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Tag: Bill Esterson

  • Bill Esterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Bill Esterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2015-10-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of adults with brain damage caused by alcohol consumed by their mothers during pregnancy; and what assessment he has made of the level of awareness of health and other care professionals of the disability, and the consequences of that disability, which result from that activity.

    Jane Ellison

    This information is not held centrally.

    Health Education England (HEE) works with the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Royal Colleges to seek to ensure training of health and care professionals meets the needs of the public.

    HEE has established a Patient Advisory Forum which provides advice to the HEE Board and other advisory groups to ensure that the needs of the patient are at the heart of the education, training and workforce planning process.

  • Bill Esterson – 2022 Speech on the Terminal Illness Bill

    Bill Esterson – 2022 Speech on the Terminal Illness Bill

    The speech made by Bill Esterson, the Labour MP for Sefton Central, in the House of Commons on 18 November 2022.

    I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) on bringing forward an important and heartfelt piece of legislation. I hope, as the Minister said, that he is successful more quickly this time than he was with his private Member’s Bill on smoking in cars with children present, which he introduced some years ago. I remember it well, because I sat on the Children and Families Bill Committee and moved one of the amendments in his name, as he was not on the Committee. I spoke on it again on Report, and I was with him on the Delegated Legislation Committee where the legislation was implemented in the Smoke-free (Private Vehicles) Regulations 2015. I hope he is successful far more quickly, and I think the spirit of what the Minister said suggests that my hon. Friend can make enormous progress quickly.

    I add my thanks to Marie Curie and the TUC for the work they have done and the way they have informed this debate and for the evidence they have presented to my hon. Friend and the Minister. As my hon. Friend and the Minister said, the fact that 90,000 people die in poverty each year and that people of working age are dying, the effect that has on children and families and the challenges presented to people who are terminally ill mean that this issue must have our attention. I hope the Minister can convene other Ministers in the way that he said in short order and put in place some of the measures that he suggested can be done relatively quickly.

    In my hon. Friend’s Bill, he has proposed a series of pragmatic financial measures. The measures on the warm home discount and the energy company obligations speak for themselves in how the Bill is set out. He has told us about the high energy needs of people who are terminally ill, and clearly any help that can be given should be given. That brings me briefly to clause 3. The TUC’s Dying to Work campaign highlighted, as the Minister rightly said, that employers who do not act in the best interest of their workers need to be brought to account. I am grateful for his acknowledgement that the remedy of a tribunal is not an appropriate or practical way of addressing these problems. I am pleased that he said the objective should be for workers with a terminal diagnosis to be able to continue as long as possible, and that we will have that in Hansard, because it will form the basis of the discussions he mentioned.

    I welcome the Minister’s commitment, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North on bringing forward an incredibly important and powerful piece of legislation. I hope with all sincerity that he is successful in short order, and that the Minister is able to fulfil his promises.

    I welcome the Minister to his role as Science Minister, which he assured us earlier in the week he definitely is, and I believe it has now been confirmed.

  • Bill Esterson – 2022 Parliamentary Question on Offshoring Warship Production

    Bill Esterson – 2022 Parliamentary Question on Offshoring Warship Production

    The parliamentary question asked by Bill Esterson, the Labour MP for Sefton Central, in the House of Commons on 18 November 2022.

    Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)

    Of course, if the whole contract was coming to UK yards, the investment would be more than £77 million. Now that the Minister has confirmed that the consortium is indeed Spanish-led, I remind him that no other G7 country offshores its warship production. Will he tell us how many jobs are going to Spain that would have come to this country as a result of this reckless decision by his Government?

    Alex Chalk

    I say respectfully that that is an absurd mischaracterisation. I am pleased that the overwhelming majority are coming here. By the way, jobs are also included for the people who designed this—BMT in Bath—which the hon. Member should welcome. The majority of the manufacturing is coming here. This decision also means that we will have the know-how to ensure that we have the pipeline to the future. If he wants to say that there are some jobs in Spain, that is perfectly true, but the overwhelming majority are here. Some of the Typhoons, for example, are assembled in Italy, so does he resent the fact that there are British jobs making some of the components? Of course he does not, because that is the modern world in which we live. Crucially, that modern world ensures that, as opposed to having some sort of prehistoric, antediluvian approach, we have strength for the United Kingdom, strength for the British armed forces and strength for British industry.

  • Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the guidance published by his Department on 25 March 2014, on Sure Start centres: local authority duties, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the core purpose of Sure Start children’s centres.

    Elizabeth Truss

    Sure Start children’s centres statutory guidance was published in April 2013; the web page containing it was last reviewed on 25 March 2014.

