Tag: Barry Sheerman

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to help promote and protect the human rights of the Bedouin community in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK is firmly committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and compliance with international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). We have a regular dialogue with the Government of Israel with regard to the implementation of their obligations under international law, and regularly and robustly raise our serious concerns on issues relating to Israeli actions in the OPTs.

We have supported Bedouin communities and Palestinians in Area C facing demolition or eviction through support to Rabbis for Human Rights and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) legal aid programme. This helps individuals challenge decisions in the Israeli legal system. The NRC has successfully suspended demolitions and evictions so that Palestinians can remain in their homes in 97% of the cases they represent.

The treatment of the Bedouin within Green Line Israel is a separate matter. We have been encouraging the Israeli authorities and Bedouin communities to find a satisfactory solution to this issue, respecting the equality of all of Israel’s citizens in a way which avoids forced relocations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve NHS triage systems.

Mr Philip Dunne

As part of NHS England’s review of urgent and emergency care, the intention is to develop a clinical decision support system to enable patients to be directed to or connected with the right service to meet their needs, rather than being sent or taken to accident and emergency unless absolutely necessary.

Commissioners, clinicians and the wider governance of urgent and emergency care have requested a next generation system that builds on the success of NHS Pathways but recognises the needs of individuals on the basis of the language they use, links to patient records and crisis plans and has the potential to factor in phenotypic data from wearables and remote monitoring devices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of changes to tuition fees on the breadth of course provision offered by universities.

Joseph Johnson

The breadth of a higher education institution’s course offering is a decision for the institution itself, rather than Government, though it will inevitably be constrained by the need to cover the cost of that provision. The cap on student tuition fees has been frozen since 2012, which has meant that the maximum fee providers can charge has fallen in real terms, from £9,000 to £8,500.

The Teaching Excellence Framework will mean that those providers who can demonstrate a suitably high standard of teaching quality will be able to maintain their fees in line with inflation.

This is expected to be worth over £1 billion per year to the sector, ensuring the sector can continue to provide a world leading and diverse higher education system that promotes social mobility and the country’s economic success.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of the total number of Employment Support Fund claimants were claimants with dyslexia in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson

Employment Support Funds are maintained and dispensed by University Student Unions. They are typically used to provide support for the cost of attending an interview for a job or further study. Government is not responsible for this funding and we therefore do not hold the data requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her policy is on the extraction of shale gas in national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Andrea Leadsom

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Bristol West on 16 November 2015 to Question No 15971:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-11-10/15971/.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the extent to which the level of student debt affects the outcome of students’ applications for a mortgage.

Joseph Johnson

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Mortgage Market Review, introduced in April 2014, requires mortgage lenders to assess individuals’ ability to repay their loans. The Council for Mortgage Lenders has advised that individuals who have a student loan and are earning over the relevant repayment threshold may have higher committed expenditures and lower net incomes and this could mean they are unable to borrow as much as an equivalent individual who is not repaying a student loan.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the UN, the EU and authorities in affected countries on (a) the spread of the Zika virus and (b) strategies to prevent the spread of the virus.

Jane Ellison

The Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientific Adviser and Public Health England (PHE) have had a number of discussions over recent weeks with a wider range of international authorities. The Secretary of State has been briefed about all such discussions.

PHE and the National Travel Health Network and Centre have been carefully monitoring the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas since it was first reported in Brazil during May 2015. PHE and the Department attended a European Union Health Security Committee teleconference and PHE has shared a recent European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) risk assessment on Zika virus with colleagues in England, the Devolved Administrations and Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. PHE has been in discussion with infectious disease authorities in Brazil with respect to understanding the epidemiological and clinical picture associated with Zika virus and microcephaly and other congenital malformations.

Through the International Health Regulations National Focal Point, PHE has shared information with the European Union, ECDC and other European Member States on the number of cases of Zika virus infection in returning travellers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what research his Department has undertaken or assessed on the relationship between the distance travelled to an A&E department and the likelihood of fatality after admission.

Jane Ellison

Clinical consensus is that for patient outcomes and mortality what matters is the time from becoming ill to receiving specialist, life-saving care. That is why we are developing ambulance services that act as mobile assessment and treatment services and networked urgent and emergency care services to ensure patients are treated in the facility best equipped to provide whatever care is needed. For some patients requiring specialist care this may be in a hospital that is further away.

NHS England, in its guidance ‘Planning, assuring and delivering service changes for patients’, emphasise that NHS change planners include an analysis of distance and travel times, the impact of these on transport users, as well as the ambulance service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents of aggressive behaviour of passengers have been recorded on commercial flights travelling (a) to, (b) from and (c) within the UK in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government does not collect specific data on the frequency of incidents involving drunk or aggressive passengers.

If serious enough such incidents would be counted amongst data for safety related events. In accordance with (EU) Regulation No 376/2014, safety-related events which endanger or which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person have to be reported to the Civil Aviation Authority as part of the Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Scheme (MORS). The Regulation requires that the reporting, analysis and follow-up to such occurrences remain confidential. However, the Regulation does permit information to be released on request to interested parties that have a genuine safety related need for the information. An application can be made at www.caa.co.uk.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to (a) review and (b) improve the autism self-assessment framework.

Alistair Burt

Working with the Department, Public Health England regularly undertakes an autism self assessment exercise with local authorities and their partners to gauge progress in implementing the Autism Strategy. The results of the self assessment and the individual returns from areas are made public so that organisations and people can challenge locally if they think that more needs to be done. The assessment questions and the process for local agreement are reviewed each time, taking into account that general continuity is needed in terms of measuring progress. The February meeting of the cross government Autism Programme Board considered the changes proposed for the next exercise which were put forward following discussions with representatives of Government departments, local authorities, the National Health Service, the autism third sector and people with autism and family carers. Further refinement will be undertaken over the next few weeks before the self assessment exercise is launched in the summer.