Tag: Norman Lamb

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effect of noise caused by the training of military aircraft pilots on local communities; and what steps his Department is taking to minimise such noise disturbance.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence takes its responsibilities to the general public very seriously indeed and would prefer not to cause any disturbance to the general public. Unfortunately, there are no uninhabited areas of the UK large enough to cater for essential training needs. Restrictions are placed on the height, speeds and operating procedures of military aircraft in the UK Military Low Flying System.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure parity between the regulation of nurses and midwives and other regulated health professions.

Ben Gummer

The Law Commissions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have completed a review of the regulation of all health and (in England) social care professionals including nurses and midwives and published their report on 2 April 2014. One of the key recommendations made by the Law Commissions was to introduce much greater consistency between the professional regulators as well as simplifying the legislation.

The joint four UK country response to the Law Commissions was published on 29 January 2015 which accepted wholly or in part the vast majority of its recommendations.

The Department is currently reviewing how best to take forward the work of the Law Commissions. We hope to be able to provide an update on this work soon.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase the number of mixed race stem cell donors; what discussions he has had with the Anthony Nolan Trust and others on diversifying stem cell registries; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

The Department’s delivery partners, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and the Anthony Nolan Trust, ensure that all patients regardless of ethnicity can gain maximum benefit from the United Kingdom’s registry of volunteer bone marrow donors and from its inventory of altruistically-donated cord blood.

In March 2015 the Department gave £3 million of funding to NHSBT and the Anthony Nolan Trust to continue their work saving and improving lives through stem cell and cord blood donation. Part of this funding will support the collection of an additional 3,000 Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) adult donors.

The provision of cord blood stem cells remains an important part of the overall strategy and this year will see a continued expansion of the cord blood bank with a target that 40% samples are collected from the BAME community.

The Department continues to support the work of the National BAME Transplant Alliance that helps to coordinate the work of BAME organisations working to promote all forms of donation including bone marrow stem cells.

The Department is currently working with Anthony Nolan and NHSBT to consider possible future funding in the light of the spending review and set against other spending priorities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the application-to-place ratio prior to interview is for ST1/CT1 posts starting in August to December 2016 at each specialities national recruitment office.

Ben Gummer

Health Education England (HEE) is responsible for the management of medical specialty recruitment on behalf of the four United Kingdom countries.

The information requested for 2016 is not yet available.

HEE publishes application to place ratios in October on an annual basis. The August to December 2016 data will be published in October 2016.

Competition ratios for 2015 can be found here:

http://specialtytraining.hee.nhs.uk/specialty-recruitment/competition-ratios/2015-competition-ratios/

To note: The data used to determine the competition ratios for is drawn from the initial recruitment round and does not include re-advertisements.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of the doctors applying to Round 1 for Speciality Training posts commencing in the period August to December 2016 applied directly from Foundation Year Two.

Ben Gummer

The information is not currently available. Analysis of training application numbers is carried out by Health Education England (HEE) once recruitment rounds have been completed. HEE will publish the data once this work is complete via the UK Foundation Programme Office (UK FPO) annual reports.

The 2015 annual report is available on the UK FPO Website:

http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/download.asp?file=FP_Annual_Report_2015_-_FINAL.pdf

The appointments to specialty or general practice are self-declared by the doctors in response to the survey and are not verified against recruitment data.

Whilst the survey is a fairly accurate predictor of the destination of doctors who have completed foundation training the figures are not intended to be an accurate employment record.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-03-15.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has put measures in place to ensure that funding raised through the two per cent precept levied by local government will be spent on adult social care.

Greg Hands

Council treasurers will need to certify that the additional revenue will be used to fund adult social care. The Secretary of State will review the arrangements each year as part of the process for setting referendum principles. These are approved by the House of Commons each year and will take into account the way councils have used the additional flexibility when doing so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many Disabled Facilities Grants were not progressed as a result of families not being able to afford adaptations in cases in which the cost of adaptation exceeded the grant amount in 2014 and 2015; and if he will estimate the number of such grants that will not be progressed in 2016 for that reason.

Brandon Lewis

The Department for Communities and Local Government does not collect data on the number of Disabled Facilities Grants which are not progressed where the cost of the adaptations exceed the grant limit of £30,000 per applicant. Local authorities can provide additional top-up funding which can be used to fund adaptations where the cost exceeds the grant limit per applicant.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider the introduction of a programme to reduce or write off student loans for top graduates entering teaching or social work in areas (a) of high social need and (b) struggling to recruit to such professions.

Nick Gibb

Recruiting sufficient, high-quality teachers is central to the Government’s ambition to deliver educational excellence everywhere. High-quality teachers are the single most important factor determining how well pupils achieve in schools. That is why we have already committed to spend over £1.3 billion on teacher recruitment up to 2020. This includes continuing to provide generous tax-free teacher training bursaries to graduates, which are worth up to £30,000 for academic year 2016/17.

More trainee teachers started training in 2015/16 than in 2014/15, and a record proportion of new trainees held a first class degree. For courses beginning in 2016/17, so far around 26,000 people have secured a teacher training place, and we have already recruited in excess of targets in primary and several secondary subjects.

We review the financial incentives for teacher training every year, and we will continue to test new approaches to recruiting teachers, such as the STEM teacher supply package announced in March 2015.

Recruiting and retaining high quality social workers is essential to ensure we deliver high quality services to vulnerable children and families. As already announced, the Government will consult on the future funding of social work education in order to ensure that there will be an adequate supply of social workers with the right skills and training. This is part of a wider, ongoing programme which has seen investment of over £700m since 2010 in social worker training and improvement programmes, including support for a range of routes to expand entry into the profession such as Frontline, a scheme specifically aimed at bringing top graduates into social work, and Step Up.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of new claimants of employment and support allowances who will be placed in the work-related activity group from April 2017 to May 2020; and whether he has made an estimate of the number of those claimants who will be people with cancer.

Priti Patel

Information regarding the number of new claimants who will be placed in the work related activity or limited capability for work groups can be found in the following table, for each of the financial years in the time period requested :

	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Total work related activity or limited capability for work group decisions from new claims to ESA or UC	100,000	100,000	100,000	100,000

Figures are consistent with the Autumn Statement 2015 forecasts, which do not separate out ESA and UC.

We do not hold estimates on the number of claimants we expect with specific conditions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress he has made on the creation of a new role for a part-time neuromuscular psychologist at the Colman Centre in Norwich.

Jane Ellison

NHS England advises that the post of neuromuscular psychologist is a specialised service, for which NHS England is the responsible commissioner.

We understand that Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust has yet to submit a business case to NHS England for the post.