Tag: Valerie Vaz

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the staff time of Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council involved in setting up the combined authority.

Andrew Percy

We have made no such estimates. Whether, and how, councils approach setting up a combined authority is wholly a local matter for them. Creation of combined authorities is central to devolving power to local communities to ensure decisions are made locally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with epilepsy have been assessed as being fit to work by their work capability assessments in each year since 2010.

Priti Patel

The information requested is shown in the table below.

Assessment type	10/11	11/12	12/13	13/14	14/15
FFW outcomes	2,200	4,000	3,300	1,500	900

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 2 March 2016 to Question 28759, whether the mental health needs of children with epilepsy and other long-term conditions will be considered by the expert group convened by his Department and the Department for Education.

Nicola Blackwood

The Expert Working Group announced in the Department for Education and the Department of Health’s oral evidence to the Education Committee on 3 February 2016 as part of their Inquiry into the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Looked After Children will not be considering the mental health needs of children with epilepsy and other long-term conditions. The Working Group will look specifically at the mental health needs of looked after children and young people, adopted children and care leavers. The aim of the Group is to develop care pathways for children in these particular circumstances, including any who might also have long term conditions or disabilities. Further work will be carried out during the implementation of the Five Year Forward View and of the transformation programme for children and young people’s mental health which is set out in Future In Mind which will lead to improvements for all children and young people experiencing mental health problems.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with epilepsy are claiming employment and support allowance and personal independence payments.

Priti Patel

The number of Employment and Support Allowance claimants with epilepsy as their main disabling condition, as at August 2015, is 44,720.

Information on the number of people in receipt of Personal Independence Payment at 31 October 2015, by a range of conditions including epilepsy, has been published and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started—SuperWEB2.html

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the cancellation of the care.data scheme; and what plans he has for the deletion of all constituent information under that scheme.

Nicola Blackwood

NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre are not in a position to provide a final statement of expenditure at the present time. No data has been extracted from general practitioner practices under the care.data programme.

However, NHS England has been clear that the evidence and groundwork from the care.data programme will be incorporated into the health and care system’s Paperless 2020 programme on technology and improving patient care, as overseen by the National Information Board, in close collaboration with the primary care community, in order to retain public confidence and drive better care for patients.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to ensure that the skills of steel industry employees are maintained.

Anna Soubry

From my visits to Scunthorpe, Redcar, Port Talbot and Cardiff, I know first-hand what a dedicated and skilled workforce exists in the industry and am determined that they have a future, with the action the government has taken and will continue to take to help the industry.

For those workers that have unfortunately lost their jobs, the government is committed to doing all we can to give them the support and training needed to quickly return to work. We have made available up to £80 million for Redcar and announced up to £9 million for Scunthorpe to support those who have been affected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to establish equality in pension provision for surviving spouses of police officers across the different countries of the UK.

Mike Penning

As policing is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and Scotland, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Scottish Government are responsible for the design and funding of police pensions in those parts of the United Kingdom.

On 18 January 2016, the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 were amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers in England and Wales who have died on duty and who qualified for a survivor pension after 1 April 2015 to continue to receive their survivors’ benefits for life. There are currently no plans to change this policy in England and Wales.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 21 July 2016 to Question 42766, whether he has accepted the recommendation of the independent Mental Health Taskforce in its report published in February 2016 to bring together an expert group to examine the needs of children who are particularly vulnerable to developing mental health problems, including those with long-term conditions.

Nicola Blackwood

The Government has accepted the recommendations set out in the Mental Health Taskforce report including the recommendation that: “The Departments of Education and Health should establish an expert group to examine the needs of children who are particularly vulnerable to developing mental health problems and how their needs should best be met, including through the provision of personalised budgets.” The focus of the group that has been set up, which met for the first time in July, is on looked after and adopted children and care leavers, all of whom are considered particularly vulnerable to mental health problems.

There are currently no plans to set up any other group to look into the needs of children who are vulnerable.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the conduct of the recent elections in Burma.

Mr Hugo Swire

I refer the hon. Member to my Written Ministerial Statement titled, Update on Elections in Burma, of 20 November.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment she has made of the effect of recent floods on small businesses.

Anna Soubry

The most recent available data indicated that 4,940 businesses across northern England had been flooded following this winter’s exceptional rainfall. The vast majority of these will be small and medium size businesses. Impacts included flooded property, loss of stock and equipment and interruption to trading.

Our interventions, include business recovery grants (a total of £11 m from BIS, of which £4,572,000 has been paid out), business rate relief (£4.26 m from DCLG), and property level resilience scheme (£5,000 per household or business, to incorporate greater flood resilience into property repairs).