Asked by: Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is his Department's policy to require NHS England to take account of geographic isolation and travelling times when developing sustainability and transformation plans.
Answered by David Mowat
There are 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) covering the whole of England. STPs are being developed within their local area, with support from NHS England. The Department expects individual STPs to take account of challenges specific to their area including a rural population.
Proposals are at a draft stage but we expect all local leaders to be talking to the public and stakeholders regularly – it is vital that people are able to shape the future of their local services.
Asked by: Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that the Success Regime review at North Devon District Hospital does not lead to a reduction in services provided at that hospital.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Success Regime aims to improve the quality and sustainability of health and care services for local people.North, East and West Devon’s 'Case for Change' sets out the underlying challenges and opportunities. Change will be led by clinicians, in the best interests of communities. No specific proposals have been identified and the programme welcomes input from the people of North Devon. Hospital-based services will continue to be important across Devon, including in the North of the county.
Asked by: Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to consult the teaching profession before implementation of the English Baccalaureate.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 3 November 2015 the Secretary of State for Education launched a public consultation seeking views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of the English Baccalaureate.[1] The consultation will run until 29 January 2016.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/implementing-the-english-baccalaureate
Asked by: Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that North Devon constituency is adequately covered by search and rescue services (a) in the summer and (b) at other times when such services are no longer based at RMB Chivenor.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
North Devon will continue to be served by search and rescue (SAR) helicopters operating from military bases at RMB Chivenor through to 1 October 2015 and RNAS Culdrose through to 1 January 2016. A new UK SAR helicopter service operating from new bases at Cardiff St Athan and Newquay Airport will take the place of SAR helicopter services currently operated out of RMB Chivenor and RNAS Culdrose. The start of these new services will coincide with the end of the military services at Chivenor and Culdrose, leaving no gap in SAR helicopter cover for south west England and south Wales. New helicopters offer improved operational capabilities and promise enhanced reliability.
Asked by: Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he plans to take in further extending the availability of superfast broadband in North Devon constituency.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Superfast broadband coverage is available to over 80% of UK premises and the Government remains committed to providing 95% coverage to homes and businesses by December 2017.
Commercial broadband delivery is expected to cover 13,862 premises in the North Devon constituency. By the end of the Connecting Devon and Somerset project, coverage is expected to have increased to 39,744 premises.
This data is included in the table in the House of Commons Library: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/deposited-papers/?house=1&search_term=Department+for+Culture%2c+Media+and+Sport&itemId=122028#toggle-163
Asked by: Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made on ensuring that the superfast broadband rollout programme reaches the most rural areas of the UK.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
More than 2.5 million additional homes and businesses now have access to superfast broadband as a result of the Government’s intervention and 40,000 more are gaining access every week.