    The statutory guidance states the core purpose of Sure Start children’s centres is to improve outcomes for young children and their families, with a particular focus on those in greatest need. The Department extensively consulted on draft statutory guidance, including the core purpose, in 2012. The response was positive, with 85% of respondees (local authorities, children’s centre managers, voluntary sector bodies and others) finding the document clear on statutory duties.

    As I said to the Education Committee on 18 June, Ofsted is going to be moving to a local-authority-based inspection regime for children’s centres and I am very happy to look at the core purpose, particularly in the light of what Ofsted put out as their inspection regime, if there is a lack of clarity.

  • Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2014-04-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many coastguard operations room staff have applied for both new posts in the new coastguard structure and voluntary redundancy.

    Stephen Hammond

    As at 14 April 2014, of those Coastguards currently working in a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, 86 have applied for both new posts in the new coastguard structure and voluntary redundancy, 140 have applied for voluntary redundancy only and 128 have applied for a new post in the new coastguard structure only.

  • Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answers of 29 April 2014, Official Report, columns 559-60W and column 560W, on schools: inspections, for what reason local authorities are inspected separately from schools maintained by local authorities but academies are not inspected separately from the head offices of academy chains.

    Mr David Laws

    Ofsted can inspect local authorities to see whether they are fulfilling a number of statutory duties. Academy head offices do not have the same statutory duties. However, Ofsted already inspects academy chains through batched inspections. It has recently undertaken focused inspections of academies within E-ACT multi-academy trust, and has previously inspected a group of academies within the AET chain.

  • Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evidence his Department holds or has assessed on the effects of conversion to academy status on the test results of children in primary schools.

    Michael Gove

    In 2013, the percentage of pupils in converter academies that achieved level 4 or above in reading, writing (teacher assessment) and mathematics was 81%.[1] This was an improvement of one percentage point from 2012, and compares with 76% of pupils that achieved the same threshold in local authority maintained mainstream schools. Furthermore, the percentage of pupils in converter academies that exceeded this threshold was 25%, compared with 21% in local authority maintained mainstream schools.

    [1] Table 5, National Tables, SFR51/2013: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage-2-2012-to-2013

    “

  • Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time between judgement and sentencing in criminal trials in England was in the latest period for which figures are available; and what assessment he has made of the trends in the time taken.

    Shailesh Vara

    HMCTS can only answer this question for trials in the Crown Court. The case management database for magistrates’ courts does not hold the date of conviction in a way we can calculate the time from conviction to sentence for all defendants so the only way we could answer the question would be to manually check each case file which would incur disproportionate costs.

    The Crown Court database does and Table 1 below shows the average length between the latest conviction date in a trial and the date of sentence. The trend has seen the time between conviction and sentence falling from an average of 35.8 calendar days in 2007-08 to 24.6 calendar days in the first half of 2013-14. When a trial has more than one offence the jury may not reach verdicts against all on the same day, and the sentence cannot take place until all offences have a verdict.

    Table 1 -Average length between conviction and sentence in Crown Court centres in England for defendants sentenced between April and September 2013

    Period

    Average

    April to September 2013

    24.6 calendar days

    2012-13

    28.2

    2011-12

    28.2

    2010-11

    30.2

    2009-10

    32.8

    2008-09

    34.4

    2007-08

    35.8

    Notes:

    1. The average number of calendar days between the latest jury conviction date and the earliest substantial sentence date.
    2. Includes cases where the defendant changes their plea to guilty during the trial.
    3. This is internal management information run specifically to answer this question.

    The judiciary are able to sentence following conviction without the need for additional hearings as a result of initiatives currently in place. The judicially lead early guilty plea scheme aims to have guilty plea cases concluded at a single hearing. Similarly the probation service are able to provide reports on the day of conviction to facilitate the sentencing of the defendant.

    “

  • Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he plans to allow Ofsted to inspect bodies which run chains of academy schools.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    Ofsted already inspects academy chains through batched inspections of schools within chains. It has recently undertaken focused inspections of academies within the E-ACT multi-academy trust and has previously inspected a group of academies within the AET chain. This has shown to be an effective approach and there are no plans to widen Ofsted’s role to inspect head offices.

  • Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bill Esterson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons local authorities are inspected by Ofsted separately from schools maintained by local authorities.

    Mr David Laws

    The Chief Inspector has powers to carry out an inspection of the performance of a particular local authority function as set out in Section 136(1)(b) of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. Specifically, he can use this power to inspect how well the local authority is fulfilling its general duty to promote high standards and fulfilment by every child of their educational potential as set out in Section 13A of the Education Act 1996.

    These powers are separate from his powers and duties in relation to the inspection of individual schools which are set out in Section 5 and Section 8 of the Education Act 2005. Section 5 requires Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector to inspect individual schools at prescribed intervals, and Section 8 Education Act 2005, contains a general power which enables the Chief Inspector to call for the inspection of a school in circumstances where he is not required to inspect.