Tag: Roger Godsiff

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding she plans to allocate to Birmingham City Council for implementation of a Clean Air Zone in Birmingham; and how much funding she plans to allocate to that Council under the air quality grant programme.

Rory Stewart

The air quality plan for nitrogen dioxide we published on 17 December last year confirms that we will be providing funding to help five Local Authorities in England outside London to implement clean air zones and to support the implementation of additional measures where necessary. We will be discussing the details of this with the Local Authorities concerned, including Birmingham City Council.

Birmingham City Council has not received any funding for 2015-16 under our air quality grant programme. No decisions have been made about air quality grant awards for 2016-17 and beyond.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to implement the recommendations of the Mental Health Taskforce’s report, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016.

Alistair Burt

The Government welcomes and accepts the recommendations from the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. The Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21: by the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality.

Investment in mental health rose to its highest ever level, an estimated £11.7 billion, in 2014/15. The £1 billion of additional investment announced by the Prime Minister last month will be in place by 2020/21 and builds on the £280 million per year of new funding for children and young people’s mental health announced last year. This funding will make an important contribution to plugging the gap and fulfilling the Taskforce’s recommendations, helping one million additional children, young people and adults to access high quality care by 2020/21.

How new investment for NHS priority recommendations is identified and implemented will be for NHS England to determine as part of the planning and allocations process. We anticipate that the majority of commitments outlined in this report will be delivered through clinical commissioning groups.

Further guidance will be issued shortly as part of the new Sustainability and Transformation Planning process: this will set expectations for how funding will be invested to deliver on the Taskforce recommendations for the NHS and how areas will be supported to deliver them over the following four years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the minimum number of hours off-duty is that his Department uses to define a day off for a junior doctor.

Ben Gummer

Neither the current contract nor the new contract define a day off. Both define a minimum rest period between shifts of 11 hours and a minimum break between defined periods of prolonged work of 48 hours. Further minimum rest periods, as set out in the existing Working Time Regulations, will also apply. The new contract will reduce the number of consecutive night shifts after which a 48 hour break must be taken from seven to four, the number of consecutive long day shifts from seven to five, the number of consecutive late evening shifts from 12 to four and the number of consecutive shorter shifts from 12 to eight. The improvements are part of the around 90% of the new contract that was agreed with the British Medical Association and that make the new contract much safer than the current one.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-11.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on corporate taxation of the OECD’s report, Countering harmful tax practices more effectively, taking into account transparency and substance, published in September 2014.

Mr David Gauke

The OECD report published in September 2014 formed the basis of international discussions in the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices, which lead to the publishing of the 2015 FHTP Report, chapter 4 of which creates a new international framework governing preferential intellectual property (“IP”) regimes, such as the UK Patent Box.

This international framework makes the lower tax rates of preferential IP regimes dependent on, and proportional to, the research and development expenditure incurred by the claimant taxpayer in developing their IP. The UK Patent Box will be amended in line with this international framework, with the new rules coming into force on 1 July 2016.

The Report also made provision for greater information exchange between tax authorities of rulings issued to individual businesses. HM Revenue and Customs is currently implementing these rules and has already begun to exchange information with other tax authorities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reason NHS England decided not to proceed with the Truvada commissioning process; and what plans the Government has to make that drug available on the NHS.

Jane Ellison

NHS England does not now consider pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV is suitable for prioritisation of specialised commissioning spend as it is a preventative measure. However given the potential benefits in this area, NHS England is keen to build on the work to date and will be making available up to £2 million over the next two years to run a number of early implementer test sites. These will be undertaken in conjunction with Public Health England and will seek to answer the remaining questions around how PrEP could be commissioned in the most cost effective and integrated way to reduce HIV and sexually transmitted infections in those at highest risk.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government plans to issue a commencement order to bring into effect Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013.

Mr Edward Vaizey

No decision has been taken regarding commencement of section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. The matter is still under consideration.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Royal College of General Practitioner’s report entitled A blueprint for building the new deal for general practice in England, published in May 2015, if his Department will respond to the recommendations of that report on (a) necessary increases in the GP workforce and (b) the proportion of the NHS budget that should be invested in general practice.

Alistair Burt

The Department has committed to increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice.

The General Practice Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April and developed in discussion with the Royal College of General Practitioners and other general practitioner (GP) stakeholders, sets out actions to double the rate of growth of the GP workforce by introducing measures to increase recruitment, retention and return to practice.

The General Practice Forward View states that NHS England is committed to increasing the proportion of investment going into general practice services, which should reach over 10% by 2020/21. Investment in general practice will increase by £2.4 billion per year by 2020/21, meaning that investment will rise from £9.6 billion in 2015/16 to over £12 billion a year by 2020/21.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the potential costs of compliance with measures contained in the Investigatory Powers Bill to (a) the public purse and (b) private companies.

Mr John Hayes

The majority of the powers in the Investigatory Powers Bill already exist and will not incur additional costs. The Bill makes a new provision for the retention of additional data, known as internet connection records, by domestic Communications Service Providers who are under a data retention notice, to ensure that law enforcement continue to have the powers they need to acquire communications data as threats change and technology develops.

The Government’s overall published estimate of the costs associated with the Investigatory Powers Bill is £247 million. This includes costs associated with increased compliance and authorisation of warrantry and costs to the justice system for offences and changes to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. These are set out in the Overarching Impact Assessment published on 4 November.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the Government has for the delivery of the General Practice Forward View.

David Mowat

The General Practice Forward View was published by NHS England on 21 April 2016 and is a package of measures to stabilise and support general practice.

NHS England has established an external Oversight Group to oversee implementation of the General Practice Forward View. Its membership includes the British Medical Association (BMA), Royal College of General Practitioners and NHS Clinical Commissioners. The BMA has also established a reference group of local medical committees from across England to gain further input from general practitioners (GPs) and make sure the changes set out in the General Practice Forward View are realised.

At its Board meeting on 28 July 2016, NHS England set out progress to date, including on delivery of a new practice resilience programme to help struggling practices, and a new Indemnity Support Scheme to alleviate the immediate pressure of rising costs for GPs from indemnity. Further details are available on NHS England’s website:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/item5-28-07-16.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 45067, whether the Sustainability and Transformation updated plans which will be submitted in October 2016 will be made publicly available.

David Mowat

Local areas will submit their plans to the national health and care bodies for review in October, with further public engagement and consultation taking place from this point.

We expect that most areas will take a version of their Sustainability and Transformation Plan to their organisation’s public board meeting for discussion between late October and the end of the year. We would also expect that most areas will publish their plans, for more formal engagement, during this period, building on the engagement they have already done to shape thinking. No changes to the services people currently receive will be made without local engagement and, where required, consultation.

NHS England, with other national health and care bodies, released guidance to the local areas developing Sustainability and Transformation Plans entitled ‘Engaging local people’ in September 2016 which can be found on their website.