Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he plans to take to ensure that people who lost money to Ecohouse Development Ltd will receive compensation.

Anna Soubry

The activities of the company are subject to an ongoing investigation by the Insolvency Service. The outcome of that investigation may influence the likelihood of a civil recovery using existing provisions in insolvency legislation.

Where, on the application of the liquidator, the court is satisfied that the business of a company has been carried on fraudulently or recklessly, the court can declare that persons such as directors of the company are liable to contribute to the company’s assets.

In addition, for future cases a new measure in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 enables the Secretary of State to seek a compensation order from a disqualified director (this measure does not apply in this case as the legislation only came into force after the company went into liquidation).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to increase participation in modern foreign languages in primary schools.

Nick Gibb

The Government is committed to the teaching of foreign languages as part of a core academic curriculum. This is why a modern or ancient language is included within the English Baccalaureate performance measure. Since September 2014, maintained primary schools in England must teach a modern or ancient foreign language to pupils at Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 11). Schools can choose which language or languages to teach and should enable pupils to make substantial progress in one language by the end of primary school.

To support the introduction of a compulsory foreign language at Key Stage 2, the government funded nine projects across the country to provide training for primary teachers. These projects have trained hundreds of teachers and provided online resources for training thousands more teachers.

The EBacc has had a positive effect on the take up of languages in schools, with a rise in the proportion of the cohort in state-funded schools entered for a modern foreign language from 40% in pupils in 2010 to 49% in 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms are in place to ensure that the contracting out of healthcare provision to the private and charity sector does not lead to fragmentation or waste in NHS provision.

Ben Gummer

Our position on who should provide services is taken to ensure patients receive the best possible services and outcomes. These decisions are taken by the local clinical commissioning groups, which are clinically led and therefore best placed to act for the benefit of their patients.

Competition for quality, on the basis of fixed national tariffs, is one of a number of tools available to commissioners to drive greater integration in healthcare provision across the National Health Service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department has given to Southampton City Council on the level of funding that will be available for discretionary housing payment in future years.

Justin Tomlinson

Local authorities, including Southampton City Council, were informed of their Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) funding allocation for this financial year on 4 February 2016.

Southampton City Council have been allocated DHP funding of £624,817 for 2016/17, a 35% increase from their 2015/16 allocation and local authorities are able to top up Central Government funding by a maximum of two and a half times this figure using their own funds

This package of Discretionary Housing Payment funding (£870 million over 5 years) will enable Local Authorities to provide support to the most vulnerable claimants.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government plans to take to ensure charities in receipt of public funds do not express a view on the forthcoming European Union Referendum.

John Penrose

The rules on campaigning at the referendum are set out in the European Union Referendum Act 2015 and the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. There is no general restriction on institutions and organisations in receipt of public funds expressing a corporate opinion on the European Union Referendum. However, there are restrictions on organisations whose expenses are met wholly or mainly from public funds publishing certain material relating to the referendum in the final 28 days.

As the independent regulator for charities in England and Wales, the Charity Commission published guidance for charities on 7 March 2016 regarding the forthcoming EU referendum. This clearly sets out the threshold necessary to justify any charitable activity on this specific issue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps will be taken to ensure the safety of driverless cars.

Andrew Jones

We have developed ‘Pathway to Driverless Cars: a Code of Practice for testing’ to promote the safe and responsible testing of automated vehicle technology on UK roads. It clearly and simply sets out that testers must obey all relevant road traffic laws and that test vehicles must be roadworthy; a suitably trained driver or operator must be ready, able, and willing to take control if necessary; and appropriate insurance must be in place. Alongside this we are funding research and demonstration projects and working with international regulatory bodies to develop an appropriate framework for the safe sale and use of automated vehicle technology.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent the practice of breast ironing in UK communities.

Karen Bradley

Breast ironing is a form of so called ‘honour-based’ violence (HBV) and this Government is clear that political or cultural sensitivities must not get in the way of preventing and uncovering practices like breast ironing. No one should suffer because of who they are or which community they are born into.

As set out in the Government’s new Violence against Women and Girls Strategy, we will continue to challenge the cultural attitudes that may underpin harmful practices, and ensure professionals have the confidence to confront these issues, safeguard victims and bring perpetrators to justice.

Where breast ironing is practised on girls it is child abuse and should be treated as such by all frontline professionals. The clear legal frameworks that apply to child abuse apply to breast ironing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that people who are not eligible to vote in the EU referendum and who have received ballot papers in error are not able to use those ballot papers.

John Penrose

The EU referendum will be overseen by the Chief Counting Officer, chair of the independent Electoral Commission, who is responsible for making sure the referendum is held in accordance with the legislation governing the conduct of the poll. The Electoral Commission has recently issued a statement setting out the actions that have been taken to address an issue with elections software used by a number of local authorities in England and Wales. They will ensure that any postal votes which have been issued to electors who are not eligible to vote in the referendum will be cancelled and none of these electors will be shown as eligable on the electoral register to be used at polling stations on the 23rd June.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many new GP registrations there were in (a) Southampton City, (b) NHS West London, (c) NHS North Manchester and (d) West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group in 2015-16.

Alistair Burt

The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following table.

Number of patients registered in April 2015 versus April 2016:

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)	Total Patients 1 April 2015	Total Patients 1 April 2016	Difference
NHS North Manchester	200,668	206,140	5,472
NHS Southampton	270,636	276,414	5,778
NHS West London	243,620	242,428	-1,192
NHS West Hampshire	548,279	553,237	4,958

Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)

Notes:

1. The above table shows the total number of patients registered at general practitioner (GP) practices within the named CCGs, on the specified dates. This information is extracted on a quarterly basis from the GP Payments System, which is maintained by the HSCIC.
2. The HSCIC has provided the difference between the number of patients registered at GP practices in the named CCGs on 1 April 2015 and 1 April 2016. However, the HSCIC cannot provide the number of ‘new’ registrations.
3. It is possible that individuals are double counted, e.g. students registered at their home address and university. It is also possible that individuals are removed, e.g. GP cleaning off duplications.
4. The data is also published on the HSCIC website: http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB20480

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether measures are in place to prevent people remanded in custody from distributing passwords for social media platforms for use by people not in custody.

Andrew Selous

An extensive programme of work is underway to prevent prisoners having access to mobile phones. As the Prime Minister said on 8 February 2016, we are working with the mobile network operators to challenge them to do more, including developing new technological solutions, so we can block mobile phones’ signals in prisons.

Although there are no rules to prevent prisoners on remand from passing on passwords for social media platforms, prisoners, including those on remand in custody, are not allowed access to social media platforms either directly or via a third party.

It is a criminal offence for a person to take or transmit any image or sound from within a prison and send it outside the prison and where a link between a prisoner and content posted on social media is identified, the case will be referred to the police. A sentence of up to two years can be given if those charged are found guilty. If the police decide not to pursue a criminal investigation, a prisoner can be punished under the prison disciplinary system, for example, by having privileges removed or additional days added to their time in prison.