Tag: Emma Reynolds

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what provision there is for people with perinatal mental health issues living in clinical commissioning group areas where there is no specialist community perinatal mental health team.

Alistair Burt

This Government is committed to improving access to perinatal mental health services for women during pregnancy and in the first postnatal year. In January 2016 the Government set out that an additional £290 million will be made available over the next five years to 2020/21, over and above the money identified in the Spring Budget, to invest in perinatal mental health services. This is funded from within the Department’s overall Spending Review settlement and means that in total from 2015/16 to 2020/21 £365 million will be invested in perinatal mental health services.

We are aware that there is unacceptable variation in the levels of access to high quality, NICE-recommended specialist perinatal mental health care for women across England. A 2014 census identified that 40% of women in England have no access to specialist perinatal mental health services and that is why we have confirmed this additional investment. The funding should enable significant progress towards closing this gap and will help to enable women across the country to access evidence-based specialist support, in the community or through inpatient mother and baby services, closer to their home, when they need it. It is anticipated that, by 2020/21, around 30,000 more women should be able to access appropriate specialist support.

This new funding, together with the recommendations of the forthcoming report of the independent Mental Health Taskforce, will enable NHS England to work with partners to design a longer-term transformation programme to build capacity and capability in specialist perinatal mental health services over the next five years. This will include setting detailed plans for how the additional investment will be targeted over the period to 2020/21 and setting clear outcome measures and metrics to monitor the impact of the funding on perinatal mental health provision.

In 2015/16 work is already underway to lay the foundations for this longer-term work programme through targeted funding of activities to build capacity in specialist services. This will include, for example, a £1 million investment in strengthening clinical networks across the country. It is also expected to include the provision of national and regional benchmarking data and analytical support to regions, and work to develop clinical leadership capacity. Work will also continue to support the development of specialist mother and baby units in the regions identified as most in need of new services.

To ensure the workforce are available and appropriately trained, NHS England is working closely with Health Education England and key stakeholders to better understand the future workforce commissioning requirements and how it is best to meet multi professional education and training needs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he or his officials have had with UK businesses on the consequences on them of leaving the EU Customs Union.

Margot James

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and his officials have on-going discussions with businesses operating in multiple sectors to understand their views on a range of issues following the referendum.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people are employed in (a) the UK and (b) each region by companies (i) with headquarters in the EU and (ii) owned in the EU.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people are employed by non-British EU companies in (a) the UK and (b) each region.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-10-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on foreign direct investment of the UK leaving the EU.

Mr David Gauke

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne) has noted, the best outcome for the UK economy is that we achieve major economic reform of the EU. The Prime Minister is focused on success: he believes he can and will succeed in reforming and renegotiating our relationship with the EU, and campaigning to keep the UK in the EU on that basis.

The Confederation of British Industry and British Chambers of Commerce have both come out to say they support the reform agenda the Prime Minister is seeking to deliver.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding the UK was allocated from the (a) European Regional Development Fund, (b) European Social Funds, (c) European Agricultural Fund of Guarantee, (d) European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, (e) European Territorial Cooperation, (f) Youth Employment Initiative and (g) European Maritime and Fisheries Fund in the period from 2010 to 2014.

Anna Soubry

The information requested for points a, b, d, e, f, and g is set out in the financing plans in the respective programmes for these funds which can be found on gov.uk, gov.scotland and gov.wales.

The information requested for point c can be found on the European Commission and Eur-lex websites.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the benefits to UK businesses in the (a) retail, (b) automobile, (c) construction, (d) ICT, (e) financial services and (f) defence sectors of reduced tariff barriers arising from UK membership of the World Trade Organisation.

Anna Soubry

The Government has not made a specific assessment of the benefits to UK businesses in these sectors as a result of the UK’s membership of the WTO. But the benefits will be substantial as over the 20 years of the WTO average applied tariffs have been cut in half from 15 per cent in 1995 to less than 8 per cent today. And there are now 161 WTO Members comprising 98% of world trade, with the new (post-1995) members contributing 21% of this total. Further benefits are likely from negotiations currently underway: for example the Information Technology Agreement 2 (ITA2) should liberalise tariffs that affect around £12 billion of UK exports and imports.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the benefit to the UK economy of the preferential trade agreements the EU has negotiated with countries outside the EU.

Anna Soubry

The cumulative impact of all concluded, on-going and potential trade negotiations currently being undertaken by the EU could boost UK GDP by over £ 20 billion in the long run.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the benefits to the UK economy of (a) the absence of tariff barriers for intra-EU trade and (b) other aspects of the single market.

Anna Soubry

The EU provides the biggest single market in the world. EU countries trade twice as much with each other as they would without it. The absence of tariffs contributes to this. The single market also brings benefits for consumers. For example, between 2000 and 2006, the cost of making a 10-minute call in the EU fell by an average of 74%, and roaming charges will be abolished completely in 2017. As part of our agenda for EU reform, we want to go further and faster on economic competitiveness including liberalisation of the services sector, trade, and de-regulation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many bids under the Community Right to Challenge have been assessed by local authorities.

Stephen Williams

The Department does not collect or collate administrative data from local authorities on the number of Expressions of Interest they receive under the Community Right to Challenge. We do however carry out follow up surveys with community groups and parish councils that have used the Community Right to Challenge support service. The Department also collates intelligence from local authorities, where they speak to us about an Expression of Interest.

From this, we are aware of 51 Expressions of Interest submissions to councils, but this is not a comprehensive figure. Of these, we know of seven completed procurement exercises, four of which have resulted in the organisation that submitted the Expressions of Interest winning a contract. We know of two other cases where an Expression of Interest has been accepted and a procurement triggered, but not completed.

We know that voluntary groups remain interested in the Community Right to Challenge. The most recent follow up survey of organisations using the Community Right to Challenge support service showed that a further 43 groups, out of 105 respondents, were intending to submit an Expression of Interest in the next 12 months.

We do know that Challenge is recognised by the voluntary and community and parish sectors as being helpful in opening up relationships with lcoal authorities. In a recent survey of 188 enquirers to the advice service, 25% were in negotiation with their council on potential commissioning and said negotiation had come about as a direct result of the Challenge legislation. Almost half (48%) felt that their local authority was more open to contracting with eligible bodies than before the legislation came into force and 25% were working with ttheir authorities on commissioning as a result of the legislation. 70% felt the support they received had improved their contrct readiness and 82% were expecting to bid for the delivery of public services. Timescales for procurement exercises are sdignificant but we are working with support providers to monitor the number of organisations that succeed in winning contracts.

This information is informing our future programme of work especially around commissioning processes. Community groups advise us that they are encouraged by the shift in culture and the changing mind-sets of procurement and commissioning officiers in councils across England as a result of the Localism Act 2011. They tell us the community rights have prompted many councils to examine how local public services are commissioned in their area.

Through our support programme we have supported 376 groups with specialist referrals and provided 216 groups with financial assistance to develop their capacity to bid for and deliver services.