Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what measures are in place for environmental health officers to arrange a second observation of excessive noise in a property where a household frequently changes occupancy.

Rory Stewart

Local authorities have a range of powers available to them to assess excessive noise from residential properties through various pieces of legislation. It is for local authorities to decide how best to apply the powers available to them.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to support people who are addicted to the psychoactive substances prohibited by the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

Jane Ellison

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the local need for drug treatment and commissioning services to meet that need. This involves developing services that can help people with a range of drug problems; which can also respond to emerging problems, such as new psychoactive substances.

Public Health England works with local authorities to support them in commissioning alcohol and drug services, providing guidance and materials, bespoke data, value for money tools, topical briefings and advice on good practice. This includes guidance on new psychoactive substances for substance misuse commissioners, including a toolkit which can be found at:

http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/nps-a-toolkit-for-substance-misuse-commissioners.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of university technical college students who completed apprenticeship courses achieved a Level (a) 3 and (b) 4 apprenticeship qualification in each of the last three years.

Robert Halfon

Information on the proportion of university technical college students achieving apprenticeship qualifications over the past three years is not readily available. The Department for Education is phasing in a series of changes to our performance tables from 2018, including the inclusion of apprenticeship outcomes.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he plans to take in the forthcoming Charter Review to ensure that the BBC provides greater value for money.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Value for money is one of many issues we are looking at as part of Charter Review.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to give young carers under the age of 16 (a) financial support and (b) other assistance to continue with mainstream education.

Edward Timpson

Schools play an important part in identifying pupils who are young carers and in offering them appropriate support. That is why the Department for Education has worked with Carers Trust and The Children’s Society for many years to share tools, good practice and increase awareness in schools of young carers’ issues. Ofsted inspectors will also pay particular attention to the outcomes achieved by young carers in schools.

We have changed the law so that, since April 2015, all young carers are entitled to an assessment of their needs for support, regardless of who they care for, what type of care they provide or how much time they spend caring.

It is worth noting that a significant proportion, around 60%, of young carers are thought to be eligible for free school meals, and those who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years will be attracting pupil premium funding to the schools that they attend.

We are also grant-funding Suffolk Family Carers over £111,000 in 2015-16 to run a local project to raise awareness of young carers amongst teachers, non-teaching staff and school nurses, including a focus on young carers’ mental health, supporting Suffolk County Council’s strategy on young carers.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate she has made of the (a) annual contribution to the economy of food production and (b) number of people employed in the food production industry.

George Eustice

The latest provisional data shows that in 2014 the whole food chain from farming to retail and catering was worth £108 billion to National Gross Value Added, and employed 3.8 million people. Within this, farming contributed £10.7 billion Gross Value Added and employed 440 thousand people, and food and drink manufacturing contributed £26.9 billion Gross Value Added and employed 410 thousand people. These statistics are derived from the Aggregate Agricultural Accounts by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Annual Business Survey and the Labour Force Survey by the Office for National Statistics.

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

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many disabled people have found employment in the (a) private, (b) public and (c) charity sector in each of the last three years.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

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 institutions and organisations in receipt of public funds do not express a corporate opinion on the forthcoming EU 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 Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect on the public purse of the sale of the Government’s remaining RBS shares.

Greg Hands

The government conducted an initial sale of RBS shares in August 2015, raising £2.1bn for the taxpayer.

The proceeds from sales contribute to reducing UK government debt.

Further sales will be conducted subject to market conditions, in order to maximise value for the taxpayer. The returns on the government’s interventions in RBS will be determined by the success of the whole of the selling programme, rather than the terms achieved on the first few disposals.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to allow community pharmacies to care for patients with long-term health conditions through (a) medical reviews and (b) other assistance with that condition.

Alistair Burt

Community pharmacies already take significant steps to care for patients with long term conditions (LTCS). Community pharmacy staff routinely deliver a range of services to meet the needs of patients with LTCs, including timely dispensing of medicines, opportunistic and prescription-linked public health interventions, such as advice on a healthy diet and nutrition, stop smoking advice to help maintain the health of people with LTCs such as diabetes and heart disease, support for self-care and signposting, when they are not able to provide the support themselves.

In addition, community pharmacists provide advice on the safe use of medicines so they are taken as intended, through medicines use reviews and the new medicines service, the latter intended for people with certain LTCs prescribed new medicines. Utilising pharmacists clinical skills assists with optimising medicines in a way which puts patients at the centre of decision making, with regular monitoring and review, helping to improve their health outcomes.

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, including those with LTCs, and the public.