Tag: Caroline Ansell

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to implement the family test; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire

The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014. The Department for Work and Pensions published guidance for Departments and officials on how the test should be applied when formulating policy and the Home Office follows that guidance. The guidance can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/368894/family-test-guidance.pdf

The Family Test is also being integrated within the Department’s impact assessment process to ensure it is addressed consistently.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the new Care Quality Commission inspection regime on hospital performance; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC monitors, inspects and regulates services against fundamental standards of quality and safety below which care should never fall.

The CQC’s new inspection regime provides a comprehensive assessment of hospitals performance. During an inspection, the CQC asks five questions of every service and provider; are they safe, effective, caring, well led and responsive to people’s needs. Following an inspection the CQC rates a provider on a four point scale running from outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate. In addition to an aggregate rating at a provider level, the CQC produces ratings for individual services and locations. This gives patients and the public a fair, balanced and easy to understand assessment of performance of a provider.

Where a provider is rated as inadequate the Chief Inspector of Hospitals can recommend that the trust be placed into special measures. This means that trusts receive a tailored package of support to enable them to improve.

As of 8 December there are 15 trusts in special measures. Eleven trusts have made sufficient progress to exit special measures, the most recent being the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust on 4 December.

On 15 October 2015, the CQC published its State of Care Report 2014-15 and reported:

* 83%1 of all providers agree that the new inspections helped them to monitor the quality of care they provide;

* 73%1 of all providers said that a CQC inspection had helped to identify areas of improvement and 72% said that the inspection reports were useful; and

* 68%1 of all providers said that they thought that outcomes for people who use services were improved as result of CQC inspection activity.

1 The information provided in the State of Care report is for all registered providers not just Hospitals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-09.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to implement the family test; and if he will make a statement.

Damian Hinds

As announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014, the objective of the Family Test is to introduce an explicit family perspective to the policy making process, and ensure that potential impacts on family relationships and functioning are recognised in the process of developing new policy.

The Treasury carefully considers all relevant obligations – statutory or otherwise – including the family test – when formulating relevant policies. Guidance is available to Treasury staff and advice to Ministers reflects this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to implement the family test; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The Family Test policy does not apply to DFID’s work as foreign policy is outside of the scope of the Test.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure the maximum take-up of the pupil premium; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The pupil premium provides schools with additional funding to improve the progress and attainment of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, with £6.25 billion provided to date. Pupil premium allocations to schools are mainly based on the number of pupils on roll at the time of the January school census who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the preceding six years.

We are working to encourage all families who meet the current criteria toregisterfor free school meals. The Department’s eligibility checking system has made it much easier and quicker to check which families are entitled to free school meals.

The Department has also published a registration form to help schools to identify pupils who are entitled to free school meals and the pupil premium. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-and-pupil-premium-registration-form.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure the routine use by his Department of the family test; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis

Officials in my Department have liaised with the Department for Work and Pensions as the lead Department for the Family Test to embed it and encourage routine use of the Test. This has included training officials on applying the Test, disseminating relevant evidence, learning materials and best practice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the effect on Eastbourne’s local economy of potential reductions in connectivity of future rail projects along the South Coast; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry

No plans for reducing rail services to/ from Eastbourne are being considered by the Government or rail industry.

In developing its successive rail investment strategies and specifying rail franchises, the Government carefully considers the impacts on local economies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Network Rail on improved responsiveness for emergency repairs; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry

I have regular discussions with senior Network Rail and rail industry colleagues about the need to improve performance across the network, which includes improving the recovery time from incidents. I have been paying particular attention to performance on the Govia Thameslink Railway network, and response times are being reviewed with the operator and Network Rail colleagues in order to improve response times when possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the owners of Heathrow Airport on ensuring that that airport meets UK and EU air quality standards; and if she will make a statement.

Rory Stewart

Defra’s Secretary of State has had no recent discussions with Heathrow Airport.

Defra officials met with representatives from Heathrow Airport and the neighbouring Local Authorities to discuss the Heathrow Air Quality Action Plan as it was being developed. Since the Plan has been implemented regular meetings have taken place to understand the impacts of actions on local air quality.

Defra officials have also been in contact with Heathrow regarding the preparation of the Draft Air Quality Plan which sets out actions required to meet the EU limit values for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) in the Greater London Urban Area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Attorney General, what training the Law Officers’ Departments have provided to staff on the family test; what other steps he has taken to raise awareness of the family test among staff of the Law Officers’ Departments; and if he will make a statement.

Robert Buckland

The Government Legal Department provides training to all lawyers within the Government Legal Service, Attorney General’s Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, and hosted a training session on the legal implications of The Family Test in May 2015. While training places were prioritised for lawyers advising the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), all government lawyers were eligible to apply.

In addition, the training committee within the DWP legal advisers will consider the inclusion of further training on The Family Test in response to any further needs identified.

The Serious Fraud Office and Crown Prosecution Service are not directly involved in frontline policy development and whilst they are aware of the published DWP guidance on applying the test, no specific training has been deemed necessary at this stage. However, they would of course apply the test should the need arise.