Tag: Roger Godsiff

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 October 2016 to Question 47328, if she will provide the information requested in the specified format.

George Eustice

As previously stated, further information on Ministerial meetings with organisations is available on Gov.UK, as part of the quarterly transparency information.

Data on meetings with Departmental officials is not centrally recorded. Any further information could only be obtained by incurring disproportionate costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average waiting time is for a disability benefit appeal to reach a tribunal; and what steps he is taking to reduce that average time.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The First-tier Tribunal – Social Security and Child Support, administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ decisions on a range of benefits.

HMCTS is unable to provide the information requested as it is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will meet providers of (a) supported housing and (b) specified housing to discuss the effect of the proposed change to social rents on the viability of those types of housing.

Brandon Lewis

We welcome the opportunity to engage with the supported housing sector to understand how the sector’s views can best be accommodated as we implement our policy. Ministers and officials have been discussing this issue with the National Housing Federation and a number of providers.

We plan to except specialised supported housing, residential care homes, nursing homes and PFI-funded Extra Care housing from the rent reductions. We are continuing to work with the sector on this issue to ensure the most vulnerable are protected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Written Answers of 16 November 2015 to Question 16305 and of 23 November 2015 to Question 17205, whether agreed funding is now in place for the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2016.

Rory Stewart

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy, on 7 December 2015, PQ18354.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of HM Revenue and Customs’ strategy to enforce the national minimum wage.

Nick Boles

The Low Pay Commission publish an annual report on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) which includes a full assessment of the Government’s NMW compliance and enforcement strategy. The 2015 report is available here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-minimum-wage-low-pay-commission-report-2015 – the next report is due to be published in February 2016.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take steps to encourage other participants in the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference to (a) increase access to accredited quality non-formal education for Syrian refugee children in host countries in that region and (b) ensure that funding for Syrian refugee education is sustained beyond short-term humanitarian support.

Mr Desmond Swayne

At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region being held in London on 4^th February, we want the international community to agree a new goal that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children are in education – formal school or non-formal – by the end of 2016/17. Equally, for inside Syria, it is our aim to increase access to good quality schooling or other learning opportunities such as self-learning and non-formal education. In neighbouring countries we will also increase access to vocational or skills training and higher education for children and youth.

At the Conference our ambition is that international donors, governments from countries in the region hosting refugees, non-governmental organisations and the private sector come together to agree a set of reciprocal financial and policy commitments. The UK and co-hosts are working with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. We are also working with refugee hosting governments in particular to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to require GP surgeries to provide his Department with details of all the Med 3 fit notes they issue in respect of people receiving disability benefits.

Justin Tomlinson

The Department will receive anonymised and aggregated GP practice level statistics on Med 3 forms or ‘fit notes’.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the findings in the Chief Schools Adjudicator for England’s Annual Report, published in December 2015, that there is a lack of transparency in the school admission system, what steps she plans to take to monitor and enforce compliance with the School Admissions Code.

Nick Gibb

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools are required to comply with the School Admissions Code. This includes a requirement that ‘parents should be able to look at a set of arrangements and understand easily how places for that school will be allocated’. We consider that the code provides clear advice to all admission authorities.

Compliance is enforced by the Schools Adjudicator. Where an objection is made and the adjudicator finds that the arrangements are unclear, unfair, or that they otherwise fail to comply with the code, the admission authority is required by law to change the policy.

The degree to which maintained schools comply with the code is monitored through the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. We consider the findings of the report and whether changes to the system are necessary.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the illustrative rota number 15 for junior doctors published by NHS Employers on 18 February 2016, for what reasons that rota requires junior doctors to work on consecutive weekends; whether rota 15 has been updated since its original publication; and whether the illustrative rotas will provide for more junior doctors to be on duty at weekends than there are at present.

Ben Gummer

Only a small number of junior doctors currently work one weekend in two and NHS Employers agreed with the British Medical Association (BMA) that they would work together to move towards no junior doctor working more than one weekend in three as part of an agreed future contract review process. No junior doctor will be required to work consecutive weekends. The illustrative rota concerned has been adjusted to reflect this. However, the BMA said in negotiation that doctors working very frequent weekends would prefer the flexibility to group weekends of work together in order to group weekends off. This will be possible by agreement under the new contract.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department has issued to healthcare professionals involved with children with mental health problems on whether they have a responsibility to inform parents that their child may be eligible for disability living allowance.

Alistair Burt

The Department of Health has not issued guidance to healthcare professionals on informing parents of their children’s eligibility for disability living allowance.

The Department for Work and Pensions provides information on benefits, including Disability Living Allowance (DLA), in a range of formats at:

www.gov.uk

This includes information relating to DLA for children and includes links to benefit eligibility calculators that will signpost the user to further information about DLA for children.

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