Tag: David Mackintosh

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made by the Ministerial Working Group on Preventing and Tackling Homelessness.

Mr Marcus Jones

I refer my hon. Friend to the Written Ministerial Statement made by my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Kris Hopkins) on 26 March 2015, HCWS498, that sets out the considerable progress achieved by the Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness in the last Parliament. Local authorities and the voluntary and community sector have used the £500 million provided by this Government since 2010 to tackle and prevent homelessness, stopping 935,800 households from becoming homeless in the first place. It has also helped launch a significant number of important initiatives, including:

• No Second Night Out, supported by the £20 million Homelessness Transition Fund, ensuring that rough sleepers receive the rapid support they need to move off the streets.

• A £5 million investment into the world’s first homelessness social impact bond delivering long term outcomes for 831 of London’s most frequent rough sleepers.

• The £15 million Fair Chance Fund, using payment by results and social investment to support 1,600 vulnerable young people into accommodation, training and employment.

• Department of Health’s £10 million Hospital Homeless Discharge Fund, supporting 52 voluntary sector-led projects to improve hospital discharge for homeless people so that their health and housing needs are properly addressed.

• £13 million to Crisis to support 10,000 single homeless people into accommodation in the private rented sector by 2016.

This Government remains committed to preventing and tackling homelessness. The Working Group is meeting again on Monday 30 November.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department has put incentives in place to encourage uptake of apprenticeship schemes from private companies.

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, if his Department will make plans to provide the Housing Ombudsman service with greater powers to deal with complaints from members of the public.

Brandon Lewis

There are no current plans to provide the Housing Ombudsman Service with greater powers.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to encourage transport operators to provide services that are accessible to disabled people.

Andrew Jones

The Department for Transport is committed to building transport networks which work for everyone, ensuring that disabled people have the same access to transport services as non-disabled members of society

Compliance with bus accessibility Regulations was 89% in England in 2015; while 60% of rail vehicles, up from 46% in 2013, were built or fully refurbished to modern access standards.

By the end of this year Access for All will have completed more than 150 step-free routes at rail stations against a target of 125. More than 1,200 stations have received smaller scale improvements. To build on this success £160m has been allocated to another 68 stations to be delivered by 2019.

We plan to require that taxi and private hire vehicle drivers provide assistance to wheelchair users and refrain from charging extra by commencing sections 165 and 167 of the Equality Act 2010 by the end of the year.

The Department works closely with its statutory advisors on the needs of disabled people, the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee, such as on a project to develop best practice guidance on the delivery of disability awareness training for bus and coach drivers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Advertising Standards Agency.

Mr Edward Vaizey

This Government supports the system of co-regulation and self-regulation, overseen by the independent Advertising Standards Authority and underpinned by consumer protection legislation. This regulatory system is independent of the Government and is ultimately responsible for setting the standards in advertising, ensuring that all adverts, wherever they appear, are legal, decent, honest and truthful.