Tag: Ian Austin

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect the four per cent year-in-year efficiency savings requirement has had on (a) staffing levels, (b) patient care and (c) waiting times in NHS trusts.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The 2010 Spending Review protected health funding in real terms. However, in order to continue to meet rising demands from an ageing population while improving services, NHS Leaders estimated that up to £20 billion of efficiency savings would be required over the four years from 2011-12 to 2014-15.

The NHS is on track to deliver these efficiency savings, having reported around £15 billion of efficiencies in the first three years, all of which are being reinvested into frontline care and have enabled the NHS to continue to meet rapidly rising demands whilst improving the quality of care.

There are now over 17,200 more professionally qualified clinical staff since May 2010 including:

– over 9,000 more doctors;

– over 3,300 more nurses, midwives and health visitors.

In contrast, the number of central administrative staff has fallen by over 20,200.

The NHS is experiencing high demand for many services from a growing, ageing population with complex health needs. Performance against quality measures remains high. We have put in place robust year-round operational resilience planning and performance management, backed by additional funding, to help the NHS continue to perform against the access standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress NICE has made on establishing Quality Standards on adult hearing loss.

George Freeman

I refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Hall Green (Mr Roger Godsiff) on 4 February to Question 222487.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect that the recently announced reductions in staffing levels at the Dudley Group of Hospitals will have on (a) patient care and (b) waiting times.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Department has made no such assessment.

It is a matter for the local National Health Service to plan its workforce, and to ensure it has the appropriate staff in place to provide high quality care for its patients.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that deafblind people unable to use a telephone or complete paper forms are able to submit claims for personal independence payments.

Justin Tomlinson

The claim process for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) has been developed involving claimants and people who support disabled people. This includes organisations which represent individuals with sensory impairments, including Sense, the deafblind charity, and Deafblind UK.

The current process allows for someone else to start the application for PIP over the telephone with the claimant present when the call is made. If a face-to-face visit and a specialist interpreter is required we would seek to provide one.

For the remainder of the process the claim forms, paper guidance and general information are available in a range of formats including large print, Braille, audio and British Sign Language.

We are working with Sense and RNIB in the development of the PIP Digital Claim. This will involve deafblind people testing the design and giving us feedback which we will use to make improvements to the online journey.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, want his policy is on promoting the demilitarisation of Gaza.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The organisations involved in the process of clearing home-owners’ applications to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) are the UN agencies doing the damage assessment, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Public Works and Housing and Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Government of Israel.

No individuals have been rejected to date, but a number of the assessments submitted require review ahead of further processing. These were mostly caused by repetition of names of individuals or where the assessments were recorded under the names of owners who are deceased for example. The GRM does not allow for the disqualification of individuals assessed for shelter repair on grounds of political association or geographic location in Gaza.

The Government of Israel, like all participants in the mechanism, is able to object to individuals participating in the GRM.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to respond to correspondence on case reference ZA12785.

Priti Patel

A response to the hon. Member was sent on 9 June 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of progress in the demilitarisation of Gaza.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We have not made a formal assessment of demilitarisation of Gaza.

We have been clear that we believe that a durable ceasefire agreement should ensure that: Hamas and other militant groups permanently end rocket fire and other attacks against Israel and that all terrorist groups in Gaza should disarm.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department will complete mandatory reconsideration of case reference number FBH 1826.

Justin Tomlinson

There is no record of a mandatory reconsideration being requested for case reference number FBH 1826.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of how many and what proportion of Disclosure and Barring Service applications were returned to applicants within (a) 20, (b) 40, (c) 60, (d) 80 and (e) 100 days and (f) more than 100 days in each of the last 12 months.

Karen Bradley

The number and proportion of disclosure applications completed within 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 days, and the number and proportion completed in more than 100 days, for each month from February 2014 to January 2015 is provided in the table below.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of application backlogs at the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Karen Bradley

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) receives around 4 million disclosure
applications a year and provides the Home Office with monthly updates on its
performance. Latest data for the 2014-15 operational year, covering the period
from April 2014 to January 2015, shows that 95.4% of disclosure certificates
were issued within 40 working days – well above the DBS service standard to
issue 88% of all disclosures within this time.

A key aspect of DBS administration is to ensure that disclosure checks are both
accurate and completed within service standard timescales. In the small
proportion of cases where checks have not been completed within these
timescales, the DBS is expected to take the necessary steps to progress the
case including, as appropriate, working with the police and other parties
involved in the checking process.