The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Prisk on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what date in January 2016 is set for her Department to announce its decision on feed-in tariffs following its review.
Andrea Leadsom
We are currently analysing feedback submitted during the Feed-in Tariff review consultation and intend to publish a Government response as soon as possible.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-12-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps will be taken to improve attitudes of hospital staff in NHS trusts towards patients with Down’s syndrome.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government’s response to the recommendations in the report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry included a wide range of measures aimed at improving safety and quality as well as ensuring compassionate care for everyone who uses National Health Service services, including people with disabilities.
NHS organisations should comply with existing legislation, frameworks and guidance aimed at ensuring they identify and meet the needs of people with learning disabilities in commissioning and delivering safe, high quality care to all individuals, groups and communities of their populations.
From June 2016, the Department will publish independently assured, ratings of the quality of healthcare offered to people with learning disabilities in all clinical commissioning group areas, to highlight variations and to allow rapid action to be taken when improvement is needed.
NHS England continues to work to improve access to good quality healthcare for people with learning disabilities, including:
‒ improving identification of people with learning disabilities in health care records to ensure that reasonable adjustments can be made, communication needs addressed and crisis plans developed;
‒ encouraging the use of health passports when people access services so that professionals and staff are aware of their needs;
‒ improving identification on cancer screening information systems;
‒ ensuring that people with learning disabilities are identified as a priority group to receive flu vaccinations;
‒ improving access to NHS 111, Accident and Emergency and other services; and
‒ increasing the number of people who are eligible getting an annual learning disability health check from their general practitioner.
NHS England has also commissioned a learning disabilities Premature Mortality Review programme led by the University of Bristol from June 2015 to review and learn from deaths of people with a learning disability with the aim of improving services, care and support nationally.
These initiatives will help to raise awareness and to tackle the inequalities experienced by those with learning disability, including where associated with Down’s syndrome.
In addition, the Care Certificate, which was introduced in April 2015, is helping NHS service providers to ensure that their new healthcare assistants have the right fundamental skills and knowledge, including in communication and awareness of learning disability.
Health Education England will work with healthcare providers to ensure that the continuing personal and professional development of staff continues beyond the end of formal training to enable staff to deliver safe and high quality healthcare and public health services both now and in the future.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the (a) cost to the economy and (b) number of deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance in the last 12 months for which figures are available; whether he has made such estimates for future years; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
A broad estimate of the cost of antimicrobial resistance to the National Health Service is £180 million per annum.
Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem. In the longer term, a forecast of the global economic costs and deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance is available from the independent review on antimicrobial resistance led by Lord O’Neill of Gatley. His review estimates that drug-resistant infections could kill an extra 10 million people globally every year by 2050, and have a cumulative cost to the world of around $100 trillion in lost output.
The United Kingdom is taking the lead in addressing antimicrobial resistance globally, investing £265 million in the Fleming Fund to strengthen surveillance of drug resistance and laboratory capacity in developing countries.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of the Sellafield workforce reform initiative on workforce salary expenditure by Sellafield Ltd in (a) Copeland, (b) Allerdale, (c) Barrow-in-Furness and (d) Cumbria.
Andrea Leadsom
A new model, part of a suite of changes designed to increase efficiency in the business, is being put in place at Sellafield to increase efficiency in the business. The changes will have a positive impact on the Cumbrian economies, through encouraging supply chain companies to locate in the area as part of the Sellafield Change Programme.
Details of the change programme are available at http://www.nda.gov.uk/contracts-and-competition/sellafield-model-change-programme/.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Djanogly on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the reductions in the number of people who use Stop Smoking Services in the last five years.
Jane Ellison
Although no formal assessment has been made of the reduction in the number of people accessing Local Stop Smoking Services in the last five years, Public Health England has been working with local areas, practitioners and experts in the field to better understand the reasons for the reduction in the number of people accessing services and consider how best to continue to help people stop smoking.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what timetable he has set for publication of information on the cost to the public purse of the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information.
Matthew Hancock
The final costs for the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information are currently being assembled and I expect to be able to publish the information shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what changes his Department has made to Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd’s performance benchmarks under Schedule 7.1 of the Thameslink Southern and Great Northern franchise agreement since that agreement was signed.
Claire Perry
The Franchise Agreement sets out the circumstances which entitle a revision to the Govia Thameslink Railway Schedule 7.1 benchmarks. A predefined contractual change has occurred which has required changes to the Cancellation and TOC Minute Delay benchmarks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-07-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the total immigration figures for each of the last five years from (1) the EU, and (2) outside the EU; and of which nationalities were immigrants from outside the EU in each of those years.
Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-10-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will review the impact of quantitative easing on investment and on savings to determine whether it is of greater benefit to one or the other.
Lord Young of Cookham
The independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is responsible for setting monetary policy to deliver its primary objective of maintaining price stability. As the MPC remit makes clear, ensuring price stability is an essential pre-requisite for economic prosperity. The MPC is accountable to both Parliament and the public, through regular reports and evidence given to the Treasury Committee. The Bank of England has previously produced analysis of the distributional effects of asset purchases on different groups in society. At the August Inflation Report hearing on 7 September the Bank committed to updating this analysis.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report by Waging Peace on the use of rape as a weapon of war in the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
James Duddridge
We remain acutely concerned by the use of sexual violence in Darfur as set out in this and other reports. It reinforces our policy approach of strong support for the presence of the African Union/United Nations Hybrid Mission operation in Darfur(UNAMID) and the need for the mission to have a strong mandate centred around protection of civilians. As a result, the UK led this year’s renewal of the operation’s Mandate to ensure it continues to operate across all the Darfuri states. We will continue to work with the mission, press for robust patrolling and encourage it to engage at the community level. We will also continue to urge the Government of Sudan to cooperate with the operation, and have consistently made clear to them that conditions on the ground must considerably improve before any moves towards the mission’s eventual exit can be made.
At the same time, we continue – both bilaterally and through the UN’s Security and Human Rights Councils – to call on all armed actors to address sexual and gender-based violence in Darfur. The UK played a significant role in the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2242 reflecting the importance of Women, Peace and Security-related issues for the UN family. Bilaterally, we have provided support to over 150 survivors of rape in Darfur and contributed to the successful prosecution of members of the police and armed forces. We will remain active on these issues.