The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of newly qualified doctors has entered (a) primary care and (b) hospitals.
Ben Gummer
The requested information is not collected centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of investment in psychiatric services for children.
Alistair Burt
The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce was established in September 2014 to consider ways to improve how children and young people’s mental health (CYPMH) services are organised, commissioned and provided. Evidence presented to and discussions in the Taskforce underlined the complexity and severity of the current set of challenges facing child and adolescent mental health services, including investment and funding arrangements. The work of the Taskforce resulted in the publication of the Government report, Future in Mind, which established a clear and powerful consensus about system-wide transformation to improve CYPMH.
This Government is committed to delivering this. An additional £1.4 billion has been made available over the course of this parliament to support this transformation programme, which includes investment in a range of mental health services for children and young people services, including psychiatric services. This includes £150 million to improve eating disorders and £75 million for perinatal mental health services.
Most of the additional funding is going direct to local areas to invest in transforming their services, but we need to balance this with investment nationally for workforce and system development, which sets the foundations for transformation. As this work progresses at national level, the amount going to local areas to support direct service delivery will gradually increase over the course of the five years.
Local Transformation Plans developed by clinical commissioning groups, covering all local areas, have been successfully assured by NHS England and funding was released in December 2015 to implement the Plans. These plans must cover the whole spectrum of CYPMH needs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the level of violent crime in Greater Manchester.
Mr John Hayes
The independent Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that in the year ending September 2015 violent crime was 25% lower than in June 2010 and shows no significant change compared to the previous year (September 2014). Knife crime offences recorded by the police also remain 14% below the level of offences in 2010.
Ending gang violence and exploitation is a priority for the Government and on 13 January 2016 we published a paper setting out our refreshed approach. This has a twin focus concerned with both reducing violence, including knife crime, and protecting vulnerable individuals from exploitation by gangs. We are taking a number of steps to reduce violent crime including supporting proactive policing on knife crime and working with retailers to promote the responsible sales of knives.
In addition, as part of the Government’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, we are funding Greater Manchester Police to deliver a project that aims to identify individuals at risk of becoming engaged in serious and organised crime and offering them an alternative path through a series of potential interventions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the gender pay gap for women over 40.
Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to full gender equality in the workplace. We will be introducing gender pay gap reporting for companies with at least 250 employees and will provide £500,000 in support to help business calculate, understand and address their gender pay gaps. The Government expects employers to start publishing the required information from April 2017.
The Government’s ambition is to unlock the skills, talents and experience of older workers. Working with business, International Women’s Day 2016 saw the Women’s Business Council launching a toolkit to encourage older women to enter and stay on in the workplace. The Women’s Business Council has established a working group on older women workers to address how business can offer practical support to older workers.
This builds on action the Government has already taken to ensure an effective framework to help women return to and progress in work. These measures include introducing shared parental leave, extending the right to request flexible working to all employees and increasing support for childcare costs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police forces in England operate a neighbourhood policing model.
Mike Penning
How neighbourhood policing is delivered, its priorities, and the specific model that is used, are decisions for Chief Constables in conjunction with their democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. This Government believes in local policing, accountable to local communities. That is why we abolished all central Government targets and put local people in charge by introducing directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of planned future budget reductions on the capacity of Greater Manchester police service to tackle cyber-crime.
Mike Penning
As the Chancellor announced in the Spending Review, no PCC will receive a reduction in cash funding over the Spending Review period if they choose to maximise their precept. It is an operational decision for chief officers, working with their PCC, to determine how best to allocate their available resources taking into account local and national priorities. In total, including national transformation funding and other funding, policing will see a £900 million increase in funding by 2019/20 in cash terms. We will continue to allocate specific funding for Counter Terrorism Policing over the course of the Spending Review period to ensure that the CT policing network has the capabilities it needs to tackle changing threats. The settlement will increase counter-terrorism policing funding in real terms in 16-17 to £670m.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the variation in average unit retail price of petrol and diesel in Northern Ireland and in the rest of the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fallon
No formal assessment has been made of the reasons for the variation in average unit retail prices of petrol and diesel in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Retail fuel prices are determined by the demand and supply fundamentals in local areas. Prices will reflect the underlying cost of crude oil, the process to refine it and transport it so that it is available for consumption at the pump.
Variations in prices are determined by changes in supply and demand factors both for crude oil and for individual products.
On 5 September 2012, the OFT launched a call for information (CFI) to investigate claims that the UK petrol and diesel sectors are not working well. In their January 2013 report they concluded that:
“Overall, on the basis of the evidence collected, it appears that competition in the UK road fuels sector is working relatively effectively”.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2015-01-13.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he last met the Chief Executive of Invest NI.
Mr David Gauke
Treasury Ministers 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
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-24.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2014, Official Report, column 36W, on minimum wage: Northern Ireland, whether HM Revenue and Customs’ national minimum wage enforcement team have any staff located in Northern Ireland outside the city of Belfast.
Mr David Gauke
The Government takes the enforcement of national minimum wage (NMW) very seriously and HMRC enforce the NMW legislation on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It does that by investigating all complaints made about employers suspected of not paying the minimum wage, in addition, carrying out targeted enforcement where it identifies a high risk of non-payment of NMW across the whole of the UK.
The National Minimum Wage team in Northern Ireland contains six full-time and two-part-time staff with all using Belfast as a base location.
However, as I explained in my previous response, HMRC deploys resources to risk, so work relating to a specific geographical area may not always be undertaken by the NMW team based in that area. In addition, the NMW Dynamic Response Team (DRT) provides a multi-agency response to emerging risks, high profile casework and compliance initiatives across the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-07-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what services Healthcare UK offers to organisations based in the devolved regions.
Matthew Hancock
As a constituent part of UK Trade and Investment, Healthcare UK has responsibility for the provision of support and assistance to new and existing healthcare exporters of goods and services across the UK and for promoting the UK and all its constituent parts to foreign investors.
The devolved administrations are responsible for devising and implementing additional programmes to meet the particular needs of companies based in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and for promoting Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to foreign investors.