Tag: Steve McCabe

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-compliant cases the Child Support Agency has closed under its 1993 and 2003 statutory schemes’ closing process.

Priti Patel

As at October 2015, 110 non-compliant cases have been closed as part of the CSA case closure programme.

Notes:

1. Figure rounded to the nearest 10.
2. The figure is the number of cases that have closed in Segment 2 (the designated segment for non-compliant cases) as a result of being proactively selected for case closure.
3. Individual cases can change circumstances over time. As it is the circumstances of the case that determine which segment it will be closed in, the volumes of cases in individual segments change over time, therefore figures may be subject to change.
4. Closures are cases which have been fully closed on the CSA 1993/2003 Systems having undergone any arrears cleanse activity after liability ending.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with UK airlines on passing reductions in fuel costs on to passengers.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government has regular discussions with the industry on a range of issues, and will continue to press for a fair deal for the travelling public.

The airline industry is intensely competitive and there is no evidence of any market failure that would prevent cost savings being passed onto customers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to prioritise therapeutic services for children who have suffered abuse.

Alistair Burt

The Government is committed to delivering the vision set out in the Future in mind report and is driving forward the transformation of children and young people’s mental health services to improve access to high quality support across the country. This transformation is being supported by £1.25 billion of additional Government investment, as well as an extra £150 million to help young people with eating disorders.

Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) will set out how local organisations will use the additional investment of £1.4 billion the Government is making available during the course of this Parliament to transform local Child and Adolescent Mental Health services. All clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), working closely with their partners in local government, Children’s Services and education, have developed plans to transform their local offer. These plans cover the full spectrum of mental health issues: from prevention and resilience building, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. This includes those who have been exposed to sexual abuse or exploitation. Decisions on access to services are based on assessment of clinical need.

NHS England increased funding of sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) from £8.98 million in 2013/14 to £16.5 million in 2014/15, especially to improve the paediatric response to the needs of sexually abused children. NHS England continues to make the health services response to sexual abuse a priority, and in addition to producing a five year plan for commissioning SARCs, they are planning to engage with CCGs on the delivery of therapeutic care to support survivors.

The Government has set up the first ever cross-Government Ministerial Child Protection Taskforce to overhaul the way police, schools, social services and others work together in tackling abuse of children. The Taskforce’s work will build on the Government’s wide-ranging reforms to create a care system that puts children’s needs first.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of identified violations of the Schools Admissions Code since 2014 related to failure to properly prioritise looked-after and previously looked-after children.

Nick Gibb

Of the 271 admission objections determined since January 2014, 6% were found to have non-compliant elements relating to provisions in the School Admissions Code concerning looked after and previously looked after children.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of public-private partnerships delivering local authority services and representing good value for money.

Mr Marcus Jones

Local authority Private Finance Initiative Public Private Partnership projects, whether supported by this or other departments, were subject to extensive value for money assessments before authorities entered into their individual contracts. This Department does not undertake post-implementation value for money assessments of local authority Private Finance Initative contracts and services. However authorities are encouraged to continue to seek to improve the value for money of their projects wherever possible and the Department will provide advice and support upon request.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2016 to Question 29831, what recent steps he has taken to encourage all local authorities to publish (a) transparent financial audits and (b) undisclosed procurement costs for all public-private contracts.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Department encourages local authorities to be open and transparent with their data. The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 requires local authorities to publish their audited accounts on their website, and the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires local authorities to publish details of expenditure, resource and assets, including details of all of their contracts with a value of over £5,000.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2016 to Question 30444, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the Government’s proposal for every school to become an academy on the responsibility of local authorities to provide sufficient school places.

Edward Timpson

Local authorities (LAs) have a legal obligation to ensure that there are sufficient local schools to provide a primary and secondary place for all children needing one. Supporting LAs to do this continues to be one of the Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to spending £7 billion on school places up to 2021, which, alongside investment in the free schools programme, we expect to create 600,000 new places.

LAs have always relied on their strong relationships with local schools to deliver the places needed and this will remain the case in a fully academised system. LAs will continue to be advocates for their electorate, challenging school providers to deliver high educational standards and better outcomes for all children.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2016 to Question 30456, what proportion of (a) primiparous and (b) multiparous women are discharged from hospital less than 24 hours after giving birth.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission 2015 survey of women’s experience of maternity care found that 27% of primiparous mothers (first time mothers) stayed in hospital for less than 24 hours after birth. 47% of multiparous mothers (women who have previously given birth one or more times) stayed in hospital for less than 24 hours after birth.

Full details of the survey can be found here:

http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/maternity-services-survey-2015

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the outcome of the public consultation into out-of-school education settings.

Edward Timpson

The Government wants children to be educated in a safe environment without exposure to hateful and extremist views that undermine British values. The call for evidence on out-of-school education settings was launched on 26 November 2015 and ran for six and a half weeks closing on 11 January 2016.

Around 3,000 people completed the published response form, either online or manually. The Department for Education received a significant number of further representations to the consultation by email and post. All responses and representations are being logged, analysed and verified

We will be publishing a response to the consultation in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the average time it will take to process an application for temporary disabled students’ allowance after changes to that allowance; and whose responsibility it will be to assist applicants with such applications.

Joseph Johnson

We are working with higher education institutions to encourage the speedy resolution of disputes between a student and their institution as to whether support should be provided as a reasonable adjustment. The Student Loans Company will consider providing interim support in the form of Disabled Students’ Allowances through a new Exceptional Case Process where a resolution is not achieved prior to the student starting their course. This will ensure eligible disabled students are not left without support during this period.