Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his latest estimate is of the number of existing platforms at Euston station which will have to be taken out of use to permit construction of a London terminus for High Speed 2.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Plans for Euston are still being finalised in conjunction with the railway industry. A key objective of the Department is to minimise disruption to the existing rail service during construction works at Euston. Any reduction in the number of platforms at Euston will be done in full consultation with train operators and Network Rail.
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when HS2 Ltd will start consultation on new design proposals for Euston station to comply with the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Consultation on the proposals for Euston station will take place as part of the parliamentary process following the submission of revised plans in September 2015.
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when his Department will announce revised plans for Euston station to accommodate High Speed 2.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The plans for Euston are being developed to meet the timescales of the current parliamentary process.
The revised scheme will be deposited in September 2015 to enable consideration of the scheme in Select Committee.
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the results of the Old Oak Common consultation will be published.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The consultation on the proposed Mayoral Development Corporation for Old Oak Common and Park Royal is a matter for the Mayor of London. Details and progress on the Mayoral Development Corporation can be found at: https://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/planning/consultations/old-oak-and-park-royal-development-coporation
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) employees and (b) secondees have been appointed by HS2 Ltd since October 2014.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Since October HS2 Ltd has appointed 43 new staff. HS2 Ltd has taken on 11 secondees since 1 October 2014.
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of callers to (a) NHS Direct and (b) NHS 111 were (i) referred to hospital accident and emergency departments and (ii) sent to such departments by ambulance in each year from 2005-06.
Answered by Jane Ellison
This information is not available in the format requested.
Around a quarter of calls to NHS Direct over the period 2007/08 to 2011/12 resulted in an emergency or urgent referral.
For the period 2011/12 – 2013/14, the proportion of calls triaged by NHS 111 which resulted in an ambulance being dispatched or the caller being recommended to attend accident and emergency (A&E) was 18.3%.
However, the figures on NHS Direct from NHS Direct’s Annual Reports contain the percentages of urgent and emergency onward referrals; these comprise not just calls referred to A&E, but also to 999, and urgent primary care referrals. In the NHS 111 data collection published by NHS England, referrals to primary care are separate from A&E referrals and from ambulance dispatches. Therefore, the percentages for the two services cannot be directly compared.
The following table lists the proportion of calls to NHS Direct which have resulted in emergency and urgent referrals for each financial year from 2007/08 to 2012/131.
Period | % of emergency and urgent referrals |
2007/08 | 28% |
2008/09 | 24% |
2009/10 | 26.4% |
2010/11 | 24.9% |
2011/12 | 27% |
2012/13 | 34.7% |
Source: NHS Direct National Health Service Trust, Annual Report & Accounts for financial years 2007/08 to 2012/13
The table below shows counts of NHS 111 calls where (i) callers are recommended to attend hospital accident and emergency departments, and (ii) an ambulance is dispatched2, from August 2010 to November 2014. The figures are averages from published monthly data.
2010-11 (August 2010 – March 2011) | 2011-12
| 2012-13
| 2013-14
| 2014-15 (April 2014 – November 2014) | |
Calls offered | 187,630 | 616,155 | 1,894,057 | 8,785,341 | 8,150,979 |
Calls where person triaged | 112,388 | 425,815 | 1,254,339 | 7,064,219 | 6,565,416 |
Calls where A&E recommended | 7,444 | 28,560 | 80,232 | 526,520 | 515,593 |
Of calls triaged, proportion where A&E recommended | 6.6% | 6.7% | 6.4% | 7.5% | 7.9% |
Calls where ambulance dispatched | 13,618 | 54,145 | 151,014 | 756,768 | 720,656 |
Of calls triaged, proportion where Ambulance dispatched | 12.1% | 12.7% | 12.0% | 10.7% | 11.0% |
Source: NHS England – NHS 111 Minimum Data Set (www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/category/statistics/nhs-111-statistics)
Notes
1. The NHS Direct National Health Service Trust, Annual Report & Accounts reports list the following Key Performance Indicators in the Appendix in describing how the measure was calculated.
KPI Name | Purpose | Data Source | Definition | Calculation |
% Urgent and | Value to Patients and | Clinical Assessment System (CAS) | % of emergency and urgent | (The number of calls referred to |
111 Calls Requiring | Measure Value to NHS | Pathways | Proportion of symptomatic | 999 + A&E + PCS urgent ÷ |
2. The proportions of calls where an ambulance is dispatched, and where the caller is referred to A&E, are calculated out of the number of calls triaged. The total number of calls offered includes calls which are answered but not triaged (such as callers following up previous calls, or seeking contact details for specific health services, or not wanting or not able to give details about the specific health condition, or where the patient recovers); along with calls which are abandoned before being answered.
