Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department’s plans are for the delivery of IT and digital services after the end dates of current contracts.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department anticipates a shift in the way in which citizens will engage with the Department – with greater digital interaction in the future. Digital Technology, Data and Security capabilities are a key enabler of this shift. The Department is progressing its strategy to deliver the underpinning technology requirements, and this includes both in-house services and externally provided services through procurement exercises using open competitions under the EU Procurement Directives and call-off competitions under Government Frameworks, such as GCloud and Crown Hosting.

  • Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-03-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department has issued on the length of time a patient should expect to wait between a telephone consultation taking place and being given an appointment to see their GP.

    Alistair Burt

    There is no central guidance to general practitioner (GP) practices on waiting times for telephone consultations.

    GPs can conduct telephone consultations with patients if they feel it is appropriate to do so. This could remove the need for the patient to go on to have a face to face consultation, however, it is for the GP to use his or her clinical judgement to decide if and when a face to face consultation should take place, and for the patient to decide if they wish to attend.

    This Government is committed to improving access to GP consultations and the Prime Minister’s GP Access Fund encourages practices in the schemes to use innovative methods to provide appointments to patients.

  • 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 number of specialist dementia (a) residential and (b) nursing home places in Kent.

    Alistair Burt

    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC has provided the following information:

    Active care home locations with the Dementia Service User Band in the Kent local authority

    Type of home

    Number of beds

    Number of locations

    Nursing home

    3,663

    62

    Residential home

    4,229

    136

    Grand Total

    7,892

    198

    Source: CQC database at 11 April 2016

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the tax gap was for (a) income tax, (b) national insurance contributions and (c) capital gains tax in each year since 2009-10.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs published its latest tax gap estimates on 22 October 2015 in Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470540/HMRC-measuring-tax-gaps-2015-1.pdf.

    The total tax gap for Income Tax, National Insurance Contributions and Capital Gains Tax for the years from 2009-10 to 2013-14 is set out in Table 1.3 (page 18).

    Separate estimates for each of these three components are not available.

  • Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-06-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have assessed the impact on Birmingham Airport of a reduction in train services to Birmingham International, including the impact on the percentage of passengers who access the airport by rail and by car respectively.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Rail services between London and the Midlands are currently provided by the West Midlands and InterCity West Coast franchises. These franchises are due be replaced when they expire in October 2017 and April 2018 respectively. The Department has completed a consultation in respect of the replacement West Midlands franchise, and commenced another in respect of InterCity West Coast in May. The outcomes of those consultations will be used to inform what we ask the operator of the new franchise to provide. This information, including the key challenges and opportunities that the Department has identified for those franchises, will be published in due course.

    Neither consultation proposed cutting train services. We expect potential bidders to plan their train services to meet the needs of passengers at the stations they serve considering how best to serve and link markets and improve service reliability. To make sure their plans best reflect the needs of the franchise we are seeking views from the public and stakeholders on the ICWC franchise on:

    • any direct journeys currently provided by ICWC that they would want to see protected at a minimum level; and
    • priorities for potential changes to train services, such as speeding up service for long-distance passengers, for example by changing stops at low-use stations or adjusting the level of service.
  • Baroness Rebuck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Baroness Rebuck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that the 60 per cent of the prison population who do not have at least entry level literacy skills do so by the time they complete their prison sentence.

    Baroness Mobarik

    Prisons should be places of safety and reform. The Government is determined to make sure that it achieves better educational outcomes for all prisoners, including in literacy. This will form a key part of its safety and reform plan, which it will set out this autumn.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of working families in Northern Ireland who will be affected by proposed changes to working tax credits; and what estimate he has made of the average change in the amount that will be received by such families in the year commencing April 2016.

    Damian Hinds

    This information is not available.

    Information about the number of benefitting families and average entitlement by region and Parliamentary Constituency in the tax year 2013-14 can be found in the publication ‘Personal tax credits: Finalised award statistics – geographical statistics 2013-2014’ here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-tax-credits-finalised-award-statistics-geographical-statistics-2013-to-2014

    “

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress has been made on the Sentencing Guidelines Council’s review of sentencing guidelines for driving offences.

    Andrew Selous

    Sentencing guidelines are issued by the independent Sentencing Council for England and Wales. Following the announcement by the previous Justice Secretary of a government review of driving offences and penalties, the Sentencing Council have paused their review of sentencing guidelines for causing death by driving.

  • Nigel Adams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nigel Adams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2015-12-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the frequency of use of police detention facilities for mental health patients who pose a risk to themselves or others when mental health facilities are full or unavailable.

    Alistair Burt

    Our departments have worked closely to achieve a reduction of 54% in the use of police custody as a place of safety in the last three years. We intend to amend primary legislation to further reduce its use and are investing up to £15 million in 2016-17 to help achieve this.

  • David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average time taken for the transfer of documents between GP surgeries when a patient move to a different health area was in each of the last five years.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department does not collect information on the time taken to transfer documents between general practitioner (GP) surgeries.

    The GP contract requires GP practices to use the electronic facility known as “GP2GP” for the safe and effective transfer of any computerised patient records where they have access to this system. As at end September 2015, 97.2% of GP practices were using GP2GP. 5,859,890 patient electronic health records have been transferred by GP2GP to the patient’s new GP since 2007.