and has committed to produce an operational framework for the treatment of hepatitis C during 2016/17. This will set out NHS England’s commitment to improving outcomes in hepatitis C across England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was to decide applications for the change of conditions of leave granted on the basis of family or private life during the last 12 months.

James Brokenshire

The average time taken between January 2015 and December 2015 to consider whether an application meets the requirements to change a condition code is 83 calendar days.

January 2015 – December 2015 was taken as the 12 month time frame to fall in line with data that is published.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department plans to measure the effect of the adults at risk policy for vulnerable people detained under immigration powers.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Consideration is being given to arrangements for measuring the impact of the adults at risk policy and other initiatives aimed at improving the safeguarding of vulnerable people in immigration detention. The expectation is that these initiatives will result in a reduction in the number of the most vulnerable who are detained. The Government intends to ask Stephen Shaw to carry out a short review next year in order to assess progress against the key actions from his previous report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to local government funding on the delivery of the National Dementia Strategy.

Jane Ellison

On 21 February 2015, the Prime Minister launched his new Challenge on Dementia 2020, which builds on the achievements of the Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia 2012-2015. It sets out the vision for dementia care, support, awareness and research to be transformed by 2020.

Local authorities as well as clinical commissioning groups are responsible for funding and commissioning services based on their local population’s needs and ensuring that the services they secure provide the best quality for local people.

As part of the Spending Review, the Government announced that councils will be able to introduce a new social care precept. The social care precept gives local authorities that are facing significant pressures the freedom to raise council tax to help mitigate against these pressures. It puts money raising powers into the hands of local areas who best understand the need in their area and who are best placed to respond.

Further, the Spending Review set out the Government’s commitment to fund a Dementia Research Institute.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make an assessment of the effect on poverty reduction in West Papua, Indonesia, of the reported ban on non-governmental organisations working in that area.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID no longer has a bilateral poverty reduction programme in Indonesia. However, as part of UK Government action to mitigate against climate change, we work in partnership with the Indonesian national and provincial governments to help secure community access to forest land in Papua to promote a sustainable green economy, whilst supporting local livelihoods.