3. Both NHS Direct and NHS 111 percentages in this answer are calculated as proportions of all calls with clinical dispositions, or in other words, all calls that are triaged.
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of reserves held by local authority maintained schools in each year since 2006-07.
Answered by David Laws
All local authority maintained schools report their balances to the Department for Education as part of their annual Consistent Financial Reporting returns. Some schools have deficit balances; others have surpluses. The table below shows total deficits and surpluses and the net position for all local authority maintained schools for each financial year from 2006-07 to 2013-14.
Period | Total deficit (£) | Total surplus (£) | Net Reserves (£) |
2006-07 | (157,355,905) | 1,827,554,781 | 1,670,198,876 |
2007-08 | (120,094,299) | 2,038,862,929 | 1,918,768,630 |
2008-09 | (139,185,467) | 1,921,159,168 | 1,781,973,701 |
2009-10 | (161,418,942) | 1,826,696,816 | 1,665,277,874 |
2010-11 | (143,478,858) | 2,098,926,882 | 1,955,448,024 |
2011-12 | (109,936,775) | 2,433,469,804 | 2,323,533,029 |
2012-13 | (81,190,825) | 2,306,144,774 | 2,224,953,949 |
2013-14 | (75,947,088) | 2,260,316,153 | 2,184,369,065 |
Source: Consistent Financial Reporting survey
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of reserves held by free schools in each year since 2010-11.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The table below sets out free schools operating as single academy trusts’ total cash holdings at the end of the three most recent financial years. The first free schools opened in September 2011. Academy trusts’ cash is the best representation of reserves available to trusts. Many free schools operate as single academy trusts and the department can easily identify that free school’s cash holding than the free school academy trust’s annual accounts.
The table does not include free schools operating within multi-academy trusts. As well as free schools, multi-academy trusts may include academies that opened by other routes for example as sponsored academies or by conversion from local authority maintained schools. It is the multi-academy trust that then produces annual accounts that disclose the multi-academy trust’s total cash holdings for all types of academy within the multi-academy trust. The department does not ask multi-academy trusts to disclose the cash holdings of its individual academies or free schools.
Date | Number of free school single academy trusts open | Total cash, £ millions | Average cash per academy trust, £ thousands |
31 March 2012 | 18 | 2 | 11 |
31 March 2013 | 38 | 8 | 21 |
31 March 2014 | 127 | 26 | 20 |
With very small numbers of free school single academy trusts open before 2013-14 it is difficult for us to discern trends in their cash holdings. We do know that the average cash held by all academy trusts has fallen over the four years partly due to many smaller academy trusts opening more recently and holding less cash. We regard all academy trusts’ cash holdings as reasonable, typically representing enough to fund one month’s operations after deducting current liabilities. Academy trusts cannot borrow and need to hold enough cash to manage their solvency prudently.
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of reserves held by academies in each year since 2006-07.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The table below sets out academy trusts’ total cash holdings at the end of the four most recent financial years. Academy trusts’ cash is the best representation of reserves available to trusts.
Date | Number of academy trusts open | Total cash, £ millions | Average cash per academy trust, £ thousands |
31 March 2011 | 377 | 62 | 165 |
31 March 2012 | 1,524 | 1,199 | 130 |
31 March 2013 | 2,108 | 1,859 | 88 |
31 March 2014 | 2,585 | 2,469 | 96 |
We do not have comparable records of academy trusts’ cash holdings for financial years 2006-07 to 2009-10.
The average cash held by academy trusts has fallen over the four years partly due to many smaller academy trusts opening more recently and holding less cash. We regard academy trusts’ cash holdings as reasonable, typically representing enough to fund one month’s operations after deducting current liabilities. Academy trusts cannot borrow and need to hold enough cash to manage their solvency prudently.
Asked by: Frank Dobson (Labour - Holborn and St Pancras)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the change in annual transaction costs in the NHS as a result of implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Department’s use of the term ‘Transaction costs’ relates to those costs paid in support of National Health Service provider transactions such as mergers, acquisitions or separations. Specifically, they are the costs of planning, preparing and undertaking the transaction itself and achieving contractual close.
The Department does not make estimates of these costs. Transaction costs are considered by the Department on a case by case basis in the context of the overall value for money of the wider transaction.