Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the human rights situation in Iran.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The human rights situation in Iran continues to cause great concern, in particular its use of the death penalty and the restrictions on freedom of expression and belief. Although President Rouhani pledged to improve the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Iran when he was elected, we are yet to see concrete improvements.

  • Ian Mearns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ian Mearns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Mearns on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals have been granted in a claimant’s favour following an assessment prior to a transfer from disability living allowance to personal independence payments.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    Between April 2013, when the Personal Independence Payment was introduced, and March 2016, there were 9,774 reassessment appeals which found in favour of the appellant.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 45660, what estimate he has made of the number of general practices that require assistance from the new practice resilience programme.

    David Mowat

    Following the launch of the General Practice Resilience Programme in July 2016, NHS England’s local teams have been working to finalise a range of offers that can be put in place to support practice sustainability and resilience. This includes selecting which practices will receive this support, by using nationally published criteria.

    NHS England was initially due to set out which practices would be included in the first cohort to receive support through this programme, on 30 September 2016. The deadline for this assessment and report has been revised to 18 October 2016, to allow greater opportunity for practices to self-refer for assessment. The Department cannot provide an estimate of the number of general practices requiring assistance from the new practice resilience programme until this date, when NHS England will have completed its assessment and report.

    Identifying practices in need of support is challenging, as there are elements which are subjective and it can be hard to measure the nature, severity and weight of issues facing individual practices. The national criteria seek to chart a middle route between those aspects that are measurable and those less tangible issues. The nature of the issues facing a practice can be generally grouped as follows; demand, capacity and internal issues. The national criteria acknowledges the importance of local input from clinical commissioning groups and local medical committees, as well as how self-referral of general practices is legitimate as a self-declaration of their support needs.

    An earlier NHS England programme, the Vulnerable Practice Programme, launched in December 2015, identified around 900 practices as potentially vulnerable and in need of support.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many Diplomatic Service personnel were employed in Asia in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    There were the following number of Diplomatic Service personnel in Asia:

    2015 – 419 (total FCO employees – 487)
    2014 – 437 (total FCO employees – 519)
    2013 – 479 (total FCO employees – 552)
    2012 – 471 (total FCO employees – 535)
    2011 – 460 (total FCO employees – 535)

    The reduction in Diplomatic Service personnel reflects the localisation of support grade roles, which are now filled by locally engaged staff.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls have been made to the Fit for Work helpline in each month since its launch.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The number of calls made to the Fit for Work helpline each month since the launch of the service is :

    December 2014 54
    January 2015 198
    February 2015 316
    March 2015 364
    April 2015 331
    May 2015 408
    June 2015 501
    July 2015 602
    August 2015 653
    September 2015 852
    October 2015 965
    November 2015 1084

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she expects A-Levels in (a) French, (b) German, (c) Spanish, (d) Religious Studies and (e) Geography to be approved by awarding bodies for teaching from September 2016; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Gibb

    This is a matter for Ofqual, the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation. I have therefore asked its Chief Regulator, Glenys Stacey, to write directly to the Honourable Member. A copy of her reply will be placed in the House of Commons Library.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why it was decided to use an 18-month period for patient reported outcomes in the next Prostate Cancer Audit rather than a six-month period, as used in Germany.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The proportion of men diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer between 2010 and 2013 (the Audit period) who had radical treatment, and the proportion who had a hospital length of stay over three days and who required an emergency readmission within 90 days following an operation, are presented by health region in the attached headed Table 1.

    It should be noted that the results presented are based on an analysis of data from the English Cancer Registry linked to the Hospital Episode Statistics. These data were collected before the start of the National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA) in April 2013.

    The number of radical prostatectomies undertaken in men diagnosed between 2010 and 2013, and the proportion of men who had a hospital length of stay over three days and who had an emergency readmission within 90 days following an operation, are presented in the attached headed Table 2. The results of 56 men included in the data set used to generate Figure 8 in the NPCA Annual Report 2015 could not be included in Table 2. Of these men, 37 were treated in National Health Service trusts that treated fewer than five patients during the Audit period; and for 19 patients it was not possible to identify the NHS trust where they had undergone treatment without incurring disproportionate cost.

    The first results for the patient-reported outcomes of men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1 April 2014 and 30 September 2014, and who underwent radical treatment (prostatectomy, external beam radiation, brachytherapy, cryotherapy, and high-intensity focused ultrasound), will be included in the NPCA’s Annual Report 2016, which is due to be published in the last quarter of 2016. These results will include incontinence rates.

    Men who had radical prostate cancer treatment were invited to complete a questionnaire about their experiences of care as well as about treatment outcomes, 18 months after the date of diagnosis. It was decided that questionnaires should be sent out at this time after diagnosis because it can take more than one year for men who have radiotherapy, in combination with androgen deprivation therapy, to complete their treatment. Subsequently, it will take at least three months for men to fully recover from the transient side effects of the radiotherapy. In order to include all men and to measure the final treatment outcome – rather than outcomes still affected by the transient side effects – an 18-month period was chosen.

  • Gordon Henderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Gordon Henderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Henderson on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that absent parents financially support their children.

    Priti Patel

    Child Maintenance Options provide free and impartial information and support to help separated parents make decisions about their child maintenance arrangements. For parents who are unable to make a family-based arrangement the government has introduced a new statutory Child Maintenance Service, which will bring speedier processing of applications, simpler calculations and faster enforcement action, where necessary.

    Where parents fail to fulfil their financial responsibilities towards their children we have a range of strong enforcement powers at our disposal. These powers include deducting maintenance directly from earnings, instructing bailiffs to collect arrears or seize goods, forcing the sale of property, disqualification from driving and commitment to prison.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to extend the time limits on applications for bereavement allowance.

    Priti Patel

    The time limit for claiming Bereavement Allowance is three months from the date of death, which is consistent with the time limit for other welfare entitlements. We are not considering extending this at this time. We are, however, currently developing the new Bereavement Support Payment due to be implemented for new claims from April 2017, and we will assess the merits of further flexibilities on backdating as part of this work.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if the Government will raise the link between religious freedom and the degree of broader political liberalisation and stability during peace talks on Syria.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, which the UK supported, urges all parties to the UN-facilitated political process to adhere to the principle identified by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) to protect the rights of all Syrians, regardless of ethnicity or religious denomination. Through our membership of the ISSG we will continue to seek to ensure that Syrian minorities will be included and safeguarded as the political process progresses. In our contact with members of the Syrian opposition, who have signed up to the Geneva Communiqué, we have maintained a strong line on our commitment to pluralism and the need to ensure that Freedom of Religion or Belief is enshrined as a constitutional right. A proportion of the High Negotiations Council, including members of the negotiating team, are drawn from religious minority groups in Syria’s richly diverse population.