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.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37876, what (a) number and (b) proportion of penalty charge notices issued between January and December 2015 related only to medical exemption certificates.
Alistair Burt
Between January and December 2015, a total of 34,142 penalty charge notices were issued to patients declaring they held a valid medical exemption certificate, which the National Health Service Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) was unable to verify. This equated to 7.92% of all penalty charge notices issued.
During the same period, a total of 9,170 of these were subsequently retracted when the patient proved their right to exemption. This equated to 26.86% of all penalty charge notices issued for medical exemption certificates.
Often the reason the penalty charge notice is retracted is because the patient has not informed the NHSBSA of a change of address or surname. This means the record of the medical exemption does not match the patient information on the prescription form. If a patient provides details of a valid medical exemption certificate, the penalty charge notice is retracted and the medical exemption record is updated to ensure further notices are not issued in error.
Following the introduction of prescription charge exemption checking, it became apparent some people receiving penalty charge notices had a qualifying medical condition, but had not applied for a medical exemption certificate. In response, a new process was introduced in early spring 2015. This means that if someone submits a valid application for a medical or maternity exemption certificate within 60 days from date of the penalty charge notice, the outstanding penalty charge is cancelled but the prescription charge is still recovered.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department’s press release, Parents to get greater say in the school admissions process of 25 January 2016, when her Department plans to launch its consultation on proposed revisions to the School Admissions Code.
Nick Gibb
We are currently considering what possible changes it would be appropriate to make to the School Admissions Code to support parents and schools, in addition to those that we have already announced. We will conduct a full public consultation in due course.