Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Empey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Empey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the total number of persons currently employed to deliver electoral services in Northern Ireland.

    Lord Dunlop

    The Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland is currently considering a range of options for reforming his Office. This includes capitalising on new technology by introducing on-line registration.

    The Chief Electoral Officer will have regard to the continued effective delivery of elections in Northern Ireland and ensuring that his Office remains on a sustainable financial footing. The Northern Ireland Office fully supports him in this approach. I understand that work on some options is at an early stage.

    The Representation of the People Act 1983 makes provision for the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland to delegate returning officer functions to the clerk of a district council.

    Detailed questions on headcount and budget are operational matters for the Chief Electoral Officer who is independent of Government. The Chief Electoral Officer publishes all such information in his annual report which is presented to Parliament and copies are made available in the Library of the House.

    The headline budgets allocated to the Chief Electoral Office are:

    Financial Year

    Operational Funding

    Capital Funding

    2013/14

    £5.452m *

    £100k

    2014/15

    £2.336m

    £56.2k

    2015/16

    £2.296m

    £25k

    * includes £3m for the 2013 canvass

    The Northern Ireland Office has not agreed any budgets with the Chief Electoral Officer for future years pending receipt of the Department’s detailed Spending Review 2015 settlement letter from HM Treasury.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2016 to Question 22946, what action he will take to deal with clinical commissioning groups found not to have arrangements in place to offer mental health patients a choice of provider.

    Ben Gummer

    Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are required, as part of their statutory obligations, to ensure patients can exercise their legal rights to choice for a first elective referral, including for mental health services.

    Choice is an important feature of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans that CCGs have been asked to put in place through the recently-issued NHS Planning Guidance.NHS England is providing guidance and support to help them meet these requirements and will monitor and assure their implementation including through a new Assessment Framework.

    If providers or patients have concerns about CCGs ensuring that rights to choice are being appropriately upheld, Monitor as the sector regulator may investigate and specify improvement action by the CCGs, where necessary.

  • Corri Wilson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Corri Wilson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Corri Wilson on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress has been made on introducing a Europe-wide groceries adjudicator.

    Anna Soubry

    On 29 January, the European Commission published its report on the existing regulatory and voluntary frameworks for tackling unfair trading practices in the food supply chain. The Commission concluded that there would be no added value in a specific harmonised regulatory approach at EU level at this stage.

    The Commission will continue to monitor the situation and, before the end of its mandate, it will re-assess its position on harmonised regulation.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department plans to increase the understanding and use of social value in the design of healthcare services.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department is reviewing its work with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and will consider how to enhance the understanding and use of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 as part of this work. The Department also intends to develop guidance for procurers and non-procurers on how to make best use of the Act. In addition, the Sustainable Development Unit, funded by NHS England and Public Health England, has established a programme of work on social value which includes providing guidance to commissioners and embedding social value in the Sustainability and Transformation Planning process underway across the health and care system.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has for the National Curriculum when all schools become academies.

    Nick Gibb

    In 2014 the Government introduced a new, more rigorous national curriculum which was developed with regard to the views of subject experts and teachers and to the findings of international best practice comparisons.

    A system where every school is an academy will mean that the national curriculum will be a benchmark. It will serve an important role in setting out the level of knowledge-based, academically rigorous education which every child should experience.

    If academies or Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) want to deliver the national curriculum in their schools, they can do so confidently. The Government wants academies to use their freedoms to innovate and build challenging, tailored curricula to meet the particular needs of their pupils, their local area or the particular ethos of the school.

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to make public transport more accessible for people with guide dogs.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department is committed to building transport networks which work for everyone, including ensuring that disabled people have the same opportunities to travel as other members of society.

    From the 1st January this year all single deck buses designed to carry over twenty two passengers on local and scheduled routes have had to comply with the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR), which require vehicles to include contrasting handrails, priority seating and other features of benefit to visually impaired people. At least one priority seat on each bus must have sufficient space to accommodate an assistance dog with its owner. Double deck buses must comply with PSVAR by the 1st January 2017.

