The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many officials within the Department for Transport are currently working on the HS2 project.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The High Speed Rail headcount for permanent full time equivalents (FTEs) in post as of the end of November 2015 in the Department is 129.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-02-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the report by NHS England Improving Value for Patients from Specialised Care: Commissioning Intentions 2016/2017 for Prescribed Specialist Services, what progress has been made to establish collaborative commissioning arrangements for hepatitis C services and how many Clinical Commissioning Groups have come forward with proposals for the collaborative commissioning of hepatitis C services.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The report by NHS England Improving Value for Patients from Specialised Care: Commissioning Intentions 2016/17 set out the probable areas for specialised services work planned for 2016/17. Hepatitis C is one pathway which was identified as providing an opportunity for collaborative commissioning.
Operational Delivery Networks now provide a local focus for discussions between providers and commissioners on the hepatitis C pathways. Local specialised commissioning teams will work with other local stakeholders where opportunities for a collaborative approach are agreed as a local priority.
No formal requests for proposals have been requested, nor have any proposals yet been received.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-04-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there is a specific allocation within Local Growth Deal funding for Local Enterprise Partnerships for spending on transport.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Department for Transport is contributing over £7 billion of the £12 billion Local Growth Fund. This includes £475m reserved for major transport schemes too large for regular Growth Deal allocations. We expect that transport schemes will continue to feature strongly in Local Enterprise Partnerships’ proposals for further funding, though LEPs have flexibility in what they bring forward and how they use the funding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-06-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many electric vehicles they estimate will be using British roads by 2030.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
There are currently over sixty thousand ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) on the road in the UK. The Government has the goal that by 2040 all new cars and vans will be zero emission vehicles. The uptake trajectory between now and then will depend on a range of factors including technological developments, consumer attitudes, international regulations and Government incentives, but by 2030 we would expect ULEVs to be firmly into the mass market. The Government will be spending more than £600 million by 2020 to support uptake and manufacturing of ULEVs in the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-10-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the National Infrastructure Commission will examine the economic impact of (1) the deployment of Operation Stack in 2015, and (2) their plans for a lorry area to address problems caused by Operation Stack.
Lord Young of Cookham
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) will examine strategic transport infrastructure when it conducts its first National Infrastructure Assessment.
The Chancellor, together with the NIC, has launched a call for ideas to give stakeholders an opportunity to contribute their ideas for issues which could form the subject of future NIC studies. This process will help us ensure the NIC is focused on the country’s most critical infrastructure challenges.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2015-10-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have given any detailed consideration to requiring train operators to offer more flexible season tickets in order to protect the needs of those who work part-time or flexible hours.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We are committed to introducing part-time season tickets and the industry is making progress on delivery of more flexible tickets. Two major commuter franchises – GTR and c2c – have obligations to start offering carnet-based season tickets on smartcards. Smartcard technology will make flexible ticketing possible and provides the necessary security and revenue protection to make it attractive to both passengers and operators. Many thousands of part-time workers will benefit from these new products when they are introduced.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many officials within the Department for Transport they expect to be working on the HS2 project in 2016–17, 2017–18, and 2018–19.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The High Speed Rail headcount for permanent staff for years 2016/17 – 2018/19 will be determined by future business planning rounds and set within the Spending Review 2015 overall resource funding envelope for the Department for Transport as announced by the Chancellor on 25 November 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-02-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether funding will be provided to NHS Trusts as part of the Operational Delivery Network model to fund hepatitis C treatment services through either (1) a block contract, or (2) a tariff.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) provide expert specialist oversight of prescribing decisions on hepatitis C. Funding has been provided via Commissioning and Quality Innovation Payment (CQUIN) and it is NHS England’s intention to continue with CQUIN funding in 2016/17 and 2017/18.
When a patient attends NHS services for treatment of hepatitis C, their attendance is included in the national tariff.
Depending on the specific nature of their healthcare need, their care may be paid for by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) or by NHS England’s specialised services hubs according to coding and whether the care they receive is defined as a prescribed specialised service.
Some patients may have aspects of their hepatitis C treatment provided by other services (such as drugs and alcohol services) which are not funded by the NHS.
NHS England is the responsible commissioner for hepatitis C drugs. These are high cost drugs and so are excluded from the national tariff.
NHS England’s plan for future hepatitis C funding is being finalised at the moment. As NHS England are working with ODN clinical leads to plan to ensure that patients with unmet clinical need are treated via hepatitis C ODNs in a planned way over the coming years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-04-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to act on the concerns raised by the National Audit Office in its 23 March report regarding the lack of transparency in spending by Local Enterprise Partnerships in order to ensure taxpayers get value for money.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government welcomes the findings in the report and the helpful scrutiny of our approach. Section 151 officers from the accountable local authorities for each of the 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships have already written to the Department for Communities and Local Government confirming that their assurance frameworks adhere to our national standards, including on transparency. Government will continue to work with Local Enterprise Partnerships to ensure this system remains robust.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-06-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to introduce measures for airspace modernisation.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK’s airspace modernisation plan is set out in the Future Airspace Strategy which was agreed in 2011. This long-term strategy is now being implemented by the aviation industry and overseen by the Future Airspace Strategy Deployment Steering Group which is jointly chaired by the Civil Aviation Authority and NATS.