Tag: Michelle Donelan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that businesses are able to recruit employees with the required level of skills.

Nick Boles

Officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) are working together at all levels to deliver the ambitious 16+ skills reform programme, supporting me in my role as joint Minister. This programme aims to achieve the best possible outcomes for young people and adults and set high standards and promote strong qualifications. Our work is intended to ensure that people have the education, training and skills that business and employers need in order to be competitive and grow.

Apprenticeships are our flagship policy for equipping people with the skills employers demand. For young people (aged 16-19), we want the new norm to be them considering university or an apprenticeship (or both, in the case of Degree Apprenticeships), as equally valid routes to a successful career. 2.6m apprentices have started since 2010 and we are committed to 3m starts by 2020. BIS and DfE are also supporting traineeships, which are designed to equip young people aged 16-24 with skills and experience that employers are looking for. Both apprenticeships and traineeships are joint DfE/BIS programmes that are managed through clear and collaborative joint working between both Departments and their Agencies.

The Government’s ambitious reforms to the education system raise standards in English and maths, giving people the essential literacy and numeracy skills and qualifications that we know employers seek from new recruits more than any other qualifications. Learners who did not achieve a Level 2 in English and maths by the age of 16 are now required to continue to study those subjects post-16. We have also increased the level we expect people to study in apprenticeships and in traineeships and fully fund all adults to achieve their first English and maths GCSE. In addition, we are jointly leading a programme to reform Functional Skills qualifications to ensure they are robust and credible qualifications that develop the skills that employers need.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the criteria are for a person to be eligible to receive HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis on the NHS.

Jane Ellison

NHS England has recently announced that it would make available up to £2 million over two years to enable access for high risk individuals through early implementer test sites. NHS England will work with Public Health England and the Department to confirm the criteria for patient access and assessment of expressions of interest from local authority areas to confirm successful sites. The criteria which will be used to determine the locations of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Test Sites have not yet been established.

PrEP is an intervention in advance of sexual exposure, and therefore is not relevant for rape victims who may require post exposure prophylaxis after clinical assessment. With regard to those having underage sex, eligibility for treatment through test sites will depend on the clinical assessment of risk undertaken.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is planned that the Government’s childhood obesity strategy will include measures restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

Jane Ellison

Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the summer, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese. It will set out what more can be done by all.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make additional funding available for battery and fuel cell research and development.

Mr John Hayes

The government allocated more than £600 million to support the uptake, development and manufacture of ultra low emission vehicles in the 2015 Spending Review. Our comprehensive package of support includes funding provision for research and development projects, and the scope of a new competition launched on 5 September 2016 includes battery and fuel cells.

Further details are available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-competition-low-emission-vehicle-systems-idp13.

The UK already provides one the most comprehensive support packages for ultra low emission vehicles anywhere in the world. We shall keep the funding requirements for the OLEV program under constant review.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2015-10-30.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the effect on revenue to the Exchequer of allowing devolved local authorities to keep 100 per cent of the business rates raised from car parks in (a) the UK, (b) England and (c) Wiltshire in each of the next three years.

Greg Hands

On 5^th October we announced plans to reform business rates in England, a change that will see local government retaining all revenue for the first time since 1990. The new powers will come with new responsibilities and the phasing out of grants from Whitehall to ensure that the reforms are fiscally neutral. Over the course of the next eighteen months we will be working with local government on the details of the scheme. Ahead of final decisions, it is too early to assess what the impact will be on individual areas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations her Department has received from businesses on the inclusion of design technology within the EBacc qualification.

Nick Gibb

The consultation on implementing the EBacc closed on 29 January. We have received responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including businesses. The Government response, including a list of responding organisations, will be published in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the locations are of the pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV test sites; and what criteria were used to determine those locations.

Jane Ellison

NHS England has recently announced that it would make available up to £2 million over two years to enable access for high risk individuals through early implementer test sites. NHS England will work with Public Health England and the Department to confirm the criteria for patient access and assessment of expressions of interest from local authority areas to confirm successful sites. The criteria which will be used to determine the locations of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Test Sites have not yet been established.

PrEP is an intervention in advance of sexual exposure, and therefore is not relevant for rape victims who may require post exposure prophylaxis after clinical assessment. With regard to those having underage sex, eligibility for treatment through test sites will depend on the clinical assessment of risk undertaken.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is planned that the Government’s childhood obesity strategy will include targets for industry to reduce levels of (a) fat and (b) salt in food and drink.

Jane Ellison

Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the summer, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese. It will set out what more can be done by all.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department’s policy on the uprating of the pensions of British people living abroad of the UK leaving the EU.

Richard Harrington

We are about to begin negotiations for Britain’s future relationship with Europe and it would be wrong to set out unilateral positions in advance. At every step of these negotiations we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support in (a) monetary terms and (b) skills his Department provides for research into motor neurone disease.

George Freeman

The usual practice of the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including motor neurone disease (MND). These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

Current NIHR awards include a £0.3 million doctoral research fellowship looking at the use of telehealth in MND.

The NIHR Clinical Research Network is currently recruiting patients to 21 trials and studies in MND.

The NIHR Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure is a unique resource for the global life sciences industry, simplifying access to the United Kingdom’s world-leading clinical research infrastructure in all disease areas including MND.

The NIHR Research Design Service supports researchers to develop and design high-quality proposals for submission to NIHR itself and also to other national, peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research in all disease and topic areas including MND. The service provides expert advice to researchers on all aspects of preparing funding applications in these fields, including advice on research methodology, clinical trials, patient involvement, and ethics and governance.