Tag: Nicholas Brown

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

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, how much Local Growth Fund finance has been requested within all local enterprise partnerships’ strategic economic plans; what estimate he has made of private investment that will be leveraged through strategic economic plans; and what estimate he has made of European match-funding.

Greg Clark

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) have shown a high level of ambition in their proposals, and the Local Growth Fund (LGF) is between 3-4 times over-subscribed. The amount of private sector leverage put forward varies by LEP and by project, and this is part of the current discussions with LEPs.

In addition to the competitive element, the Local Growth Fund contains £170m of resource funding to match against skills and employability activity supported by EU Structural Investment Funds. The amount of LGF match made available will depend on EU funding allocation agreed with each LEP.

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

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what criteria he will use to assess local enterprise partnerships strategic economic plans for funding under the Local Growth Deal.

Greg Clark

The criteria the Government will be using to assess Strategic Economic Plans and bids for the Local Growth Fund were published in July 2013 and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/growth-deals-initial-guidance-for-local-enterprise-partnerships

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria he will use to assess requests for extra powers from local enterprise partnerships and combined authorities.

Kris Hopkins

The Government is currently negotiating a ‘Growth Deal’ with every Local Enterprise Partnership, based on the Strategic Economic Plans they submitted in March 2014. The criteria being used to assess the plans are set out in the guidance published in July 2013. These are: ambition and rationale for intervention; value for money; and deliverability and risk. Combined authorities, where they exist, are represented in Local Enterprise Partnerships and will have been involved in the development of the Strategic Economic Plans.

Notwithstanding, as I indicated to the rt. hon. Member in my answers to him of 3 April 2014, Official Report, Column 778W and 6 May 2014, Official Report, Column 24W, we should be cautious about any measure which had the effect of transferring power upwards away from elected local councils. Decentralisation should devolve power to the lowest appropriate level.

Combined authorities are relatively new bodies. They now should focus on using the functions and powers that they currently have and prove themselves on delivering local growth; we do not intend to repeat the “function creep” mistakes of the Regional Development Agencies which just became unwieldy and unfocused, taking on too much and failing to deliver.

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.

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 10^th 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.

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.