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Tag: Nicholas Brown

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the under occupancy penalty on households where children have been removed by children’s services on a temporary basis under child protection regulations.

    Esther McVey

    Children who have been temporarily taken into care under child protection regulations are not assessed as part of the household with regards to the size criteria in both the social and private rented sectors.

    This means a bedroom will not be allocated for any children taken into protective care. However, a child can be treated as a member of the claimant’s household if they spend part of a benefit week in a claimant’s house and the local authority considers it reasonable to include them as part of that household.

    Where people are temporarily under occupying, they can apply for additional help through Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) scheme for which we have provided funding of £345 million over the last 2 years. Guidance to Local Authorities on awarding a DHP covers circumstances where a child is temporarily away from home. Where appropriate, claimants could therefore apply for a DHP in child protection cases.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 87W, on holiday leave, what assessment his Department has made of the conclusions of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s Report entitled Give us a Break on the lack of awareness and denial of paid holiday entitlement to UK workers.

    Jenny Willott

    The Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s Report, Give us a Break, was a formal submission to the Ministerial Review of Workplace Rights, Compliance and Enforcement and therefore this Department assessed the report along with other submissions to the review. The written Ministerial Statement following the review was laid in parliament on 10th July 2012. We continually review a broad range of evidence. As outlined in reply of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 87W, the right to paid annual leave is an important right, and we would urge workers who feel they are not receiving it to contact the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (0800 917 2368) or Acas (www.acas.org.uk) for free and confidential advice.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to record and identify instances where non-pharmacological treatments have caused adverse reactions in patients.

    Norman Lamb

    Reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are collected by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Commission for Human Medicines through the spontaneous reporting scheme; the Yellow Card Scheme. The scheme has been in place since 1964 and collects ADR reports from across the whole United Kingdom and includes all medicines, including non-pharmacological treatments such as herbal and homeopathic medicines.

    Reports are received from healthcare professionals and members of the public on a voluntary basis. However there is a legal requirement for pharmaceutical companies to report suspected ADRs to their products. The MHRA receives approximately 30,000 ADR reports per year. All reports received are rapidly entered onto the MHRA’s ADR database for assessment by a team of medical, pharmaceutical and scientific assessors. The purpose of the scheme is to provide an early warning that the safety of a product may require further investigation and the scheme has a proven track record of identifying safety issues.

    National Health Service organisations will also record details of adverse incidents in local risk management systems and other datasets such as the Hospital Episodes Statistics datasets. Many of these systems rely on accurate coding to enable data extract and analysis, and codes specific to non pharmacological treatments may not always be available.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which categories of people defined as vulnerable in relation to facilitating housing benefit payments direct to landlords under universal credit.

    Steve Webb

    We do not want to label categories of claimants as financially incapable. The guidance for alternative payment arrangements, published last year, lists a number of elements which should be considered. These factors are assessed on a case-by-case basis to inform a decision as to whether an alternative payment arrangement is needed and if so for what period.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether people classed as homeless will be defined as vulnerable under the proposed mechanism within universal credit to pay housing benefit directly to landlords.

    Steve Webb

    We do not want to automatically label any claimant as financially incapable. Alternative payment arrangements (including payments to landlords) are assessed on their individual merits. The nature of the accommodation status of a claimant is one of a number of factors to be considered when assessing the necessity for an alternative payment arrangement, and this is set out in the operating guidance we published in February last year.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department issues on what criteria schools should use when deciding whether to employ an individual who does not possess a formal teaching qualification as a teacher.

    Mr David Laws

    The Department for Education does not issue guidance prescribing the criteria that schools should use when employing teaching staff.

    The latest school workforce statistics (November 2013) show that the overwhelming majority (96%) of teachers in state-funded schools hold qualified teacher status.

    Headteachers are best-placed to make decisions about the qualifications, skills and experience they need in their teaching staff. They are held to account for those decisions through inspection and the publication of school performance data.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the potential implications of Scottish independence for the regions on either side of the English-Scottish border.

    Mr Alistair Carmichael

    I refer the Rt Hon Gentleman to the answer I gave to the Member for Penrith and The Border earlier today.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of teachers who have qualified in the last 10 years have left the teaching profession within (a) two, (b) five and (c) 10 years; and what steps he is taking to encourage greater teacher retention.

    Mr David Laws

    The following table provides the proportion of full and part-time teachers that qualified in the stated year, entered service in the publicly funded sector in England the year after and were no longer in such service two, five and ten years later. It is not known whether the teachers who are recorded as out of service have left service permanently or are teaching in another country or sector of education.

    Year qualified1

    Newly qualified entrants entering service2

    Year entered service3

    Out of service 2 years later

    Out of service 5 years later

    Out of service 10 years later4

    2000

    17,400

    2000-01

    15%

    27%

    34%

    2005

    26,000

    2005-06

    15%

    22%

    2008

    25,000

    2008-09

    14%

    Source: Database of Teacher Records (DTR)

    1 Calendar year in which the teachers qualified.

    2 Teachers in part-time service are under-recorded on the DTR by between 10% and 20% and therefore these figures may be underestimated.

    3 Financial year during which the teachers entered service.

    4 The length of service may not have been continuous; for example not all of those shown as teaching 10 years after entering service in 1997-98 may have taught continuously for 10 years, some may have taken periods of time outside of the maintained sector.

    The Government is committed to making teaching a profession which can attract and retain the very best people. We are taking every possible step to reduce the amount of central prescription and bureaucracy placed on teachers, freeing them up to act as autonomous professionals. And we are giving headteachers more flexibility to recruit, train and retain the best teachers, including through new school-based training programmes and greater pay flexibility which will allow heads to ensure that high-performing teachers are rewarded appropriately.

    Teacher vacancy rates continue to remain low and have been around 1% or below (of all teaching posts) since 2000. In November 2013 there were 750 vacancies for full-time permanent teachers in state-funded schools – a rate of 0.2%.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people were training for teaching qualifications in each year since 2003.

    Mr David Laws

    The initial teacher training (ITT) census provides provisional figures on the number of new entrants who have started, or expect to start, an ITT programme in England in that academic year; for previous years the final figures are included.

    Figures from 2003 to present are publicly available.

    Statistics from May 2010 onwards are available on GOV.UK:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-teacher-training#census-data

    Archived statistics are available on the National Archives:

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151655/http:/www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics.

    “

  • Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-05-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations the Government has made to the government of Qatar about working conditions for those constructing FIFA World Cup 2022 stadiums.

    Hugh Robertson

    I raised concerns about migrant workers’ conditions with the Qatari authorities during my visit to Doha on 8-9 January. Our Ambassador and other officials have raised the issue on previous occasions and will continue to do so.