Tag: Nic Dakin

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to hold NHS bodies accountable to the recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review.

George Freeman

The Accelerated Access Review, which was set up to look at speeding up access to innovative drugs including those for rare diseases, devices and diagnostics for National Health Service patients, has been making strong progress since it was first announced in November 2014.

The review is independently chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor and has been engaging stakeholders extensively since the summer to gather evidence on the big questions the review is considering, and has developed a number of emerging solutions.

Sir Hugh published his interim report of the review on 27 October 2015. The report is high-level, direction-setting and grounded in evidence gathered through the review’s stakeholder engagement to date. Included in the report were proposals for a National Innovation Partnership of key bodies in the innovation pathway who would be party to a Concordat committing them to the ambitions set out in the review. The review has used a second phase of engagement to work closely with industry stakeholders, Government, the NHS and arm’s length bodies on these and other proposals set out in the interim report.

In April 2016 the review will conclude with Sir Hugh making his final recommendations to Government. The Department will review these recommendations and consider how best to respond.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish details of the Global Challenges research fund announced in the Government strategy paper, UK aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest, published on 23 November 2015.

Joseph Johnson

I will publish further details of the Global Challenges Research Fund alongside allocation of the Science Budget shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of winter fuel payments to eligible claimants were made automatically in each of the last five years.

Justin Tomlinson

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The majority of Winter Fuel Payments are made automatically from information already held by the Department. We invite claims mainly from men under 65 who meet the eligibility criteria, as the largest group not identified and paid automatically. Claims can be made up to and including 31 March and are not accepted after that date.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.35 of Educational excellence everywhere, Cm 9230, if she will issue guidance on levels of remuneration for non-executive academy trust directors.

Edward Timpson

Academy trusts are independent charities and must comply with charity law. This means that trust directors can only receive payment for carrying out trustee duties with Charity Commission authorisation.

The Charity Commission will only authorise payment to academy trustees where it has been clearly shown to be in the charity’s interests. They will consider issues such as the reasons for payment, whether conflicts of interests are managed appropriately, whether the Principal Regulator (for academies this is the Secretary of State for Education) is agreeable and whether payment of any trustees is in the longer-term interests of the charity. These arrangements are set out in the Department’s Governance Handbook, available on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/governance-handbook. It is up to trusts to decide on the level of any such remuneration.

Academy trusts operate under a robust accountability system which holds them to account for the results they achieve and their use of resources. This includes a requirement to publish audited accounts each year allowing the wider public chance to hold academy trusts to account to help make sure that spend is securing better outcomes for pupils.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department requires the armed forces to provide entrants aged under 18 with 280 guided learning hours per year towards accredited qualifications.

Nick Boles

The Education and Skills Act 2008 requires young people to participate in education or training until they are 18. Young people can participate through full-time education, work combined with part-time education or training, or by undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship.

The 16 and 17 year olds joining the armed forces are under a contract of employment but they are not exempt from their duty to participate. Most of these young people meet their duty to participate by undertaking an apprenticeship.

We have agreed with the Ministry of Defence that serving in the armed forces is a valid and valuable career route which provides relevant training for young people.

Apprenticeships are embedded across initial training in the armed forces, with over 95% of all young recruits (no matter what their age or prior qualifications) enrolling in an apprenticeship each year.

All apprenticeships require a minimum of 280 Guided Learning Hours (GLHs) within a 12 month period. The same GLH requirement applies to the small number of young people in the armed forces who are not on an apprenticeship.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 2.28 of the White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, published in March 2016, how her Department plans to determine which universities will be able to establish a centre of excellence in initial teacher training.

Nick Gibb

The Government’s White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, confirmed that we intend to use a new set of quality criteria to determine how initial teacher training (ITT) places are allocated to training providers in future, ensuring that training is concentrated with the highest-quality providers. On the basis of these criteria, which will include factors such as the quality of trainees recruited, the quality of the training programmes, and the quality of outcomes for trainees, we will designate some providers as Centres of Excellence. We expect to set out further details of the quality criteria that will apply for the 2017/18 training year, and which providers will be designated as Centres of Excellence, when we confirm the methodology for allocating places, which is currently under discussion.

The Department for Education has actively been engaging the ITT sector in discussions about the proposals in the White Paper, including the establishment of ITT Centres of Excellence. Engagement to date has included a series of roundtable discussion events for university- and school-led providers and their representative bodies, such as the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) and the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT).

We expect to confirm the allocations methodology for 2017/18 after further consultation with providers and their representative organisations over the summer, in time for the start of recruitment in the autumn term.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the closure of the independent living fund on people who received payments from that fund prior to its closure.

Penny Mordaunt

The Government has fully funded local authorities to meet their additional obligations to service users previously in receipt of the Independent Living Fund for the remainder of this Parliament.

When the Department closed the Independent Living Fund, a commitment was made to conduct research into the impact of the closure. This will be based on interviews with former users and with Local Authorities. The research is on-going and will be published in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Attorney General, what steps his Department has taken to embed the family test into its policy making.

Jeremy Wright

The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014. DWP published guidance for Departments and officials on how the test should be applied when formulating policy and whenever appropriate the Law Officers’ Departments would follow that guidance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to embed the Family Test into its policy making.

Priti Patel

Officials have undertaken a number of activities to embed the Family Test into the policy making process. This has included training officials on applying the Test, as well as disseminating relevant evidence, learning materials and best practice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of her Department’s performance in adhering to the statutory time limit for responding to Freedom of Information requests.

Nick Gibb

The Secretary of State publishes statistics on the Department’s performance in responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, including on timeliness. These can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.

“