Tag: Steve McCabe

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2015-11-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) the Government’s policy is and (b) guidance his Department has issued on the use of e-cigarettes as an alternative to smoking; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

The Government believes that vaping/using e-cigarettes is significantly less harmful than smoking tobacco products. Evidence suggests that smokers can substantially benefit their health by fully substituting the use of e-cigarettes for smoking. Public Health England has been working with Local Stop Smoking Services encouraging them to be open to the use of e-cigarettes, where clients choose to use them to support their quit attempts, alone or alongside other nicotine replacement therapies and the behavioural therapy that the services offer.

The first e-cigarette was licenced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency earlier this month. The Government continues to encourage applications for licensed medicinal products to enable both general practitioners and Local Stop Smoking Services to prescribe products which have demonstrated that they meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 23 November 2015 to Questions 16300 and 16301, what proportion of cases with a current liability the 110 non-compliant cases that have been closed as part of the CSA case closure programme represent.

Priti Patel

The 110 non-complaint cases represent 0.02% of the cases with a current liability as at the quarter ending September 2015.

Notes

1. The percentage figure is rounded to 2 decimal places.
2. Cases include those paying via Collection Service and Maintenance Direct.
3. The non-compliant case figure was at October 2015.
4. The percentage figure is of the number of cases with a current liability as at September 2015 (574,400).

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the average patient waiting times for A&E departments at hospital sites that have introduced a (a) co-located urgent care centre and (b) model that integrates primary care staff within the A&E department in the last 12 months.

Jane Ellison

The location and structure of urgent and emergency care services is a matter for local commissioners, taking account of guidance issued by NHS England. This guidance includes Safer, faster better: good practice in delivering urgent and emergency care, which was published in August 2015, to support frontline providers and commissioners in re-designing urgent and emergency care services.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24142, how many current CSA cases where there are existing child maintenance arrears have been subject to proactive or reactive case closure.

Priti Patel

The information requested on case closure arrears is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2016 to Question 26467, what his policy is on the process by which local authorities should calculate the maximum local housing allowance for properties in their area.

Justin Tomlinson

Local Housing Allowance rates for each Broad Rental Market Area are calculated by the Rent Officer Services for England, Scotland and Wales.

Rent Officers collect evidence of achieved rents in each area and use this to calculate the 30^th percentile from a ‘list of rents’ for each property size.

This is then used for setting the rates annually in accordance with current Government policy for uprating Local Housing Allowance.

From April 2016, Local Housing Allowance rates will be frozen for 4 years. This means that rates will either remain at the April 2015 level or be set at the 30^th percentile from the ‘list of rents’, whichever is the lower.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 29 February 2016 to Question 27311, where in the Chief Schools Adjudicator’s annual reports the information sought can be found.

Nick Gibb

Data on the number of objections referred to the Schools Adjudicator and their outcome can be found on page 20 of the Chief Schools Adjudicator’s annual report for 2014/15, available here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/osa-annual-report.

The Adjudicator does not publish data broken down by category of objector.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 March 2016 to Question 31791, on employment and support allowance: inflammatory bowel disease, how many of those claimants started receiving employment and support allowance before 2010.

Priti Patel

The number of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants in August 2015 with Inflammatory Bowel Disease recorded as their main disabling condition, with a claim start date prior to 2010, in England is 340 and in Wales is 30.

Source: DWP 100% data.

Notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
2. The data is at August 2015, which is the latest available information.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is permitted to consider a bid from a Combined Authority for a Police and Crime Commissioner elected in May 2016 to be 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 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department will conclude its review into the effect of the housing benefit cap on tenants who live in sheltered housing.

Justin Tomlinson

The Department for Work and Pensions jointly with the Department for Communities and Local Government commissioned an evidence review into the shape, scale and cost of the supported housing sector.

We conduct a policy review to ensure support is focused on the most vulnerable and the appropriate groups are safeguarded.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to review the operation of the National Planning Policy Framework before the end of the current Parliament.

Brandon Lewis

The National Planning Policy Framework, written clearly and simply, has made the planning system more accessible and replaced over a thousand pages of national policy. We keep policy in the Framework under constant review. A consultation on specific changes to the Framework, aimed at increasing housing supply in sustainable locations, closed on 22 February. We are analysing the responses.