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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how NHS England are ensuring that there is no conflict in how Bain and Company supports both vanguards in their application for funds, and NHS England in deciding how to allocate funds.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) commissioned Bain and Company to support vanguards as an extension to work previously commissioned from the company as part of a programme called Future Focused Finance, an initiative sponsored by the Department of Health and arm’s length bodies. This earlier work for the HFMA had focused on the design of a value-based decision effectiveness tool, piloted in Mid-Cheshire and Liverpool. The HFMA, in partnership with NHS England, commissioned the extension to this work so that the tool could be used to support value-based decision-making in the 2016-17 New Care Models programme.

    Alternatives were not sought from competitors because the vanguard support built on the original Bain and Company work for the HFMA.

    The value of the vanguard support contract is £650,000. Value for money was obtained by negotiation, having been benchmarked with other commissions made by the National Health Service to external health consultancies.

    As part of the contract, Bain and Company will be handing over its approach to NHS England, so that NHS England can support other areas in implementing new care models.

    Bain and Company has not been commissioned to assess evidence to support transformation and potential for replication of new care models in other areas. The company is commissioned to develop and implement a framework that appropriately experienced NHS staff can use to assess such evidence. Intellectual property rights in respect of the framework in the future are assigned to HFMA under the terms of the contract. The NHS is entitled to use the framework free of charge in perpetuity.

    Bain and Company is involved in the development of the tool used to make the assessment, and in the implementation of the process to use that tool. The company is specifically commissioned to help vanguard sites to use the tool and to summarise the resulting value propositions to facilitate decision-making by NHS England.

    No conflict of interest arises as decisions concerning funding allocations for individual vanguards are made by NHS England’s Executive Team and Investment Committee and not Bain and Company.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 January 2016, Prime Minister pledges to transform sink estates, by what process local authorities will be able to obtain funding for estates regeneration under that initiative.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government issued a Statement on 23 February, inviting expressions of interest from prospective estates across the country and enabling us to engage with prospective schemes. A more formal arrangement for accessing the £140 million loan fund, and for assessing bids into that fund, will be set in train in due course. The Statement can be accessed at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estates-regeneration-statement

    “

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new junior doctor contract on the recruitment and retention of junior doctors.

    Ben Gummer

    Medicine is an extremely popular career choice and we expect that to continue.

    The new contract for doctors in training will have a positive impact on the working life of doctors and on the training they receive. It introduces stronger safeguards to ensure doctors are not required to work long, unsafe hours, enforced through contractual obligations on employers and external scrutiny of those hours by the Care Quality Commission and the independent Guardian of safe working hours.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of named day written parliamentary questions have been answered after the specified date by each Minister in his Department since May 2015.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    In an oral evidence session to the House of Commons Procedure Committee on 27th April it was noted by the Minister for Sport that though the department had experienced a dip in its performance for timeliness of answers to written questions since May 2015, there has also been a significant improvement in performance in recent months.

    The Table shows Named Day responses from 27th May 2015 to 29th April 2016:

    Minister

    Named Day Questions answered

    Number of Late Named Day Questions

    The Minister for Culture

    321

    146

    The Minister for Sport

    109

    30

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-06-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the result of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, whether they now intend to bring forward an emergency budget including tax rises and spending cuts, or whether they have plans to increase public investment.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    As the Chancellor has said, decisions on what action the government will take in response to the impact of the referendum on the economy and public finances will wait until the Office of Budget Responsibility has made an economic forecast in the Autumn.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-09-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of the Philippines following reports that many hundreds of people have been killed by police and vigilantes on suspicion of involvement in drugs; and what assessment they have made of whether the courts and prisons in that country are capable of dealing with the large numbers of newly arrested suspects.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The British Government’s view on the importance of the rule of law is clear, consistent and well known in the Philippines. Our Ambassador has repeatedly raised the Government’s concerns over drug-related killings with the Philippine Administration, including the Foreign Minister, Interior Secretary and Defence Secretary. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Mr Sharma), spoke of the importance of democratic accountability, human rights and the rule of law at a UK-Philippines trade and business event in London on 7 September.

    Members of the Philippine Administration and Supreme Court have highlighted a lack of capacity within the courts and prisons to handle those newly arrested on suspicion of involvement in illegal drugs. We share this concern. The British Government supports the right to a fair trial and the humane treatment of detainees. The Government of the Philippines is taking some steps to increase the functionality of the justice system, including by increasing the number of specialist drug courts. Our Ambassador has conveyed the Government’s willingness to share its own experience of delivering a proportionate criminal justice response to illegal drug use and trafficking.

  • David Anderson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    David Anderson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many referrals for treatment for post traumatic stress disorder from 13 and 39 Squadron service personnel there have been over the last two years.

    Mark Lancaster

    During Financial Years 2013-14 and 2014-15, there were no Regular Royal Air Force personnel from 13 Squadron or 39 Squadron who were seen for an initial assessment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at Ministry of Defence Specialist Mental Health Services.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the performance of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust services.

    Jane Ellison

    The Chief Inspector of Hospitals Inspection within the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in May 2014 rated the Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust as “Requires Improvement”. In 2015 the CQC rated the Trust as ‘Inadequate’. The Trust is urgently implementing the action recommended.

    In addition, the Trust is actively engaged with the Emergency Care Improvement Programme to ensure that the Trust can deliver the accident and emergency standard by March 2016.

  • Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of levels of rough sleeping in town centres on the use of town centres by the general public.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government remains committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. But one person without a home is one too many, which is why we are maintaining homelessness funding over this Spending Review period, building on our significant investment since 2010. We will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We have also protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

    It is for local authorities to determine what homelessness services are required to best meet the needs of their local area, including provision of suitable accommodation. More rough sleepers are being found and helped quicker thanks to our investment in StreetLink, which gives the public a means to act when they see someone sleeping rough. Since the launch of StreetLink in December 2012, over 16,000 rough sleepers have been found and connected with local services so that they can get the help that they need to get them off the streets. We are committed to do more to improve services for homeless people with complex needs. Building on London’s approach of using social investment to improve outcomes for rough sleepers, we will be setting up a new Social Impact BondFund to help the most complex and entrenched rough sleepers.

  • Baroness Doocey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Baroness Doocey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have been double flagged by the Crown Prosecution Service over the past three years using the flag for monitoring human trafficking, and the flag for monitoring child abuse.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify both human trafficking and child abuse cases by way of a database monitoring flag applied to the electronic case record.

    The number of defendants prosecuted for flagged human trafficking offences where the child abuse flag was also applied are as follows:

    2012-2013

    2013-2014

    2014-2015

    19

    59

    24

    The figures provided represent the number of defendants prosecuted. Cases of trafficking for child exploitation (particularly child sexual exploitation) can involve networks of multi-defendants who have sexually exploited young female victims. Therefore, in the relatively low numbers of cases cross flagged, a small number of additional cases in one year involving upwards of 9 to 12 defendants each will have a significant effect on the annual figures. This, in part, explains the reduction in the number of defendants prosecuted for both human trafficking and child abuse; down from 59 in 2013/14 to 24 in 2014/15.