Tag: Ben Howlett

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Government support for the tourism sector in Wales.

Alun Cairns

In July, the Government published its 5-point plan to ensure the benefits of tourism extend beyond London and across the UK. The Welsh economy continues to benefit from a thriving tourist industry, with recent figures showing the amount spent by overseas visitors increased by £34 million over the last year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help increase the number of disabled people who own their own home.

Brandon Lewis

The Government is committed to extending home ownership opportunities for everyone. Disabled people with aspirations to own their own home can benefit from a number of policies offered by this Government, like Help to Buy and Right to Buy. However, we do recognise that for some people with long-term disabilities, our mainstream home ownership programmes may not be suitable. The Home Ownership for those with Long-term Disabilities (HOLD) scheme is specifically designed to help people living with such disabilities to buy a property on the open market on shared ownership terms with a registered housing provider.

The Government is also providing affordable housing for disabled and older people through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund, phase 1 of which will deliver around 4,000 new homes by 2018. Between 2011-15 the Affordable Homes Programme has also delivered almost 14,000 specialised and mainstream affordable homes for older and disabled people.

In the Spending Review we have committed to £400 million of funding to deliver 8,000 specialist homes for the vulnerable elderly or those with disabilities. A commitment to funding from the Department of Health could deliver up to a further 7,500 homes over the Spending Review period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of people in England accessing HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis through private provision.

Jane Ellison

NHS England is working with local authorities, clinicians, patient representatives and Public Health England to consider the clinical and cost effectiveness of providing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to at-risk groups to prevent them acquiring HIV. The PrEP clinical policy proposition is one of many going through NHS England’s 2016/17 prioritisation round.

In July 2015 NHS England approved a significant new investment in a ‘Treatment as Prevention’ programme to help reduce transmissions from persons known to be HIV positive.

We have made no estimates of the number of people accessing PrEP through private provision.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to ensure that young intersex people are included in the Government’s review of youth justice.

Andrew Selous

A review of how transgender people – both adults and under-18s – are dealt with by prison and probation services is currently being conducted by the Ministry of Justice. This review includes those who identify as intersex. The findings and recommendations of this review will inform the review of the youth justice system which will report in July.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-05-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce the gender pay gap in the financial services sector.

Harriett Baldwin

The gender pay gap is at a record low. New regulations require all firms with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gaps. These regulations will increase transparency and accelerate progress, especially in sectors with large gender pay gaps such as financial services.

In March, the government launched the Women in Finance Charter which asks financial services firms to implement recommendations from Jayne-Anne Gadhia’s review into the representation of senior women in financial services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce variations in the quality of at-home care given by carers’ agencies across the UK.

Alistair Burt

The Government is committed to improving the quality of adult social care. We have taken a number of recent steps to do so.

In October 2014, we introduced a tougher inspection system by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Following inspections, CQC now also awards each service a single quality rating, with providers rated as “Outstanding”, “Good”, “Requires Improvement” or “Inadequate”. Services rated “Inadequate” are being placed into Special Measures. They will have access to a range of resources to help them to improve, but if they fail to do so, they could face closure.

These new ratings and other information about the type and quality of care at every care home and homecare service in the country are now available on NHS Choices and the MyNHS Transparency website, making it much easier for people to compare the quality of services.

This year we introduced a Certificate of Fundamental Care, now known as the Care Certificate. This will help ensure that care workers can deliver a consistently high quality standard of care.

The Department is funding and working with a number of organisations including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Skills for Care, the Social Care Institute for Excellence, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association on a range of projects to help adult social care organisations and staff improve the quality of care. These resources include new NICE Quality Standards and Guidelines which bring clarity to what excellence looks like in care and Commissioning for Better Outcomes – A Route Map^* that sets out a series of commissioning standards that will

be used as part of local government sector-led improvement to drive best practices in local authority commissioning under their new duties in the Care Act 2015.

^*Available at http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/5756320/Commissioning+for+Better+Outcomes+A+route+map/8f18c36f-805c-4d5e-b1f5-d3755394cfab

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that schools address sexual harassment and bullying.

Edward Timpson

All forms of bullying and harassment are unacceptable and every school is required to have in place a behaviour policy with measures to tackle all forms of bullying. They are held to account by Ofsted and inspectors will look at records and analysis of bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour.

The Longitudinal Study of Young Peoplein England(LSYPE), which was published by the Department in November 2015, compared bullying among two cohorts of 14 year olds (year 10 students)from 2004 and 2014. It found that 30,000 fewer people in year 10 said they had been bullied in the last twelve months. This represents a drop from 41 per cent in 2004 to 36 per cent in 2014.

Good schools have a whole school approach to behaviour management that fosters tolerance and respect. Schools can also choose to teach about internet safety and the safe use of social media through their PSHE and sex and relationships provision. Under the computing curriculum, children from the age of five are taught how to stay safe online and how to communicate safely and respectfully.

All schools must have regard to the statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’. This highlights the specific safeguarding issues that staff should be aware of including bullying, child sexual exploitation, gender based violence against girls, sexting and teenage relationship issues, and signposts staff to additional information and support.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to encourage volunteers to monitor CCTV to help the police service.

Mike Penning

The Government believes that volunteers could play a greater role in policing, which is why a consultation was recently held to give Chief Constables greater flexibility to designate police powers to staff and volunteers, to enable them to support officers more effectively in keeping their communities safe.

I am aware that a number of forces use volunteers within their CCTV control rooms already and more are currently recruiting for these roles. However all decisions on the recruitment, size and composition of a police force’s workforce are rightly a local matter for chief officers and Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what proportion of girls in (a) state and (b) private schools took physics A-level in 2015.

Nick Gibb

Information on the proportion of girls who took A level physics in state-funded schools in 2014/15 is published as part of the “A level and other level 3 results: 2014 to 2015 (revised)” statistical first release.[1] In independent schools[2] 9.3% of girls took A level physics in 2014/15.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-level-3-results-2014-to-2015-revised (Document titled: Maths and science tables; Tab titled: Table 18)

[2] Excludes independent special schools and non-maintained special schools.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when she expects the airport at St Helena to open to commercial flights; and if she will make a statement.

Sir Desmond Swayne

A number of options are being explored. The aim is to establish scheduled services once an operator is identified and regulatory conditions are met.