Tag: Steve Rotheram

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce GP appointment waiting times.

Alistair Burt

With NHS England, we are making changes to provide more flexibility for practices to meet the needs of patients. We have invested £175 million via the GP Access Fund to commission 57 schemes across the country. In total 18 million patients in 2,500 practices have benefited from improved access to general practice.

The GP Access Fund is promoting greater innovation in how practices offer access. This could be, for example, through networks of practices offering shared clinics at evenings and weekends.

The first independent report on the national evaluation of wave one schemes looked at how schemes have provided more general practitioner appointments and expanded the type of patient appointments to improve patient and staff satisfaction. A second national evaluation report will be published soon with updated results.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who has responsibility for delivering the Northern Powerhouse.

Andrew Percy

The Northern Powerhouse is a partnership between local civic and business leaders and the whole of government; all departments, therefore, have a responsibility to support its delivery. The Prime Minister appointed me as Minister for the Northern Powerhouse to help ensure the whole machinery of government gets behind the Northern Powerhouse as part of our efforts to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to tackle landlords who knowingly rent out unsafe and substandard accommodation.

Brandon Lewis

Through the Housing and Planning Bill we are taking measures to tackle rogue landlords who rent out sub-standard accommodation. Our proposals include a database of rogue landlords and property agents, introducing banning orders for serious or repeat offenders, a tougher fit and proper person test, extending Rent Repayment Orders and introducing civil penalties for offences such as failing to comply with an improvement notice or overcrowding a property.

In addition, over the last Parliament, we made over £6.7 million available to local authorities to help them tackle rogue landlords in their areas. We have also invited 65 local authorities to bid for a share of a further £5 million funding to tackle rogue landlords and will be announcing successful schemes shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidelines her Department produces on the inclusion of non-conviction information or soft information on DBS forms.

Karen Bradley

Statutory guidance is issued under section 113B(4A) of the Police Act 1997 in order to assist chief officers of police in making decisions to provide relevant non-conviction information and other intelligence from local police records for inclusion in enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificates. The Home Office introduced the first edition of this guidance on 10 September 2012 and the most recent revision came into force on 10 August 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to safeguard the jobs of EU nationals living in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.

Damian Hinds

Our country remains open for business. Employment is at a record high with a almost a million new businesses in our country since 2010 and we will always welcome those with the skills, the drive and the expertise to make our nation better still. The Prime Minister has been clear that she wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living here, and the only circumstances in which that wouldn’t be possible is if British citizens’ rights in European member states were not protected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of young people who own their own home since 2010.

Brandon Lewis

The Government is committed to increasing the number of first time buyers. Action taken in support of this Includes:

– extending the Right to Buy – which has supported council tenants into home ownership for decades – to housing association tenants. This will give another 1.3 million families the chance to purchase a home at right to buy level discounts;

– Help to Buy schemes, targeting those wanting to get onto the housing ladder with 80% of sales going to first time buyers, which have so far enabled over 130,000 families to purchase a home;

– launching, on 1 December 2015, the Help to Buy: ISA which will help first-time buyers save for their first deposit. The Government will top up savings by 25%, up to a maximum top-up of £3,000; and

– a £2.3 billion fund to deliver 200,000 Starter Homes by 2020, to be exclusively offered to first time buyers under 40 at a 20% discount on market value.

Information on housing tenure and the age of the household reference person in England, based on data from DCLG’s English Housing Survey, can be found (in Annex Table 1.4) at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/469214/2013-14_Section_1_Households_tables_and_figures_FINAL.xlsx

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-02-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect on the economy of the UK leaving the EU.

Mr David Gauke

As the Chancellor has said, a UK exit from the EU would be a long, costly and messy divorce. The finance Ministers and central bank governors of the G20 concluded at the weekend that a British exit would cause an economic shock not just to the UK but to Europe and the world. What people are asking for in this referendum campaign is a serious, sober and principled assessment from the Government setting out the facts. The Treasury will publish a comprehensive analysis of our membership of a reformed EU and the alternatives, including the long-term economic costs and benefits of EU membership and the risks associated with an exit before 23 June.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of the National Funding Formula on (a) schools, (b) teachers and (c) pupils in Liverpool.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The government is committed to meeting our manifesto pledge to make school funding fairer. At the Spending Review we announced our intention to deliver this by introducing a National Funding Formula in 2017, so that the money we provide for schools is fairly matched to need. As we develop our plans we will consider the effect of the formula on all schools, and we will make sure change is introduced at a pace that is manageable for the sector. We will set out our detailed proposals and consult extensively in the new year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the work experience provision for 14 to 19 year-olds in education.

Nick Boles

It is essential that we ensure young people leave school or college prepared for life in modern Britain. This will be achieved through a range of reforms, including improving the quality of existing qualifications and giving employers greater influence over the content of courses.

We ensure schools and colleges have the freedom and autonomy to decide how best to put in place work experience provision for 14-19 year olds. In August 2013 the government reformed the post-16 curriculum and funding system to incentivise education and training providers to offer high quality work experience to young people as part of 16-19 study programmes.

Work experience elements of study programmes and traineeships are now inspected and reported on as an integral part of the inspection of provision for 16-19 year olds (and up to age 24 for traineeships) against the Common Inspection Framework for Further Education and Skills 2015.

Our focus is on ensuring sufficient support is in place, and we have recently announced new funding for our careers strategy which will include continued funding for The Careers and Enterprise Company to help young people access the best advice and inspiration, for example by building on the national network of enterprise advisers to broker strong local links between schools, colleges and employers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the level of violence in prisons.

Andrew Selous

Our prison system needs reform. There is much more to do to ensure prisons are places of decency, hope and rehabilitation.

Violence in prisons has increased in recent years. The nature of offenders currently in custody and the widespread availability of novel psychoactive substances have both contributed to making prisons less safe. There is no single, simple solution to the problems we face but we are making progress.

We have launched a two year Violence Reduction project to reduce violent incidents and the propensity of violence in prisons. This project will help us to gain a better understanding of the causes and characteristics of violence in prisons and to strengthen the handling of this. We are also trialling the use of body worn cameras in prisons, developing better case management of individuals identified as being at heightened risk of harming others, introducing a psychologically based assessment tool to understand better local factors driving violence in prisons, and training sniffer dogs to detect novel psychoactive substances. We have also made it an offence to smuggle novel psychoactive substances into prison. However, ultimately the only way to reduce violence in our prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively reform and rehabilitate offenders, which we are determined to see through.