    Positive interactions with staff can also give visually impaired people the confidence to use bus services. We are working with Mott MacDonald to review disability awareness training from across the transport sector, and to produce best practice guidance by the end of 2016, to help equip bus drivers with the skills and knowledge they need to provide disabled passengers with a first class service.

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-07-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his oral contribution on 4 July 2016, Official Report, column 626, on what date he (a) decided not to introduce an emergency budget and (b) asked the OBR to assess the effect of the EU referendum result on the economy.

    Harriett Baldwin

    As the Chancellor has said, the referendum result will have an impact on the economy and public finances – and there will need to be action to address that. Given the delay in triggering Article 50 and the Prime Minister’s decision to hand over to a successor, it is sensible that decisions on what that action should consist of should wait until the Office of Budget Responsibility has made an economic forecast in the Autumn.

    The Chancellor will commission the OBR to provide an Autumn forecast in the usual way.

  • Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-09-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial or other assistance they are making available to the Palestinian territories currently governed by the State of Israel.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    DFID provided £72 million in financial year 2015/16 in support of Palestinian development to help build Palestinian institutions, deliver basic services and promote economic development.

    As the Secretary of State has recently taken up her new role, she is conducting a full examination of our work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) to ensure UK taxpayers’ money is spent in the right places and in the right way.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of depression among new mothers.

    Alistair Burt

    Reducing the incidence of depression among new mothers is a high priority for the Government.

    The Mandate from the Government for the National Health Service includes an objective for NHS England to work with partner organisations to reduce the incidence and impact of postnatal depression through earlier diagnosis, and better intervention and support.

    The NHS Mandate also includes an objective that every woman has a named midwife who is responsible for ensuring she has personalised care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and during the postnatal period. This will help clinicians to identify perinatal mental health problems as early as possible and to give women the support they need.

    To help achieve this we have increased the number of midwives by over 1,800 and the number of health visitors by over 3,500 since May 2010. In addition, 6,400 midwifery students and an extra 1,000 health visitors are in training respectively.

    We are also working to improve the provision of perinatal mental health services which is why it was announced in the March budget that the Government would invest an additional £75 million over the next five years, £15 million per year, to support women with mental ill health in the perinatal period. NHS England is leading a work programme to ensure that this extra money is spent in the right way, at the right time and in the right places. This work is being carried out collaboratively with partner organisations, including the Department and Public Health England, clinical experts and service users.

    Health Education England (HEE) has committed to ensure that the right knowledge and training is available so that the NHS is skilled in how it looks after women’s mental as well as physical health. The HEE Mandate includes an objective that there will be specialist perinatal mental health staff available for every birthing unit by 2017. HEE is also committed to working with the medical royal colleges to support specific perinatal mental health training being incorporated into the syllabus for doctors in postgraduate training by 2017.

    The Department has funded the Institute of Health Visitors which has trained over 600 perinatal mental health visitor champions to enable health visitors to identify and manage perinatal depression and other maternal mental health conditions.

    The Department has also funded the Maternal Health Care Policy Research Unit to undertake a project to develop and pilot test a perinatal mental health indicator which would reflect the mental health care a woman receives at certain critical perinatal time-points; the antenatal booking, the early postnatal period, and approximately one year postnatally.

    In line with the approach on other access and waiting time standards, NHS England appointed the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to run expert engagement and produce implementation outputs, for example commissioning guidance and model pathways. An Expert Reference Group has been formed to oversee this work. NHS England plan to be able to make the recommendations of the group public as soon as possible.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of car parking charges and their effect on the high street.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    We are committed to supporting our high streets and effective parking management is essential for businesses to survive and grow.

    Local authorities should be making it easier to park by looking to reduce the cost of parking in local authority owned car parks, and working with private sector providers to ensure they are providing a competitive offer that makes people want to visit high streets and town centres. This provides the best support to local shops, local jobs and tourism by increasing footfall.

    The Government has brought forward a range of measures to help motorists, including banning CCTV ‘spy cars’, introducing 10 minutes grace periods and a new guidance to challenge parking policies.