Tag: Helen Hayes

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what rights protected in the Human Rights Act 1998 the Government plans not to include in the proposed British Bill of Rights.

Dominic Raab

We have been clear that the Bill of Rights will remain faithful to the basic principles which we signed up to in the European Convention on Human Rights. Our focus will be on mitigating the expansion of rights by the Strasbourg Court and the Human Rights Act. This government is as committed as any to upholding such rights, which underpin any civilised society, but we also want to prevent abuse of the system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department is giving to foundation trusts that are experiencing cash shortages.

Alistair Burt

Cash support is provided to foundation trusts to ensure the continued delivery of safe and quality health services during a period in which an assessment is made of the underlying issues and a recovery plan developed. The range of financial support available is set out in the Secretary of State’s Guidance under section 42A of the National Health Service Act 2006.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-07-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to announce the rate for the NHS-funded nursing care for residents of care homes in 2016-17.

Alistair Burt

Mazars LLP were appointed to carry out an independent review of the costs of nursing care by a registered nurse. Mazars’ report[1] recommends that the National Health Service-funded nursing care rate should be £156.25 – 40% higher than the 2015/16 rate. The Government has taken on board Mazars’ recommendation, meaning the rates paid by clinical commissioning groups for eligible care home residents assessed to require the help of a registered nurse are now as follows:

― standard rate – £156.25 per week; and

― higher rate – £215.04 per week (this is only relevant for those people who were already on the higher rate in 2007 when the single band was introduced).

These rates will be backdated to 1 April 2016 for individuals who were in receipt of NHS-funded Nursing Care from that time and paid on an interim basis whilst regional variation and the element of the rate for staff working on an agency basis are reviewed.

[1] http://www.mazars.co.uk/Home/Our-Sectors/Public-Services/Health/NHS-Funded-Nursing-Care-Review

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department plans to publish its responses to the consumer group, Which?, super-complaint on rail delays compensation made to the Office of Rail and Road.

Paul Maynard

The Department is developing its response following the Office of Rail and Road’s formal investigation of this super-complaint. We will publish this response in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of freezing local housing allowance on working families in privately-rented accommodation.

Justin Tomlinson

As Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation levels are close to zero, the impact of freezing Local Housing Allowance rates will have no impact in 2016/17 when compared to the counterfactual of uprating by CPI. (In future years, 30 per cent of the savings from the ‘freeze’ will be used to create further Targeted Affordability Funding to help those areas where rent increases are causing a shortage of affordable accommodation.)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the smallest geographical unit is for which data on the performance of the Disclosure and Barring Service is gathered for enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

Karen Bradley

The performance data that the Disclosure and Barring Service gathers routinely is at national level and is published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-1-disclosure-progress-information-disclosed-and-update-service-subscriptions

Also published on the website is the performance of individual police forces in processing applications referred to them by the DBS:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-5-police-disclosure-unit-performance

The DBS works continually to improve its response to data requests. I will write separately to the Honourable Member about recent work on constituency data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-07-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will investigate the reasons for the delay in agreeing the rate for NHS-funded nursing care for residents of care homes in 2016-17.

Alistair Burt

Mazars LLP were appointed to carry out an independent review of the costs of nursing care by a registered nurse. Mazars’ report[1] recommends that the National Health Service-funded nursing care rate should be £156.25 – 40% higher than the 2015/16 rate. The Government has taken on board Mazars’ recommendation, meaning the rates paid by clinical commissioning groups for eligible care home residents assessed to require the help of a registered nurse are now as follows:

― standard rate – £156.25 per week; and

― higher rate – £215.04 per week (this is only relevant for those people who were already on the higher rate in 2007 when the single band was introduced).

These rates will be backdated to 1 April 2016 for individuals who were in receipt of NHS-funded Nursing Care from that time and paid on an interim basis whilst regional variation and the element of the rate for staff working on an agency basis are reviewed.

[1] http://www.mazars.co.uk/Home/Our-Sectors/Public-Services/Health/NHS-Funded-Nursing-Care-Review

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2016 to Question 44420, how the Government is monitoring the extent to which the NHS is offering treatment in accordance with NICE guidelines across all areas of medicine; and what assessment the Government has made of the extent to which treatment is falling short of NICE guidelines for financial reasons.

Nicola Blackwood

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines represent best practice, are based on the available evidence and developed through wide consultation. As best practice, National Health Service organisations should take them into account in the care and treatment of patients, but they are not mandatory and we have made no assessment of the extent to which the NHS is offering treatment in accordance with NICE guidelines.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the apprenticeship levy will apply to charities who employ more than 250 people.

Nick Boles

The apprenticeships levy will apply to all UK employers but will only be paid by those with a pay bill of more than £3 million. We will continue to engage with employers, including the charity sector, in the development and implementation of the apprenticeship levy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the oldest uncompleted enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check was submitted.

Karen Bradley

The oldest uncompleted application for an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate was received on 30 May 2014.

It would not be appropriate to comment further on this specific case. But there are a number of factors which can affect the timely completion of checks. These include the length of time it can take for an employer to deal with the initial application, the accurate completion of the application form, the clarity of the information provided, the existence of conviction or non-conviction information and the operational effectiveness of the disclosure units of the police forces involved in the enhanced process. In some cases, forces will ask DBS to clarify some details provided by the applicant which requires further investigation and this can cause further delays.