Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-04-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they accept the recommendation of the report of the equality analysis undertaken under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 that a number of steps be taken to amend the draft new contract for doctors in training to address the position of part-time doctors in order to advance equality of opportunity between men and women doctors.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The contract published on 31 March is a huge step forward for achieving fairness for all trainee doctors. For the first time junior doctors will be paid and rewarded solely on the basis of their own hard work and achievement and pay progression will be linked to level of training rather than arbitrarily to time served.

    All junior doctors should have the same terms and conditions – a level playing field – which is ultimately what employers and the British Medical Association (BMA) want and everyone deserves.

    When the Secretary of State published the Equality Analysis on the new contract for doctors and dentists in training in the NHS (“Doctors”) on the 31 March 2016 on the GOV.UK website he made it clear that, as a result of considering the Equality Analysis, in accordance with his duties and obligations, he had asked for a number of changes to the draft contract to address specific issues for certain groups with protected characteristics. This has been done and the contract has been duly amended. These changes included changes that benefited staff who work part time. The new contract is not discriminatory it ensures that all junior doctors receive equal pay for work of equal value. The BMA’s own lawyers have advised that nothing in the new contract is discriminatory. Nevertheless the equality duty is an ongoing duty and it is intended that monitoring will continue after the introduction of the new contract in accordance with the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010.

    A copy of the Equality Analysis is attached.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on the regulation of drones to protect the public from their misuse.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    I refer the Honourable Member to my answer given on 9 May 2016 UIN 36085 regarding the regulations addressing the criminal use of drones, and to my answer given on 9 May 2016 UIN 36086 regarding privacy.

    The Government is planning to consult on a range of measures on drones over the summer, and will then seek any further appropriate legislative measures through the Modern Transport Bill.

  • David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if Sport England will take steps to ensure that children’s fitness and activity levels do not decline from their term-time levels in the summer holidays.

    Tracey Crouch

    We want to ensure that all children, regardless of background, ability or where they live, are able to engage in sport and physical activity in a way that interests and benefits them. Through the Government’s sports strategy Sporting Future, published in December 2015, Sport England will now invest in sporting provision for children aged five and over – previously the starting age was 14 years old.

    In addition, Sport England’s new strategy, Towards an Active Nation, published in May 2016, sets out their plans to make a major new investment of £40 million into projects which offer new opportunities for families with children to get active and play sport together. Sport England will continue to work with organisations across the sport sector as it implements its strategy.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much heroin has been given to heroin addicts in line with his Department’s policy set out on page 31 of the Modern Crime Prevention Strategy, published by his predecessor in March 2016.

    Nicola Blackwood

    As outlined in the Government’s Modern Crime Prevention Strategy, the use of injectable diamorphine as part of treatment for a small cohort of entrenched, long-term opiate users can be effective.

    On behalf of the Department, Public Health England managed a pilot programme of supervised injectable diamorphine prescribing at a cost of £2 million per annum. The pilot ran from 2012 to 2015 at: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in Southwark, London; Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in Brighton; and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust in Easington, County Durham.

    Information about expenditure on diamorphine prescribing for the treatment of dependence, sites where it is available outside this pilot, and how much diamorphine has been prescribed to heroin addicts is not collected centrally. The decision to commission and fund the local provision of diamorphine prescribing is for local authorities.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people referred to Help to Work since April 2014 have left the scheme after opening a claim for working tax credit.

    Priti Patel

    The information as requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

    The information that is available on Help to Work, on the number of programme referrals and Community Work Placement starts can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-work-quarterly-statistics

    The latest published information on Help to Work covers the period from April 2014 to June 2015 inclusive.

    “

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the long-term viability of the care home sector; and if he will reassess the contribution that could be made to that viability of the care practitioner role.

    Alistair Burt

    Through November’s comprehensive Spending Review, the Government announced that it was giving local authorities access to £3.5 billion of new support for social care by 2019/20.

    Councils will be able to introduce a new Social Care Precept, allowing them to increase council tax by 2% above the existing threshold. This could raise nearly £2 billion a year for social care by 2019/20.

    From April 2017, the Spending Review makes available social care funds for local government, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019/20, to be included in the Better Care Fund.

