Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of special measures at Colchester General Hospital.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust has been receiving support from NHS Improvement to address specific issues at the Trust since entering Special Measures in November 2013.
In April 2016, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and NHS Improvement agreed that partnership arrangements with Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust would be put in place to support improvement. The Chair and Chief Executive of Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust have assumed a dual role across both Trusts and have key staff working across the two organisations. Recent actions include the development of a Trust Turnaround programme (the ‘Every Patient Every Day’ programme). A multi-stakeholder Programme Oversight Committee, chaired by NHS Improvement and including the CQC has been established from July 2016, to monitor progress against an agreed set of Key Performance Indicators.
Efficacy of the support arrangements will be assessed by the CQC when it re-inspects in due course.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of knife crime amnesty provisions in England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Knife amnesties are an operational matter for chief constables. Tackling knife crime is a priority for the Government and we have encouraged police forces to undertake a series of coordinated weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. Action under Operation Sceptre includes police forces targeting habitual knife carriers, weapon sweeps, test purchases of knives from retailers, and the use of surrender bins. Twenty-five forces took part in the latest week of action in October 2016.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions she has had with the President of the Family Division on the issuance of new guidance on the anonymisation of judgments.
Answered by Phillip Lee
I have discussed this matter with the President of the Family Division, and the next steps are under consideration.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to review the efficacy of sections 103 and 104 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 introduced new and more flexible powers to make it quicker and easier for police forces and local authorities to protect victims and communities from anti-social and nuisance behaviour.
The Government issued statutory guidance for frontline professionals in July 2014 on the use of these powers, which included community remedies and anti-social behaviour case reviews under sections 103 and 104 the 2014 Act. We are currently reviewing this guidance to ensure it remains relevant and up to date.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions her Department has had with the Judicial Office on permitting district judges to sit as presiding judges at the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal.
Answered by Oliver Heald
The involvement of judges in outside organisations is covered by the Guide to Judicial Conduct, which is published by the independent judiciary. The guide is publicly available on gov.uk. The Department does not discuss the application of this guidance to individual cases.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to increase the number of Departments of Community Mental Health.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The provision of mental healthcare to the Armed Forces is kept under regular review, to ensure that it continues to meet the demands placed on it in the light of changes to the size and location of the UK Armed Forces.
Following a recent review of the Defence Mental Health Services, we are in the process of reshaping the current network of Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMHs) into a "hub and spoke" model. Once implementation is complete, we will have moved from a total of 16 DCMHs in the UK (plus satellite centres overseas), to 11 "hub" DCMHs located in main centres of military population, plus "spoke" Mental Health Teams (MHTs) serving a further eight locations, making 19 sites in total. Regular visiting clinics will also be held at other military centres around the country.
Focussing on fewer but larger DCMHs will enable us to provide greater resilience and a more consistent range of clinical and operational capabilities, while the additional of MHTs will increase accessibility and provide a more robust support for delivery to Cyprus, the North West and Wales, as well as improving access for eligible reservists and veterans.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to seek compensation for passengers from Abellio Greater Anglia.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
All franchised Train Operating Companies are required under their franchise agreement to have in place a Passenger’s Charter which will include arrangements for compensation for passengers.
Abellio Greater Anglia operate the Delay Repay passenger compensation system in their Passenger’s Charter under which all passengers are entitled to claim compensation for each delay of 30 minutes or more which they experience, whatever the cause. The entitlement is 50% compensation of the single fare for delays of 30 to 59 minutes and 100% of the single fare for delays of 60 minutes or more.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department plans to publish a list of its special advisers in post.
Answered by Ben Gummer
A full list of Government special advisers will be published in due course, in the usual way.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the revenue that UK banks and financial institutions receive through passporting rights within the EU since 2000.
Answered by David Gauke
Over 5,000 UK firms, including banks, investment firms and insurance companies, hold passports which enable them to provide their financial services and establish branches in other EU Member States. Excluding banks more than three-quarters of all of the firms in the EU that use passporting under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive are based in the UK. However, passporting rights are conferred under several different pieces of EU legislation.
Supervisory authorities record passport notifications, including into which Member State the passport is being used, but there is no detailed record of the type or scale of their use. The Treasury is engaging with business to further understand the issues affecting the financial services industry as the UK prepares for negotiations to leave the EU, including how firms make use of the different passports available to them.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the total amount of remittances by EU A8 citizens resident in the UK since May 2004.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Treasury has made no estimate of the number of remittances made since May 2004.