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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-03-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the removal of mental health quality premium measures in NHS England’s Quality Premium Guidance 2016-17 on mental health outcomes.

    Alistair Burt

    The 2016/17 Quality Premium (QP) scheme has been designed to support the delivery of the major priorities for the National Health Service, as set out in the Five Year Forward View and in the NHS Mandate. The QP scheme is reviewed annually, with the intention of having a range of high impact measures addressing a range of priorities across the Five Year Forward View.

    However, there is scope for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to focus on mental health, if this is a local priority area in 2016/17. Each CCG is expected to select three local indicators from a menu of suitable measures aligned to the Right Care programme, which sets out a clinically led methodology for improvement and reducing variation in care. This menu includes 17 mental health indicators.

    The QP scheme is a part of NHS England’s wider incentive system, including the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme, which includes an incentive focussing on improving the physical health for patients with severe mental illness.

    As the QP will be retaining mental health as an indicator there has been no new assessment of the effect of removing.

    While there have not yet been any formal meetings with mental health charities about this, following the Mental Health Taskforce report, NHS England are keen to work with stakeholders-including mental health charities- to develop a new and robust mental health indicator for potential inclusion in the 2017/18 QP. This will align with the additional funding to drive improvements in ‘Improved Access to Psychological Therapies’ access from April 2017.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities applied for monies from the Planning Enforcement Fund; and how many such applications were successful.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Department received six applications for enforcement grants before the deadline for submitting applications and all were successful.

    Two grants were made in the financial year 2014-15 to Staffordshire County Council (£8,010) and Stratford-on-Avon District Council (£3,200).

    Four grants were made in the financial year 2015-16 to Bath and North East Somerset Council (£7,993.75), London Borough of Camden (£8,184.50), Chelmsford City Council (£2,755) and South Gloucestershire Council (£3,291.66).

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of Tier 2 skilled workers leaving the UK (a) voluntarily or (b) otherwise involuntarily as a result of the new £35,000 income requirement for settlement.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office published a full impact assessment on the changes to Tier 2 settlement rules when they were laid before Parliament on 15 March 2012. The impact assessment is available on the gov.uk website at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/117957/impact-assessment-tier2.pdf.

    Alternative routes available for Tier 2 workers unable to meet the minimum earnings threshold would depend on their individual circumstances. For the most part, economic migrants who wish to change their basis of stay in the UK are expected to leave and re-apply for an alternative visa from their home country. However, in-country switching is permitted in some categories, for example into Tier 1 routes aimed at high value migrants.

    Tier 2 migrants who apply for settlement and do not meet the requirements will be refused. Those who do not qualify for an alternative route and have reached the maximum period of limited leave allowed under Tier 2 should make plans to leave the United Kingdom. Any migrant who has over stayed the validity of their visa or otherwise failed to regularise their stay in the UK may be removed if they refuse or fail to leave of their own volition. They may also be liable to prosecution under the Immigration Act 1971.

  • Maria Miller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Miller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Miller on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to respond to the findings of the report published by the Children’s Commissioner and the NSPCC in June 2016, on a quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people, to ensure that children are not able to view pornographic material on (a) social media and (b) any other platform.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Government has noted with interest the findings of this report, and particularly that children were as likely to see pornographic content online inadvertently as they were to seek it out deliberately. This further strengthens the case for the action the Government is taking on the manifesto commitment to require age verification controls for access to online pornography, which will make it harder for children to access this content online. Our preferred approach was set out in our consultation published in February this year. Government is currently finalising our response to this consultation

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when her Department last made a formal assessment of the Palestinian National Authority’s adherence to its commitment to ensure that the human rights of all citizens are respected without exception as set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between her Department and that authority; and if she will make a statement.

    James Wharton

    The last formal assessment of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) commitment to the Partnership Principles, including the PA’s commitment to respecting human rights, was carried out in May 2016. Our assessment is that the PA continues to deliver on the Partnership Principles, even under increasingly fragile and volatile conditions.

  • Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) independent domestic violence advisers and (b) independent sexual violence advisers operating in the criminal justice system in each year since 2010-11.

    Karen Bradley

    The previous Government ring-fenced nearly £40 million – £10 million per year – of stable funding up until 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services, rape crisis centres, the national domestic violence helplines and stalking helpline. This funding has been extended until April 2016 and includes part-funding for 144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and 87 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs).

    The Home Office supports these roles through training and awareness-raising, including for the majority of IDVAs and ISVAs who are employed by local authorities and third sector organisations.

    We recognise the importance of specialist support services and are working with voluntary sector partners and local commissioners to assess coverage and need for these specialist advisers.

  • Lord Wigley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Wigley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wigley on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of respondents to the 2021 Census topic consultation requested that the place of birth be included in the 2021 Census.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 22115, why information on the number and value of cold weather payments has not been (a) collected and (b) made available for each constituency in each year since their introduction.

    Justin Tomlinson

    We have provided the data at constituency level in the Social Fund Annual Report since 2011/12. Prior to this the information was only collected, and then published annually, at Met Office Weather Station level. To go back and recalculate the figures based on each constituency since the scheme began could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Graham Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Graham Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Allen on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2016 to Question 25934, for what reasons information about how many three year olds received a free NHS dental check is not collected centrally.

    Alistair Burt

    Normally the Health and Social Care Information Centre is the source for any patient information but does not collect the data requested. However further investigation revealed that the NHS Business Services Authority is able to extract the information. We apologise for not identifying this earlier.

    All children receive free National Health Service dental care. Data has been provided for the number of courses of treatment (COT) for patients aged three where an examination has been recorded for the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 and can be found in the table below.

    Contract Location

    Number of COT for three year olds with examination recorded

    Nottingham North Constituency

    1,372

    Nottingham Local Authority

    3,629

    England and Wales

    552,652

    Source: NHS Business Services Authority

    Notes:

    1. A CoT is defined as:

    a. an examination of a patient, an assessment of their oral health, and the planning of any treatment to be provided to that patient as a result of that examination and assessment; and

    b. the provision of any planned treatment (including any treatment planned at a time other than the time of the initial examination) to that patient.

    2. Patient Age: Age for the patient on the date of acceptance. Derived from patient date of birth and date of acceptance.

  • Chris Heaton-Harris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Chris Heaton-Harris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Heaton-Harris on 2016-03-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has plans to change the workforce requirements for learning disability nurses.

    Ben Gummer

    Health Education England (HEE) was established to deliver a better healthcare workforce for England and using all available data is accountable for ensuring that we have a National Health Service workforce in the right numbers, with the right skills, values and behaviours to respond to the current and future needs of patients.

    HEE has been working with Skills for Care, Skills for Health and national transforming care partners to deliver a comprehensive workforce strategy to transform services for people with a learning disability, autism and/or behaviour that challenges to make significant and lasting improvements to their care and lives.

    HEE has developed and made available a number of enabling tools and resources that can be utilised throughout Transforming Care Partnership including:

    ― a Learning Disability Skills and Competency Framework which adopts a competency based approach to workforce planning and development;

    ― a series of role templates to support the development of community and enhanced community teams; and

    ― HEE Learning Disability Expert Reference Group Chaired by Baroness Hollins is exploring the career framework opportunities within health and social care for the development of new roles and education and training pathway.