Tag: Jeff Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time was for the completion of pre-employment checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service in each of the last three years in (a) the UK and (b) Manchester Withington constituency.

Sarah Newton

In the last 12 months (1 October 2015 – 30 September 2016), the proportion of disclosure applications which took longer than 60 days was as follows: (a) the UK – 5.4%, (b) Manchester – 3.9%, (c) Manchester Withington – 2.8%. The Disclosure and Barring Service is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner and is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. The average time taken in days to process disclosures checks in the last three years is as follows:

Time Period	Average waiting time – United Kingdom	Average waiting time – Manchester Withington
Oct-13 to Sep-14	13.4	12.0
Oct-14 to Sep-15	14.4	12.1
Oct-15 to Sep-16	15.5	12.6

The average processing time for applications to the DBS for each police force area in England from 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2016 is set out in the table below. This shows the average number of days each application took from the point at which the application form was received to the date the certificate was issued, broken down by the applicant’s geographical police force area. This information reflects all applications sent to the DBS, of which a proportion are sent to police forces for consideration for disclosure.

Police Force Area in which applicant lives	Average time taken in calendar days
Metropolitan	28.1
Cumbria	11.5
Lancashire	11.6
Merseyside	12.1
Greater Manchester	14.1
Cheshire	11.1
Northumbria	13.9
Durham	11.9
North Yorkshire	14.1
West Yorkshire	12.7
South Yorkshire	19.8
Humberside	12.2
Cleveland	13.5
West Midlands	10.3
Staffordshire	9.6
West Mercia	11.9
Warwickshire	9.4
Derbyshire	14.1
Nottinghamshire	11.7
Lincolnshire	10.5
Leicestershire	9.4
Northamptonshire	17.9
Cambridgeshire	10.1
Norfolk	9.1
Suffolk	9.9
Bedfordshire	11.6
Hertfordshire	14.8
Essex	14.2
Thames Valley	16.1
Hampshire	14.2
Surrey	14.1
Kent	15.8
Sussex	11.9
City of London	11.9
Devon & Cornwall	11.3
Avon And Somerset	10.7
Gloucester	10.7
Wiltshire	10.2
Dorset	26.8

For a breakdown of how long police forces take to process applications they receive; this information is regularly published on the DBS website and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-performance

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of reductions in the public health grant for local authorities on local smoking cessation services in (a) Manchester, Withington constituency, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) the UK.

Jane Ellison

Local authorities will, over the next five years, receive £16 billion through the public health grant. Local authorities have responsibility for protecting public health and meeting the needs of their local population, including tobacco control.

Public Health England supports local authorities by developing and distributing information and advice for the commissioning of effective regional approaches to tobacco control which maximise value for money at a local level.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service for each police force area in England for the most recent year for which figures are available.

Sarah Newton

In the last 12 months (1 October 2015 – 30 September 2016), the proportion of disclosure applications which took longer than 60 days was as follows: (a) the UK – 5.4%, (b) Manchester – 3.9%, (c) Manchester Withington – 2.8%. The Disclosure and Barring Service is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner and is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. The average time taken in days to process disclosures checks in the last three years is as follows:

Time Period	Average waiting time – United Kingdom	Average waiting time – Manchester Withington
Oct-13 to Sep-14	13.4	12.0
Oct-14 to Sep-15	14.4	12.1
Oct-15 to Sep-16	15.5	12.6

The average processing time for applications to the DBS for each police force area in England from 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2016 is set out in the table below. This shows the average number of days each application took from the point at which the application form was received to the date the certificate was issued, broken down by the applicant’s geographical police force area. This information reflects all applications sent to the DBS, of which a proportion are sent to police forces for consideration for disclosure.

