Tag: Parliamentary Question

Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his assessment is of the effect of his Department’s Action Plan on Business and Human Rights since its launch in September 2013.

Mr William Hague

The UK Action Plan on Business and Human Rights was the first country plan produced, setting out how the Government will implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We reported progress in implementation in the recently launched Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Human Rights Report.

Internationally the UK’s plan has shown our commitment to the widespread uptake of the UN Guiding Principles. Other countries have sought our guidance and advice in developing and producing their own plans.

The Action Plan has set out our expectations of UK business and industry on business and human rights, to encourage initiatives to introduce human rights due diligence and remedy measures into their policies and operations. The Companies Act now requires listed companies to report on their human rights impacts, and The Home Office published a draft Modern Slavery Bill last December to strengthen law enforcement capability to combat human trafficking and labour exploitation.

We are committed to reviewing the effectiveness of our Action Plan in 2015.

November 1, 2022

Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were infected with bacillus cereus in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The numbers of reported patient infection episodes of Bacillus cereus, isolated from blood samples from all age-groups between 2009 and 2013 in England, are shown in the following table.

Year	Number of patient infection episodes	Organism name	Specimen type	Country
2009	50	Bacillus Cereus	Blood	England
2010	46	Bacillus Cereus	Blood	England
2011	39	Bacillus Cereus	Blood	England
2012	37	Bacillus Cereus	Blood	England
2013	56	Bacillus Cereus	Blood	England

These data were extracted from Public Health England’s centralised microbiology database (LabBase2), which collects voluntarily reported microbiology data from participating laboratories across England. Although only clinically significant isolates should be reported to LabBase2, some of the reports may be contaminants that occurred either during collection or during processing of samples as B. cereus is a ubiquitous environmental organism.

November 1, 2022

Jim Fitzpatrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on the (a) numbers of GP practices and (b) services offered by GP practices of removing performance indicators from the Quality Outcomes Framework.

Jane Ellison

We have reduced the number of indicators in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) by more than a third. This is intended to free up time for general practitioners (GPs) to provide more personalised care which includes the new responsibility of providing a named GP for all of their patients aged 75 and over. The money released from the QOF will be reinvested in general practice.

We understand that NHS England is currently developing the specifications and reporting protocols that will be required to capture the information provided by the retired QOF indicators.

This will enable NHS England’s commissioning teams, clinical commissioning groups and the Care Quality Commission to take this information into account in reaching rounded judgements about the quality of care provided by general practice. It will also be used to evaluate the impact of the indicators that were retired on 1 April 2014, and will inform future decisions about the development of QOF.

NHS England has recently undertaken an analysis to identify ‘outlier’ practices – those that will lose the largest amount of funding per patient as a result of the phasing out of the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee. Details of these practices have been sent to NHS England area teams.

In a small number of cases where there are exceptional underlying factors that necessitate additional funding – for example because a practice is serving an atypical population – it is anticipated that area teams will meet with the practices to discuss and agree arrangements to ensure that appropriate services for patients continue to be available.

November 1, 2022
Mark Hendrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward proposals to financially assist nurses employed by the NHS to pay the increased fee for the Nursing and Midwifery Council when they come into force later in 2014.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is an independent body and it is therefore for the NMC Council to determine the level of the annual fee it charges for registration. On 26 March 2014, the NMC Council reviewed the level of this fee and agreed a proposal to increase it from £100 per annum to £120 in March 2015. The NMC is running a public consultation between 8 May and 31 July 2014, where its proposal is open to scrutiny. No decision on the proposed fee increase has been made at present.

Ministers keep the issue of professional regulation under regular review and the Department has frequent contact with professional regulators, including the NMC. On 12 March 2014, I met with representatives of the NMC for a regular update meeting. This meeting was not specifically set up to discuss the NMC registration fee, but during this meeting the NMC provided information about its fee review process.

November 1, 2022
Vernon Coaker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vernon Coaker on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the performance of Capita in fulfilling its contract to administer personal independence payments.

Mike Penning

I refer the right Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 6 January 2014, Official Report, column 58-59W, to the hon. Member for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore).

November 1, 2022
Justin Tomlinson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department is taking to help end domestic abuse and violence against women.

Norman Baker

Domestic violence is a dreadful form of abuse and is not acceptable within our
society. The Coalition Government’s approach to tackling domestic violence and
abuse is set out in its Violence against Women and Girls Action Plan, updated in March
2014.

