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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps with the Department of Education to introduce a counselling strategy for schools.

    Alistair Burt

    This is a matter for the Department for Education (DfE).

    Schools can play an important role in supporting pupils with mental health issues. We want them to decide how best to meet the needs of their pupils. DfE has taken a range of actions to help them build a whole-school approach to good mental wellbeing, including the recently revised and updated blueprint for effective school-based counselling. This provides practical, evidence-based advice, informed by experts on how to ensure school based counselling services achieve the best outcomes for all students, including vulnerable children and young people. The weblink to the guidance, Counselling in schools: a blueprint for the future – Departmental advice for school leaders and counsellors is:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counselling-in-schools

    “

  • Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what contingency plans his Department has for the event of the closure of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust’s emergency department.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS England is the responsible organisation for emergency planning and resilience in London. As such, it has well-established contingency plans in place which take effect in the event of emergency departments (EDs) having to temporarily reduce their scope of operations in order to ensure the best standards of patient care, our central concern.

    As the Rt. hon. Member is aware, following an unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, the CQC issued a Warning Notice. The Warning Notice, published on 6 June 2016, requires the trust to significantly improve the treatment of patients attending its emergency department.

    The CQC is responsible for assessing whether the Trust is providing the right standard of care and ensuring that improvement plans meet the level of improvement required.

    NHS Improvement is working alongside NHS England and the local health and care system to ensure that the Trust has the resources it needs to ensure that patients receive safe, high quality care.

    We are informed by NHS Improvement that, in order to address the poor performance at the Trust’s ED, it has devised a plan titled Safer, Faster, Better. This is a whole system programme with the primary objective of improving performance, patient experience and outcomes for patients.

  • 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 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what impact assessment his Department has conducted on the potential cost of eliminating or reducing prescription charges for people with long-term medical conditions.

    David Mowat

    The Department receives numerous representations on prescription charges for people in England with long-term medical conditions. It is not possible to say how many of these were from clinical experts or health economists, though the independent Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England’s report, A new settlement for health and social care, published in 2014, did have health economist input. There have also been representations from the Prescription Charges Coalition, but it is not certain to what extent these were informed by clinical experts or health economists.

    Arrangements are in place to ensure that prescriptions are affordable for everyone, including those with a long-term condition. There are exemptions from the prescription charge for people with low income, including through receipt of specific benefits and through application to the NHS Low Income Scheme. For those who do not qualify for exemption, prescription prepayment certificates are also available, which allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost. To support those with high levels of need, the cost of the 12-month and 3-month certificates have been frozen since 2009 and 2011, respectively.

    The Department has not undertaken a formal impact assessment on the potential cost of eliminating or reducing prescription charges for people with long-term medical conditions. However, the Prescription Charges Review undertaken by Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, and published in 2010, estimated that extending exemption to all those with a long-term condition would lead to a loss in revenue of between £360 and £430 million.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what data his Department (a) records and (b) publishes on the nationality of NHS staff.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Department does not record or publish data on the nationality of staff working in the National Health Service. Data on nationality is published twice a year by NHS Digital and turnover data is published quarterly and available by nationality.

    Nationality is a data item within the National Workforce Data set used with a range of other data items to support workforce planning, analysis of staff movement and equality monitoring. It is not mandatory, but self-declared.

    In 2015 and 2016 requests for nationality data on NHS staff in England were published on the supplementary information part of the NHS Digital website, rather than as part of the routine Hospital and Community Health Services statistical publications. In 2016, following NHS Digital’s public consultation, NHS Digital now routinely publish tables showing the self-declared nationality of staff in staff groups and regions, bi-annually, together with quarterly turnover statistics which show the nationality of joiners and leavers to and from the NHS in England.

    The latest nationality data was published in March 2016 and the next set will be published in December 2016 showing the position at September 2016.

    The latest turnover data published in September 2016 covers the 12 month period to 30 June 2016.

  • Liz McInnes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Liz McInnes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the change in the number of firefighter posts was in the Cleveland Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.

    Greg Clark

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 6 November, PQ 13946.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of restricting housing benefit entitlement for single social tenants under the age of 35 to the Shared Accommodation Rate of the relevant Local Housing Allowance on (a) levels of homelessness and (b) the availability of social housing for that age group.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The introduction of Local Housing Allowance limits to housing benefit and Universal Credit houisng element awards will only apply from April 2018, where new tenancies have been taken out or renewed after April 2016.

    Tenants who take on a new tenancy or renew a tenancy will have the opportunity to consider whether they can afford to take on the property before committing to it. Because of the element of choice it is not possible to accurately estimate whether there will be any impact upon homelessness or the availability of social housing.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether a distinction is made by the Government between Commonwealth Realm Orders and decorations where Her Majesty the Queen is Sovereign of the Order and an order where the Governor General as Her Majesty the Queen’s representative is the Head of the Order; whether there is a reciprocal recognition policy in place between each of the Commonwealth Realms concerning titular honours; and whether there has been any change in his Department’s rules on that policy in the last two years.

    James Duddridge

    The recognition of foreign honours is a matter for the Royal Prerogative and is governed by convention. The convention has not changed in the last two years. My Department does not set rules or regulations for these matters.

    The main distinction between Orders of which Her Majesty The Queen is Sovereign and those where The Queen is not Sovereign is that The Queen approves and appoints recipients of all awards in the former and the recipients can apply to receive their awards at an investiture in the UK.

    There is no reciprocal recognition policy in place between each of the Realms concerning honours and associated titles. Whether a title associated with an honour awarded by one Realm is recognised in a second Realm is a matter for the second Realm.

  • Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many HIV support services are planned to be affected by changes in funding from April 2016; and how many people used each of those services in the last 12 months.

    Jane Ellison

    Decisions on funding and access to social care support services for people with HIV are made by local authorities. The Care Act 2014 sets out the legal framework for social care in England, and this applies to all adults with support needs including those living with HIV.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-03-01.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has carried out an equality impact assessment on the draft Tax Credits (Income Threshold and Determination of Rates) Amendment Regulations 2016.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government carefully considers all relevant legal obligations – including the equalities duty – when formulating welfare policy.

  • Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether any expressions of interest have been received from neighbourhood planning groups for small-scale sites consisting of starter homes to be included in their neighbourhood plans.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Department does not hold this information.