Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Mary Glindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mary Glindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to address the lack of compulsory dermatological training in the GP educational pathway.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The Government has mandated Health Education England (HEE) to provide national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service. This mandate includes a commitment that HEE will ensure that general practitioner (GP) training produces GPs with the required competencies to practise in the new NHS. Consequently HEE will work with stakeholders to influence training curricula as appropriate.

    The content and standard of medical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council, which is an independent statutory body. It has the general function of promoting high standards of education and co-ordinating all stages of education to ensure that medical students and newly qualified doctors are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for professional practice. Within the current GP curriculum, trainees are required to successfully complete training on care of people with skin problems.

    Responsibility for the commission of dermatology services sits with NHS England. NHS England commissions specialised dermatology services for those patients requiring needing care from Highly Specialist Dermatology Centres (around 10% of sufferers). The level of provision of non-specialised dermatology services is decided by the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and it will take into account the needs of the population overall. The CCG’s decisions are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. As such, provision of services will vary in response to local needs.

    The Department has not held any specific discussions on compulsory dermatological training for GPs with HEE or the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) since 4 December 2013, nor have HEE or NHS England held discussions with RCGP on this matter.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms are in place to allow families of patients in care homes to report concerns about standards of care.

    Norman Lamb

    Regulation 19 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 requires all care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to “have an effective system in place for identifying, receiving, handling and responding appropriately to complaints and comments made by service users, or persons acting on their behalf”.

    Where a person’s care is provided or arranged by their local authority, complaints and concerns should be directed initially to the local authority, which remains responsible for the quality of care. If a person has arranged their own care, they should pursue the matter directly with the provider in the first instance.

    In both cases, should complainants not be satisfied with the response, they are entitled to ask the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate.

    People may also raise concerns with the CQC, as regulator of health and adult social care services. Under the 2008 Act, the CQC does not have the responsibility for investigating specific complaints about social care providers. However, where there are concerns about a provider which is registered with the CQC, such concerns should be brought to its attention. The CQC will use this information, together with local information from partners and the public, to help it decide when, where and what to inspect.

    The CQC is currently introducing a new system of inspection of social care providers. This new system of inspection will be structured around five key questions that matter most to people – are the services safe, caring, effective, well-led, and responsive to people’s needs. The new inspections will make more use of people’s views and will use expert inspection teams involving people who have personal experience of care. The CQC has been piloting this new approach in 252 of social care providers since April 2014.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what advice the Electoral Commission has given to electoral registration officers on the necessity of conducting local government data matching for the purposes of transition to individual electoral registration.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that it has published comprehensive guidance for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) on their duties to maintain the electoral registers under Individual Electoral Registration (IER), including on using local data to identify and target potential electors and to verify and validate data held on the registers.

    The Commission also informs me that the Lord President of the Council has issued Ministerial guidance on IER which EROs must, by law, have regard to. This includes guidance on using local data as part of the confirmation process of data-matching existing electors’ details and the verification process for verifying applicants’ identity.

    The Commission’s guidance, which incorporates the Ministerial guidance, is available on its website at:

    http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/electoral-administrator/running-electoral-registration

  • Gloria De Piero – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gloria De Piero – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2014-05-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to Question 193089, tabled on 20 March 2014 for answer on 25 March 2014.

    Nicky Morgan

    I have done so.

  • Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Dobbin on 2014-05-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the findings of the recent Global Forum on Incontinence into improving health and social care in incontinence.

    Norman Lamb

    No assessment has been made of the findings of the recent Global Forum on Incontinence (GFI) into improving health and social care in incontinence. However, we applaud the work of the GFI and the work it is doing to improve the health and social care provisions for incontinence, giving patients and care givers a better quality of life.

    Responsibility for continence services sit with NHS England and clinical commissioning groups (CCG). CCGs are responsible for commissioning high quality continence services based on an assessment of local need and performance managing their providers in the delivery of high quality services.

