Tag: Dan Jarvis

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support the Syrian people in establishing a framework for post-conflict reconstruction.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. We have pledged over £1.1 billion to date, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. We are the second largest bilateral donor after the US.

In addition to humanitarian support, the Department for International Development is working closely with the Syrian National Coalition, NGOs, civil society, and human rights activists to strengthen the ability of the moderate opposition to provide governance and services inside Syria in a way that will help prepare the ground for post-conflict reconstruction. The UK is also helping the National Coalition to build its capacity as an institution, to meet the needs of Syrians and to represent their interests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Attorney General, what steps he plans to take in response to the findings of the report, entitled Communicating with victims, published by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate in January 2016.

Robert Buckland

On the day of the report the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) agreed to act on each of the three recommendations made.

• The CPS is already conducting a review of overall support to victims and witnesses with the police and agreeing our respective roles in communication will form part of this review;
• The CPS will ensure that the quality assurance checks of communications from the Victim Liaison Units (VLUs) are improved through guidance and training; and
• The CPS will seek to improve both the flagging of substantial alterations in appropriate cases and the systems for notification of the VLUs.

In addition, the CPS has already taken action to address a range of issues identified in the report. For example, they have redeployed more paralegal staff and managers to Crown Courts to ensure that there are sufficient staff to support victims and witnesses. When rollout is complete around 350 paralegal staff and managers will be based at Crown Courts across England and Wales. The CPS is also introducing new guidance on Speaking to Witnesses at Court which will improve the service provided and is currently operating in a number of pathfinder sites. It will be rolled out across the country by summer 2016.

The CPS is also reviewing the resourcing of VLUs to ensure that sufficient staff are in place to manage the workload of those units.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on the implementation of the new GCSE grading system.

Nick Gibb

This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have therefore asked its Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey, to write directly to the Honourable Member. A copy of her reply will be placed in the House of Commons Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the proportion of cancer patients who are offered the opportunity to take part in research in (a) trust areas in which participation rates are below the English average and (b) other areas.

Jane Ellison

The proportion of cancer patients in England who participate in clinical trials and other research studies rose more than four-fold between 2001 and 2012, from under 4% of cancer patients to more than18%. Research participation in countries for which data exists has lagged behind the United Kingdom, at around 3% to 8% of cancer patients. For this reason, several other countries (including USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan) have sought advice from leaders in the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) and adopted elements of the UK approach.

Since 2012, the number of cancer research studies to which English patients have been recruited through the NIHR CRN has continued to rise year-on-year. Patients were recruited to 550 different studies during 2011-12, compared with 750 in 2014-15 and over 780 already in 2015-16. However, the nature of clinical research questions has changed, reducing the demand for very large numbers of patients per study. Consequently, despite the continuing increase in research studies, the total number of patients recruited per year fell slightly during 2012-14. However, there has been a 10% increase in recruitment to date in 2015-16 compared with the same months in 2014-15.

As well as monitoring overall recruitment to cancer studies, the NIHR CRN is continually monitoring detailed performance including regional variation and variation between different cancer types, and taking steps to improve lower-performing areas. From April 2015, the NIHR CRN has comprised 15 Local Clinical Research Networks (LCRNs) and a national co-ordinating centre, which together have responsibility for study delivery in England. The LCRNs include local clinical leadership for cancer research. These Cancer Specialty Leads meet regularly with the national team to compare performance metrics and best practice, so that leaders from below-average recruiting LCRNs can learn from those with the highest performance.

From April 2015, each LCRN has been required to identify clinical leaders for 13 different cancer subspecialties, each of whom works with the LCRN team to ensure that there is a research portfolio in place for patients within their subspecialty, and liaises with the national group developing trials in that disease type. This new system is improving the coordination of national and local research strategies, and may underlie the upturn in recruitment which is now being observed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department are women.

Mark Lancaster

As at 1 January 2016, 25.1% of senior civil servants in the Ministry of Defence were women.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

Matthew Hancock

The Department has no record of receiving any funds from the European Social Fund.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

Guto Bebb

The Wales Office has not received any funding from the European Social Fund (ESF). Implementation of ESF is the responsibility of the Welsh Government.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the contribution of the UK’s membership of the EU to the protection of the UK’s borders.

James Brokenshire

At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed EU. The Government published a white paper, ‘The best of both worlds’, on 22 February, which sets out how membership of the EU enhances our ability to co-operate with other EU Member States to combat crime and terrorism and keep all parts of the United Kingdom safe.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to facilitate new academy sponsors in the North as part of the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy.

Nick Gibb

Our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, sets out the range of support we will offer to schools across England.

Where schools are failing, Regional Schools Commissioners will identify a suitable academy sponsor to turn them around. In areas where there are too few sponsors, we will recruit new sponsors, including high-performing schools and more sponsors from business, charity and philanthropy. We will also encourage existing sponsors to expand, increasing incentives and minimising barriers, learning from the investment we have already made through the Northern Sponsor Fund.

For other struggling schools, we will ensure there is nationwide coverage of system leaders (teaching schools and National Leaders of Education), who will be expected to work with weaker schools to support them to improve. To help achieve this, we will improve how we designate system leaders by introducing a more sophisticated approach based on timely and accurate data rather than relying heavily on Ofsted judgements. We will also partner schools with the potential to become strong system leaders with existing teaching schools and National Leaders of Education.

Through the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, we will target our existing programmes to secure sufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders, sponsors and members of governing boards on the areas of greatest need. At the Budget, the Government announced that we will invest an additional £20 million a year to build on this strategy to raise education standards across the Northern Powerhouse. The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence.

For the additional funding announced in the budget, decisions on how the funding will be allocated for the 2016-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller. We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s review shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the financial effect on people caring for family members of the closure of the Independent Living Fund and the introduction of the Care Act 2014.

Alistair Burt

The Independent Living Fund (ILF) closed on 30 June 2015, with funding and responsibility transferring to local authorities in England and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales. The Department has not made an assessment of the financial impact on those caring for family members, and at this stage does not plan to do so.

However, the Department has issued statutory guidance to local authorities to support this transfer of responsibility and to prevent any former ILF user having their care interrupted during the transfer. I have recently reminded local authorities of the need to comply with this guidance. In addition, the Care Act 2014 introduced important new rights for carers, and placed a duty on local authorities to assess adults who appear to have care and support needs and to meet those needs which meet the national eligibility criteria.

The Government has committed to publishing a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy before the end of 2016. A wide-ranging call for evidence is now underway to underpin the development of the Strategy, which will gather evidence from stakeholders, and carers themselves, on their experience of caring including issues of personal finance and the support they receive from local authorities.