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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many red kites there are in the UK; and whether his Department has set a population number above which it will take steps to control that population.

    George Eustice

    The most recent estimate of red kites in the UK is 1600 breeding pairs (as recorded by both the British Trust for Ornithology and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 2013).

    The Government has no plans to control red kites.

  • Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people made requests of the pension tracing service to find lost pension pots in each year since May 2010; and how many of these were successful.

    Steve Webb

    Table below shows the total number of Pension Trace requests and those which were successful. Successful Pension Traces are where we are able to provide a customer with contact details of the pension administrator for the particular company or employer they had worked for.

    1st April 10 to 31st March 11

    Total 76,453 Successful 66,586

    1st April 11 to 31st March 12

    Total 77,757 Successful 67,068

    1st April 12 to 31st March 13

    Total 107,335 Successful 94,354

    1st April 13 to 31st March 14

    Total 144,169 Successful 126,904

    Source:

    The data is from the Pension Tracing System

  • Laurence Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Laurence Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on NHS patients receiving Enterra gastric stimulator treatment.

    Jane Ellison

    Funding of gastroelectrical stimulation procedures is a matter for local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). If a clinician considers that a patient in their care may benefit from this procedure, they would need to submit an Individual Funding Request to their CCG so that they can consider the case.

    In May 2014 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued new Interventional Procedure (IP) guidance on gastro-electrical stimulation for gastroparesis, which is a chronic disorder in which the stomach empties more slowly than normal. The guidance can be found at the following link:

    www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/14531/67802/67802.pdf

    NICE’s IP Programme assesses the safety and efficacy of (mainly) new procedures that are used for diagnosis or treatment that involve incision, puncture, entry into a body cavity or the use of ionising, electromagnetic or acoustic energy. Unlike NICE’s technology appraisals programme, it is not within the remit of the IP Programme to evaluate the cost effectiveness of IPs or to advise the National Health Service on whether IPs should be funded.

  • Adrian Sanders – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Adrian Sanders – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adrian Sanders on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average time taken to process applications for redundancy payment is through My Civil Service Pension; and what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken.

    Mr Francis Maude

    MyCSP Ltd, a mutual joint venture, provides scheme administration for the Civil Service pension arrangements under a contract managed by the Cabinet Office.

    Redundancy schemes under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme are covered by separate commercial arrangements between MyCSP Ltd and each individual employer.

    The average time for completing these individual exercises is not collated centrally.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to encourage the uptake of chlamydia screening.

    Jane Ellison

    The Public Health Outcomes Framework includes a chlamydia diagnosis rate indicator – one of three sexual health indicators in the framework. Public Health England (PHE) encourages local authorities to work towards achieving a rate of 2,300 diagnoses per 100,000 young adult populations.

    The National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) supports this aim through:

    – Publishing chlamydia screening standards, to form the basis of local screening planning, delivery and quality assurance;

    – Producing guidance to support local commissioners and providers in the delivery of chlamydia screening, including forthcoming publication ‘Achieving the diagnostic rate indicator’;

    – Reviewing and summarising the latest evidence to inform evidence-based and cost-effective approaches to chlamydia screening;

    – Collecting and publishing chlamydia data, at a national and local level, to monitor screening and detection activity;

    – Providing information to young adults on chlamydia, chlamydia screening and wider sexual health matters (e.g. condom use, contraception), including via a website;

    – Supporting the implementation of specific programmes to increase chlamydia screening rates, such as the ‘3Cs & HIV Programme’. This is currently being piloted across England to encourage the routine offer of chlamydia screening, alongside information on contraception and condoms, to young adults during primary care appointments;

    – A team of PHE sexual health facilitators, who are linked closely into local commissioner and provider sexual health networks, with a focus on promoting chlamydia screening; and

    – Evaluating the impact of the NCSP, including development of different approaches to estimate and monitor prevalence, such as mathematical modelling.

  • Andrew Percy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andrew Percy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with mobile telephone operators on operators terminating accounts shown to be illegally active within the HM prison estate.

    Jeremy Wright

    On 5 March 2014, together with my hon Friend the member for Staffordshire Moorlands, I met with representatives from the major mobile phone network operators as part of a new government-industry working group to discuss ways to tackle illicit mobile phone use in prisons. Since that meeting, the National Offender Management Service is continuing to work with the networks to further explore options for disabling mobile phones proven to be operating in prisons.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gloria De Piero – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications from residents of Ashfield constituency received more than three weeks ago HM Passport Office are processing.

    James Brokenshire

    Her Majesty’s Passport Office does not hold the information in the form requested. The
    cost of providing it from individual applicant data held would be
    disproportionate.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital attendances there were from each prison in each of the last four years.

    Norman Lamb

    This information is not collected centrally by the Department or NHS England.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce homophobic and transphobic hate crimes against LGBT people.

    Norman Baker

    Tackling all forms of hate crime, including that motivated by hatred of a person’s sexual orientation or transgender identity is an issue the coalition Government takes very seriously.

    On 1 May 2014 we published ‘Challenge it, Report it, Stop it – Delivering the Government’s Hate Crime Action Plan’. This progress report provides an overview of our achievements since the action plan was first published in March 2012 and sets out our key priorities for the remainder of this Parliament. A specific action in the plan includes tackling homophobia and transphobia in sports.

    We are meeting the coalition commitment to improve the recording of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and transgender identity and are working with the police and other partners to encourage more victims to come forward. We have supported voluntary sector organisations to develop third party reporting services for LGBT victims.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    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, what extra capacity will be created by re-opening the closed wings at (a) HM Prison Hull and (b) HM Prison Chelmsford.

    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.