The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Davis on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any MOD personnel have been seconded to positions in Yemen since 2012.
Penny Mordaunt
There are currently no Ministry of Defence (MOD) personnel in Yemen. No MOD personnel have been seconded to the Yemeni government since 2012.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what interim milestones he has set for the armed forces to improve their response time to complaints to the target level of 90 per cent closed within 24 weeks.
Mark Lancaster
The Secretary of State for Defence has set no interim milestones. The single Services continually monitor and assess the performance of the service complaints system to learn lessons, and to understand what might be causing Service personnel to make complaints. Where it is identified that there are issues that are causing undue delay in the resolution of complaints, action can be taken to prevent this from occurring in the future.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he anticipates an increase in the uptake of medical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute stroke in NHS hospitals; and if he will make a statement.
David Mowat
NHS England’s National Clinical Director (NCD) for stroke is leading work to develop a full proposal which will consider the evidence and logistical issues involved in delivering mechanical thrombectomy to stroke patients across the country. This includes working with the relevant specialist societies, Royal Colleges and Health Education England to consider the workforce implications. Once the proposal has been developed, NHS England will decide whether the procedure should be made widely available.
To ensure there is equitable access to high quality hyper acute stroke care regardless of time of stroke or where a patient has their stroke, NHS England’s NCD for stroke continues to work with Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, clinical commissioning groups and the Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints on how stroke care is best delivered to their local communities.
In some places, this is ‘the London type model’ of focussing care in a small number of centres and equipping these to be able to deliver specialist care 24/7. In other parts of the country, centralisation of care into specialist centres is not feasible for geographical reasons. In these cases, alternative solutions (such as the use of telemedicine) have to be considered. Whatever the scenario, NHS England is fully committed to ensuring that all patients receive the best quality of care and the most up to date treatments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-10-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the conclusion by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) that there was no consistent evidence that the Troubled Families Programme had any significant or systematic impact on those families which took part in the programme, what evidence they have for the statement by the Communities Minister, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, on 17 October that this programme has transformed the lives of thousands of families”; and what is their response to the NIESR report National Evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme.”
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The NIESR Impact Study was just one of 6 reports comprising the independent evaluation of the first Troubled Families Programme. The evaluation found that the programme had many positive achievements. These include:
Families feeling more confident and optimistic about being able to cope in the future
Joining up local services for families by encouraging a single keyworker approach to work with the whole family on all of its problems
Raising the quality and capacity of local data systems
Better joint working with partners such as Jobcentre Plus
The data shows that nearly 120,000 of the families on this programme saw their lives improve – more children attending school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour significantly cut and, in more than 18,000 families, an adult holding down a job. The evaluation does not dispute this fact.
Unsurprisingly, the ambitious and innovative impact study which used national administrative datasets to track changes in families circumstances over comparatively short time periods, was unable to specifically attribute positive outcomes achieved in employment, youth crime or school attendance to the Troubled Families Programme.
This was because at that time the level of change achieved was not significantly different from that seen in a group of families not on the programme with whom comparisons were made. This is not the same, however, as saying that the evaluation shows family outcomes did not improve, as some have wrongly inferred.
Of course, we will continue to review all evidence of how the programme is working, to learn from it and see if there’s more we can do to help families facing such multiple problems. In fact, we have already adapted the new programme in a number of ways, including extending the length of time over which family outcomes will be tracked – from 12 months to 5 years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent discussions she has had with local authorities about minimum EPC standards for the private rented sector.
Andrea Leadsom
The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property)(England and Wales) Regulations 2015 were made in March this year following a full public consultation, and establish an EPC minimum of E for domestic and non-domestic private rented sector properties from April 2018.
Officials in the Department liaise regularly with the insulation industry, local authorities, and other stakeholders on a range of energy efficiency issues including the minimum EPC standards for the private rented sector. Discussions have also been held recently with French officials about domestic energy efficiency issues including minimum standards.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that local authorities with a low council tax base are not disadvantaged in relation to authorities in more affluent areas by the new power to raise council tax by 2 per cent in order partially to offset cuts in social care following the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The Government recognises that councils have varying capacity to raise money through council tax. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government set out, in the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17, proposed changes to rebalance support, including to those authorities with social care responsibilities, by taking into account the main resources available to councils. In particular, he published illustrative allocations for the extra funding we are providing to local authorities for adult social care through the improved Better Care Fund: these allocations directly take into account the council tax-raising capacity of authorities.
I refer the noble Lord to information accompanying the Oral Statement made on 17 December, Official Report, Column 2238-2239 (attached).
Further details are available on the Government website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-in-2016-to-2017 and https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much of the (a) conflict pool and (b) conflict security stability fund has been allocated to other states fighting Daesh since 2014.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
For national security reasons, we do not specify how much Conflict Pool and Conflict Stability and Security Fund has been allocated to other states fighting Daesh. I can confirm that in Iraq, we are making a £2 million contribution to the UN Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilisation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many staff in his Department and non-departmental public bodies receive (a) home to work travel allowance, (b) a car allowance and (c) subsidised health insurance.
Matthew Hancock
The Prime Minister’s office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.
No staff receive a home to work travel allowance or a car allowance. Health insurance is not a benefit offered to staff however, due to a TUPE transfer where Cabinet Office brought staff in from the private sector there a smaller number of staff able to claim subsidised health insurance.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 25439, on regional planning and development in Greater Manchester, when the consultation on the call for sites closed.
Brandon Lewis
We understand that no end date has been published and that the call for sites for the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework is still open. Further details can be found at: https://www.greatermanchesterca.gov.uk.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many disabled people joined the workforce in each sector in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.
Mr Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.