Tag: David Simpson

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent progress he has made on ensuring that mental health has equal standing with physical health.

Norman Lamb

Mental health has been a priority for this Government for several years now. We made this commitment explicit in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 which, for the first time, creates equal status for mental and physical health across Government and for the NHS and social care.

The Ministerial Advisory Group brings together individuals and organisations with a specific interest in the cross government mental health strategy No Health Without Mental Health and how it is delivered.

The Mandate to NHS England 2014-15 makes clear that ‘everyone who needs it should have timely access to evidence-based services’, this will involve extending and ensuring more open access to programmes, in particular for children and young people, and for those out of work.

Closing the Gap, our new mental health action plan, which has attracted widespread, cross-sector support, sets out our priorities for essential change in mental health, 25 areas where people can expect to see and experience the fastest changes. The document challenges the health and social care community to move further and faster to transform care and support; the public health community, alongside local government, to give health and wellbeing promotion and prevention the long-overdue attention it needs and deserves; and individuals and communities to shift attitudes in mental health.

The Department of Health is leading an information revolution around mental health. The new national Mental Health Intelligence Network will draw together comprehensive information about mental health and wellbeing.

The new Crisis Care Concordat, signed by more than 20 national organisations, is a commitment for all agencies involved in supporting someone in a crisis to work together to improve the system of care and support so people in crisis are kept safe and helped to find the support they need. All the signatories have pledged to work together and our expectation is that, in every locality in England, local partnerships of health, criminal justice and local authority agencies will agree and commit to local Mental Health Crisis Declarations.

System partners are also taking responsibility for the drive for parity. Public Health England (PHE) has made a commitment to addressing parity of esteem through prioritising mental health and working to embed it throughout all PHE programmes. Greater attention is needed to mental health throughout the public health system and PHE seeks to enable and support this through its leadership and delivery of a Wellbeing and Mental Health programme. It is supporting local authorities and other partners to give greater attention to mental health within the public health system.

PHE was established on 1 April 2013 with the mission to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities through working with national and local government, the NHS, industry and the voluntary and community sector. PHE is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health.

PHE has made a commitment to addressing parity of esteem through prioritising mental health and working to embed it throughout all its programmes. Greater attention is needed to mental health throughout the public health system and PHE seeks to enable and support this through its leadership and delivery of a Wellbeing and Mental Health programme. It is supporting local authorities and other partners to give greater attention to mental health within the public health system.

Their approach centres on the following five main objectives:

1. Promoting good mental health and improving population wellbeing;

2. Preventing mental health problems and preventing suicide and self-harm;

3. Supporting people living with and recovering from mental illness;

4. Tackling inequalities and improving the wider determinants of wellbeing and mental health; and

5. Enabling and embedding wellbeing and mental health across the public health system.

PHE has embraced the principles of Parity of Esteem and from the outset and all through transition, there has been a commitment by PHE to ensure mental health is a core part of the new public health system and PHE’s work. Even though there was no central national resource attached to mental health to be transferred into PHE, they have invested in establishing a presence for mental health across their work and they continue to embed population mental health and wellbeing across public health.

Health Education England is developing training programmes that will enable all healthcare employers to ensure that their staff have a greater awareness of mental health problems and how they may affect their patients. This will include understanding the links between patient’s physical and mental health, so that staff know what actions they can take to ensure that patients receive appropriate support for both their mental and physical health care needs.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to assist homeowners facing problems paying their mortgages and to provide practical advice and support.

Kris Hopkins

The Council of Mortgage Lenders reported 28,900 repossessions in 2013, down from 33,900 in 2012 and the lowest level since 2007. It has revised down its forecasts for 2014 to 28,000. The Government is not complacent, but believes this fall in repossessions is a consequence of improved arrears management by lenders and action the Coalition Government has taken to tackle the deficit and keep interest rates down.

Homeowners struggling with mortgage payments should take action as soon as possible by discussing their situation with their lender or contacting money advice experts such as Citizens Advice, Shelter, StepChange or National Debtline for free and independent advice on taking control of their finances.

Government support is available in the form of Support for Mortgage Interest, paid as part of DWP benefits to help eligible out-of-work households meet their monthly mortgage interest payments. The Budget in March this year extended the enhancements to the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme (a shortened 13 week waiting period and an increased capital limit of £200,000), until 31 March 2016.

Within England the Government continues to ensure the provision of free on-the-day legal advice (the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme) to assist households at possession hearings. We are providing £470 million of funding in the current Spending Review period to prevent and tackle homelessness and repossessions.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage primary school children to become active and involved in local sports organisations.

Mrs Helen Grant

Over 17,500 schools are voluntarily taking part in the Sainsbury’s School Games—over 70% of all schools in England—including approximately 13,000 primary schools. Participating schools can choose from sports formats developed by 31 National Governing bodies for sport. Schools are supported by 450 School Games organisers across the country, who are connecting School Games to community sports clubs to help ensure activity is sustained beyond school.

In addition, through the primary PE and sport premium, we are investing over £450 million across government (up to and including the academic year 2015/16) to improve physical education and sport in primary schools. Heads are free to choose how they use the funding to secure the greatest impact, which may include working with local sports organisations and/or increasing pupils’ participation in the School Games.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to prevent modern slavery.

Karen Bradley

The Government is determined to lead the global fight against modern slavery,
and have introduced the Modern Slavery Bill to help us do so. The Bill aims to
give law enforcement the tools to stamp out modern slavery and to enhance protection for
victims. The Bill was published on 10th June 2014.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that costs of public transport do not increase.

