Tag: Louise Haigh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of regulation of the quality of social care paid for through Direct Payments.

Alistair Burt

The Care Act 2014 places a duty on local authorities to meet an individual’s eligible needs for care and support. If a person is assessed as being eligible for care and support from their local authority, they must be provided with a care plan to help decide the best way to meet their needs. People may choose to take a direct payment with which to purchase their own care and support, or they may wish to receive services arranged by their local authority, or a combination of both.

It is important that people are enabled to be flexible to choose care and support from a diverse range of sources. This may include registered care providers but also “non-service” options, such as information and communication technologies and personal assistants. Providers of adult social care must register with the national regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which is responsible for regulating the quality and safety of services. However, non-care services, including personal assistance services, are not required to register with the CQC.

Statutory guidance issued under the Care Act makes it clear that local authorities should provide people with appropriate advice concerning their use of direct payments, including how they differ from traditional services and provide helpful information such as the difference between purchasing regulated and unregulated services, for example, personal assistants, to help people make fully informed decisions on how best to meet their needs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil servants in his Department are in the redeployment pool.

Mike Penning

As at 30 September 2015, 210 members of staff within the Department were listed on the redeployment pool. This includes Ministry of Justice HQ, Legal Aid Agency, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, Office of the Public Guardian and National Offender Management Service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many occasions Government departments have reported an information security breach since 2010.

Matthew Hancock

Information regarding information security breaches is held by individual departments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which debt collection agencies are used by the Debt Market Integrator.

Matthew Hancock

The companies that bid to provide Debt Market Integrator services were as follows;

Single Bidders:

• Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP
• CGI IT UK Ltd
• Capita Business Services Ltd
• HP Enterprise Services UK Ltd
• SYNNEX Concentrix UK Ltd
• TDX Group Ltd
• arvato AG

  Consortia:

• Equiniti Ltd/First Direct

  As of 12/01/ 2016 The debt collections agencies providing service for Indesser through the Debt Market Integrator contract are:

  Walker Love

  Rossendales

  Akinika

  Advantis

  CCS Collect

  Drydens

  Apex

  Bluestones

  Freds

  Rossendales

  Walker Love

  Moorcroft

  Past Due

  CCI Legal

  The private sector partner owns 75% equity in Indesser.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 to include a requirement to stipulate the time of death.

James Brokenshire

There are no plans at present to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 to include time of death at death registration.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many consultants employed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP provided consultancy support for independent shared service centres; for how long those consultants were so engaged; what remit those consultants were given; and what the findings of those consultants’ work were.

Matthew Hancock

No consultants from Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP (PwC) have been employed during this parliament by the Cabinet Office to support independent shared services centres.

Cabinet Office employed a small team of consultants from PwC to provide commercial support to the ISSC2 programme during financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15. On average numbers ranged between 2 and 7 consultants.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-03.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, where the 152 staff who have been issued with compulsory redundancy notices by HM Revenue and Customs staff are based.

Mr David Gauke

Approval to proceed to compulsory redundancy for 152 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) staff was received from Civil Service Resourcing and the Cabinet Office following consultation with the departmental trade unions and a period of reflection. It was endorsed by HMRC’s Executive Committee and the final decision was taken by the Chief Executive on 28 January 2016.

The 152 people affected are based in around 50 locations across the UK. HMRC is continuing to seek redeployment solutions for all those who wish it to do so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the correction of 9 February 2016 to Question 13206, (a) for what reasons the data initially published was incorrect, and (b) what steps her Department has taken to ensure accurate collection and publication of such information in future.

James Brokenshire

The mistake given in the original response to Question 13206 resulted from two errors in the query for extracting information from the relevant database. One error involved the use of an incorrect definition which excluded former unaccompanied asylum seeking children who now had linked dependants. The other was an error in the computer code which extracted the data. In this instance, the code for the query was mistyped and so the data returned was incorrect. These errors have now been resolved and a correction issued. Such mistakes are rare and when they occur they are taken very seriously.

It is regrettable that human error caused the original response to this Parliamentary Question to be incorrect and improvements have been put in place. The appropriate definition has been reviewed and confirmed. This definition, and the correct approach on careful coding, have been made clear to the officials involved. We are reviewing other Parliamentary Answers about unaccompanied asylum seeking children to see if these were affected by similar issues. While these respond to different specific questions, we wish to review the methodology used thoroughly. We are also reviewing whether additional processes are needed for Parliamentary Questions that require complex data queries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department provides to senior civil servants on speaking at public events.

Matthew Hancock

All civil servants are subject to the requirements of the Civil Service Code and Civil Service Management Code. Further guidance on attendance at external events including those organised by political parties can be found in the Directory of Civil Service Guidance (vol 2).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of whether Maximus met the appropriate standards under EU procurement guidelines in tendering for the Work Capability Assessment contract.

Priti Patel

The contract for the delivery Work Capability Assessments was awarded in line with the Government’s EU procurement guidelines. The tender submitted by Maximus Health and Human Services Ltd met the appropriate standards.