Tag: Lord Storey

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Chairman of Committees whether employees of public affairs companies can hold a House of Lords staff pass.

Lord Laming

Yes. Members of the House of Lords may sponsor their staff for parliamentary photo-passes, provided the member certifies that the applicant for the pass genuinely provides parliamentary research or secretarial services for the member or acts as a carer or driver for them.

Members’ staff with parliamentary photo-passes are subject to the Code of Conduct for House of Lords Members’ Staff. This requires them to disclose in the Register of Members’ Staff Interests any employment they have outside the House of Lords. They must also register any financial interest in businesses or organisations involved in public affairs or parliamentary lobbying. The Code of Conduct prohibits members’ staff from making use of their access to the parliamentary estate to further the interests of an outside body from whom they receive payment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-12-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the total cost of clinical negligence in hospitals in each of the last 10 years.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The information requested is in the following table, provided by the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA).

All payments made by the NHSLA in respect of clinical negligence claims against the NHS in hospitals in each of the last ten years.

Year of Payment	Total Paid £’000
2005/06	560,308
2006/07	579,390
2007/08	633,325
2008/09	769,226
2009/10	786,991
2010/11	863,398
2011/12	1,277,372
2012/13	1,258,880
2013/14	1,192,540
2014/15	1,169,587

Notes:

1. December 2015

2. These figures cover England only.

3. They represent payments under the various NHS LA Clinical negligence schemes:

‒ Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts;

‒ Existing Liabilities Scheme; and

‒ Ex-Regional Health Authorities Scheme.

4. It excludes private insurance cases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Education, Health and Care plans are now in place.

Lord Nash

Information on statements of special educational needs and statutory Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans maintained by local authorities is collected in the annual SEN2 data return from local authorities in January each year. The latest available data shows there were 4,205 statutory EHC plans maintained by local authorities, as of January 2015.

The Department does not collect information on which local authority has taken the longest amount of time to assess and decide on an EHC plan. Data is collected in the annual SEN2 return on the number of EHC plans which were issued within the 20 weeks set out in regulations.

Of the new EHC plans issued in 2014, 64.3% were within the 20 weeks when excluding exception cases. Including exception cases; 61.5% were issued within the 20 weeks. However, these figures cover EHC plans issued in the first four months of the transitional period where local authorities are beginning to implement the new reforms within 20 weeks.

This information was published in the statistical first release ‘Statements of SEN and EHC plans: England 2015’, in May 2015. Data for January 2016 is expected to be published in May 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 20 January (HL5274), whether it is still a legal requirement to have a daily act of collective worship in academies, free schools and maintained schools.

Lord Nash

All state schools, including academies and free schools, must provide a daily act of collective worship for all registered pupils up to the age of 18. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from all or any part of collective worship, and sixth-form pupils have the right to withdraw themselves from collective worship.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take following their consultation on the EBacc.

Lord Nash

The consultation closed on 29 January. We are currently considering the responses and plan to publish the government response in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-03-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimates they have made of the likely benefits of providing the quadrivalent HPV vaccine to all adolescents in the UK on a gender-neutral basis.

Lord Prior of Brampton

In 2008 when forming its recommendation for vaccination against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) in the United Kingdom, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) did not recommend vaccination of boys because the evidence indicated vaccinating boys was unlikely to be cost-effective.

The JCVI keeps the eligibility criteria of all vaccination programmes under review. In October 2013 the JCVI recommended a HPV sub-committee be formed to consider a number of issues including the potential extension of the programme to include adolescent boys, because of new and emerging evidence on the association of HPV vaccine types with non-cervical cancers.

The JCVI subsequently requested that modelling be undertaken by Public Health England (PHE) to re-examine the impact and cost-effectiveness of extending the HPV vaccination programme to adolescent boys. It is anticipated that PHE will submit this work to the JCVI by early 2017 which will include an assessment of the likely benefits of providing the quadrivalent HPV vaccine to all adolescents.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-05-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which local authorities provide (1) free transport, and (2) subsidised transport, for students in years 12 and 13.

Lord Nash

The statutory responsibility for post 16 transport rests with local authorities who are required to publish a transport policy statement setting out the arrangements they make to support young people to travel to further education and training.

These arrangements do not have to include free or subsidised transport, but local authorities are expected to make reasonable decisions based on local needs, circumstances and resources. Discounts or concessions are also available from local transport companies and schools, colleges or other providers.

Local authorities are encouraged to develop a collaborative approach when developing their statements to provide a full picture of the transport and support available. But it is for local organisations to decide whether to provide support and what level of discounts and concessions to give. The department does not collect specific information on which local authorities, transport companies, or education and training providers give free or subsidised transport for students in years 12 and 13.

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund is also available to help young people with the costs associated with attending education or training, and transport is the biggest single area of expenditure for which this fund is used. Schools and colleges are responsible for deciding how to distribute their bursary allocations to students, and for establishing what criteria to use.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards they have put in place to ensure that, if the student loan book is sold on, students are not faced with increased rates of interest on their student loans.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

As stated in the March 2016 Budget, the Government is continuing to prepare for the sale of the pre-2012 income contingent repayment student loan book, with a first sale expected in 2016-17.

Purchasers would have no direct relationship with borrowers, and would have no power to amend the terms of repayment. Government would still finance student loans and continue to collect repayments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether there was a significant disparity between the (1) GCSE, and (2) A-level, results of students living in rural areas and those in urban areas over the last five years.

Lord Nash

Our assessment of the total number of GCSE and A level results of students by degree of rurality is available in the file attached. This is published as part of the “GCSE and equivalent results in England” and the “A level and other level 3 results” statistical first releases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-07-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures are in place to ensure that there is an adequate supply of history, geography, and language teachers to meet the forecast demand stemming from the introduction of the English Baccalaureate.

Lord Nash

We have more teachers in our schools than ever before and the number of teachers has kept pace with changing numbers of pupils. There are more than 456,000 teachers in schools throughout England – up more than 15,000 since 2010. Teaching continues to be a popular profession with more than 14,000 former teachers coming back to the classroom in the last year.

We recognise that as schools increase their entry rates to English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects there will be more demand for specialist teachers, particularly language teachers. That is why we are spending over £1.3 billion up to 2020 to attract new teachers into the profession including continuing to offer teacher training bursaries in history, geography and languages to make sure that we continue to attract the brightest graduates. We have recently announced the expansion of the teacher subject specialism training to include modern foreign languages.

This investment in training the next generation of teachers clearly demonstrates the political will we have to make sure that all schools are able to recruit the teachers they need.