Tag: Helen Jones

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many pupils in the North West have received funding from the European Regional Development Fund; and what the total investment from that fund in that region has been in each year since 2000.

James Wharton

The European Regional Development Fund does not provide funding to pupils.

The total investment for the Fund 2000-06 programme period in the North West was equivalent to just under £1.5 billion.

The figures for the 2007-13 European Regional Developement Fund programme, where investment commenced in 2009, are as follows:

Year	Annual expenditure (£m)	Cumulative expenditure (£m)
2009	168.2	168.2
2010	56.3	224.5
2011	63.2	287.7
2012	60.8	348.5
2013	81.2	429.7
2014	123.8	553.5
2015	56.9	610.4

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the annual costs incurred in clinical negligence legislation due to the failure of the NHS Litigation Authority to (a) properly investigate claims early in the process and (b) offer a realistic settlement at the earliest possible time; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

The role of the National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHS LA) is to deal efficiently and effectively with clinical negligence cases against the NHS as set out in the framework agreement with the Department.

The NHS LA discharges its functions by:

― paying justified claims promptly and appropriately;

― defending claims without merit;

― undertaking appropriate and proportionate risk management activities with its members with a view to assisting them to minimise their claims and thus improve patient and staff safety; and

― ensuring that the lessons learned from claims and the other activities of the NHS LA are appropriately shared in order to help reduce adverse incidents in the future.

A review of NHS LA by the Department, published in July 2015, concluded that it is a well-led and efficient organisation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on finalising the route for the second stage of High Speed 2; and when he expects to announce the decision on that route.

Mr Robert Goodwill

In November last year the Secretary of State confirmed plans for accelerating construction of Phase Two from the West Midlands to Crewe so that it opens in 2027, six years earlier than planned.

We are developing our plans for the rest of Phase Two and we intend to make a decision on the rest of the route in autumn 2016.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received on behalf of local independent pharmacies in Warrington on their future funding.

David Mowat

We have received representations from individuals, including the hon. Member and from a number of organisations representing pharmacies, pharmacists and patients in Cheshire, on our proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond.

We have also received representations from the National Pharmacy Association and Pharmacy Voice, of which the Association is a member. These include written communications and official meetings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to increase the availability of superfast broadband in (a) Warrington North constituency, (b) Culcheth and (c) Burtonwood.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Warrington, Culcheth and Burtonwood are covered by the Connecting Cheshire project. Over 62,000 homes and businesses in Cheshire have been upgraded to superfast broadband as a result of the project and we expect coverage to reach over 95 per cent in Cheshire by the end of 2017. It is estimated that the Warrington North constituency will have 98 per cent of premises able to connect to superfast by the end of the programme. Data is not collected below this scale.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-01-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received from (a) providers of supported housing and (b) organisations representing people with disabilities on the effect of a cap on housing benefit on the provision of supported housing.

Greg Hands

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is from referral to the commencement of a talking therapy course in (a) the North West and (b) Warrington.

Alistair Burt

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) dataset contains information on referrals to IAPT services which provide talking therapies. Information is provided both for Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and for all 33 North West CCGs combined for the year 2014/15.

Table: The number of referrals entering treatment¹ in the year, with mean and median waiting times to first treatment (days), for IAPT services in 2014/15. Data shown for NHS Warrington CCG and all North West CCGs combined².

	Total number of referrals entering treatment3	Average (mean) waiting time to first treatment appointment (days)4	Median5 waiting time to first treatment appointment (days)
Organisation name
NHS Warrington CCG	3,265	31	28
All North West CCGs combined	123,445	44	24

Notes:

¹In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment (an appointment with a therapy type recorded) in the year.

²CCG is based on GP Practice. Where GP Practice is not recorded, or cannot be assigned to a CCG, the referral is categorised as ‘Unknown’.

³In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment in the year. Referral received date not necessarily in the year.

⁴The mean was used as the average.

⁵Means and medians have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

Waiting time is measured by counting the number of days between a referral being received and the first treatment appointment. For 2014/15, the presence of a valid therapy type is used as an indicator of whether treatment was provided in the course of the appointment.

Entering treatment figures are rounded to the nearest 5

Please note: It is generally advised that the median is used as the more reliable measure of average waiting time, as this accounts better for any outliers in the data

Source: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Dataset

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) access to justice and (b) early settlement of claims of changes made in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The last government implemented reforms to the justice system through provisions contained in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012. Part 1 of the Act reformed the legal aid system and Part 2 reformed costs and funding arrangements for civil litigation.

There will be post-implementation reviews of Parts 1 and 2 of the Act between three to five years after implementation (that is, between 2016 and 2018), although the government has indicated that it will carry out the review of Part 2 towards the end of that period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36419, if he will set out the actions required of an hon. Member, including the number of parliamentary questions asked, contributions to debate and other relevant matters which are deemed to demonstrate sufficient interest in devolution, for such hon. Members to be invited to meetings on future plans for the area they represent.

James Wharton

I would welcome a proactive and enthusiastic approach to involvement on devolution matters and associated opportunities locally, with which my department stands ready to engage. It is for hon. Members to determine for themselves what that involves.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received from the National Pharmacy Association on the potential effect of planned changes to Government funding of local independent pharmacies.

David Mowat

We have received representations from individuals, including the hon. Member and from a number of organisations representing pharmacies, pharmacists and patients in Cheshire, on our proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond.

We have also received representations from the National Pharmacy Association and Pharmacy Voice, of which the Association is a member. These include written communications and official meetings.