Tag: Steve McCabe

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) unaccompanied children and (b) partners of refugees who had already been granted asylum in the UK (i) applied for and (ii) were granted asylum in the UK in each of the last three years.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum claims from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in the Immigration Statistics release. This includes information on applications received, decisions made by sex, age and country of nationality.

The Home Office does not centrally record the number of people that apply for asylum who have a partner in the UK who has already been granted. This could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much financial support his Department has given to people affected by HIV or hepatitis C through treatment with NHS-supplied blood or blood products in each year since 1988.

Jane Ellison

Since 1988 the Government has voluntarily provided ex gratia support for people affected by HIV and/or hepatitis C through treatment with NHS-supplied blood or blood products. To date, over £390 million has been paid out through the schemes, in the United Kingdom.

The Department only holds finance data for payments under the schemes back to 2007. This information is provided below.

2014-15 £22,278,096

2013-14 £27,043,569

2012-13 £22,052,458

2011-12 £27,192,232

2010-11 £39,805,667

2009-10 £22,461,057

2008-09 £19,240,337

2007-08 £20,532,461

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what powers she has to shorten the term of a Police and Crime Commissioner elected in May 2016 in order that the role is subsumed by a Metro-Mayor.

Mike Penning

If a local area were to make the case to transfer Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) functions to an elected mayor, secondary legislation would set out the details of the transfer of powers and the relevant timescales based on discussions between the local area and central government.

These powers are provided for in Section 107F of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (as amended by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016), which sets out the Secretary of State’s necessary order making powers to enable the transfer of PCC functions to an elected mayor.

Local areas can put forward a proposal to transfer PCC functions at any time and, as stated in response to the honourable member’s earlier question on this issue [32271], any proposal submitted by a local area for an elected mayor to take on PCC functions would be considered on its merits, on a case-by-case basis. The timing of any transfer of powers would also form part of this consideration.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2016 to Question 29817, whether her Department holds information on the number of children who have been further assessed after the strength and difficulties questionnaire score suggested that there may be a problem with that child’s mental health.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Department does not hold information on the number of children who have undergone further assessment following the completion of a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

The Government has made available £1.4 billion over five years to implement the blueprint set out in Future in mind to transform children’s mental health services, including for those looked after and other vulnerable groups. Together with the Department of Health and working with NHS England and others we are establishing an expert group to develop care pathways that will support an integrated approach to meeting the mental health needs of looked-after children.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 31226, on how many occasions his Department has found a local authority to be non-compliant with (a) the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 and (b) the Local Government Transparency Code 2015.

Mr Marcus Jones

My Department has recently completed compliance testing of local authorities with the Local Government Transparency Code 2015, which entailed checking the websites of 103 authorities, a 25% sample of authorities to which the Transparency Code applies, for the data they are required to publish. We are currently analysing the initial results, including to ascertain whether where expected information has not been found on an authority’s website this is an accurate reflection of the authority’s circumstances or due to non-compliance.

Principal local authorities will not be required to comply with the provisions of the Local Audit and Accountability Act until 1 April 2018 [and Health and smaller bodies from 1 April 2017]. Compliance is currently monitored by Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd, a transitional body appointed to manage existing audit arrangements until they expire.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of clinical commissioning groups in England are working together on implementation of NICE guidelines on fertility treatment.

Jane Ellison

Information about clinical commissioning groups’ approach to commissioning fertility services is not collected centrally.

The Department has not made any estimate of the proportion of children conceived in the United Kingdom using in-vitro fertilisation relative to those countries mentioned.

The Department has no plans to instruct NHS England to commission fertility treatment centrally. Fertility services do not meet the criteria set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to be nationally commissioned by NHS England.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the extent of the practice among clinical commissioning groups in England of offering only one fresh cycle of IVF treatment.

Jane Ellison

The Government has not made an assessment of the annual cost to the National Health Service of high risk pregnancies caused by patients going abroad for in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Multiple births are the single biggest risk to the health and welfare of children born following fertility treatment and present significant health risks to mothers and babies. Over recent years, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has worked to drive down multiple birth rates whilst maintaining consistent treatment success rates.

To minimise the risk of multiple pregnancies, there has been a growing trend for IVF providers to only transfer one embryo, even when more are available, in patients who have a good chance of successful treatment. Elective single embryo transfer is the most effective way of reducing multiple pregnancies. The HFEA has advised that most clinics have shown significant progress in reducing multiple births without compromising pregnancy rates. In 2008 nearly one in four IVF births resulted in a multiple birth but now, with a concerted multiple births reduction policy, this number is one in six.

Although progress has been made, this number is still higher than the rate in conceptions that do not involve assisted reproduction treatment. The overall goal is to reduce multiple births to one in ten.

The level of provision of infertility treatment, as for all health services they commission, is decided by local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and will take into account the needs of the population overall. The CCG’s decisions are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. As such, provision of services will vary in response to local needs.

Information about CCGs approach to commissioning or compliance with the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence guidelines regarding IVF services is not collected centrally.

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 35934, on epilepsy: death, when he plans to publish a report containing the information collected from GP clinical systems referred to in that Answer.

Alistair Burt

The Health and Social Care Information Centre publish their reports for indicators that are no longer on the Quality and Outcomes Framework such as EP002 and EP003 on epilepsy. The latest publication was on 22 March 2016 for the year 2014/15. The report can be found here:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB18887/qof-1415-Report%20v1.1.pdf

There are no plans to publish data relating to epilepsy deaths.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK aid for the conflict in Yemen benefits its intended recipients; and what proportion of the £85 million of aid for Yemen committed in the last year has been used to support children.

Sir Desmond Swayne

The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We work with trusted and impartial partners such as UN agencies and NGOs who have good access and a strong track record of delivering and monitoring assistance in difficult and dangerous places. We regularly monitor and review our programmes and have an independent monitoring programme to provide independent assurance on what we are delivering.

In 2015/16 DFID provided the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with £6 million, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) with over £21 million and Save the Children with over £3 million. Amongst other activities, our funding helped treat over 150,000 children under 5 with severe acute malnutrition and screen 140,000 children for childhood infections. It also helped support and refer displaced children and enabled 3,500 refugee children and Yemeni children from their host communities to resume education. DFID has also supported education in Yemen through the Social Fund for Development (SFD). Since 2010, more than 240,000 children have attended schools supported by SFD.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 May 2016 to Question 37474, on children: maintenance, what specific areas of case closure require less effort than earlier analysis suggested.

Priti Patel

The impact assessment was completed in 2013, well before CSA cases started to be closed. These numbers have since been reviewed to reflect the experiences of the case closure journey. The initial estimate of £103m to review the cases has reduced to £75m as the updating work has taken less time than assumed when the impact assessment was completed. The initial estimate to set up the arrears on the CMS system was £20m and this is proving to take longer than anticipated, with the latest estimate at £26m. The revised figures are still subject to further change as we move more cases and update estimates.