Police Force Area in which applicant lives	Average time taken in calendar days
Metropolitan	28.1
Cumbria	11.5
Lancashire	11.6
Merseyside	12.1
Greater Manchester	14.1
Cheshire	11.1
Northumbria	13.9
Durham	11.9
North Yorkshire	14.1
West Yorkshire	12.7
South Yorkshire	19.8
Humberside	12.2
Cleveland	13.5
West Midlands	10.3
Staffordshire	9.6
West Mercia	11.9
Warwickshire	9.4
Derbyshire	14.1
Nottinghamshire	11.7
Lincolnshire	10.5
Leicestershire	9.4
Northamptonshire	17.9
Cambridgeshire	10.1
Norfolk	9.1
Suffolk	9.9
Bedfordshire	11.6
Hertfordshire	14.8
Essex	14.2
Thames Valley	16.1
Hampshire	14.2
Surrey	14.1
Kent	15.8
Sussex	11.9
City of London	11.9
Devon & Cornwall	11.3
Avon And Somerset	10.7
Gloucester	10.7
Wiltshire	10.2
Dorset	26.8

For a breakdown of how long police forces take to process applications they receive; this information is regularly published on the DBS website and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-performance

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people under the age of 25 in (a) England, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) Manchester, Withington constituency are employed on zero-hours contracts.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GPs in England have a specialism in mental health.

David Mowat

This information is not collected by the Department.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many fines have been issued for claiming free prescriptions without a valid exemption certificate in each (a) month and (b) year since the NHS Business Services Authority began checking eligibility for free prescriptions in September 2014.

Alistair Burt

Since September 2014, when the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took on responsibility for the service, a total of 747,790 penalty charge notices have been issued where someone claimed exemption on the basis that they held a valid exemption certificate but this could not be verified by the NHSBSA. A further 278,053 surcharge letters have been issued to follow up on penalty charge notices which have not been resolved through payment, cancellation (due to correction of erroneous information, for example) or waiving of the penalty charge. The annual and monthly breakdown is set out below.

Annual breakdown of Penalty Charges Notices and Surcharge letters

	Penalty Charge Notices	Surcharge letters
September 2014 – December 2014	59,564	20,562
January 2015 – December 2015	430,971	171,065
January 2016 – April 2016	257,255	86,426
Total	757,790	278,053

Monthly breakdown of Penalty Charge Notices and Surcharge letters

	Penalty Charge Notices	Surcharge letter
September 2014	5,298	1,733
October 2014	5,007	1,697
November 2014	23,511	8,344
December 2014	25,748	8,788
January 2015	53,668	11,445
February 2015	21,706	7,969
March 2015	15,316	6,182
April 2015	12,687	5,032
May 2015	20,122	8,189
June 2015	22,472	8,984
July 2015	18,249	6,550
August 2015	39,626	17,282
September 2015	57,661	24,634
October 2015	56,952	25,075
November 2015	64,573	28,655
December 2015	47,939	21,068
January 2016	82,881	36,766
February 2016	55,650	24,079
March 2016	49,767	20,340
April 2016	68,957	5,241
Total	747,790	278,053

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many mental health workers are attached to GP practices in England.

Mr Philip Dunne

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 September 2016 to Question 44555.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on school admissions of the finding of the report, An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign in October 2015, relating to information made available on requirements for religious observance as part of the admissions process for certain religiously selective schools.

Nick Gibb

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code (the code) and other admissions law.

Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements comply within two months of a determination. This includes requiring schools to amend their supplementary information forms when they do not comply with the code.

We support the right of schools with a religious designation to prioritise children of their faith designation but the code requires that any measure of religious activity used for admission purposes must be as laid out by their faith body.

The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients are registered at each GP surgery in Manchester, Withington constituency; what the capacity of each of those surgeries is; and how many of those surgeries are oversubscribed.

Alistair Burt

These data are not collected centrally.

Data on numbers of patients registered with general practitioner (GP) practices is published quarterly by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) in a report entitled ‘Number of Patients Registered at a GP Practice’. The latest available version is April 2016 and is available from the HSCIC website at:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB20480

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on school admissions of the finding of the report, An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign in October 2015, on the use of supplementary information forms which assume that parents are of the opposite sex; and if she will take steps to ensure that such forms are not used by schools in future.

Nick Gibb

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code (the code) and other admissions law.

Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements comply within two months of a determination. This includes requiring schools to amend their supplementary information forms when they do not comply with the code.

We support the right of schools with a religious designation to prioritise children of their faith designation but the code requires that any measure of religious activity used for admission purposes must be as laid out by their faith body.

The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.