Tag: Tom Blenkinsop

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will provide additional funding to South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group for improvements and new facilities at Guisborough Primary Care Hospital.

Alistair Burt

We are making additional resources available to the National Health Service by backing the NHS Five Year Forward View with £10 billion a year real terms additional funding by 2020-21, compared to 2014-15, with £3.8 billion real terms growth in 2016-17.

It is for the local NHS to determine how best to use the funds available to it to improve local services. In 2016-17, the South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group will receive £413.3 million – a cash increase of 3.05%.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the (a) gender, (b) age and (c) ethnicity of people who have served on juries.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service does not collect the information requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to increase accessibility to university buildings for disabled students.

Joseph Johnson

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone with the potential has the opportunity to benefit from higher education, irrespective of their background or mode of learning. In the last academic year we saw record entry rates to higher education, including among those from disadvantaged backgrounds

Higher Education Institutions have responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support their students, including those with disabilities. They have a clear legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people to ensure they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled students.

To support Higher Education (HE) providers to prepare for the changes to Disabled Students’ Allowances that come into effect from academic year 2016/17, the Department has supported the establishment of a sector-led group ofstakeholders. The group’s focus is to communicate with senior leaders of HE providers, to help provide information about institutions’ responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students, and to encourage HE providers to develop inclusive learning environments.

In addition, universities expect to spend more than £745 million through access agreements agreed with the Director of Fair Access on measures to improve access and success for students from disadvantaged groups, including disabled students – up significantly from £404 million in 2009.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of health and safety incidents which have taken place in the mining industry when employees were working on shift patterns of more than (a) eight, (b) 10 and (c) 12 hours.

Penny Mordaunt

The Health and Safety Executive does not hold such information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average Fire and Rescue response times were to incidents in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Redcar and Cleveland and (d) Middlesbrough in each of the last five years.

Brandon Lewis

National Statistics on Fire and Rescue response times are published annually, including response times for other types of fire incident. The most recent publication, for 2014/15, was published in 2015 and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-incidents-response-times-england-2014-to-2015

Accompanying data tables can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables

The next publication on fire and rescue response times for 2015/16 is due for release in late 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to (a) reduce waiting times for children to receive an assessment for a mental health condition and (b) address the disparity between those waiting times across different NHS mental health trusts.

Alistair Burt

Waiting times are not currently collected centrally, however the Government accepts there is variation in waiting times and is committed to improving access and is introducing the first ever waiting time standards for mental health services.

These include an access and waiting time standard for Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder. This states that National Institute of Health and Care Excellence concordant treatment should commence within a maximum of four weeks from first contact with a designated healthcare professional for routine cases and within one week for urgent cases. Data collected in 2016 will help inform incremental percentage increases in compliance with the standard, with the aim of 95% of patients being treated within the standard’s timescale by 2020.

We have also introduced an access and waiting times standard on Early Intervention in Psychosis announced in Mental health services: achieving better access by 2020 which came into force in April 2015. Whilst focused on all ages, most individuals experiencing a first episode of psychosis are in the 16-25 age group.

The setting of a blanket access and waiting time standard for children and young people’s mental health services is not feasible due to the wide range of conditions, services and care pathways this covers. However, NHS England will be working with partner organisations to lead work on the development of further access and waiting time standards for children’s mental health as part of the transformation programme on children and young people’s mental health.

At a local level, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have worked with local partners to produce Local Transformation Plans for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing that will set out how they will improve support for children and young people in line with the vision in Future in mind. In addition, CCGs have legal duty to consider the need to reduce inequalities in access to, and outcomes from healthcare services, and we would expect commissioners to have due regard to waiting times as part of this.

The new Mental Health Services Dataset will begin from January 2016, to provide data for both adults and children on outcomes, length of treatment, the source of referral, location of appointment and demographic information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how he plans to respond to the recent request from the Leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council for a transitional sum of £1 million in lieu of raising the adult social care precept.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Spending Review recognised that demographic changes are leading to increased demand for adult social care. To support those most in need, we provided a social care package of up to £3.5 billion by 2019-20. This package includes giving all councils with responsibility for adult social care the option of an extra 2% council tax precept, as long as the precept is spent on adult social care. It is for Redcar and Cleveland to decide if they wish to take up this flexibility.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-04-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress has been made on increasing the number of wheelchair accessible stations from street to platform level at National Rail and London Underground stations.

Claire Perry

We take improving station accessibility very seriously and the Access for All programme has delivered step free access at over 150 stations with a further 68 projects in construction or development. In addition, whenever infrastructure work is carried out at stations it must meet current accessibility standards. For example, when Crossrail fully opens in 2019, all 40 stations on the route will also have step free access.

Step free access to London Underground is a matter for Transport for London, but I understand that 66 Tube stations and 57 London Overground stations currently have step-free access, and Docklands Light Railway stations are all step-free.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he plans to take to prevent the dumping of Chinese steel in the event of the UK leaving the EU.

Anna Soubry

The UK remains a full member of the EU until we formally exit and all rights and obligations under the EU, including trade defence measures, still apply.

We will continue to support the EU’s trade agenda, including tackling unfair trade and continue to do all we can to support a sustainable UK steel industry.

The Cabinet Office has established a new unit to oversee arrangements for the UK’s exit from the EU and they will consider issues such as the UK establishing its own trade defence measures on exit from the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the relationship between staffing levels and health and safety incidents in mines.

Penny Mordaunt

During its interventions, HSE assesses how dutyholders provide for and manage the provision of safety-critical competence at mines. This includes assessing whether staff with responsibility for safety-critical tasks are sufficiently experienced and resourced.