The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost to the public purse was of an appointment to see a GP in (a) Southampton City, (b) NHS West London, (c) NHS North Manchester and (d) West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group in 2015-16.
Alistair Burt
This information is not collected centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what powers his Department has to block access to social media sites for people awaiting sentencing.
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.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37550, what further progress has been made on reviewing the legal and financial implications of an alternative pavement parking regime; and if he will make a statement.
Andrew Jones
The process for putting in place traffic regulation orders (TROs) was identified as a major factor affecting the enforcement of pavement parking. The Department for Transport is therefore now considering how best to address the general improvement of the TRO-making process and will provide further information once this is available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure diabetes (a) care and (b) information provided by Southampton City CCG is responsive and relevant to the needs of the patient.
Jane Ellison
We are advised by NHS England that the Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) commissions diabetes services in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines across primary, community and secondary care. All services are regularly reviewed and service providers are required to report service level data to ensure that the provision is meeting the NICE quality standards. We understand this will include service access data and patient reported satisfaction. The CCG commissions an integrated pathway of diabetes care of which 80% is delivered in primary care.
We are also informed that the Diabetes Community Team provides support into primary care and sees more complex patients as appropriate, it also provides professional education and training and structured education for patients which is in line with the NICE guidelines. NHS England advises that the Southampton City CCG’s acute in-patient team provides care for those admitted into hospital with more acute needs and also provides appropriate out-patient services, professional education and support for patients who access the insulin pump service.
Additionally, in April 2016 the CCG advises it will be implementing a new integrated foot care pathway that will meet the needs of those with low, moderate and increased risk of foot complications and for those with active foot disease.
In regards to providing people with diabetes with information to improve self-management and promote better health and wellbeing, the CCG confirms it works closely with organisations such as Diabetes UK in order to do this. The CCG has engaged with local patients, more recently this engagement has focused on the foot care provision, building on the evidence from the Patient Experience of Diabetes Services Survey in 2013.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the savings to the public purse of young carers supporting their families instead of the local authority doing so.
Edward Timpson
Young carers are this country’s unsung heroes, selflessly providing support for the people they love. Yet, for the most noble of reasons, they can often overlook their own needs. This government recognises the enormous contribution that young carers make and that’s why we are improving support for carers of all ages and developing a new cross-government carers strategy.
No official assessment has been made of the savings to the public purse of young carers supporting their families.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to increase stem cell donations from the 16 to 30 age group.
Jane Ellison
Since 2010, the Department has provided £19 million funding to improve the provision of stem cells in the United Kingdom. As part of this investment, the Department has supported the work of our delivery partners, NHS Blood and Transplant and the charity Anthony Nolan, to recruit young male donors, who are approximately 10 times more likely to be asked to donate. The cohort of young male donors, known as the Fit Panel, currently has 66,365 registered donors. Funding from the Department in the current financial year is supporting the recruitment further 20,000 young male donors.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the discretionary housing payments scheme in preventing households in exceptional circumstances having to pay the under-occupancy penalty.
Justin Tomlinson
For 2015/16 we have provided £60 million in Discretionary Housing Payment funding to help protect individuals affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy and we have protected this support at £60 million for 2016/17
Since 2013, £25 million of the Discretionary Housing Payment funding for the removal of the spare room subsidy has been allocated to support disabled people living in significantly adapted accommodation, including any adaptations made for disabled children. This funding support remains unchanged for 2016/17.
In the last financial year, the majority of local authorities spent less than or 100 per cent of their funding which indicates that they had sufficient funds to meet demand.
In the first six months of this financial year (2015/16) the majority of local authorities had spent less than 50 per cent of their Discretionary Housing Payment allocation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will issue guidance to schools on the terminology used for children who do not reach the national standard grade under the proposed reforms to Key Stage 2.
Nick Gibb
Schools have been informed that pupil outcomes will be described as meeting or not meeting the expected standard in the Key Stage 2 (KS2) tests. Pupils who do not meet the expected standard in the teacher assessment of writing will be awarded one of a number of standards: Foundations for the expected standard, Early development of the expected standard, Growing development of the expected standard or Working towards the expected standard. The Standards and Testing Agency will provide additional guidance on scaled scores in July 2016.
Schools are required to report to parents of year 6 children their child’s scaled scores for the KS2 tests; whether they have met the expected standard or not; and their teacher assessed standards for English writing, English reading, mathematics and science. Schools are also required to give parents more general information about the child’s achievements, general progress and attendance record. This is intended to give a more comprehensive view of a child’s overall achievements at the end of the key stage than just their attainment in the national curriculum assessments. The Department does not prescribe the terminology to be used in these reports.
We expect schools to ensure that children’s achievements are reported in a professional and appropriate manner.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the introduction of driverless cars on UK roads on levels of insurance premiums.
Andrew Jones
We know that the insurance industry is keen to recognise and reward technologies that will make vehicles safer; the latest safety features, like autonomous emergency braking, can help reduce insurance premiums. As highly automated, and fully automated, vehicle technology should help reduce collisions, we believe this should be reflected in insurance premiums.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase capacity in UK medical schools to enable an increase in the number of UK-trained doctors entering the NHS.
Ben Gummer
The Government makes a significant investment in educating and training doctors. Health Education England (HEE) has oversight in determining overall medical school place numbers as the Department only funds places for the numbers of doctors needed to work in the National Health Service in the future.
The Government’s Mandate to HEE for 2015/16, required them to “take a strategic role in relation to those healthcare professions where number controls are, or may in the future be, determined nationally, including medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. HEE’s objective is to take a leading role in working with partners in higher education to keep medical, dental training and other healthcare numbers under review.”
HEE is undertaking a review of medical undergraduate numbers which will be published in due course. Where number controls are determined nationally, HEE will need to agree any changes with the Department of Health in discussion with other relevant Government departments, such as the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
HEE’s Commissioning and Investment Plan for 2016/17 forecasts an increase in the available supply of doctors to the NHS workforce by 2020 of 14.6% above 2015 figures. This includes doctors in general practice.