In 2013, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of
Constabulary to undertake a comprehensive review on how the police deal with
domestic violence and abuse. HMIC’s report exposed significant failings. In response
to the Review, the Home Secretary has established a National Oversight Group, which
she is chairing, and on which I sit, to ensure HMIC’s recommendations are acted upon.
The Group met for the first time on 10 June. The Home Secretary has also written to chief constables making it clear that every police force must have an action plan in place by September 2014, to improve their response to domestic violence and abuse.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the police and other agencies have
the tools necessary to tackle domestic violence, to bring offenders to justice
and to ensure victims have the support they need to rebuild their lives. On 8
March 2014, the Government announced the national roll-out of Domestic Violence
Protection Orders following the successful conclusion of a one-year
pilot in three police force areas including Wiltshire, as well as the Domestic
Violence Disclosure Scheme following the successful conclusion in
September 2013 of a one-year pilot in four police force areas – once again
including Wiltshire.

November 1, 2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many teaching staff in young offender institutions and secure training centres in 2013 had a formal teaching qualification.

Jeremy Wright

We are committed under the Transforming Youth Custody programme to improving education outcomes for young people in custody. Our proposals for Secure Colleges, and to radically improve the education provided in Young Offenders Institutions, will place education at the heart of youth custody and provide young offenders with skills, qualifications and self-discipline they require to build a life free from crime.

The amount of education delivered to young people in Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres is clearly defined and monitored through contractual arrangements with providers. We believe that these expert educational providers are best placed to determine how – at a local level – to secure education outcomes for the young people they are working with. As such we do not collect data centrally on the staff they employ.

November 1, 2022
Mark Hendrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2014-06-17.

To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, what the cost to date has been of the contract for the Independent Assessment of Options to Take Forward a Restoration and Renewal Programme for the Palace of Westminster awarded to Deloitte Real Estate and AECOM together with HOK in December 2013.

John Thurso

The full cost of the Independent Options Appraisal is expected to be £2,423K, including VAT. The cost incurred to 18 June 2014 was £2,213K, including VAT and a sum accrued but not yet invoiced. The cost is shared 60:40 between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

November 1, 2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much has been spent maintaining the closed wings at HM Prison Hull and HM Prison Chelmsford to date.

Jeremy Wright

We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer

This Government has a long term strategy for managing the prison estate. We will have increased the adult male prison capacity so that we have more places than we inherited from the previous Government.

The retention of significant spare prison capacity over and above what is required is expensive and cannot be justified given the current financial climate. The mothballing of spare capacity at HM Prisons Chelmsford and Hull saved the taxpayer £3.6m in the financial year 2013-14. This compares to the significantly lower cost of maintaining this accommodation on a mothballed basis, so that it could be reactivated if necessary.

We have reviewed the refurbishment requirements at both sites and believe that, with minor investment, they can now be reopened on a contingency basis without carrying out a full refurbishment. These costs are anticipated to be around £132k by the time they have reopened. From the end of March to date, around £12k has been spent on Chelmsford, and around £107k has been spent on Hull.

The indicative additional staffing requirement to reactivate the places at Hull is around 65 members of staff – of which approximately 40 are uniformed. The indicative additional staffing requirement to reactivate the places at Chelmsford is around 30 members of staff – of which approximately 20 are uniformed grades. This means we are able to create additional places at an average cost of £7k per place (subject to final benchmarking review), as opposed to the average cost of a prison per place of £26,139.

The staffing requirement will initially be met by short term detached duty from other prisons, before looking to redeploy staff permanently where surpluses exist – and if necessary through external recruitment.

Subject to certification, Hull will create 282 places and Chelmsford 148 places, with prisoners due to start arriving this summer.

The reactivation of these places is a prudent and good value for money response to an increased prison population. Under the previous administration, police and court cells were turned into temporary prisons, with over 50,000 prisoners held in these cells in 2007-08 alone.

November 1, 2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) chief executives, (b) deputy chief executives and (c) assistant chief officers of probation trusts who left their posts since 1 January 2014 had non-disclosure or compromise agreements as part of their departure packages.

Jeremy Wright

There have been no non-disclosure or compromise agreements included as part of the departure packages of the Trust Chief Executives who have taken early retirement. The terms of departure for other former Trust staff were agreed through their own local arrangements.

November 1, 2022