    The Mandate to NHS England requires it to deliver continued improvements in relation to enhancing the quality of life for people with long-term conditions, including those suffering incontinence, across the five domains of the NHS Outcomes Framework. NHS England will be taking forward a major programme of work through the Primary Care Strategy; it has established a working group on continence care and will provide an update for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Continence Care on 24 June.

    To improve standards in continence care, the Department commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to develop clinical guidelines on the management of urinary incontinence in women (issued in 2006) and faecal incontinence in adults (issued in 2007), which are supported by commissioning tools to support CCGs. In February, NICE published a clinical Quality Standard on Faecal Incontinence, QS54, which describes high-priority areas for quality improvement in this area. NHS England continues to champion the use of Quality Standards with both commissioners and providers.

    We believe all patients have the right to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion.

    We recognise that continence can impact on every aspect of peoples’ lives and that it often requires a joined approach from both health and social care services. That is why in April the Department published the policy paper, Transforming Primary Care: safe proactive, personalised care for those who need it, which focuses on improving and individualising the management of out of hospital care, directly supporting those with continence problems by creating more integrated health and social care services. This paper has been placed in the Library.

  • Jeremy Corbyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jeremy Corbyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Corbyn on 2014-05-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what payments her Department makers to destination countries for visas allowing entry to people being deported from the UK to those countries.

    James Brokenshire

    We work closely with embassies from a wide range of countries to obtain travel
    documents, rather than visas, to assist removal. We pay a small administrative
    fee for these documents, which enable the removal of people who have no right
    to be in the UK.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2014-05-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the United Kingdom’s obligations under the Responsibility to Protectframework inrelation to the Central African Republic.

    Baroness Warsi

    The UK is committed to the concept of the Responsibility to Protect which was endorsed by all UN Member States in 2005. This included a declaration that the international community should encourage and help states to fulfil their responsibilities to their own populations, and be prepared to take action if a state failed to do so. The UK supports international efforts to protect the population of the Central African Republic (CAR), including through the UN Security Council. This was demonstrated by our co-sponsorship of the UN Security Council Resolution to authorise a UN Peacekeeping Mission in CAR (MINUSCA). MINUSCA will assume responsibility for stabilisation and the protection of civilians from the African Union mission (MISCA) in September, and we are supporting ongoing efforts to ensure a timely and effective transition.

  • Paul Maynard – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Paul Maynard – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Maynard on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to include financial capability education in the national curriculum; and what guidance his Department has issued on such education.

    Elizabeth Truss

    The new mathematics curriculum will ensure that all young people leave school with an understanding of the mathematics skills needed for personal finance.

    For the first time financial literacy will also be a compulsory part of citizenship for 11- to 16-year-olds from September 2014. Pupils will learn the importance of budgeting, sound management of money, credit and debt, as well as understanding of different financial services and products.

    The new programmes of study for mathematics and citizenship make it clear what pupils should learn, including developing their use of formal mathematical knowledge to interpret and solve problems including financial mathematics.

  • Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will introduce legislative proposals that employers be required to calculate holiday pay solely by reference to standard contract hours.

    Jenny Willott

    There are no current plans to require employers to calculate holiday pay solely by reference to standard contract hours.

    The arrangements for holiday pay are set out in the Working Time Regulations 1998.

    These arrangements differ according to the working pattern of the individual worker. If a worker has fixed hours and fixed pay, then a week’s holiday pay is the same amount as a worker receives for each week’s work. If the worker has no fixed hours, then a week’s holiday pay represents the average pay that a worker received over the previous 12 weeks.

    More information about holiday pay can be found on the Gov.UK website at

    https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/holiday-pay-the-basics

  • Bill Wiggin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bill Wiggin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications for free school status for which the Church of England has agreed to provide school premises have been (a) approved and (b) rejected.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    The Department for Education does not hold the information in the form requested.

    Whether applicants already have premises for their proposed school, and who provides those premises, are not, on their own, material factors in the decision to approve or reject a free school application. Rather, that decision is based principally on an assessment of the need for the school, the strength of the applicants’ education plans and their ability to deliver a school that is financially viable and likely to be judged “good” or “outstanding” by Ofsted.