Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Oliver Heald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Oliver Heald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Heald on 2015-11-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the quality and rigour of checks made by locum agencies of the character and credentials of staff to be provided to the NHS or social services; and if he will make a statement.

    Ben Gummer

    Providers of regulated health and social care services must be registered with the Care Quality Commission and comply with certain fundamental standards, including those relating to the employment of fit and proper persons.

    In the National Health Service, employing organisations have the overarching responsibility for auditing and monitoring compliance of third party suppliers of temporary workers (including locum doctors) to ensure that they operate to the same level of standards in relation to undertaking pre-appointment checks as outlined by the NHS Employment Check Standards. Under the framework agreements, all external staffing providers (including contractors and agencies) are required to provide assurances that they have robust recruitment processes in place in line with the NHS Employment Check Standards.

    Care workers also routinely use agencies to secure employment or apply to care homes and care providers directly. Employers in the care sector have a duty of care to patients and their families to take all appropriate action to ensure employees have the appropriate credentials to enable them to work in the sector. In cases of direct payment, where the council pays the care-recipient directly to employ a carer, this responsibility falls to the care recipient.

  • Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Housing and Planning of 14 December 2015, Official Report, column 1278, if he will call in for his determination the application by Dorset County Council to grant itself planning permission for a new school on land in the green belt adjoining Marsh Lane, Christchurch, on grounds of its departing from the recently approved Local Development Plan.

    Brandon Lewis

    The County Council intends to consider the application at its planning committee on 28 January. Should it be minded to approve the proposal, the Council would then refer the application to the Secretary of State due to the scale and location of the development proposed in the Green Belt. If the application is referred, the Secretary of State would then consider whether to call in the application.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much has been spent on (a) maintenance of and (b) upgrade works for (i) Tornado, (ii) Typhoon and (iii) Reaper drones in each of the last six years.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The costs of maintenance and capability upgrades for Tornado, Typhoon and the Reaper Unmanned Air System, in each of the last six financial years, are shown in the table below.

    Financial year (£ million)

    2009-10

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    Tornado: capability upgrade work

    87.2

    69.3

    33.3

    28.9

    58.2

    45.6

    Tornado: maintenance

    311.0

    303.8

    369.7

    344.2

    247.7

    184.9

    Typhoon: capability upgrade work

    0

    0

    0

    0

    66.8

    178.4

    Typhoon: maintenance

    392.7

    475.3

    499.6

    294.8

    313.1

    460.2

    Reaper: maintenance

    4.8

    4.8

    4.8

    9.8

    27.1

    23.5

    Reaper: capability upgrade work

    0.2

    0.4

    0.4

    0.6

    1.3

    1.3

    Note: Costs for all platforms are extracted from the equipment support programme budget.

    “

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the deadline is for making an application to the EU Solidarity Fund in relation to the Cumbria floods.

    James Wharton

    Applications for the European Solidarity Fund must be received by the Commission within 12 weeks of the date of first damage caused by the disaster.

  • Chris Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Chris Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance on the number of university applications in the forthcoming academic year.

    Joseph Johnson

    The reform of Disabled Students’ Allowances is intended to ensure higher education institutions are consistently meeting their duties to disabled students under the Equality Act, and is not expected to impact on application rates.

    The Government carried out an Equality Analysis as part of the recent consultation on reforms to Disabled Students’ Allowances. This is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/481527/bis-15-658-disabled-students-allowances-equality-analysis.pdf

    “

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received from (a) university health centres and (b) other GP surgeries with atypical patient profiles on funding formula changes.

    Alistair Burt

    Approximately 55% of general practitioner (GP) practices operate under General Medical Service (GMS) contract arrangements. Typically, at least half of the money that a GMS practice receives is in the form of the ‘global sum’, derived through the Carr-Hill Formula.

    The formula, as agreed with the British Medical Association (BMA) before the introduction of the 2004 GP contract, is used to allocate the global sum and related payments on the basis of the practice population, weighted for factors that influence relative needs and costs.

    There are indications that the formula does not work as effectively in areas with demographically atypical populations, such as new towns or areas with high student populations. NHS England is working with the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee, NHS Employers, the Department and academic partners on the review to develop a formula that better reflects the factors that drive workload, such as age or deprivation. As part of this work, the effect of any changes on practice funding in specific areas such as Huddersfield and Kirklees will be considered. It is intended that the review of the Carr-Hill formula will inform the 2017-18 GP contract.

    A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified one item of correspondence received since 1 May 2015 from university health centres. There has also been a Ministerial meeting related to areas with demographically atypical populations, in this case new towns. It was not possible to identify correspondence received from GP surgeries with atypical patient profiles. This represents correspondence received by the Department’s ministerial correspondence unit only.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve transparency and accountability in spending by schools.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Appropriate arrangements are currently in place to ensure that school spending is transparent. Details of income and expenditure in all maintained schools and academies are published annually by the department in Statistical First Releases, available on GOV.UK. The Permanent Secretary’s Accountability System Statement sets out in detail the accountability system for education, including maintained schools and academies, and for children’s services.

    While we are always interested in improving transparency and accountability in spending by schools we have no current plans for changes.

  • 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 2016-06-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to introduce measures for airspace modernisation.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The UK’s airspace modernisation plan is set out in the Future Airspace Strategy which was agreed in 2011. This long-term strategy is now being implemented by the aviation industry and overseen by the Future Airspace Strategy Deployment Steering Group which is jointly chaired by the Civil Aviation Authority and NATS.

  • Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 20 April (HL7511), and in the light of the outcome of the EU referendum, whether they will now consider bringing forward legislation to ban the routine use on farms of antibiotics classified by the WHO as critically important for treating bacterial infections in humans, rather than waiting until the EU negotiations on the relevant legislation are completed in late 2017.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The Government does not support the routine preventative use of antibiotics in animals, including those classified as critically important.

    We will be restricting the use of the most important critically important antibiotics (CIAs) through measures already underway to remove indications for preventive treatment of groups of livestock from medicines containing the most important CIAs. This will not require legislative change.

  • Nic Dakin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nic Dakin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2015-11-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to embed the Family Test into its policy making.

    James Brokenshire

    I refer the honourable member to my answer given to Parliamentary Question 15845 in response to a question tabled on 10 November by my honourable friend for Eastbourne.