Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington on 2015-10-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are considering to allow flight training organisations based in the United Kingdom to train overseas student pilots for a professional pilot’s licence.

    Lord Bates

    Flight training organisations can teach courses lasting up to six months to international students, under the short-term study visa route.

    Alternatively, they may use the Tier 4 visa route where the course lasts longer than six months and they hold a Tier 4 sponsor licence. To qualify for a Tier 4 sponsor licence, an institution must have a track record of teaching UK or EEA students, and be teaching courses which meet Tier 4 requirements. To meet Tier 4 requirements, a course must lead to an approved qualification, as defined in the Tier 4 Guidance for Sponsors.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support children and young people who are referred to NHS Mental Health services but do not receive treatment as they did not meet the clinical threshold to quality for treatment at a Child and Mental Health Services centre.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government is committed to transforming the support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing as set out by the vision in Future in mind. This includes both clinical services commissioned by the NHS, and the wider support on offer in a range of settings.

    One of the first stages in achieving this vision is the implementation of Local Transformation Plans for children’s mental health and wellbeing developed by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), together with their local partners. These Plans cover the full spectrum of mental health issues: from prevention and resilience building, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable.

    This means that by 2020, local offers will be transformed so that the emotional welfare and mental health of children will be supported whether or not their mental health issues are clinically diagnosable. In many cases, by building resilience in schools or by early intervention, we hope to prevent the emergence of mental disorders.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the changes to personal injury law and procedure announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 on the prevalence of the practice of third party capture; and if he will make a statement.

    Dominic Raab

    The Government received and analysed data from numerous sources when formulating the announcement in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. We will continue to work with a wide range of stakeholders including other Government Departments, solicitors and insurers in taking forward the new reform package. The Government will consult on the detail of these measures in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to publish a funded arthritis action plan.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department is in regular contact with stakeholders, such as Arthritis Research UK, and hosted a roundtable with them in November. The group is in the process of producing a toolkit for commissioners to support commissioning of physical activity interventions for people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.

    Whilst the Department has no plans to publish an arthritis action plan, NHS England and Public Health England are taking forward a number of projects.

    Specifically on MSK conditions, the National Health Service National Clinical Director for MSK, Peter Kay, has been working in partnership with the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, to develop new MSK clinical networks across England to build consensus on the way forward for models of care. In addition, in February 2015, Public Health England, in partnership with NHS England and the Department, ran a local pilot campaign to raise public awareness of the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in Nottingham City and Hardwick Clinical Commissioning Group. The aim of the campaign was to support earlier diagnosis and thereby enable treatment to begin earlier to improve the quality of life for people with the condition. The results of the campaign are currently being evaluated.

  • Maggie Throup – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Maggie Throup – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maggie Throup on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support NHS England plans to provide clinical commissioning groups relating to the transfer of obesity surgery commissioning responsibilities from NHS England after that transfer.

    George Freeman

    Although the transfer is effective from April 2016, the handover process will be agreed between specialised commissioning and individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), in line with their preparedness.

    Specialised commissioning teams will continue to provide advice and support CCGs post-handover in line with the CCG’s need. CCGs already have mechanisms in place to monitor provider performance and quality through the existing quality assurance processes.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Israeli counterpart on settlement activity in the West Bank.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued a statement on 16 March condemning the Government of Israel’s decision to expand settlements in the West Bank.

    On 18 February, during my visit to Israel, I discussed the issue of settlements with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterating the UK’s position. Our Embassy regularly raises this issue with the Israeli authorities, making clear the UK’s firm and consistent opposition to illegal construction of settlements.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department intends to support and mentor weaker schools as part of the Northern Powerhouse schools strategy.

    Nick Gibb

    Our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, sets out the range of support we will offer to schools across England.

    Where schools are failing, Regional Schools Commissioners will identify a suitable academy sponsor to turn them around. In areas where there are too few sponsors, we will recruit new sponsors, including high-performing schools and more sponsors from business, charity and philanthropy. We will also encourage existing sponsors to expand, increasing incentives and minimising barriers, learning from the investment we have already made through the Northern Sponsor Fund.

    For other struggling schools, we will ensure there is nationwide coverage of system leaders (teaching schools and National Leaders of Education), who will be expected to work with weaker schools to support them to improve. To help achieve this, we will improve how we designate system leaders by introducing a more sophisticated approach based on timely and accurate data rather than relying heavily on Ofsted judgements. We will also partner schools with the potential to become strong system leaders with existing teaching schools and National Leaders of Education.

    Through the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, we will target our existing programmes to secure sufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders, sponsors and members of governing boards on the areas of greatest need. At the Budget, the Government announced that we will invest an additional £20 million a year to build on this strategy to raise education standards across the Northern Powerhouse. The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence.

    For the additional funding announced in the budget, decisions on how the funding will be allocated for the 2016-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller. We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s review shortly.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of staff in her Department were (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2015-16.

    Karen Bradley

    Each Home Office Annual Report and Accounts publication includes information relating to payroll (civil servants) and non-payroll (agency and contractors substituting temporarily in civil servant roles as part of our flexible resourcing strategy) staff. Table 1 includes information for each of the financial years from 2010 – 11 to 2014-15. The percentage of non-payroll staff increased in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 as the Department operated on a lower overall level of permanent civil servants, which was then complemented by more flexible hires to meet seasonal and other temporary demands.

    Information for the 2015-16 period will be published shortly.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to improve the affordability of existing pension schemes for companies.

    Richard Harrington

    The Government is aware of the fact that some parts of the Defined Benefit (DB) pension sector are concerned about the current economic climate, but the situation is very mixed, and the experiences of schemes differ. We do not believe there is a systemic problem but we continually look at ways to improve the affordability of schemes.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-10-10.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax credits claims have been reinstated by HM Revenue and Customs as a result of (a) adjustments and (b) cancellations by Concentrix in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency.

    Jane Ellison

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold the data broken down specifically by constituency areas. HMRC is currently focused on resolving the outstanding cases but will be preparing regional analysis, which will be available in due course.