The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Morris on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to facilitate an application from Lancaster City Council and the Environment Agency for funding for flood defences along the River Lune.
Rory Stewart
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 10 March to PQ UIN 29688.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Lifetime ISA will be included in assessments of savings under universal credit.
Priti Patel
Further details about how the Lifetime ISA will work will be announced in the autumn. Following this the Government will confirm how it will be treated for Universal Credit purposes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria his Department uses to determine links between cancer experienced by a current or former member of the armed forces and exposure to chemicals during periods of service.
Mark Lancaster
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) provides no-fault compensation for members of the Armed Forces where illness, injury or death is caused by service from 6 April 2005 under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and, before that date, under the War Pensions Scheme (WPS).
Any disablement, injury or illness, including cancer, can be claimed with awards made where the claimed disorder is accepted as being due to service. Lay and scheme medical advisers work together and decisions are evidence based, reflecting the individual case facts, contemporary medical understanding of causation and the relevant law.
Awards under the WPS depend on the assessed level of disablement with the method of assessment set out in the legislation and expressed as a percentage. The AFCS is tariff based. The legislation includes nine tables of injuries and disorders with associated tariff levels, relevant to military service. A lump sum is paid for pain and suffering taking account of the likely progress of the condition over the person’s lifetime. There are fifteen tariff levels and, for the more serious disorders like cancer, a Guaranteed Income Payment to cover reduced civilian employability is paid, in addition, from the date of claim for life.
Where negligence exists on the part of the MOD, Service personnel may make a claim for damages under common law for service after May 1987. Awards are determined by common law principles which, broadly, take into account, as appropriate, an individual’s pain and suffering, degree of injury, past and future financial losses and level of care required. Levels of compensation which include these elements can vary depending on an individual’s circumstances.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2016 to Question 38739, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of children who were receiving School Action or School Action Plus who subsequently would not be expected to meet the criteria for an Education, Health and Care plan.
Edward Timpson
Where a pupil is identified as having Special Educational Needs (SEN), schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place. This system of ‘SEN Support’ has replaced the School Action and School Action Plus categories. We expect schools to make robust judgements about who should receive SEN Support; and that these judgements should be informed by an understanding of good practice.
Different arrangements apply where a child has more complex SEN. Under the Children and Families Act 2014, the legal test of when a child requires an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan remains the same as that for a statement of SEN under the Education Act 1996. The EHC assessment and planning process allows for closer inter-agency working and greater involvement for the child and their family. This helps the local authority to identify and put in place the most effective provision for the child.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has further to centralise the delivery of acute stroke services in metropolitan areas.
David Mowat
NHS England’s National Clinical Director (NCD) for stroke is leading work to develop a full proposal which will consider the evidence and logistical issues involved in delivering mechanical thrombectomy to stroke patients across the country. This includes working with the relevant specialist societies, Royal Colleges and Health Education England to consider the workforce implications. Once the proposal has been developed, NHS England will decide whether the procedure should be made widely available.
To ensure there is equitable access to high quality hyper acute stroke care regardless of time of stroke or where a patient has their stroke, NHS England’s NCD for stroke continues to work with Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, clinical commissioning groups and the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints on how stroke care is best delivered to their local communities.
In some places, this is ‘the London type model’ of focussing care in a small number of centres and equipping these to be able to deliver specialist care 24/7. In other parts of the country, centralisation of care into specialist centres is not feasible for geographical reasons. In these cases, alternative solutions (such as the use of telemedicine) have to be considered. Whatever the scenario, NHS England is fully committed to ensuring that all patients receive the best quality of care and the most up to date treatments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-10-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of reported criticisms that official school textbooks used in Pakistan contain references capable of provoking religious prejudice and hatred, whether they plan to discuss with the government of Pakistan the content of those textbooks, in particular those used in Punjab and Sindh provinces.
Lord Bates
The majority of the Department of International Development’s (DFID) education programmes in Pakistan support the work of the Governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Both governments are aiming to improve the quality of education, including through reviewing and replacing text books, implementing Pakistan’s 2006 reformed curriculum, and improving teaching standards through regular and better quality teacher training.
Independent evaluations of the reformed curriculum have confirmed it to be based on values of democracy, pluralism, and peace. UK development programmes are assisting these provincial government efforts. In Sindh, we do not work with Government but rather we partner with the low cost private sector to get more poor children into school. So far 121,343 previously out of school children in the poorest areas of Sindh are now being educated.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-11-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Iraq to ensure that the residents of Camp Liberty are protected from attacks and receive supplies of food, fuel and medicine.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We strongly condemn the shameful attack against the civilian residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq on Thursday 29 October. Officials from our Embassy in Baghdad raised the attack with the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office on Friday 30 October and made clear the importance of an urgent and comprehensive investigation into the incident and ensuring that all those responsible are brought to justice.
In all of our engagement with the Government of Iraq on this issue, including at Ministerial level and in our statements, we have emphasised the importance of the Iraqi government doing everything possible to ensure the safety and well being of the residents of Camp Liberty. We support the UN’s calls for more to be done to protect the residents.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what public consultation has taken place with whom in preparation for the introduction of the two-quote system for university specialist mental health mentoring provision.
Joseph Johnson
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have clear responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support students, including those with mental health conditions. It is for the HEI to determine what welfare and counselling services they need to provide to their students.
In addition, Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) are available to meet the additional costs of study-related support needs, where the needs of the student cannot be met by the institution by way of a reasonable adjustment.
A new quality assurance framework is being developed for support that is funded by DSAs, so as to provide assurance on both quality and financial matters. The quality assurance framework will be in place in 2016. All support workers will be required to meet quality standards in order to be funded through DSAs. Discussions with stakeholders regarding new mechanisms for the selection of non-medical help support providers are already underway.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Cox on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times the A&E department at Pinderfields General Hospital was closed in 2015.
Jane Ellison
Information is not available in the format requested. Information is available at National Health Service trust level only and not by individual hospital site.
NHS England advises that information is collected in the winter daily situation reports from NHS trusts about whether there was an unplanned, unilateral closure of an accident and emergency department to admissions without consultation, which occurred without agreement from neighbouring NHS trusts or from the ambulance trust.
Published figures are available covering the periods 1 January 2015 to 27 March 2015 and 5 October 2015 to 31 December 2015. Figures for the remainder of 2015 are not held centrally. Published figures can be found using the following link.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/winter-daily-sitreps/
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-01-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many companies have made special arrangements with HMRC to pay tax owed, and how the arrangements are assessed as reasonable and fair to the taxpayer in general as well as to the company concerned.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
HMRC does not enter into special arrangements with companies.