Tag: David Mackintosh

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve public awareness and understanding of the roles of police and crime commissioners.

Mike Penning

A range of communication activities are being conducted by the Home Office in order to increase awareness and understanding of the roles of police and crime commissioners.

Plans include written, digital, broadcast and social media activity. Material such as posters and a short film are also being provided to Police Area Returning Officers and police and crime commissioner’s offices to use as part of their local communication plans.

All activity will signpost the Cabinet Office candidate information website, ChooseMyPCC, and booklet ordering facility.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on progress in the campaign against Daesh.

Michael Fallon

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to the hon. Members for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Mike Kane), Bracknell (Dr Phillip Lee), Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately) and Newark (Robert Jenrick).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on development of an early years workforce strategy.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Government committed to develop a workforce strategy in 2016. We want to continue to attract quality staff into the early years, and to support those already working in the sector to progress, which is why we are reviewing career progression routes. We want to understand what improvements can be made to help more staff reach their potential and forge a successful career in the early years.

We began discussions with a range of stakeholders in the sector earlier this year on the elements of a workforce strategy, and we are continuing to speak to stakeholders as we develop the strategy further. We plan to communicate an update to the sector on the workforce strategy in the coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to ensure that the quality of service is consistent at jobcentres around the country.

Priti Patel

There are comprehensive operational instructions available that all Jobcentres are expected to adhere to. This is monitored through internal checking to ensure processes and the quality of our interaction with claimants meets the required standard. Alongside the checking of results, other sources of data, such as DWP Customer Survey and complaints data, are exploited to ensure services meet the required standard. Continuous improvement is a key factor in our approach and examples include providing coaching/training, improving operations instructions and making better use of technology.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Chinese counterpart on releasing the Tibetan blogger Druklo.

Mr Hugo Swire

We plan to raise the case of Druklo (also known as Shokjang) at the next round of the UK-China human rights dialogue.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress his Department has made in encouraging private companies to create or expand their apprenticeships programmes.

Nick Boles

There have been over 2.4 million apprenticeship starts over the previous parliament, and 153,100 between August and October 2015, demonstrating the continued expansion of the apprenticeships programme.

We are taking action to support and encourage the growth of apprenticeships in all sectors to meet our commitment to reaching 3 million starts by 2020. The UK-wide levy will be introduced in April 2017 for all employers in public and private sector with a pay bill of £3m or more, to help fund the increase in quantity and quality of apprenticeship training in England. All employers that hire apprentices will benefit from the levy.

Our apprenticeship reforms are giving employers the opportunity to create new apprenticeship standards. More than 1300 employers are involved with 204 new standards published (of which over 60 are Higher and Degree Apprenticeships) and more than 150 are in development. So far there have been over 1,000 starts on the new standards.

We are continuing to support small employers to hire apprentices through the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE), which provides eligible employers with a £1,500 grant per apprentice (aged 16 to 24) for up to five new apprentices currently. The AGE will continue to operate until the apprenticeships levy is introduced in April 2017. From April 2016, all employers will not be required to pay employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices under age of 25 on earnings up to the upper earnings limit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what powers he has to intervene with under-performing housing associations.

Brandon Lewis

If the Housing Association is in England and registered with the Homes and Community Agency (HCA), they would have to ensure that they meet the regulatory Standards. However, the Secretary of State has no statutory power to intervene with under-performing Housing Associations.

If the Social Housing Regulator finds that a registered provider has failed to comply with the Standards, it has enforcement powers to ensure compliance with the standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on average patient waiting times of the use of closed waiting lists at GP surgeries.

Alistair Burt

The Department has not assessed waiting times for appointments, as each practice decides how to operate in order to meet the contractual requirement to meet the reasonable needs of their patients. The needs of patients can vary considerably from one practice to another.

NHS England does not routinely collect data on either general practitioner (GP) appointment or GP registration waiting times. NHS England is currently establishing a new collection process to gather information on closed patient lists routinely. Therefore, it is not able currently to assess the impact of a practice closing their list on appointment waiting times.

Practices may only close their lists to new patients with the approval of NHS England.

NHS England works with GP practices to ensure patient lists remain open wherever possible. It is possible that the reasons for closing a practice list impact on the flow of appointments to existing patients e.g. with the sudden loss of a GP, but such effects will often be temporary.

Any patient struggling to find a practice accepting new patients can contact NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre for support.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the progress that has been made in the rollout of universal credit in Northampton.

Priti Patel

Universal Credit live service rolled out to Northampton Jobcentre Plus on 23 November 2015. Official Universal Credit statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

Every jobcentre across the country is now delivering Universal Credit for single people. The full Universal Credit service begins its national expansion from May 2016.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Chinese government on the detention and charging of Tibetan education advocate Tashi Wangchuk; and what response he has received to those representations.

Mr Hugo Swire

We plan to raise the case of Tashi Wangchuk at the next round of the UK-China human rights dialogue.