The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Migration Advisory Committee did not provide its report by the end of January 2016.
James Brokenshire
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published its Tier 2 report on 19 January. We asked the MAC to provide its report on whether nurses should remain on the Shortage Occupation List in February, to allow time for a full review of the evidence.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect on Ofsted’s budget of the expansion of Ofsted’s control over early years inspectors.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Ofsted’s budget, like those of all government departments, was considered as part of the spending review in 2015. Their settlement will be published in due course.
As Ofsted are an independent non-ministerial government department, it is accountable for its own budget and operational decisions, including how to deploy and contract inspection resources.
It would not be appropriate for me to comment on Ofsted’s operational or commercial matters.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures he has put in place to monitor how the £1.25 billion allocated to children and adolescent mental health services in the March 2015 Budget is spent; and if he will take steps to ring-fence the remainder of that funding.
Alistair Burt
In total the Government has made available an additional £1.4 billion over the course of this Parliament to improve children and young people’s mental health. In addition to the £1.25 billion made available in the March 2015 budget, a further £150 million was made available in the 2014 Autumn Statement to develop evidence based community eating disorder services for children and young people.
NHS England’s Local Transformation Planning guidance issued, in August 2015, and the robust assurance process around it, backed by a programme of regional and national support, ensure that the additional money will be spent for the purposes intended and that locally determined key performance indicators will be met. No funding was allocated without full assurance in place.
The intention from 2016-17 is to monitor children and young people’s mental health services transformation as part of mainstream NHS England planning processes and through the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Improvement and Assessment Framework. As part of the 2016-17 financial reporting planning process, programme level spend including children and young people’s mental health spend will be monitored routinely throughout the year
While there is no legal power for the Department to ring-fence funding allocated to CCGs, we have introduced other means to ensure CCGs spend the additional investment where it is intended. The Department set objectives for NHS England in the annual mandate, which reflects the priorities for the health and care system. The mandate for 2016-17 sets objectives to 2020 and it makes it clear that the Government expects to see a transformation of children and young people’s mental health services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-05-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how his Department is monitoring the effectiveness of the Community Engagement Forum; how frequently that forum has met; and how many Muslims that forum has engaged.
Mr Marcus Jones
The Community Engagement Forum has met on three separate occasions and has engaged a wide range of people representing, among others, different Muslim communities. Further details on attendance were provided on 2 November 2015 in response to written Question 13090 and on 12 January 2016 to written Question 20784. The discussions at the Community Engagement Forum have informed policy development across several individual Departments, the effectiveness of which will be monitored in the usual way.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of whether the Government’s Go Ultra Low scheme to deliver 750 more charging points in UK towns and cities by 2020 will reach its target.
Mr John Hayes
As well as delivering over 750 chargepoints, the Go Ultra Low City Scheme will establish exemplar cities, see local authorities use local powers to encourage uptake, and test new technological solutions. Since the winners were announced in January 2016, the Government has agreed robust delivery plans with all winning cities to deliver the agreed outputs by 2020. Oxford City Council, Milton Keynes, the North East Combined Authority and Nottingham City Council have already begun the process of public chargepoint procurements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2015-11-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how he plans for the two per cent council tax precept to fund care services to be monitored to ensure funds raised are used for disabled people, older people, and carers seeking social care and support from local authorities.
Mr Marcus Jones
Details of how the two per cent social care precept will operate will be confirmed alongside the provisional local government finance settlement in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of planned changes to pay and allowances on the morale of the armed forces.
Penny Mordaunt
The new pay model being introduced in April 2016 will be simpler, transparent, and more efficient. It responds to Other Ranks’ dissatisfaction with the current model, retains incremental pay, and no one will take a cut in core pay on transition to the new pay model.
I fully expect this to be positive for morale overall.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will uprate the income threshold for carer’s allowance in line with the forthcoming increase in the minimum wage.
Justin Tomlinson
The earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance which is not linked to the number of hours worked is currently £110 per week (net of certain expenses). It was increased to £110 in April 2015 – an increase of nearly 8%, which far outstripped the growth in earnings.
The Government keeps the earnings limit under review and keeps under consideration whether an increase in the threshold is warranted and affordable.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to improve the university complaints procedures for victims of sexual assault.
Joseph Johnson
Sexual assault is a serious criminal offence and we expect all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to have robust policies in place to prevent incidents and support victims. All HEIs have a requirement to ensure rigorous procedures are in place to handle complaints. Where complaints cannot be resolved, students can access the complaints handling service provided by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.
The Government asked Universities UK to establish a taskforce to explore what more can be done by the higher education sector to prevent, and respond effectively to, incidents of violence and sexual harassment, hate crimes and other forms of harassment. The taskforce is expected to report its findings in the autumn.
The Government looks forward to receiving the taskforce’s final report in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons the food and drink industry does not meet his Department’s criteria for inclusion on its list of creative industries.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Government fully recognises the importance of the food and drinks sector to our economy, and appreciates that there is a creative element to work in this sector. The definition of the Creative Industries since 2013 has been based on a Creative Intensity approach, which measures the proportion of jobs within an industry that are classified as creative. The proportion of these jobs in the ‘food and drink’ industry was below the 30 per cent threshold set in 2013, and was therefore not included in the Creative Industries Economic Estimates.
Earlier this year, this Department carried out a consultation on our Economic Estimates for the Creative Industries, which included asking whether we should review the sectors included within the Creative Industries based on the existing Creative Intensity approach. We published our response to this consultation on 9 June, which stated that we will continue to review the Creative Intensities on an on-going basis to ensure they remain relevant. The Standard Occupational Classifications (SOC) which underpin this work are currently being reviewed, however, and we will wait for the outcome of that review before deciding whether and when to make any changes to the occupations which contribute to the Creative Industries.