Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Paul Maynard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paul Maynard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Maynard on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what programmes are in place to reduce the number of babies born with a low Apgar score.

    Ben Gummer

    Apgar is a quick test performed on a baby at one and five minutes after birth. The one-minute score determines how well the baby tolerated the birthing process. The five-minute score tells the doctor how well the baby is doing outside the mother’s womb.

    In rare cases, the test will be done 10 minutes after birth. The Apgar test is done by a doctor, midwife, or nurse. Who examines the baby’s breathing effort, heart rate, muscle tone, reflexes and skin colour. Most of the time, a low score at one minute is near-normal by five minutes.

    Any score lower than 7 is a sign that the baby needs medical attention. The lower the score, the more help the baby needs to adjust outside the mother’s womb. A lower Apgar score does not mean a child will have serious or long-term health problems. The Apgar score is not designed to predict the future health of the child.

    In November 2015 the Government announced a national ambition to halve by 2030 the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth. In support of this ambition more than 90 applications have received additional funding as part of a £2.24 million trusts safety equipment. Over £1 million is being invested to roll out training programmes to make sure staff have the skills and confidence they need to deliver world-leading safe care. We have also allocated £500,000 to develop, a new online system that can be used consistently across the National Health Service to enable staff to review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death.

    The announcement also committed to publishing an annual report to update the public, health professionals, providers and commissioners on the progress we are making towards achieving the ambition. On 7 March we launched Sign up to Safety – ‘Spotlight on Maternity,’ a guidance document that asks all trusts with maternity services to commit publically to contributing towards achieving the Government’s national ambition.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the Government plans to introduce a Sharia-compliant Takaful alternative finance product for students unable to access 24+ Advanced Learning Loans as well as for students undertaking higher education courses.

    Joseph Johnson

    The November 2015 Higher Education Green Paper (Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice) confirms the Government’s intention to introduce, for the first time, a new system of alternative student finance. Work on the new system is ongoing, and includes careful consideration of where and how alternative student finance can deliver the most benefit for students. Subject to Parliament, the Government plans to introduce the system through new primary legislation.

  • Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gould of Potternewton on 2016-06-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of Public Health England’s Strategic plan for the next four years: better outcomes by 2020, what plans they have to consider investment in sexual health and contraception as a component of any economic tool to support local and national investment decisions.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Public Health England (PHE) and the Department provide a variety of tools and support in the form of guidance, data and direct advice to local PHE Centre staff. For example PHE supports local decision making by including data on sexual health spend and outcomes in the Spend and Outcomes Tool (SPOT) provided to local authorities. SPOT gives organisations in England an overview of spend and outcomes across key areas of business. The profile supports understanding of the overall relationship between spend and outcomes, by identifying areas of significant variance which are likely to require more in-depth analysis.

  • Baroness Hamwee – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Hamwee – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hamwee on 2016-09-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that the role Barnardo’s has played at Cedars family accommodation centre is replicated in Tinsley House by a similar organisation.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Home Office has now launched a tender exercise in line with Government procurement policy to provide welfare services to families while they are accommodated at the new pre-departure accommodation.

    The services to be provided through the new contract will replicate those currently carried out by Barnardo’s at Cedars. The contract will focus on maintaining the current high quality of provision. The tender process will assess the experience and capability of bidding organisations to ensure that the most suitable organisation is selected.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they take any steps to monitor whether lavatories on franchised train operator services are in working order throughout train journeys; whether any sanctions have been imposed on any franchisee as a result of that monitoring in the last two years; and if so, what those sanctions were.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    We are investing record amounts in the railways in order to give passengers better journeys. We expect the industry to deliver the best possible customer experience every day, including the provision of appropriate toilet facilities.

    Whilst there are no regimes that separately monitor lavatory quality provided on trains by franchised train operators, the Invitation To Tender for the new Greater Anglia franchise is piloting three challenging customer service targets to be monitored through mystery shopper exercises and passenger surveys. One of these Key Performance Indicator (KPI) targets is “presentation of facilities”, which includes questions about “the cleanliness of the toilet facilities” and “the condition of on board toilets” amongst other aspects. Financial penalties will apply if the KPI targets are not met. Various quality of service regimes exist in other Franchise Agreements for monitoring and managing overall train interior quality, some of which carry financial penalties. The National Rail Passenger Survey also reports specifically on “On Train Toilet Facilities” for every operator in its twice yearly survey.

    No sanctions have been imposed specifically in regard to train toilets.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the publication, Towards a one nation economy: A 10-point plan for boosting rural productivity, published in August 2015, when he plans that the fast-track planning certificate process will be available.

    Brandon Lewis

    Our intention is to deliver an application route for permission in principle as soon as possible after receiving Royal Assent to the enabling powers in the Housing and Planning Bill and laying the associated secondary legislation on the detailed procedures.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-01-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many civil servants attended his speeches at (a) St David’s Hotel and (b) Salt Bar on 7 January 2016.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Consistent with all official events, the Chancellor was supported by a small number of officials from his private office and the Treasury press office when speaking at the St David’s hotel and at the two associated visits.

    Costs associated with the major economy speech at the St David’s hotel in Cardiff were met within the existing events budget at HM Treasury. Invitations were not issued by the department.

    The event at the Salt Bar was not a Government event and so no costs were met by the Treasury and no civil servants attended.

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January 2016 to Question 24232, how much has been allocated for overall expenditure in the 2016-17 budget for the British Transport Police.

    Claire Perry

    The British Transport Police Authority has set an expected budget of £295.1 million for the British Transport Police in 2016/17.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department took to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2009 car scrappage scheme.

    Anna Soubry

    The National Audit Office published a report in 2010 which evaluated the measures taken by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills to support businesses through the recession. It describes what support schemes were put in place and how effectively they were conceived, implemented and managed, including the Vehicle Scrappage Scheme.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people receiving social care in (a) Dartford and (b) Kent who are entitled to public funding to support that care.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department does not hold this information in the format requested.

    Data collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre indicates that in 2014/15 there were 4,175 local authority supported long term residential and nursing care users aged 65 years and over supported by Kent County Council. This data is not available for the individual district councils in Kent, of which Dartford is one.

    The data can be found at:

    http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB18663

    An internal estimate carried out by the Department in 2012/13 estimated that 48% of people aged 65 and over in residential and nursing care in Kent were receiving local authority support at that time.

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