Tag: David Crausby

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of complaints against Arriva Transport Solutions over its level of service while running Greater Manchester’s non-emergency ambulance service; and what steps he is taking to ensure a better service in Greater Manchester in future.

Jane Ellison

The provision of local health services, including patient transport services, is a matter for the NHS locally. NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group is the lead commissioner for non-emergency patient transport services in the North West.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 15641, what estimate he has made of the projected transport budget per capita in Greater Manchester after the devolution agreement comes into effect.

Andrew Jones

The devolution deal agreement with Greater Manchester will provide the city region with a devolved and consolidated local transport budget. The deal also provides Greater Manchester with other funding and flexibilities that it can use to invest in transport if it chooses. In addition, there are national investment programmes that will benefit Greater Manchester. Such an estimate is therefore dependent on decisions that are still to be taken locally and nationally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time for a final decision on a visitor’s visa application was in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Published data on visa processing times is available from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the projected transport budget per capita in Greater Manchester after the devolution agreement comes into effect.

Andrew Jones

Government committed to provide Greater Manchester with a devolved, multi-year transport funding settlement in their Devolution Deal which was agreed in November 2014. The transport funding to be devolved to Greater Manchester will be agreed as part of the Spending Review to be announced later this month.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve food hygiene safety in schools, children’s clubs and nurseries that failed to meet satisfactory standards in inspections last year.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Local authorities are responsible for food hygiene inspections of schools, children’s clubs and nurseries at which food is served regularly to children. Food hygiene legislation requires these premises to be registered as food businesses. The Food Standards Agency, which sets policy for and monitors enforcement of food safety legislation by local authorities, has advised that approximately 99% of educational establishments and caring establishments, including schools, children’s clubs and nurseries, have satisfactory or better food hygiene standards.

Local authorities work with food businesses to make improvements in any premises that fail to meet satisfactory standards during inspections and may take a range of enforcement actions as considered appropriate in the circumstances of each case. The honourable member for Bolton North East or members of his constituency may contact the relevant local authority or the Food Standards Agency for detailed information about specific premises that are of concern to him.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time for a final decision on a spouse visa application was in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The average processing time for resolving spouse visa applications in each of the last five years is contained in the attached table:

Year Resolved	Average Days to Resolved
2011	40.97
2012	41.47
2013	45.59
2014	60.41
2015	34.91

Visit visas defined as those endorsements in the endorsement categories Family Partner and Family Partner Immediate Settlement.

Data only includes applications with a destination of UK or UK(BIVS).

Data extracted on 19 October 2016.

These statistics have been taken from a live operational database. As such, numbers may change as information on that system is updated. The latest quarterly Home Office immigration statistics on entry clearance visas are published in ‘Immigration Statistics, available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the per capita spending was on transport projects in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) London in each of the last five years.

Andrew Jones

a) Data on spend per head on transport projects is not available at the level of Greater Manchester.

However, Greater Manchester has benefitted from significant transport investment over the last five years, for example, £140.8 million of Integrated Transport Block funding, £143.2 million for Highways Maintenance (2010-11 to 2014-15), £32.5 million from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund for the ‘Let’s Get to Work’ scheme, £32.49 million for the Manchester Cross City Bus Package (due for completion in November 2016) and £44m announced in July 2014 as part of the Local Growth Fund for 12 new light rail vehicles on Metrolink.

(b) Spend per head on transport in London for the last five available years was as follows:

Identifiable expenditure on transport in London 2009-10 to 2013-14

Type of expenditure	2009-10 outturn	2010-11 outturn	2011-12 outturn	2012-13 outturn	2013-14 outturn
Total expenditure
Per head (£)	747	660	597	479	511
Capital expenditure
Per head (£)	448	413	362	301	332
Current expenditure
Per head (£)	300	247	235	178	180

Source: HM Treasury Country and Regional Analysis, 2014

Spending on London’s transport networks benefits not just London residents but commuters and others travelling into London. London is the biggest city in the UK and a global capital. 850,000 commuters come into London per working day, and there are about 4 billion passenger journeys every year.

The figures in recent years can be skewed by capital projects with uneven patterns of expenditure such as Crossrail and Thameslink (which also create jobs elsewhere).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the overall quality of (a) primary health, (b) hospital and (c) community services for older people.

Alistair Burt

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services.

The CQC published its State of Care 2014-15 report in October 2015. It reported that 85% of the general practitioner (GP) practices CQC have rated are good or outstanding. The CQC inspects GP practices against six population areas, which includes older people.

The latest results of the GP Patient Survey, published on 7 January 2016, indicate that patients over 75 have consistently higher rates of satisfaction with their GP services than other age groups.

Overall care quality of providers is assessed regularly by Monitor and the CQC. And there are large scale national audits reporting on specific areas that are likely to be more relevant to older people for example the National Hip Fracture Data Base and the National Audit of Intermediate Care.

The CQC’s State of Care 2014-15 report (October 2015) reported that 35% of acute hospitals were rated as good or outstanding.

NHS England published in 2014 “Safe, compassionate care for frail older people using an integrated care pathway: Practical guidance for commissioners, providers and nursing, medical and allied health professional leaders”. This document summarises the evidence of the effects of an integrated pathway of care for older people and suggests how a pathway can be commissioned effectively using levers and incentives across providers.

The CQC registers and inspects community providers and community trusts to ensure that they follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall. 59% of adult social care providers were rated as good or outstanding in the CQC’s October report.

The trends in patient satisfaction for community services are tracked and reported monthly through the Friends and Family Test (FFT). FFT is an important feedback tool that gives patients the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience and helps the National Health Service to drive improvement in the services it provides.

The latest FFT results from September until November 2015 showed that 95% of respondents would recommend the services they have used in the community services settings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for a spouse visa have been (a) received and (b) refused in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The information requested for the last 5 calendar years is published in table vi_01_q (visa data tables volume 1) in ‘Immigration Statistics, April – June 2016’, available from the Home Office website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2016/list-of-tables#visas

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to mitigate the effects of provisions of the Pensions Act 1995 and the Pensions Act 2011 on women born in the 1950s.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government will not be revisiting the State Pension age arrangements for women affected by the Pensions Act 1995 and Pensions Act 2011. These women will receive their State Pension either at the same age as men or earlier as we remove current gender timetable inequality.

The equalisation of State Pension age was necessary to meet the UK’s obligations under EU law to eliminate gender inequalities in social security provision. The Pensions Act 1995 contained legislation to equalise women’s State Pension age and, since April 2010, women’s State Pension age has been gradually increasing. Following sharp increases in life expectancy projections, and therefore the increase in the number of people living longer in retirement, this timetable was accelerated by the Pensions Act 2011.

A concession was made prior to the passing of the 2011 Act which reduced the delay that anyone would experience in claiming their State Pension, relative to the previous timetable, to 18 months. This concession benefited almost a quarter of a million women, who would otherwise have experienced delays of up to two years. A similar number of men also benefited from a reduced increase, and the concession was worth around £1 billion in total.