Tag: Nicholas Brown

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons the budget for the revised Cancer Drugs Fund was established at £340 million.

George Freeman

NHS England has advised that the Cancer Drugs Fund budget was increased to £340 million for 2015-16 and, with the new financial control and commercial mechanisms being put in place from 1 July 2016 under the new arrangements for the Fund, that budget increase will be maintained at £340 million for 2016-17.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make it his policy that student maintenance loan payments are paid on a monthly basis to nursing students.

Joseph Johnson

Full-time students starting nursing courses from 1 August 2017 will qualify for the same loans for living costs as other new full-time undergraduate students in 2017/18. Loans for living costs are paid to students in three equal instalments at the start of each term to help meet up-front costs while studying.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-11-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of money saved for the public purse as a result of the Government’s policies on tackling international tax avoidance.

Mr David Gauke

The UK has been at the forefront of international action to tackle corporate tax avoidance through the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The first phase of the BEPS project was delivered in 2014 and the UK committed to introduce country-by-country reporting from 1 January 2016 and rules to deal with hybrid mismatch arrangements from 1 January 2017.

In line with the objectives of the BEPS project, the Government also introduced the Diverted Profits Tax from 1 April 2015 to target contrived arrangements used by large multinational companies to divert profits away from the UK.

As set out in Autumn Statement 2014, together these measures addressing are estimated to yield around £1.6 billion over the next five years. The policy costings were certified by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

The final BEPS project reports were published by the OECD on 5 October 2015 and endorsed by the G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting in Lima on 8 October. The UK welcomes the outcomes of the BEPS project and will give full consideration to the OECD’s recommendations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what capital dredging programmes are in place for the five principal river systems in the North East of England between from the River Tees to the River Tweed.

Rory Stewart

The Environment Agency’s dredging work is funded through its Revenue Programme and has work planned for the financial period 2016/17 in the wider Rivers Wansbeck and Blyth, Wear, Tees and Tyne catchments. This work will include the removal of localised silts and gravels from maintained structures and channels.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what duties apply to betting companies to ensure that vulnerable customers using their services gamble responsibly.

David Evennett

One of the three key licensing objectives set out in the Gambling Act 2005 is that vulnerable people should be protected from harm. All betting shop operators are required by the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Code of Practice (LCCP) to have policies and processes in place to meet this objective. In addition, the industry trade body, the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), has a mandatory code of conduct which places additional social responsibility requirements on all of its members.

The rate of problem gambling is at 0.6% of the adult population, which is lower than comparable jurisdictions (USA, South Africa or Australia). However we recognise that rates are significantly higher among some sections of the population, such as young men, and that gambling-related harm is a real and significant problem. The majority of current provision for treatment of problem gamblers is through the Responsible Gambling Trust’s funding of organisations such as GamCare, who provide a helpline and counselling services, and the Gordon Moody Association, which provides specialist residential treatment. Local treatment can be found through GPs and NHS addiction clinics, there is also a specialist NHS service treating gambling disorder, based in London.

The Government is committed to ensuring that people are protected from being harmed or exploited by gambling. The Minister for Sport and Tourism has explained to the gambling industry that they are expected to demonstrate that they are improving existing player protection initiatives and evaluating the effects of previous initiatives. As the Minister said at the recent RGT harm minimisation conference, government and industry should never feel that there is an end point to social responsibility.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department measures and demonstrates parity of esteem between mental and physical health in the NHS.

Alistair Burt

The Government accepted the Mental Health Taskforce recommendation to identify the gaps in provision between mental health and physical health and has increased funding for mental health to an estimated £11.7 billion last year and have introduced waiting time standards so people know they will be treated quickly.

This Government continues to hold NHS England to account through the NHS Mandate for the achievement of measurable progress towards the parity of esteem for mental health and clinical commissioning groups are required through the annual planning guidance to increase spending each year on mental health at least in line with the increase in their overall allocation.

In line with practice in physical health, from 1 April 2015, waiting times standards for mental health came into effect for:

– treatment within two weeks for more than 50% of people experiencing a first episode of psychosis; and

– treatment within six weeks for 75% of people referred to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, with 95% of people being treated within 18 weeks.

The National Health Service has already achieved waiting time standards for IAPT and we have made changes to the Mental Health Services Dataset to measure performance against the standard for Early Intervention in Psychosis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the reoffending rates are for offenders who have had a conviction (a) under and (b) over 12 months in each of the last five years.

Dominic Raab

The most recent proven reoffending bulletin can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics. A full report with data going back to 2003 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/519648/proven-reoffending-July-2013-June-2014.xlsx

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the removal of nursing bursaries on the living costs of nursing students who live outside their parental home.

Ben Gummer

A preliminary Economic Impact Assessment and Equality Analysis was published alongside the public consultation launched on 7 April 2016. These documents address the proportion of repayment expected, the impact on students with different characteristics, including those who live outside the parental home and the benefit that extra support will have for those on low incomes and from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that junior doctors do not suffer a reduction in pay as a result of the Government’s proposals to change junior doctors’ contracts.

Ben Gummer

Our offer on a new contract for junior doctors includes transitional arrangements that guarantee that all junior doctors currently working legal hours will not receive a pay cut compared to their current contract. Those in the higher stages of training will remain on current pay terms; for those moving onto the new pay terms, we are offering pay protection.

Around 1% of junior doctors currently work on rotas that have breached the current limits on hours, and these junior doctors receive Band 3 payments (100% of basic salary). New contractual safeguards will include stronger limits on hours and patterns of work; and there will be stronger contractual processes, with external scrutiny, for dealing with variations from planned working. These Band 3 payments will not, therefore, apply or be protected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what measurements he has made of the UK armed forces’ carbon emissions for (a) 2015 and (b) any previous years for which data is held; and what plans the Government has to reduce UK military carbon emissions in response to the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

Mark Lancaster

Information on the UK Armed Forces’ carbon emissions from 2009-10 to 2014-15 can be found in pages 11 and 12 of the Sustainable Ministry of Defence (MOD) Annual Report, using the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447951/20150723-Sustainable_MOD_Annual_Report-internet-ver.pdf

The MOD continues to reduce carbon emissions as part of the Government’s Greening Government commitments and the new targets are being developed for 2016-2020.