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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her speech at the Oxford Farming Conference on 6 January 2016, what additional powers she plans to grant to internal drainage boards and other groups to maintain local watercourses.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government believes that flood risk management work should be carried out by those best placed to do it. The Environment Agency (EA) works in close partnership with Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) and regularly discusses local watercourse maintenance plans with them, including to agree where IDBs could do work on the EA’s behalf, through public sector cooperation agreements. We will continue to discuss with IDBs and other groups where they could take on more responsibility and control of local flood risk management, including by facilitating flood risk partnerships.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many telephone calls from (a) domestic and (b) international locations the Forced Marriage Unit received in (i) each financial year since 2005 and (ii) 2015-16 to date.

    Karen Bradley

    Figures on the number of cases reported to the Forced Marriage Unit via its public helpline and email inbox are published annually and are available on GOV.uk. The figures include a breakdown of the countries involved for cases with an overseas element. Information on the origin, average length, and cost of calls is not collated centrally.

  • Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) average and (b) maximum time taken for contractors to return assessments to his Department was for Scottish claimants of (i) employment and support allowance and (ii) personal independence payments in each of the last four quarters for which information is available.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The information you have requested on the average and maximum time taken for the contractor in Scotland to return ESA assessments to the Department is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

    PIP average actual clearance times for Scotland, measured from the point of referral to the assessment providers to a decision being made on the claim by the DWP, is available in published data at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-january-2016. Information on maximum time is not available in the published statistics and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

    “

  • Alan Whitehead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alan Whitehead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Whitehead on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33974, what regard she has given to to Section 14 of the Cabinet Office publication, Guide to making legislation, when determining the relative timing of issuing the impact assessment and the closure of the consultation on further reforms to the Capacity Market.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Section 14 of the Cabinet Office ‘Guide to making legislation’ states that Impact Assessments are generally required for all UK Government interventions of a regulatory nature. The latest version of the ‘Better Regulation Framework Manual’, in its definition of “Regulation”, clarifies that Regulation does not include tax and spending decisions.

    The Capacity Market, and the proposals outlined in the consultation on further reforms to the Capacity Market, is classified as ‘Tax and Spend’. Therefore Section 14 does not apply to this policy and a consultation stage Impact Assessment is not needed. The Government will, however, publish a final Impact Assessment alongside its response to the recent consultation.

  • David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve uptake of cervical screening among all age groups.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England closely monitors the coverage rates for cervical screening in all age groups. NHS England is committed to improving coverage and reducing variation between all age groups.

    Local NHS England commissioners analyse coverage rates within their area and work with general practices to improve coverage by sharing best practice. In addition a primary care cancer screening best practice guide has been developed jointly with the transforming cancer services team, clinical commissioning groups and local authority public health representatives.

    NHS England is working in partnership with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support on the ACE (Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate) Programme aiming to generate knowledge about effective approaches to achieve earlier diagnosis. A number of ACE test sites are evaluating approaches to increase screening rates in a range of groups.

    A range of research studies are also underway, such as Imperial College conducting a randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of texting non-responders on improving coverage. In addition, the Department’s Behavioural Insight team has undertaken a trial to investigate the use of behavioural insights to optimise the content of the invitation letter for cervical screening. Results are due shortly.

    The Independent Cancer Taskforce recognised the importance of screening for cervical cancer and the potential of the new human papillomavirus (HPV) test in their report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, published in July 2015. NHS England has appointed Cally Palmer as National Cancer Director to lead the implementation of the strategy, and an implementation plan outlining the key first steps for the national cancer programme was published on 12 May. In addition, the routine HPV vaccination programme, offering immunisation to girls aged 12-14 years, is expected to reduce the already low rates of cervical cancer in these young women and allow them to be protected for years to come.

    Ministers welcome cervical cancer prevention week and we are fully supportive of the work Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust does to raise awareness of cervical cancer and the importance of cervical screening for eligible women.

    According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Health at a Glance 2015: How does the United Kingdom compare?, the UK has cervical screening rates well above the OECD average. Further information is available at:

    https://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/Health-at-a-Glance-2015-Key-Findings-UK.pdf

    http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/8115071ec053.pdf?expires=1465810879&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=102E30B1A256588EDD14918B5BE3AA4C

    “

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people by age have been diagnosed with sepsis in the last five years.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Public Health England does not hold data in the format requested.

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is able to provide a count of the number of Finished Discharge Episodes (FDEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis, split by age band for providers in England for the years between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

    Information is not held centrally on patients diagnosed in the primary care setting.

