Tag: Jeff Smith

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.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many new businesses have been set up in Manchester, Withington constituency since May 2010.

Anna Soubry

There is no single data source that comprehensively measures all business start-ups within the UK.

However, ONS has published statistics showing that there were 2,210 businesses newly registered for VAT or PAYE in the Manchester, Withington constituency between 2010 and 2014. Some newly registered businesses will have been trading for a number of years and other active businesses will not be covered because they are operating below the VAT and PAYE registration thresholds.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many vexatious complaints there have been against faith schools from secularist campaign groups in each of the last three years.

Nick Gibb

The information requested is held by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA). The OSA Annual Report contains data about the objections referred to the OSA and the outcome of those objections: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parents-to-get-greater-say-in-the-school-admissions-process

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, following the review of homelessness legislation undertaken by the charity Crisis entitled The homelessness legislation: An independent review of the legal duties owed to homeless people, published on 25 April 2016, whether he plans to undertake a review of such legislation.

Mr Marcus Jones

I welcome the recent report from the Crisis Expert Panel into the legal duties owed to homeless people. It provides a valuable insight into how aspects of the current legislation in England can learn from the model adopted in Wales.

We are considering all options, including legislation, and will continue to talk to local authorities, homelessness organisations and other government departments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of implications for her policies of the finding in the Fair Admissions Campaign’s report, An unholy mess, published in October 2015, that schools which are their own admission authorities are consistently failing to comply with the School Admissions Code.

Nick Gibb

Many of the findings of the report echo those reported by the Chief Schools Adjudicator in her Annual Report for the 2013/14 school year. 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.