Tag: Steve McCabe

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to introduce mandatory five yearly electrical safety checks in the private rented sector.

Brandon Lewis

The Government has committed to carry out the necessary research to understand what, if any, legislative changes regarding electrical safety checks in the private rented sector should be introduced.

Feedback on this research will be provided during the Lords Report stage of the Housing and Planning Bill.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease in (a) England and (b) Wales applied for employment and support allowance in each of the last five years.

Priti Patel

The information requested is not available.

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 January 2016 to Question 23980, on employment plans: mental illness, whether he plans to introduce new measures of support for people with mental health problems before the end of the three year period of voluntary trials.

Justin Tomlinson

The 2015 Spending Review announced at least £130 million a year in steady state funding on the new Work and Health Programme, which we plan to launch in 2017. With this new programme we plan to restructure our current provision to focus on providing the best possible support for claimants with health conditions or disabilities, including those with mental health conditions.

In addition, the Prime Minister has already announced plans to significantly improve the support that helps people with mental ill health retain or regain employment:

• Over £300 million will be provided to double access to talking therapies for people suffering from conditions like anxiety or depression.

• £50 million will be spent to double the reach of Individual Placement and Support Programmes, which find work for people with mental illness.

• over £50 million is being invested to more than double the number of IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) employment advisors, so that they are linked in to every talking therapy service in the country.

• 29,000 more people with mental health conditions will be helped to find or stay in work thanks to increased access to these therapies.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 27141, what estimate he has made of the number of independent pharmacies which will lose their NHS support funding as a result of the Pharmacy Access Scheme.

Alistair Burt

We have been in discussions with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) since December 2015 regarding the Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond. In parallel, we have sought views on our proposals from other pharmacy organisations and from patient groups. The details of the Pharmacy Access Scheme, including any criteria and a timetable for implementation, form part of this consultation.

We announced on 16 March 2016 that the consultation period was to be extended to allow more time to develop the proposed changes with the PSNC and others. It will now close on 24 May 2016.

Once we have carefully considered the outcomes from the consultation, we are looking to communicate final decisions as soon as possible, so that pharmacy contractors are fully informed some months before the funding reduction starts from October 2016.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32506, how many (a) unaccompanied children and (b) partners of refugees who had already been granted asylum in the UK were granted asylum in the UK in each year since 2010.

James Brokenshire

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer I gave on 15 March 2015 to his question 30648.

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 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 17583, on child maintenance, for what reason there is a difference between the estimated costs of (a) caseworker activity to review and update Child Support Agency (CSA) arrears and (b) establishing arrears on the CMS system set out in paragraph 93 of the Department’s final impact assessment on CSA case closure, dated 10 April 2013, and those supplied in that Answer.

Priti Patel

The estimates given in the answer to question 17583 differ from the figures in the Impact Assessment (£123m) because:

i. The actual caseload has been slightly smaller than was forecast at the time of the Impact Assessment and

ii. There has been improved analysis of the effort required to close cases, informed by the actual experience of closing cases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) potential effect on the triple lock pension policy and (b) the value of state pensions for people who retired before 6 April 2016 of a potential reduction in economic growth in the event of the UK voting to leave the EU.

Mr David Gauke

The Treasury has published its analysis of the impact that leaving the EU would have on GDP, CPI inflation and on average real wages in HM Treasury analysis: the immediate economic impact of leaving the EU.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 32732, when she plans to publish a response to the 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 analysed.

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

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 27 May 2016 to Question 37443, what guidance her Department provides to admission authorities on how consultations should be advertised.

Nick Gibb

The School Admissions Code sets out the requirements that admission authorities must follow when consulting on proposed admissions arrangements.

The Schools Admissions Code is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/389388/School_Admissions_Code_2014_-_19_Dec.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects the Competition and Markets Authority to report on its investigation on suspected anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical sector.

George Freeman

The Department is already referring cases to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). To strengthen our work in this area we are considering putting measures in place to routinely and systematically monitor significant price increases of generic medicines and take action where appropriate, including the possible referral of suspected excessive pricing to the CMA, while taking into account the potential impact of any such action on the availability of medicines.

The CMA is currently conducting a number of investigations into anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical industry. It imposed fines totalling £45 million in one case (currently subject to appeal at the Competition Appeal Tribunal), and expects to reach a final decision by late summer in another. It opened two more cases in March and April 2016 in which it expects to decide in late summer whether there are grounds to take each investigation further.

The CMA is also considering evidence of other potential cases of anti-competitive practices in the sector, and may well open further investigations in the coming months.

The CMA is independent of Ministers and we cannot interfere in either the substance or the procedures of its decision-making.