Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of the international aid budget has been spent on India in the last five years.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The table below provides details of total UK bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) to India as a percentage of total UK ODA.

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Percent of Bilateral ODA to Total ODA	6%	5%	3%	3%	2%	2%

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had the Electoral Commission on ensuring that people are able to check whether they are registered on aboutmyvote.co.uk related to the EU referendum.

John Penrose

A registration look up tool that allowed electors to check their registration status would reduce duplicate applications. Technical and practical barriers prevent its implementation before the EU referendum.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP premises in the Southampton local authority area are owned by the NHS Property Services.

George Freeman

The following table shows general practitioner practices based in NHS Property Services sites within the Southampton area.

Site name	Address	Town	County	Postcode	Tenure
Aldermoor Health Centre	Aldermoor Close	Southampton	Hampshire	SO16 5ST	Freehold
Shirley Health Centre	Grove Road	Southampton	Hampshire	SO15 3UA	Freehold
Lordshill Health Centre	Lordshill District Centre	Southampton	Hampshire	SO16 8HY	Freehold
Newtown Health Clinic	24-26 Lyon Street	Southampton	Hampshire	SO14 0LX	Part freehold/Part long leasehold
Royal South Hants Hospital	Graham Road	Southampton	Hampshire	SO14 0YG	Freehold

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in England have long-term medical conditions.

Jane Ellison

It is estimated that over 15 million people in England live with at least one long term medical condition.

No estimate has been made of the cost to the National Health Service of people with long term conditions not taking their prescribed medication.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what provisions there are for tenants to ensure that they able to recover security deposits that have been returned to the letting agents by the MyDeposit scheme.

Gavin Barwell

If a tenant meets all their obligations at the end of the tenancy, the deposit will be returned to them in full by the agent (under the insured scheme) or by the tenancy deposit scheme (under the custodial scheme).

If there is a dispute about the amount of deposit to be returned to the tenant, both parties can either agree to use the free alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service provided by the schemes or go to court. If they decide to use the ADR service, the case will be considered by an independent adjudicator and the decision will be binding on both parties.

The disputed amount will be held by the scheme until the court or adjudicator makes a decision on how the amount should be apportioned between the parties.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to improve the level of expertise and knowledge amongst 111 NHS staff.

Jane Ellison

As part of the process of moving to a new integrated urgent care service, accessed through the 111 telephone number, NHS England has established a Workforce Development Programme. This includes the development of a competency framework, which will set out the skills, behaviours and competencies needed for both clinical and non-clinical staff to continually improve the safety and quality of patient care. In addition, NHS England’s NHS 111 Workforce Investment Fund is supporting a number of projects that will test and evaluate a number of initiatives for improving the effectiveness of the NHS 111 workforce.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the Commission is taking to (a) improve the productivity of House staff and (b) promote the efficient use of the parliamentary estate.

Tom Brake

Over the last Parliament the productivity of the House was increased through a cost reduction programme which saved 17% in real terms by 2014/15 against the 2010/11 Administration (Resource) Estimate of £231 million and by expanding the number and range of services provided.

The Executive Committee has instigated an efficiency review with a target of a 10% reduction of controllable resource spend over the life of this Parliament, which equates to £15.5m. One way this is to be achieved is by utilising the estate more effectively.

Following the recommendations of the Committee on Governance of the House of Commons, a restructure of services and approach is being undertaken. This is focused not just on running costs but on achieving more effective project management, facilitating improved delivery of projects. The Commission is, with the House of Lords, also examining the opportunities for further joint working between the Houses.

The House Service has a continuous improvement programme to review work processes and streamline ways of working to improve efficiency, quality of service and productivity. This includes better use of digital technology. In addition, the House People Strategy provides for a number of methods to enable staff to develop their capability and improve productivity. All staff are encouraged to review their job competence, using a diagnostic tool, to identify where their competence needs to improve. A learning programme offers all staff a range of opportunities to develop that competence. Our individual performance review process provides the means for individuals to work with their manager to ensure objectives are met and to improve their work performance. Finally staff are able to work flexibly to respond to the demands of the job.

Plans to restore and renew the Palace of Westminster could create opportunities to make better and more productive use of space. The Commission awaits the report of the Joint Committee on the future of the Palace; the Northern Estate Programme will target the optimisation of the existing buildings within its scope: seeking to improve the efficiency of the estate overall, support new ways of working, reduce running costs, and improve access and security for Members and their staff.

The current House of Commons accommodation policy states that House staff currently occupy buildings on the parliamentary estate primarily in open plan workspace to increase the capacity and flexibility of space and (where appropriate) promote better working. Workplace studies are routinely used when reviewing business requirements to ensure that available accommodation is optimised to support users in the most efficient manner feasible within the constraints of the existing buildings.

The Houses’ Digital strategy aims to improve efficiency and effectiveness through the delivery of highly available, secure and easy to use technology. The technology will support flexible and mobile working which will contribute to better use of the Estate and Parliamentary resources more generally. For example the wider adoption of laptops to promote flexible working is currently under consideration.

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

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, what the (a) ethnicity and (b) gender is of each staff member employed by hon. Members.

Mr Charles Walker

As at 9 March 2016, 3,161 individuals were employed by MPs and paid through IPSA’s payroll. Of these, 1795 were female and 1366 were male.

IPSA does not collect or hold data on the ethnicity of MPs’ staff.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with community pharmacies on the proposals for a pharmacy access scheme.

Alistair Burt

Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review, the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services or public access to them. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

The Government’s vision is for a more efficient, modern system that will free up pharmacists to spend more time delivering clinical and public health services to the benefit of patients and the public.

We have been in detailed discussions with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) since December 2015 regarding the Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond, including the proposal for a Pharmacy Access Scheme. In parallel, we also want to hear views on our proposals from across the sector and from patient groups. We published our open letter to the PSNC on 17 December 2015 and on 27 January 2016 we published a set of slides setting out the proposals with a foreword by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer.

We announced on 16 March 2016 that the consultation period was to be extended to allow more time to develop the proposed changes with the PSNC and others. It will now close on 24 May 2016.

Once we have carefully considered the outcomes from the consultation, we are looking to communicate final decisions as soon as possible, so that pharmacy contractors are fully informed some months before the funding reduction starts from October 2016.

The role of the general practice pharmacist is distinct from the role of the pharmacist in a community setting. However, they are synergistic. Pharmacists working in general practice will, in the main, work with patients who have long term conditions to support them with their medicines and self-management of their condition by helping with the development and review of individual care plans. These patients will not generally be those with minor illnesses which can be treated by seeing a pharmacist in a community setting and for whom community pharmacy will remain the first, and most appropriate, option.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers in each of the last five years have been foreign nationals.

Nick Gibb

The information requested is not collected by the Department.