Stephen Hammond

I recognise concerns passengers have about impacts of fares on household budgets, which is why for the first time in a decade average regulated rail fares have been capped at inflation for 2014.

Outside London, bus services are deregulated and fares are mainly a matter for the commercial judgement of bus operators. However, the Government has made a commitment to retain the current Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) rate for the remainder of this parliament and has frozen the fuel duty rate until May 2015.

Public transport costs in Northern Ireland are a matter for the NI Assembly.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment she has made of the Giro D’Italia in Northern Ireland; and what plans she has to ensure a positive legacy from the event.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

The Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) estimates that the Giro d’Italia “Grande Partenza” was viewed by 775 million people in 165 countries across the world giving this huge audience the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful scenery of Northern Ireland. NITB has estimated that the event should generate 140,000 tourist visits to Northern Ireland.

Building on the legacy of the Giro d’Italia is, of course, for the Northern Ireland Executive to take forward and I understand that the Assembly has discussed the issue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to ensure a high standard of teaching in numeracy and literacy.

Elizabeth Truss

We have published a more rigorous curriculum for English and mathematics. The new national curriculum sets expectations that match those in the highest-performing education jurisdictions in the world, challenging pupils to realise their potential in an increasingly competitive global market. It increases the level of demand from an early age, with greater emphasis on arithmetic, including learning times tables to 12 x 12 by age 9 and removing calculators from key stage 2 tests in mathematics, and on phonics, grammar and vocabulary development in English. GCSEs in English language and mathematics are also being reformed to be more challenging and give stronger guarantees of literacy and numeracy, with the mathematics GCSE in particular covering more than the current GCSE.

We are confident that our reform to the national curriculum will give teachers greater flexibility and freedom, which will help to raise standards and expectations for all pupils. It has been significantly slimmed down and will free-up teachers to use their professional judgement to provide support that best meets the needs of their pupils.

We have invested in and reformed initial teacher training (ITT) to focus on attracting the very best graduates with the right qualities for teaching into the profession through making more scholarships available; using bursaries to attract more of the most talented graduates in key subjects such as maths and physics and supporting the expansion of the highly-successful Teach First programme. Teach First is now the largest graduate recruiter in any sector in the United Kingdom.

In 2013/14, we recruited 96% of the overall number of trainees we set out to recruit and the proportion with first-class or 2:1 degrees has risen 3 percentage points (74%) – a record compared to last year (71%). We have raised the bar for entry into ITT by making skills tests tougher, limiting candidates to two re-sits and making passing the tests in literacy and numeracy a requirement before entering, rather than exiting, ITT.

Sir Andrew Carter has been appointed to lead an independent review about the effectiveness of ITT. As part of this, the review will look at ITT courses for both primary and secondary teaching to consider how well trainees are equipped to become outstanding teachers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that children at primary and secondary schools have access to a healthy and balanced dinner each day.

Mr David Laws

The independent School Food Plan, published in July 2013, is designed to increase the quality and take-up of school meals in England and ensure that the food available conforms to healthy standards. As part of the School Food Plan, we are introducing new statutory food-based standards for schools in England from January 2015 and funding three organisations to increase take-up in junior and secondary schools.

From September 2014 we are introducing free school meals for every child in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England, to ensure that every child in those year groups has access to a nutritious lunch. We are targeting infants in order to help establish good eating patterns early. Our intention is that by providing a meal when children start at school, they and their parents will see the benefits of school meals and continue to choose them throughout their education.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the effective implementation of regulations (a) relating to storage of slurry and (b) in general for safety in farm yards.

George Eustice

Implementing safety regulations in farm yards is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE recognises agriculture as a priority industry and has a programme for measurable and sustainable changes to the industry’s health and safety performance.

The regulation of slurry storage is a devolved matter. In England it is controlled by the Water Resources (Control of Pollution) (Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil) Regulations 2010 (the SSAFO regulations), with the Environment Agency as the main regulator. From this year the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is including slurry storage in its cross compliance inspections. Both the RPA and Environment Agency work closely with the HSE on farm safety.

Slurry storage and management in England has been reviewed recently by a Joint Industry and Government Working Group and this included a review of the SSAFO regulations. The Group’s report was published on 21 November 2013 and is available online at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/slurry-management-and-storage-joint-government-and-industry-report.The report recognised the risks involved in managing slurry and included a recommendation about developing regular assessment of the condition of slurry stores to provide assurance that stores both prevent environmental pollution and meet health and safety requirements.The Government and industry continue to work in partnership to implement the recommendations.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what direct steps the Government has taken to ensure the safety of Christians in countries where they are being persecuted for their faith.

Mr David Lidington

Freedom of religion or belief is a priority for this Government internationally. On 15 November 2014, the Senior Minister of State, my noble Friend, the right hon. Baroness Warsi gave a speech in Washington stressing the need for an international response to the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities. The full text of her speech is available on our website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/an-international-response-to-a-global-crisis. We are concerned about the rising tide of persecution of individuals on the basis of their religion and belief. We regularly raise individual cases and discriminatory legislation with other governments and we support overseas programmes designed to overcome prejudice, discrimination and sectarianism. We also work in multilateral fora to ensure that the right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief is afforded the international legal protection that it deserves. Furthermore the Senior Minister of State has convened meetings of international leaders to generate practical steps to promote freedom of religion or belief and to fight religious intolerance within our societies.