Tag: Jonathan Reynolds

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the total number of claims for statutory shared parental pay has been since 1 April 2015.

Nick Boles

The Government does not yet have any information on the take up of Statutory Shared Parental Pay. Information for the 2015-16 tax year will be available from May 2016, although it will also include claims for Additional Statutory Paternity Pay. Information is not held on the number of claims for Statutory Shared Parental Pay that are linked to adoption leave.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect on costs to the electricity system of limitations of the number of operating hours permitted for back-up electricity generation plants.

Andrea Leadsom

Defra will consult later this year on options which will include legislation that would set binding emission limit values on relevant air pollutants from diesel engines. As part of this process Defra will assess the impacts of any policy options it proposes to take forward, and will work with DECC to understand any implications this may have for the electricity system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many formal complaints have been made about (a) patient care on and (b) the management of assessment and treatment units in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt

Access to an independent mental health advocacy (IMHA) is a statutory right for people detained under most sections of the Mental Health Act, subject to Guardianship or on a community treatment order. We would expect Assessment and Treatment Units to follow their statutory obligations to ensure patients have access to an IMHA where appropriate.

The Learning Disability Assuring Transformation statistics data shows that of the 2,565 inpatients at the end of April 2016, 600 patients had a main diagnostic category of mental illness on admission.

Data on the numbers of formal complaints made about patient care; the management of assessment and treatment units; access to autism-specialist services and access to occupational and speech and language therapy are not held centrally. However, NHS England, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Local Government Association, published in October 2015, a Service Model for commissioners of health and social care services. This model sets out that when people are admitted to inpatient settings services should seek to minimise their length of stay and any admissions should be supported by a clear rationale of planned assessment and treatment with measurable outcomes. We would therefore expect all patients, irrespective of inpatient setting, to have access to the treatment and therapeutic interventions they require.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans for the electrification of the Great Western Mainline to be completed.

Claire Perry

The Secretary of State announced in June that Sir Peter Hendy, the new Chair of Network Rail, would develop proposals for how the rail upgrade programme, including the Great Western Mainline, will be carried out. He will report to the Secretary of State later in the autumn and it would be premature to speculate on his conclusions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much has been spent by his Department on franchising negotiations since 2010.

Claire Perry

Since 2013, and the setting up of Rail Executive Passenger Services, the Department has separated out the cost of individual Franchise Competitions and Direct Awards. Prior to 2013 such costs are merged within the general costs of running the franchised passenger services and we are unable to disaggregate them from the general costs.

The cost of re-franchising projects since the re-launch of the Franchising Programme in Spring 2013 is £41.4 million. This represents the actual consultancy and non-pay staff costs for the duration of the completed competitions and Direct Awards. This figure includes costs for ongoing competitions and Direct Awards up to and including the end of September.

Franchise competitions are not the result of negotiation, but of open competition. The benefits these competitions bring to the passenger far outweigh the cost to the Department. I also note that the franchising system returned £1.15billion to the taxpayer in financial years 2014/15, and is expected to return a similar amount in 2015/16.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many complaints by passengers were received by Network Rail in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014 and (f) 2015.

Claire Perry

Network Rail was reclassified as an arm’s-length public sector body on 1 September 2014 and the collation of statistics of annual complaints received remains an operational matter for the company.

Network Rail advises that its customer relationship management system focusses on providing solutions to a range of customer service requests, the majority of which are received from line-side residents rather than passengers. Network Rail’s system does not focus specifically on logging the annual number of passenger complaints.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans for the South East Flexible Ticketing scheme to be delivered.

Claire Perry

Smart ticketing was taken forward by the Coalition Government after 2010. Five train operators, serving 73% of all rail season ticket holders in the South East, have now signed up to the South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) programme.

Smart season tickets are already available to customers on Govia Thameslink Railway and c2c. South West Trains and Abellio Greater Anglia plan to introduce smart seasons on their services in January 2016; Southeastern will follow at the end of 2016.

A new SEFT central back office, providing critical IT infrastructure and data processing capability, underwent testing in August 2015. This will enable train operators to consider a range of new products and services including automatic delay repay, flexible season tickets and loyalty schemes, and also to extend smart ticketing across a range of transport modes including rail, trams and buses.

In September 2015, Birmingham New Street station reopened with smart-enabled ticket barriers supported by the central back office.

On current plans, the South East Flexible Ticketing programme will complete in 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with (a) Ministers of the Scottish Government and (b) his Cabinet colleagues on reducing the voting age to 16 for all Scottish and UK elections.

David Mundell

The Scottish Parliament passed an Act to lower the voting age in those elections in June 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what additional financial support he is making available to the NHS to help it deal with winter pressures.

Mr Jeremy Hunt

£400 million in resilience money has been invested in the National Health Service for winter 2015-16. Learning from previous years, we have put this money into the NHS baseline for 2015-16 so that the NHS can plan effectively at local level for the long-term and take earlier action to tackle the symptoms of seasonal pressures.

There will be no further additional money for the NHS ahead of winter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if he will take steps to limit the amount energy suppliers can charge consumers for the introduction of smart meters.

Amber Rudd

The Government has introduced regulation to ensure that there will be no upfront charges to consumers for the introduction of smart meters.

The Government’s approach to minimising costs and ensuring cost savings from smart metering are passed on to consumers is embedded in the strategy of mandating an energy supplier-led roll out. As commercial entities competing for customers, energy suppliers are incentivised to minimise costs and maximise cost savings. Where suppliers do not keep their customer offer and prices competitive, customers will be able to switch to a new energy supplier.

The Government and Ofgem are committed to further enhancing retail energy competition. To this end, Ofgem has referred the retail energy market to the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate if features of the market are having an adverse effect on competition and, if so, what reforms would make competition even more effective.