    Table 1: A count of the number of FDEs with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis, by age band for providers in England for the years between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

    Age Bands

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    0-4

    18,417

    20,080

    22,915

    23,840

    26,725

    5-9

    577

    648

    790

    853

    1,010

    10-14

    446

    415

    523

    461

    635

    15-19

    814

    778

    926

    980

    1,094

    20-24

    1,220

    1,246

    1,490

    1,770

    1,899

    25-29

    1,373

    1,499

    1,843

    2,032

    2,478

    30-34

    1,510

    1,701

    2,142

    2,540

    2,924

    35-39

    1,697

    1,849

    2,230

    2,319

    2,601

    40-44

    2,213

    2,403

    2,711

    2,988

    3,223

    45-49

    2,775

    3,123

    3,661

    3,937

    4,385

    50-54

    3,462

    3,890

    4,459

    4,942

    5,702

    55-59

    4,130

    4,829

    5,694

    6,115

    6,826

    60-64

    6,162

    6,835

    7,592

    7,893

    8,706

    65-69

    6,624

    7,790

    9,619

    10,805

    12,079

    70-74

    7,766

    8,667

    9,623

    10,458

    12,066

    75-79

    8,955

    9,815

    10,654

    11,793

    13,862

    80-84

    9,427

    10,079

    11,009

    11,584

    13,789

    85-89

    8,340

    8,756

    9,088

    9,739

    11,876

    90+

    5,553

    6,054

    6,740

    7,156

    9,173

    Unknown

    420

    558

    576

    617

    719

    Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

    Notes:

    1. Finished Discharge Episode – A discharge episode is the last episode during a hospital stay (a spell), where the patient is discharged from the hospital or transferred to another hospital. Discharges do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one discharge from hospital within the period.
    2. Number of episodes in which the patient had a primary or secondary diagnosis – The number of episodes where this diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.
    3. ICD-10 codes for Sepsis include – “A02.1 Salmonella sepsis, A20.7 Septicaemic plague, A21.7 Generalized tularaemia, A22.7 Anthrax sepsis, A26.7 Erysipelothrix sepsis, A28.0 Pasteurellosis, A28.2 Extraintestinal yersiniosis, A32.7 Listerial sepsis, A39.2 Acute meningococcaemia, A39.3 Chronic meningococcaemia, A39.4 Meningococcaemia, unspecified, A40.- Streptococcal sepsis, A41.- Other sepsis, A42.7 Actinomycotic sepsis, B37.7 Candidal sepsis, O85.X Puerperal sepsis, P36.- Bacterial sepsis of newborn,
      The following pair of codes is a dagger/asterisk code pair (D and A) which must be present together: A39.1 Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, E35.1 Disorders of adrenal glands in diseases classified elsewhere.

  • Lord Northbourne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Northbourne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Northbourne on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to require all schools, including academies, to provide high quality sex and relationship education as part of their syllabus.

    Lord Nash

    The Government is clear that all schools should make provision for high-quality sex and relationship education, which is a vital part of preparing young people for life in modern Britain.

    Academies, like maintained schools, must teach a broad and balanced curriculum and in respect of sex and relationship education, they must – under the terms of their funding agreement – have regard to the Secretary of State’s statutory Sex and Relationship Education guidance published in 2000.

    The issue of statutory personal, social, health and economic education and sex and relationship education was raised during the Education Select Committee session in September. The Secretary of State agreed that we need to look again at how schools deliver high-quality personal, social, health and economic education including sex and relationship education. The Government is considering all the options and will come to a view in due course.

  • Kate Hoey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Kate Hoey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what (a) ex gratia and (b) other payments were made to Moussa Koussa by the UK Government in 2011; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Moussa Koussa has received no payments from HMG.

  • Lord Watson of Invergowrie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Watson of Invergowrie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Watson of Invergowrie on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what funding they plan to make available to promote walking to school initiatives when the Local Sustainable Transport Fund comes to an end in March 2016.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Department for Transport has a statutory obligation to deliver the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) which is anticipated to include a National Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan. The Department has commenced the early stages of work to develop the first CWIS by summer 2016 following a formal consultation in spring 2016. Detailed content of this Strategy is not yet available, and we are therefore unable to confirm our future plans for promoting walking to school initiatives at this stage.

    That said, the Government recently reaffirmed its commitment to cycling and walking by investing over £300m over the life of this Parliament. This includes delivering the Cycle City Ambition programme in full, and funding the Bikeability cycle training programme for school children. It also includes a new ‘Access’ fund for sustainable travel building on the legacy of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. It is too early to say what the details of this new Access fund will be as discussions are ongoing, but information is expected to be available in the coming weeks.

    It is also worth noting that this Government remains committed to the principles of localism; it is therefore the responsibility of local authorities to decide their local priorities in relation to ‘walk to school’ initiatives, and attribute government resources, such as the local transport block, accordingly.

  • Teresa Pearce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Teresa Pearce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Teresa Pearce on 2016-01-13.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on public sector and charitable provision of consumer debt advice services.

    Damian Hinds

    The Money Advice Service (MAS) is responsible for the coordination of publicly funded free to client debt advice. MAS is financed by a levy on the financial services industry. MAS is currently consulting on its business plan; it has proposed levying for a constant budget for debt advice for 2016/17 providing around £45 million to its third sector partners for the provision of debt advice.

    More broadly the Government is currently reviewing how the public provision of free-to-client, impartial financial guidance, including consumer debt advice services, should be structured to give consumers the information they need to make financial decisions. The Public Financial Guidance consultation closed in December 2015 and the Government will report back by budget.