The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the relationship of the length of time of GP patient consultation and successful diagnosis.
Dr Daniel Poulter
No assessment has been made of the relationship between the length of time of general practitioner (GP) patient consultation and successful diagnosis. Data on the length of GP appointments is not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of children in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty in each region of the UK in the next three years.
Esther McVey
The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty either locally or nationally. The number of children in poverty is dependent on a number of factors which cannot be reliably predicted.
This Government does not believe it is possible to accurately project child poverty. We know that poverty projections are rarely accurate. For example, IFS projections in October 2011 suggested the number of children in relative poverty would fall by 100,000 in 2010/11, whereas in fact it fell by 300,000.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2014, Official Report, columns 18-19W, on the electoral register, in which month of 2014 the statistics on data matching on electoral registration between the Office of National Statistics, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the National Records of Scotland will be published.
Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that it expects to publish a report on England, Wales and Scotland in summer 2014. The timing of the work in Northern Ireland is still the subject of discussions with NISRA. The Electoral Commission will inform the honourable member when this is confirmed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what discussions the Electoral Commission has had with the Office for National Statistics and other Government departments on the size of the UK population eligible to vote but not registered (a) before and (b) after the publication of its report, Great Britain’s Electoral Registers 2011.
Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that its 2011 report on Great Britain’s electoral registers provided an assessment of the accuracy and completeness of the electoral registers in force in December 2010 and April 2011 using a house-to-house survey methodology.
The Commission always intended to also carry out an assessment of the same registers by matching them against census data. It has therefore been having discussions with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) since 2010.
The Commission expects to publish reports on England, Wales and Scotland in summer 2014. The timing of the work in Northern Ireland is still the subject of discussions with NISRA.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-26.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2014, Official Report, column 510W, on the electoral register: young people, how the £4.2 million funding to maximise the rate of voter registration ahead of the transition to individual electoral registration has been spent; and what measures are in place to monitor the effectiveness of this spending.
Greg Clark
Funding has been provided to all 363 local authorities and valuation joint boards in Great Britain, and five national organisations, to support the costs of activities for maximising registration as part of the transition to individual electoral registration.
Guidance has been made available to support them in evaluating the success of activity delivered through this funding. Government officials will continue to work closely with funding recipients to monitor and measure the outcomes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what her Department’s policy is on allowing officials to appear before all-party parliamentary groups.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
I refer the hon Gentleman to the answer given by my Rt hon Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 26 March, Official Report, Column 300W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-31.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, with which (a) mobile telephone companies, (b) voluntary groups and (c) travel card providers the Electoral Commission is working to improve registration rates of young people.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that it continues to work to identify partners for its work on IER. As agreements are put in place, it will make these available on its website and will inform the honourable member when the first batch is published.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the quality of feedback to hon. Members by (a) his Department and (b) private sector providers when they raise constituents’ concerns about personal independence payments.
Mike Penning
The Department for Work and Pensions and Ministers provide feedback to hon. Members in a range of ways, for example at meetings, during debates, through correspondence and by answering Parliamentary Questions. Where it is not possible to answer a particular query the Department will say so and indicate, where appropriate, when the information will become available in the future, for example through the release of statistical material.
The two assessment providers for Personal Independence Payment are responsible for dealing with complaints about their own respective levels of service and I understand that they may also deliver their own events for honourable members. Both providers have their own processes for dealing with enquiries from MPs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the maximum length of time taken to process an application for personal independence payments has been since the introduction of that payment.
Mike Penning
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to the hon Member for Liverpool, West Derby and the hon Member for Airdrie and Shotts, official report, 5 March, column 850W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Environment Agency is taking to reduce the time taken to update its flooding maps after the completion of flood defence projects.
Dan Rogerson
The Environment Agency produces and publishes maps showing areas at risk of flooding from rivers and sea, surface water and reservoirs in England. It reviews and updates these maps on a quarterly basis to ensure they are based on the most recent local mapping and modelling information.
To ensure new flood risk management schemes are included in the map updates as soon as possible, the Environment Agency has put in place changes to speed up the update process, together with a new Key Performance Indicator (introduced in October 2013) specifying that maps showing the risk of flooding from rivers and sea should be updated within six months of completion of a scheme.
Initial performance has been affected by the development and publication of new maps in December 2013 and by the winter floods, but significant efforts are being made to ensure that new defences will be taken into account more quickly in future.