Tag: Parliamentary Question

Nicholas Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department and NHS England are taking to ensure that autism diagnosis waiting times for (a) children and (b) adults meet NICE guidance in Newcastle upon Tyne East constituency.

Alistair Burt

In general NHS England is required to assess the performance of each clinical commissioning group (CCG) to ensure that CCGs are commissioning safe, high quality and cost effective services, to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients. Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England makes an annual assessment of CCGs each financial year and publishes a summary report. The Secretary of State for Health keeps NHS England’s performance in discharging its functions under review, which includes NHS England’s assurance of CCGs. The Department has discussed with NHS England the difficulties that people on the autistic spectrum can have in getting an appropriate diagnosis in a timely manner. With support from the Department, NHS England and the Association of Directors of Social Services will undertake a series of visits to CCGs where there is good practice in meeting the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standard 51 Autism, and to those that do not, with the aim of supporting more consistent provision. The National Autism Programme Board will monitor reported progress from NHS England against the commitments in the Autism strategy including the implementation of NICE guidance.

Newcastle Gateshead CCG is investing in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust to provide improved services for adults with autism with an initial focus to reduce waiting times in line with NICE guidelines and then for further improvement to be made in the core service. Within 18-24 months the intention is for the autism pathway to be embedded in mainstream services with the addition of a specialist autism service which will provide training, support, liaison and assess more complex cases. By the end of this year, it is expected that all children’s services will have reached a 95% target for all referralsto be assessed and in treatment within 12 weeks and for 70% of referrals to be assessed and in treatment within six weeks.

01/12/2022
Colleen Fletcher – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Colleen Fletcher on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what account she has taken of the introduction of a dedicated specialist police line for professionals to report highly sensitive information about cases of known FGM under the Serious Crime Act 2015.

Karen Bradley

A mandatory reporting duty for regulated health and social care professionals and teachers will come into force at the end of October. We recently published guidance to support its introduction.

The guidance sets out that reports can be made using the 101 service. The Government has opted to recommend the use of an existing cost effective, simple and clear reporting route for professionals rather than introduce a dedicated specialist police line. Calls to 101 are answered by trained police officers and staff in the control room of the local police force. All 101 call handlers are fully trained to handle all calls received and specific call-handling instructions on FGM will be issued to them by the National Policing Lead before the duty comes into force. Upon receipt of a report, the police will record the information and initiate a multi-agency response in line with local safeguarding arrangements. Police forces have responsibilities regarding the management of information, including a statutory responsibility to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The College of Policing will also shortly update its Authorised Professional Practice Guidance on FGM with information and advice on the mandatory reporting duty.

01/12/2022
Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to coordinate development and environmental sustainability agendas.

Grant Shapps

The new Global Goals provide a strong new framework for sustainable growth and poverty reduction, explicitly linking the development and environmental sustainability agendas. DFID is integrating environmental sustainability through development policy, research and investment, including investment of Climate Finance via the UK’s International Climate Fund (ICF) which has helped 15 million poor and vulnerable people adapt to the effects of climate change and helped 2.6 million people to access to clean energy.

01/12/2022

Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of global shipping tonnage was registered in the UK in each of the last five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The proportion of global shipping gross tonnage (GT) registered in the UK in each of the last five years is shown below:

	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015 to July 2015
World Fleet (million GT)	959.2	1036	1094	1134	1175	1193.0
UK Fleet (million GT)	17.5	17.9	17.6	15.1	13.8	14.2
UK % of World Fleet	1.8%	1.7%	1.6%	1.3%	1.2%	1.2%

These figures are for ships over 100GT. Figures for the size of the world fleet are not recorded by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and come from Clarksons.

01/12/2022

Nicholas Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of people on the autism spectrum are in full-time employment; and what steps the Government is taking to support people on the autism spectrum into stable and well-paid employment.

Priti Patel

Government does not collect data specifically on employment rates for people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC).

The Government is acting to raise awareness regarding employment of people with autism and to support them to take up employment. The Government’s Autism Strategy, and the updated Statutory Guidance published in March 2015, sets out in detail how Government will support the autism agenda nationally.

The Autism Strategy can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/think-autism-an-update-to-the-government-adult-autism-strategy

The Statutory Guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adult-autism-strategy-statutory-guidance

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01/12/2022
Lord Black of Brentwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to prevent the sale of exotic animals as pets in the United Kingdom.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Existing legislation including the Pet Animals Act 1951, which regulates animals sold as pets, and the Animal Welfare Act 2006 which makes it an offence to fail to protect the welfare of animals, provide a number of important safeguards for exotic animals sold as pets. Defra is currently reviewing legislation on licensing animal activities, including the 1951 Act, and will shortly be consulting publicly on a set of proposals to make the licensing system more effective.

01/12/2022
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the funding of free school meals for infants schools will be protected in the forthcoming spending review.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The continuation of universal infant free school meals was a commitment in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto.

The government is currently conducting a Spending Review across all of its programmes.

01/12/2022
Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much surplus land owned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its agencies they estimate is suitable for building new houses on; how much has been released in each year since 2010–11; and how much they expect to release in (1) the current year, and (2) each year to 2020–21.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

During the last Parliament, the Government exceeded its ambition to release surplus land with capacity for 100,000 homes. The housing capacity of the land released by Government Departments and their arms length bodies is set out in the attached table.

Over this Parliament, the Government is committed to releasing surplus public sector land with capacity for up to 150,000 homes by 2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government is working with Departments to review their land holdings in order to identify suitable surplus public sector and finalise disposal plans for this Parliament.

01/12/2022
Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of El Salvador concerning women who miscarry and find themselves imprisoned.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We remain concerned by reports that women in El Salvador have been imprisoned under anti-abortion laws after suffering a miscarriage. Officials have raised concerns about the restrictive and sometimes punitive approach to sexual and reproductive healthcare at both a bilateral and multilateral level with the Salvadoran government. During El Salvador’s most recent Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in October 2014, the UK encouraged El Salvador to review its strict anti-abortion laws and urged the Salvadoran government to improve the treatment of women who have had abortions or suffered miscarriages.

01/12/2022
Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support the UK steel industry.

Anna Soubry

The Government recognises the current difficulties that are unique to the steel sector. While we cannot fix the price of steel, halt global overproduction or fix currency rates, the government has taken a number of measures to help our steel industry.

We have taken action on unfair trade, recently voting in support of anti-dumping measures on wire rod and steel tubing imports, as well as lobbying successfully for an investigation into cheap imports of Reinforcing Steel Bar.

The Government will be exempting eligible Energy Intensive Industries, including steel, from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation (RO) and Small Feed-in-Tariff (FiT). This will we can keep their bills down, keep them competitive, keep them here and also give certainty for future investment decisions. The steel industry’s request for flexibility over Industrial Emissions Directive exemptions has also been secured. This will save the industry millions of pounds of unnecessary expenditure at a time of crisis by offering steel companies more time to comply with this European legislation.

Finally, we are taking action to drive up the number of public contracts won by UK steel manufacturers and their partners through fair and open competition. The Government published on 30 October new guidelines for departments to apply on major projects when sourcing and buying steel. The new instructions will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major government projects.

01/12/2022