Tag: Jason McCartney

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to respond to recommendation 2015/105 from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch in its 2/2015 Investigation Report, on adoption of the Boat Safety Scheme by the Lake District National Park Authority.

Rory Stewart

The National Park and the Broads Authorities are independent bodies operating within the local government framework and therefore it is for the Lake District National Park Authority to decide whether to adopt the recommendation to implement the Boat Safety Scheme. I understand the National Park Authority will shortly be seeking its members’ views on the recommendation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will change local authority public health team regulations to ensure that (a) public mental health no longer falls under the heading of miscellaneous and (b) there is parity of esteem between physical and mental health in the activity of such teams.

Jane Ellison

We accept entirely the centrality of mental health and wellbeing to public health and the need for parity of esteem across health services. While it is right for local authorities (LAs) to determine their own local priorities and account to their own electorates, the Department’s Public Health Outcomes Framework – which defines areas for improvement across the public health system, and to which LAs must have regard – includes a number of indicators that relate directly to mental health. Public Health England collects and publishes LA-level data for all these indicators and will continue to support and advise LAs on the evidence base for effective mental health interventions.

We have no plans to require LAs to report spending on public mental health. LAs’ public health functions cover a wide range of activity, and it is important for central government to limit its demands for information from local government to a minimum. LAs would also be unable to disaggregate their spending on, for example, a drug or alcohol misuse service in order to isolate a sum that could be attributed purely to the mental health aspect of the service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions the Minister for Public Health has had with mental health charities on the importance of public mental health interventions.

Alistair Burt

The Minister for Public Health has not held any recent discussions on this subject.

Promoting good mental health is a key strategic objective of Public Health England’s (PHE) public mental health programme, alongside preventing mental illness and improving the lives of those living with mental illness. PHE is working with the National Health Service, local authorities and other partners to help more people have good mental health, improve the physical health and wellbeing of those with mental illness, and ensure few people as possible suffer avoidable harm.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make representations to the Egyptian government on the possibility of submitting human remains found in the Western Desert in 2012 if still in existence to new DNA tests to compare them with DNA samples provided by the family of Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping whose aeroplane crashed in the Sahara on 28 June 1942.

Mark Lancaster

Rigorous DNA tests undertaken by the Egyptian authorities at our behest some three years ago were unable to provide viable DNA samples due to the age and degradation of the human remains found. There are no plans to undertake new DNA tests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the estimated cost is of introducing a National Defence medal; and what plans his Department has to reconsider the award of a National Defence medal.

Matthew Hancock

An independent review undertaken by Sir John Holmes estimated the costs of producing a national defence medal to be £475million. This was based on an approximate figure of 7 million recipients who had completed four years of regular or Reserve Service, or completed national service (back to 9 September 1945), and 100% take up. There are no current plans to reconsider the award of the National Defence Medal.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that local authorities provide sufficient short breaks to children with life-shortening conditions in England.

Edward Timpson

Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local Short Breaks Duty Statement showing what services are available, how they are responding to the needs of local parent carers, and how short breaks can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are responsible for funding this short breaks provision.

Between April 2011 and March 2015, the government made available £800 million to local authorities for short break provision, along with an additional £80 million of capital funding for equipment and infrastructure.

Between April 2015 and March 2016, we awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children, and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing, and taking up short breaks for disabled children. The Department for Education has allocated £200m funding over the next 4 years to support innovation and improvement to children’s social work practice. We are currently considering how we can use some of this funding to support local innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children and their families and for making services more accessible.

The Department’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Advisory Team is continuing to offer support and challenge to local authorities to help make sure they meet all of their statutory requirements and that quality continues to improve. From this summer, there will be opportunities through the new Ofsted/Care Quality Commission SEND inspections framework for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND, including their need for short breaks services. In addition, Together for Short lives, the UK charity for children and young people with life limiting conditions, received £551,029 from the Department for Education over a 3 year period – between April 2013 and March 2016, to help ensure children and young people with life limiting conditions benefited from the SEND reforms.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have not received homecare medicines and products on time for treatment of (a) cystic fibrosis, (b) HIV and (c) rheumatoid arthritis in the last year.

Norman Lamb

This information is not collected by the Department or NHS England.