Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost is per patient attending a GP’s surgery in Southampton.

Alistair Burt

The requested information is not collected.

NHS England advises that general practitioners (GPs) are funded per head of population to deliver GP medical services. The Southampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) will be commissioning primary care on behalf of NHS England from 1 April 2016 and NHS England confirms across the CCG’s forecast population this funding is £124 per head of population.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Since 2012 we have provided £500 per pupil funding to secondary schools for year 7 pupils who did not meet the expected standard in reading or mathematics at primary school. This funding enables schools to deliver additional support, such as individual tuition or intensive support in small groups, for those pupils that most need it.

It is not possible to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level, as the first cohort of pupils to benefit from this funding in 2012 will now be in year 10 and have not yet entered GCSEs.

We provide advice and guidance to schools on how they should use their funding and have published guidance on literacy and numeracy catch-up strategies which schools can consult when making decisions on how to spend their funding. Schools must publish details of how they spend their year 7 catch-up premium funding on the school website.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in Southampton were diagnosed with autism in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Alistair Burt

The Department co-ordinates the Cross Government Autism Strategy originally published as Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives in 2010 and updated as Think Autism in 2014. The on-going actions of the strategy focus on assisting local implementation and multi-agency planning to deliver the aims of the 2009 Autism Act and help people with autism access services and support, and reach their potential. In support of the strategy, statutory guidance was co-ordinated by the Department and issued to local authorities and the National Health Service in 2010 and 2015.

Figures on the numbers of people diagnosed with autism in different parts of the country are not collected centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what resources her Department has allocated to publicise the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

Karen Bradley

Communications activity to make people aware of the intended blanket ban on psychoactive substances has been developed by Home Office officials, working closely with and agencies such as the National Police Chiefs Council and Public Health England. We have consulted with external partners such as Angelus Foundation, Mentor and Adfam. Activity will explain the legislative changes and consequences to sellers, young people and other users and signpost support and advice. In addition we have also planned proactive press features for the commencement of the act.

Value for money is being maximised through the use of existing internal resources, materials developed at no cost in-house and free to use channels, such as press, publicity and social media to raise awareness of the ban.

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.