    Taken together, the new precept and additional Better Care Fund contribution mean local government has access to the funding it needs to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament.

    Under the Care Act (2014), local authorities have legal duties to shape a sustainable and diverse market of care providers capable of delivering a choice of quality services to their local population. These duties apply in respect of all care services, including care home services. The Government published statutory guidance to support local authorities discharge their market shaping duties effectively, which includes guidance around adult social care commissioning.

    The care practitioner scheme was withdrawn by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Department of Health was not involved in the assessment of the contribution that the care practitioner role could make to the care home sector.

  • Angela Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Angela Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Eagle on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that small businesses can access flood insurance.

    Rory Stewart

    While we recognise the difficult challenges that some small businesses could face in accessing commercial flood insurance in areas of high flood risk, we are not currently aware of evidence that there is a systemic problem. Therefore, we have committed to work with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and other interested parties to monitor the insurance market for small businesses. We are keen to work across government, and with a range of business interests, to better understand the nature and extent of any problem that might exist.

    The ABI have assured us that the insurance industry will continue to provide insurance to small businesses on a competitive basis.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what duties apply to betting companies to ensure that vulnerable customers using their services gamble responsibly.

    David Evennett

    One of the three key licensing objectives set out in the Gambling Act 2005 is that vulnerable people should be protected from harm. All betting shop operators are required by the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Code of Practice (LCCP) to have policies and processes in place to meet this objective. In addition, the industry trade body, the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), has a mandatory code of conduct which places additional social responsibility requirements on all of its members.

    The rate of problem gambling is at 0.6% of the adult population, which is lower than comparable jurisdictions (USA, South Africa or Australia). However we recognise that rates are significantly higher among some sections of the population, such as young men, and that gambling-related harm is a real and significant problem. The majority of current provision for treatment of problem gamblers is through the Responsible Gambling Trust’s funding of organisations such as GamCare, who provide a helpline and counselling services, and the Gordon Moody Association, which provides specialist residential treatment. Local treatment can be found through GPs and NHS addiction clinics, there is also a specialist NHS service treating gambling disorder, based in London.

    The Government is committed to ensuring that people are protected from being harmed or exploited by gambling. The Minister for Sport and Tourism has explained to the gambling industry that they are expected to demonstrate that they are improving existing player protection initiatives and evaluating the effects of previous initiatives. As the Minister said at the recent RGT harm minimisation conference, government and industry should never feel that there is an end point to social responsibility.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many artificial football pitches in which locations have been supported by funding from his Department since May 2015.

    David Evennett

    In the last year, £39 million has been invested across the country on artificial grass pitches in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, London, Manchester, Devon, Essex, Staffordshire, West Riding, Middlesex, Wiltshire, Durham, Liverpool, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, North Riding, Lancashire, Hertfordshire, Birmingham Northumberland, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Dorset, Cumberland and East Riding. Further details on the individual grants awarded are available from the Football Foundation.

    The Government is also investing £8 million over the next 4 years in Parklife, to increase the number of full-size publicly accessible artificial grass pitches in England by 50 per cent. The Football Association is matching government funding, with further contributions from the Premier League and Local Authorities in this new £200 million grassroots facilities investment programme.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his policy is on whether the same data protection and privatisation obligations will apply for the company carrying out the functions of the Land Registry in the event that it is privatised under the (a) Government’s preferred model of privatisation with a contract between the Government and a private operator and (b) alternative model of privatisation with independent economic regulation.

    Anna Soubry

    Government recognises the importance of data protection and data security. Data protection maintains confidence in the integrity of the register and the services of Land Registry. Under all the proposals put forward in the consultation, statutory data collected through core statutory functions would continue to be owned by government.

    In addition, a private sector operator would be a data processor and would be required to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998. This controls how personal information is used by organisations, businesses or government.

    Everyone responsible for using data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’. They must make sure the information is:

    • used fairly and lawfully;
    • used for limited, specifically stated purposes;
    • used in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive;
    • accurate and kept up to date;
    • kept for no longer than is necessary;
    • handled according to people’s data protection rights;
    • kept safe and secure.

    All data controllers are accountable to the Information Commissioner who has powers to enforce data protection law and impose sanctions.