Tag: Steve McCabe

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-11.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, in how many public private partnerships in (a) the UK and (b) Birmingham the Government is involved as a (i) party to the contract and (ii) statutory actor.

Greg Hands

HM Treasury collects and publishes data on centrally supported PFI and PF2 (the UK Government’s main form of PPPs) projects. The most recent collection recorded projects as at 31^st March 2015. This can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-finance-initiative-and-private-finance-2-projects-2015-summary-data. This publication has the information requested on projects in the UK and Birmingham.

HM Treasury does not hold information on ‘statutory actors’ in PFI and PF2 projects, however the published data does show the contracting parties, equity holders and special purpose vehicle responsible for managing the project.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2016 to Question 32377, what proportion of local authorities will receive the Targeted Affordability Funding referred to; and whether Birmingham City Council qualifies as an area for such funding.

Justin Tomlinson

This information is not currently available.

We are considering options as to how best to allocate the Targeted Affordability Funding, including the assessment of areas that will qualify.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33136, whether her Department provides guidance to academies on the consultation of local people on admission policies.

Nick Gibb

All state funded schools, including academies, are required to comply with the Statutory School Admissions Code. The Code provides clear guidance on how admission authorities are required to consult on their admission arrangements, including the requirement to consult locally, for a minimum of six weeks, before making any changes to admission arrangements, and where no changes are proposed, the requirement to consult at least once every seven years, to ensure that the admission arrangements continue to meet local need.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 36039, on fertility: medical treatments, which criteria set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 fertility services do not meet in order to be centrally commissioned.

Jane Ellison

The Health and Social Care Act 2012, part 1, Section 15, 3B (3), about services that the Secretary of States can require the Board (NHS England) to commission, states:

“(3) In deciding whether it would be so appropriate, the Secretary of State must have regard to:

(a) the number of individuals who require the provision of the service or facility;

(b) the cost of providing the service or facility;

(c) the number of persons able to provide the service or facility;

(d) the financial implications for clinical commissioning groups if they were required to arrange for the provision of the service or facility.”

The Clinical Advisory Group, which advised Ministers about the services that should be regarded as specialised and commissioned nationally by NHS England, took the view that fertility services would not meet (a) and (c) of these listed factors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent officials in her Department are responsible for identifying, verifying and processing potential Dublin Regulation transfer cases.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office has a unit processing Dublin III asylum transfer requests from and to the United Kingdom. This unit comprises 78.34 full time equivalent managers, caseworkers and support staff.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide additional funding for transfer cases related to the Dublin Regulation where further evidence of family links is needed for asylum to be granted.

James Brokenshire

The Dublin Regulation is the mechanism for determining which EU Member State is responsible for examining an asylum claim, not whether an individual qualifies for asylum. Any request to the UK from another Member State to unite family members under the Dublin Regulation is carefully considered: where someone seeking asylum elsewhere in the EU can demonstrate they have close family members legally in the UK, we will take responsibility for that claim. We make decisions based on all evidence available to us and where it is coherent, verifiable and sufficiently detailed to establish family links.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-07-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to make an assessment of the implications for his policy on fiscal devolution of the findings of the Centre for Cities report, 10 years of tax, published on 7 July 2016, on regional variations in tax generation.

Mr David Gauke

The Chancellor takes into account a wide range external reports and representations when making policy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policy on state pension age increases of the Pensions Policy Institute briefing note, published on 27 July 2016, on the effect of rises in state pension age on vulnerable people; and if he will make it his policy to allow early access to a full or reduced state pension for people who have 45 years of national insurance contributions.

Richard Harrington

The Government will consider the evidence on future approaches to State Pension age in the course of the first review of the State Pension age, conducted under Section 27 of the 2014 Pensions Act, which will report by 7 May 2017.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department plans to invest in early intervention services for young people with mental health conditions in each of the next five years.

Edward Timpson

Children and young people’s mental health is a priority for this Government, supported by an additional £1.4 billion over the lifetime of this Parliament. Each clinical commissioning group has worked with partners, including schools and colleges, to develop a Local Transformation Plan setting out how they will provide support for the full spectrum of mental health conditions, including early intervention measures.

Schools and colleges have an important role to play in supporting the mental health of children and young people, and we will continue to invest in this. We have provided them with a range of information, support, advice and guidance to help them develop ‘whole-school’ approaches to best suit the needs of their pupils. This includes guidance on: teaching about such issues as depression and anxiety within their personal, social, health and economic education curriculum, and providing effective school-based counselling. Teachers can also access free online support for pupils with a range of mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, through the MindEd website.

We want to support schools and colleges further, and to help us to know where to best direct this support we are currently conducting a large-scale survey asking them what approaches they use, as well as what they find to be the most effective. The results should be available next spring.

The Department of Health has also commissioned a new prevalence survey that should provide updated information on a range of specific mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. This is due to report in 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the combined effect of the Apprenticeship Levy, the National Living Wage and the increase in auto-enrolment charges on FTSE 250 companies’ employment spend.

Mr David Gauke

The Government is taking action to build an economy that works for everyone. We have committed to improve the technical and professional skills of the workforce by putting control of apprenticeship funding in the hands of employers, to boost the wages of the lowest paid, and, through Automatic Enrolment and pensions tax reliefs, to support people in saving for retirement. At the same time, we are supporting business with a competitive and fair tax system, including the reduction of the corporation tax main rate from 28% to 20%. Finance Act 2016 cut the rate further, to 17% in 2020, ensuring the lowest rate in the G20.

The Government has not produced a combined assessment of the effect of these specific policies on employment spend for this group of companies. The costs and benefits to business of regulatory measures such as the National Living Wage and Automatic Enrolment are set out in impact assessments (available at legislation.gov.uk and gov.uk respectively), and the independent Office for Budget Responsibility takes the impact of government policies on the economy into account in producing its forecasts.