Tag: Barry Sheerman

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the capital and revenue costs of free schools in Kirklees that (a) have been provided to date, (b) are to be provided in 2016-17 and (c) are projected to be provided between 2017 and 2020.

Edward Timpson

The Department for Education’s accounts show that the total capital spend on free schools up to the end of 2013-14 was £1.029bn; the accounts for following years will be published in due course. The capital costs of individual projects are published once contracts are finalised and are no longer commercially sensitive. They are published, along with the costs of sixteen projects in London and one project in Kirklees, on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-funding-for-open-free-schools

The total pre- and post-opening revenue expenditure for free school projects that opened in 2011 to 2013 is also published on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenue-expenditure-for-free-schools

We plan to publish updated revenue expenditure for free schools that were opened in 2014 and 2015 within the next few weeks. This data will be updated annually each Autumn.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department collects on the health outcomes of autistic people who do not have a learning disability or mental health condition.

Alistair Burt

General practitioners already maintain a register of people with learning disabilities which may include patients on their lists who also have autism where this has been diagnosed. The Royal College of General Practitioners’ Autism Initiative, which is part funded by the Department, is currently looking at the idea of an autism indicator in general practice. This work is at an early stage.

NHS England has been working with the Health and Social Care Information Centre to develop the Mental Health Services Data Set. This mandatory data set will include provision for the diagnosis of autism to be recorded. The data will be published and available for everyone to use to support and develop services based on health outcomes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has plans to encourage mental health providers to use social technology as a part of therapeutic treatments for young people.

Alistair Burt

Future in Mind suggests there is a need to incentivise self-care by designing mental health apps targeted at children and young people to strengthen resilience, support and individual capacity for self-care.

This has been achieved by establishing a children and young people’s category within the new NHS England Innovation fund for mental health to develop apps for cognitive behavioural therapy and self-harm and suicide prevention, amongst others. In conjunction with this work we are also assessing the potential need for quality assurance controls for mental health apps.

The Department is currently considering providing access to both high quality and reliable information and support online through a national branded portal established on NHS Choices.