The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of apprentices working in the curry industry.
Nick Boles
Information on the number of Apprentices working in the curry industry is not available.
Apprenticeship starts by Sector Framework and Standard are published as a supplementary table (first link) to a Statistical First Release (second link).
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what arrangements are in place to enable UK citizens to submit reimbursement claims under the European Health Insurance Card regulations; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of those arrangements.
Justin Tomlinson
In the UK, the NHS Choices website provides comprehensive information on the arrangements that are in place to enable UK citizens to submit reimbursement claims under the EU regulations. Such claims are dealt with by a dedicated team in the Department for Work and Pensions – the DWP Overseas Healthcare Team. Contact details for the DWP Overseas Healthcare Team are provided on the NHS Choices website and may also be found on the EHIC itself.
The reimbursement processes to which all member states adhere have been in place for many years and work in much the same way across Europe. The European Commission and the member states are jointly responsible for assessing the effectiveness of the regulations on an on-going basis and where necessary the Commission will recommend any proposed changes for consideration and agreement with the member states.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what arrangements there are for negotiating national prices for rare disease drugs that are not reviewed by NICE.
George Freeman
The prices of branded medicines to the health service, including those for rare disease drugs, are controlled by a voluntary and statutory scheme. The 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) agreed a fixed level of growth on the vast majority of National Health Service spend on branded medicines with additional expenditure above this level paid for by the pharmaceutical companies. Over the first three years of the 2014 PPRS the UK Health services are expected to get back almost £1.8 billion in PPRS payments.
It is NHS England’s responsibility to develop commissioning policies for treatments provided as part of prescribed specialised services, including some medicines for rare diseases. As part of the development of such policies, NHS England may take into account commercial offers manufacturers may make to the NHS. The Accelerated Access Review is looking with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence at a range of new mechanisms for drug reimbursement adaptive pathways and managed access agreements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the number of war widows who remarried between 6 April 2005 and 1 April 2015.
Mark Lancaster
Between 6 April 2005 and 1 April 2015, 195 war widow(er)s remarried regardless of when they became a war widow(er).
After becoming a war widow prior to 6 April 2005, 135 women remarried between 6 April 2005 and 1 April 2015.
In line with Defence Statistics’ Rounding Policy for War Pension Scheme data, figures have been rounded to the nearest five.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on local economies of stone theft.
Karen Bradley
Stone theft has a detrimental effect on towns and communities across England and Wales. The impact of these crimes includes both the economic cost to the victim, but there are also wider costs to the community, for example where schools, churches or heritage items are targeted by criminals.
We have received no recent representations from local authorities on this issue, nor have we had recent discussions with the police on stone theft specifically. However, the police are working with Historic England, the Crown Prosecution Service and others to share intelligence and shape good practice in tackling and preventing heritage crime, such as stone theft.
We would encourage all victims of stone theft, whether individuals or organisations, to report instances of these crimes to their local police, so that the crimes can be properly recorded and investigated. The local response is a matter for individual chief officers of police and Police and Crime Commissioners, taking into account the specific local issues and demands that they face.
We are satisfied that the existing legislation provides the police and courts with sufficient powers to respond to stone theft.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many applicants to the Pubs Code Adjudicator vacancy were subject to departmental clearance checks; and how many applicants did not pass those checks and for what reasons.
Anna Soubry
In accordance with standard departmental practice, successful candidates are subject to departmental clearance checks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support children with Kawasaki disease.
George Freeman
The Government published the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in November 2013. The strategy contains over 50 commitments to ensure people living with a rare disease, such as Kawasaki disease, have access to the best evidence-based care and treatment that health and social services, working with charities, researchers and industry can provide.
It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricular to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in both scarlet fever and Kawasaki disease.
Health Education England works with bodies that set curricula such as the General Medical Council and the Royal Colleges to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.
The Department and its arm’s length bodies have not published any specific guidance on the similarities between Kawasaki disease and scarlet fever.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline on the assessment and initial management of fever in under 5s sets out the circumstances in which a diagnosis of Kawasaki disease should be considered, and Public Health England (PHE) has endeavoured to keep healthcare professionals, schools and the general public informed of the increased incidence of scarlet fever through timely information, news stories and updates on the PHE website and by using social and other media. These awareness raising measures assist general practitioners and other frontline healthcare professionals in reaching a correct diagnosis more quickly and encourage patients to seek medical advice early so that suspected cases receive prompt antibiotic treatment to reduce the risk of complications and limit further transmission.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-04-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with international partners on aid access to Madaya in Syria.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK is part of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG). The ISSG Humanitarian Task Force meets on a weekly basis to push for increased access across Syria, in line with relevant Security Council Resolutions. We have been pushing hard through these discussions for humanitarian access to be granted to all besieged and hard to reach places in Syria, including Madaya. As a result, humanitarian convoys have reached 11 besieged areas, including Madaya – several inter-agency convoys have reached a total of 150,000 people in besieged areas. This is out of a total of 487,000 people in besieged areas.
However, progress is too slow. More needs to be done to provide for all those in need in Syria. We are also deeply concerned by reports of civilian deaths in Madaya because their medical evacuations were blocked. We are pressing for an end to the removal of medical equipment from convoys by the regime, the evacuation of critical medical cases and regular access to healthcare for besieged populations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-04-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of disability benefits for which disabled refugees in the UK are eligible.
Justin Tomlinson
Refugees who are eligible must meet the same basic conditions of entitlement for disability benefits as other recipients.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average hourly earnings were of his Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Department for Transport is made up of the central Department and the following agencies:
The table below shows the average hourly earnings for both BME and non- BME staff within the Department for Transport in 2015 and 2016. It is voluntary for staff to declare their ethnic origin. Data for staff who have chosen not to declare their ethnic origin is also provided in the tables.
|
2015 |
BME |
Non BME |
Not Disclosed |
|
AA |
£8.78 |
£8.69 |
£9.11 |
|
AO |
£10.87 |
£10.65 |
£10.55 |
|
EO |
£13.54 |
£13.37 |
£13.02 |
|
HEO |
£16.73 |
£16.67 |
£16.22 |
|
SEO |
£20.82 |
£20.96 |
£20.29 |
|
G7 |
£27.35 |
£27.62 |
£26.63 |
|
G6 |
£41.55 |
£34.92 |
£34.78 |
|
SCS 1 |
£56.63 |
£44.72 |
£47.03 |
|
SCS 2 |
– |
£57.14 |
£70.92 |
|
SCS 3 |
– |
£69.23 |
£67.67 |
|
2016 |
BME |
Non BME |
Not Disclosed |
|
AA |
£8.88 |
£8.91 |
£9.39 |
|
AO |
£10.97 |
£10.85 |
£10.76 |
|
EO |
£13.58 |
£13.46 |
£13.20 |
|
HEO |
£16.59 |
£16.65 |
£16.60 |
|
SEO |
£21.51 |
£21.17 |
£21.43 |
|
G7 |
£27.36 |
£26.99 |
£26.50 |
|
G6 |
£41.80 |
£34.62 |
£34.80 |
|
SCS 1 |
£42.34 |
£44.10 |
£48.40 |
|
SCS 2 |
– |
£58.25 |
£73.56 |
|
SCS 3 |
– |
£70.42 |
£70.36 |