Tag: David Crausby

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 refused by UK Visas and Immigration only to be overturned by appeal to the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The information on appeals is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to encourage the Premier League adequately to contribute to the financing of grassroots football.

Tracey Crouch

I will be continuing the discussions with the Premier League about how best to support the game. Government believesthat given the size of the League’s new TV deal, football’s grassroots should receive greater investment than ever before, and we will work in partnership to ensure that this happens.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what Government spending was in reform of the process of procurement and across central Government in each year since May 2010.

Mr Nick Hurd

The Cabinet Office has been working with central Government departments to implement a demanding Commercial Reform agenda which is aimed at leveraging the Crown’s buying power, deriving better value for money and savings for the taxpayer to support deficit reduction and growth. This work has been carried out across departments and costs are not held centrally.

As a result of our work to date, we have made the way we buy goods and services in central Government quicker, more competitive, more transparent, better value and far simpler than before. This has saved the taxpayer £2.9bn in 2010-11, with a further £3.0bn in 2011-12, £3.8bn in 2012-13 and £5.4bn in 2013-14. These savings are all calculated against a 2009-10 baseline and include both recurring and non-recurring items.

All of this could have been started before the 2010 General Election. However in May 2010 there was no effective central oversight of procurement, commercial skills were lacking and Government didn’t even know who its strategic suppliers were, let alone how much was being spent with them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with the (a) Prudential Regulation Authority and (b) Financial Conduct Authority about reports of UK banks paying allowances to employees in order to avoid the EU’s bonus cap; and what steps he plans to take to reduce such practices.

Andrea Leadsom

The UK is at the forefront of global efforts to tackle excessive pay in the financial sector and ensure that pay is aligned with performance, with a tough Remuneration Code that requires deferral of at least 60% of bonuses of senior bankers and limits the amounts that can be paid in cash. Bonuses are down significantly since their peak under the last Government, and are now largely deferred and paid in shares.

In contrast, the EU’s bonus cap is a poorly thought through measure that undermines rather than reinforces our efforts by pushing up fixed pay. It was introduced without any proper impact assessment and has issues around its compatibility with the EU Treaty; for these reasons we are challenging it in the European Court of Justice. However, pending the outcome, the Government is fully implementing the cap in the UK, and the Prudential Regulation Authority is responsible for ensuring that the banks comply with these rules.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to record cases of bullying as reported by victims in schools by counts of cyber-bullying and similar sub-categories.

Elizabeth Truss

There is no legal requirement on schools to record and report incidents of bullying and we have no plans to introduce one. Schools are free to develop their own approaches to monitoring bullying and exercise their own judgement as to what will work best for their pupils. For some schools, this will involve formal recording of incidents so that they can monitor bullying and identify where it is recurring between the same pupils. Alternatively, some schools may prefer to take a different approach, such as surveying their pupils anonymously to identify trends in bullying, including how safe young people feel at school.

Schools are held clearly to account by Ofsted for pupil behaviour and safety which includes how they tackle bullying. Inspectors consider the types, rates and patterns of bullying and the effectiveness of the school’s actions to prevent and tackle all forms of bullying and harassment, including cyberbullying.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps he is taking to ensure that the recent reductions in wholesale gas prices available to energy companies are benefiting consumers.

Michael Fallon

In a competitive market, pricing decisions are a commercial matter for companies.

Consumers can put pressure on companies to reduce prices by switching to the best deal for them – Ofgem’s Retail Market Reforms to deliver a simpler, clear market combined with Government’s push to significantly reduce switching times and require suppliers to share consumer data with trusted third parties, should make this easier to do.

The Government supported Ofgem’s recent letter to the largest suppliers, challenging them to explain to consumers the impact of falling wholesale prices on their retail prices. Evidence that large suppliers raise prices more quickly when costs increase than they reduce prices when costs fall was one of the issues underpinning Ofgem’s recent referral of the energy markets to the Competition and Markets Authority.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on provision for the kennelling and seizure of suspected dangerous dogs; and what changes he expects to make to the regulations on dangerous dogs.

George Eustice

On 6 February 2013 the Government announced, as part of its package of measures to tackle irresponsible ownership of dogs, that it would provide powers for the police to allow suspected prohibited type dogs to be kept with the owners in cases where they considered that the dog was not a threat to public safety. The Government is in the process of making changes to the relevant regulations to enable this power to be available to the police.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the trends in the incidence of dental caries among school children (a) in Bolton and (b) nationally since 2010.

Dr Daniel Poulter

There has been only one published survey of dental caries among schoolchildren which includes the Bolton area since 2010. This is the National Dental Epidemiology Programme for England: oral health survey of five-year-old children 2012, A report on the prevalence and severity of dental decay. This can be found at the following link:

www.nwph.net/dentalhealth/survey-results5.aspx?id=1

A comparison of selected findings from the survey, and from the previous survey of five year old children in England, published in 2009, the NHS Dental Epidemiology Programme for England, Oral Health Survey of 5 year old Children, 2007/2008 can be found at the following link:

www.nwph.info/dentalhealth/survey-results.aspx?id=1

The comparisons are supplied in the following table:

Bolton Local Authority area	2008	2012
Number of children examined	298	262
Mean number decayed, missing or filled teeth (dmft)	1.91	1.85
Proportion of children with lifetimes caries experience (% dmft>0)	46.3%	43.4%

National (England)	2008	2012
Number of children examined	139,727	133,516
Mean number decayed, missing or filled teeth (dmft)	1.11	0.94
Proportion of children with lifetimes caries experience (% dmft>0)	30.9%	27.9%

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average ambulance response time for each category of call was in Bolton in each year since 2010.

Jane Ellison

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.

The median response times to treatment for category A¹ calls in the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust², April 2011³ to April 2014

Month	Median time (in minutes)
April 2011	4.2
May 2011	5.0
June 2011	5.2
July 2011	5.0
August 2011	4.7
September 2011	4.8
October 2011	4.9
November 2011	4.9
December 2011	5.0
January 2012	4.8
February 2012	5.1
March 2012	5.0
April 2012	5.6
May 2012	5.7
June 2012	5.1
July 2012	5.1
August 2012	5.2
September 2012	5.3
October 2012	5.4
November 2012	5.4
December 2012	5.7
January 2013	5.5
February 2013	5.6
March 2013	5.6
April 2013	5.8
May 2013	5.4
June 2013	5.5
July 2013	5.8
August 2013	5.7
September 2013	6.1
October 2013	6.0
November 2013	6.1
December 2013	6.1
January 2014	5.8
February 2014	6.1
March 2014	6.1
April 2014	6.1

Source: Ambulance quality indicators, NHS England

Notes:

¹Category A calls are defined as those that are the result of immediately life threatening incidents.

²North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust provides services to the Bolton area. Ambulance response times are not readily available for areas smaller than those covered by one Ambulance Trust.

³Information is not available before April 2011.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to co-ordinate healthy eating initiatives among the homeless.

Jane Ellison

The Department supports the Inclusion Health programme which champions the health and health care of vulnerable groups, including homeless people. The programme seeks to improve the health data for these groups, and set out practical steps for assessing needs (for example, through Joint Strategic Needs Assessments) and commissioning services. We are also involved in funding work in this area through the Homeless Hospital Discharge Fund to improve hospital discharge arrangements for people who are homeless (£10 million in 2013-14) and £40 million capital fund for hostel refurbishment with a focus on improving health outcomes (2014-15).