The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what progress has been made in rolling out Individual Electoral Registration across the country.
Greg Clark
Individual Electoral Registration was launched in England and Wales, as planned, on 10 June 2014. This included the introduction of on-line registration. IER is due to be launched in Scotland on 19 September. The roll out of IER is proceeding as planned, to date.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been spent on (a) press, (b) marketing, (c) advertising and (d) other aspects of communications relating to the Youth Contract in each year since its introduction.
Esther McVey
As with any new programme it is right and responsible to ensure all who are, or could be, affected are properly informed. Since the Youth Contract was launched in April 2012 it has provided opportunities for over 250,000 people. The spend in each of the categories specified is as follows:
|
Financial Year |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
Total |
|
Press |
£ 9,872 |
NIL |
£9872 |
|
Marketing |
£10,167 |
£ 7,578 |
£17,745 |
|
Advertising |
£72,010 |
NIL |
£72,010 |
|
Other communications |
£27,231 |
£34,650 |
£61,881 |
|
Total |
£119,280 |
£42,228 |
£161,508 |
The marketing category relates to spend on local face-to-face activity bringing together jobseekers and employers with opportunities.
In the ‘other communications’ category, we have supplied details of spend on leaflets, posters, exhibition stands and video production.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) economic and (b) infection risks to UK and EU fruit and vegetable production arise from the importation of mangoes or other fruit infested with tephritidae.
Dan Rogerson
Tephritidae is listed as a ‘quarantine’ pest under European Union (EU) legislation. All quarantine pests have been assessed as presenting a significant economic or environmental risk to the EU and therefore their introduction into its territory is prohibited.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many responses were received to his Department’s consultation on extending civil partnerships to opposite sex couples.
Mrs Helen Grant
There have been almost 11,500 responses to the consultation on the future of civil partnership in England and Wales. We are now considering them and will publish a summary in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent offers of assistance his Department has made to the government of Iraq.
Hugh Robertson
The UK was the first to deploy a team to assess the humanitarian situation following the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant’s attack on Mosul. On 14 June the Department for International Development (DFID) announced £3 million of emergency assistance to help around 500,000 displaced Iraqis, and a further £2 million was allocated on 17 June.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).