The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 2016-09-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders have been (1) applied for, and (2) granted, since the Serious Crime Act 2015 came into force.
Lord Keen of Elie
Statistics on Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders are available on gov.uk. Up to 31 March 2016, 60 applications had been submitted, and 46 Orders had been made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the rate of suicide among members of the fire service; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce such numbers.
Greg Clark
We do not hold information on the rate of deaths by suicide of firefighters. Individual fire and rescue authorities as employers are responsible for the health and welfare of firefighters, including their mental health. In October last year the Government announced the allocation of nearly £10 million to help support 200,000 emergency services personnel and volunteers, funded through LIBOR fines. Of this funding up to £4 million was allocated to mental health charity MIND to develop a programme of targeted mental health support and information for all emergency services personnel across England. The programme includes an anti-stigma campaign, a confidential advice line for emergency service staff, training for leaders and line managers, peer learning events and resources to promote better mental health in the work place. I encourage fire and rescue authorities to engage with this important programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on the provision of eye clinic care liaison officers in each year since 2010.
Alistair Burt
In England, eye clinics and their staffing, including Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLO), are commissioned and funded by individual clinical commissioning groups on the basis of local assessments of need.
The Department does not collect data on the number of eye clinic liaison officers employed in hospitals or how much has been spent on funding ECLOs.
The Government fully appreciates the impact that sight loss can have on a person’s life and the importance of information being available for those newly diagnosed with sight loss, including signposting patients to appropriate support and rehabilitation services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pauline Latham on 2016-01-14.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will include the removal of VAT on sun safety products in his negotiations on VAT on sanitary products with his counterparts in the EU.
Mr David Gauke
EU VAT rules do not currently allow for the application of a zero rate of VAT to sanitary products. That is why I have written to the European Commission and other Member States setting out our strong view that Member States should have full discretion over what rate of VAT they can apply to these products.
Drugs and medications that are dispensed by a registered pharmacist against a prescription issued by a qualifying health professional are zero rated for VAT.
High-factor sunscreen is on the NHS prescription list for certain conditions and is therefore provided VAT free when dispensed by a pharmacist to patients.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how NHS England are ensuring that there is no conflict in how Bain and Company supports both vanguards in their application for funds, and NHS England in deciding how to allocate funds.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) commissioned Bain and Company to support vanguards as an extension to work previously commissioned from the company as part of a programme called Future Focused Finance, an initiative sponsored by the Department of Health and arm’s length bodies. This earlier work for the HFMA had focused on the design of a value-based decision effectiveness tool, piloted in Mid-Cheshire and Liverpool. The HFMA, in partnership with NHS England, commissioned the extension to this work so that the tool could be used to support value-based decision-making in the 2016-17 New Care Models programme.
Alternatives were not sought from competitors because the vanguard support built on the original Bain and Company work for the HFMA.
The value of the vanguard support contract is £650,000. Value for money was obtained by negotiation, having been benchmarked with other commissions made by the National Health Service to external health consultancies.
As part of the contract, Bain and Company will be handing over its approach to NHS England, so that NHS England can support other areas in implementing new care models.
Bain and Company has not been commissioned to assess evidence to support transformation and potential for replication of new care models in other areas. The company is commissioned to develop and implement a framework that appropriately experienced NHS staff can use to assess such evidence. Intellectual property rights in respect of the framework in the future are assigned to HFMA under the terms of the contract. The NHS is entitled to use the framework free of charge in perpetuity.
Bain and Company is involved in the development of the tool used to make the assessment, and in the implementation of the process to use that tool. The company is specifically commissioned to help vanguard sites to use the tool and to summarise the resulting value propositions to facilitate decision-making by NHS England.
No conflict of interest arises as decisions concerning funding allocations for individual vanguards are made by NHS England’s Executive Team and Investment Committee and not Bain and Company.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 January 2016, Prime Minister pledges to transform sink estates, by what process local authorities will be able to obtain funding for estates regeneration under that initiative.
Brandon Lewis
The Government issued a Statement on 23 February, inviting expressions of interest from prospective estates across the country and enabling us to engage with prospective schemes. A more formal arrangement for accessing the £140 million loan fund, and for assessing bids into that fund, will be set in train in due course. The Statement can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estates-regeneration-statement
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new junior doctor contract on the recruitment and retention of junior doctors.
Ben Gummer
Medicine is an extremely popular career choice and we expect that to continue.
The new contract for doctors in training will have a positive impact on the working life of doctors and on the training they receive. It introduces stronger safeguards to ensure doctors are not required to work long, unsafe hours, enforced through contractual obligations on employers and external scrutiny of those hours by the Care Quality Commission and the independent Guardian of safe working hours.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of named day written parliamentary questions have been answered after the specified date by each Minister in his Department since May 2015.
Mr Edward Vaizey
In an oral evidence session to the House of Commons Procedure Committee on 27th April it was noted by the Minister for Sport that though the department had experienced a dip in its performance for timeliness of answers to written questions since May 2015, there has also been a significant improvement in performance in recent months.
The Table shows Named Day responses from 27th May 2015 to 29th April 2016:
|
Minister |
Named Day Questions answered |
Number of Late Named Day Questions |
|
The Minister for Culture |
321 |
146 |
|
The Minister for Sport |
109 |
30 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-06-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the result of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, whether they now intend to bring forward an emergency budget including tax rises and spending cuts, or whether they have plans to increase public investment.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
As the Chancellor has said, decisions on what action the government will take in response to the impact of the referendum on the economy and public finances will wait until the Office of Budget Responsibility has made an economic forecast in the Autumn.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-09-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of the Philippines following reports that many hundreds of people have been killed by police and vigilantes on suspicion of involvement in drugs; and what assessment they have made of whether the courts and prisons in that country are capable of dealing with the large numbers of newly arrested suspects.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The British Government’s view on the importance of the rule of law is clear, consistent and well known in the Philippines. Our Ambassador has repeatedly raised the Government’s concerns over drug-related killings with the Philippine Administration, including the Foreign Minister, Interior Secretary and Defence Secretary. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Mr Sharma), spoke of the importance of democratic accountability, human rights and the rule of law at a UK-Philippines trade and business event in London on 7 September.
Members of the Philippine Administration and Supreme Court have highlighted a lack of capacity within the courts and prisons to handle those newly arrested on suspicion of involvement in illegal drugs. We share this concern. The British Government supports the right to a fair trial and the humane treatment of detainees. The Government of the Philippines is taking some steps to increase the functionality of the justice system, including by increasing the number of specialist drug courts. Our Ambassador has conveyed the Government’s willingness to share its own experience of delivering a proportionate criminal justice response to illegal drug use and trafficking.