Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will reintroduce maintenance grants to ensure that disadvantaged students are not discouraged from entering higher education owing to concerns about the cost of living.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The government will consider the Post-18 Education and Funding review panel’s recommendations carefully and will conclude the review at the Spending Review. The government has not yet taken decisions with regards to the recommendations put forward. Access and successful participation remain a priority for this government and is enshrined in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Everyone with the ability to succeed in higher education should have the opportunity, regardless of their background or where they grew up.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to publish its joint review with Her Majesty’s Treasury on survivor benefits in occupational pension schemes.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Review on survivor benefits provided a wealth of important information. Since then the Supreme Court judgement in Walker has changed the landscape of survivor benefits. The Government is assessing the detailed implications of the Review in the context of this important judgement and will respond in due course.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to reopen the Office for Product Safety and Standards review of Whirlpool tumble dryers following continued consumer concerns.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards published a report of its review in April 2019 and issued a decision letter requiring Whirlpool to take action in a number of areas. OPSS has been assessing the response by Whirlpool closely and the investigation remains ongoing.
On 4th June the Office for Product Safety and Standards notified Whirlpool of its intention to serve a recall notice in respect of the remaining unmodified tumble dryers still in use. This is the appropriate next regulatory step.
We are following up on all information referred to us about consumers who have experienced a serious issue with affected machines.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to additional funding for children’s palliative care announced in the NHS Long-Term Plan, whether he plans to allocate additional funding to children’s hospices in England in 2019-20.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England committed to increase its investment in children’s palliative care over the next five years by match funding clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) who commit to increase their investment in local children’s palliative and end of life care services.
Subject to CCGs increasing investment, NHS England will match this by up to £7 million a year by 2023/24. This increase is in addition to the Children’s Hospice Grant, which provides an annual contribution of £11 million. NHS England is currently establishing financial reporting systems to monitor the baseline investment of CCGs in children’s palliative and end of life care services. This will enable match funding payments made to CCGs where the investments are increased above the investment baseline in the previous year. As baselining will be ongoing through 2019/20, and therefore match funding will not be available in this year, NHS England will be increasing the children’s hospice grant to £12 million for this period.
With regards to financial sustainability of hospices, these are primarily charity-funded but receive some statutory funding from CCGS for providing local services. The amount of funding varies between CCGs, but on average adult hospices receive approximately 30% of their overall funding from National Health Service sources. CCGs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded hospice care locally and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the financial sustainability of charitable hospices.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England committed to increase its investment in children’s palliative care over the next five years by match funding clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) who commit to increase their investment in local children’s palliative and end of life care services.
Subject to CCGs increasing investment, NHS England will match this by up to £7 million a year by 2023/24. This increase is in addition to the Children’s Hospice Grant, which provides an annual contribution of £11 million. NHS England is currently establishing financial reporting systems to monitor the baseline investment of CCGs in children’s palliative and end of life care services. This will enable match funding payments made to CCGs where the investments are increased above the investment baseline in the previous year. As baselining will be ongoing through 2019/20, and therefore match funding will not be available in this year, NHS England will be increasing the children’s hospice grant to £12 million for this period.
With regards to financial sustainability of hospices, these are primarily charity-funded but receive some statutory funding from CCGS for providing local services. The amount of funding varies between CCGs, but on average adult hospices receive approximately 30% of their overall funding from National Health Service sources. CCGs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded hospice care locally and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) treatments and (b) support is provided by the NHS to (i) adults and (ii) children with Meares-Irlen Syndrome.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In England, free National Health Service funded sight tests are available to eligible groups, including those under 19 and in full time education, with the purpose of detecting signs of injury, disease or abnormality and giving an individual a written prescription for glasses or referring them to a doctor for further examination. Funding is also available under the NHS voucher scheme for the provision of spectacles with a prescription power to correct a defect of sight identified during the NHS sight test. This could include a coloured tint if considered clinically necessary.
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population. This could include services over and above the NHS sight test, such as those to meet the needs of people with visual perceptual disorders.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the conclusions of the National Audit Office’s report of 6 March 2019, The apprenticeships programme, HC 1987 2017-19, what plans he has to address concerns that funding for that programme may be insufficient should there be an increase in demand for apprenticeships.
Answered by Anne Milton
We are pleased that employers are choosing to move to our new, higher quality apprenticeship offer to make a sustainable investment in the skills that they need to grow. Employers are designing higher level apprenticeships that take longer and require more off-the-job training and, while this is something to be welcomed, we are conscious of the challenges it presents.
In 2019-20, funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England will be over £2.5 billion, this is double what was spent in 2010-11. The apprenticeship budget is set in advance by Her Majesty’s Treasury for the current spending review period. Currently, we expect to be within budget in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years. We continue to monitor the trend of increasing spending on apprenticeships and to make use of our engagement with employers in addition to all available data from the programme to inform forecasts of demand and future costs.
The level of funding for the programme beyond 2020 will be determined by the forthcoming Spending Review announced by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his Spring Statement.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department collects to monitor the effectiveness of early years intervention strategies in (a) each local authority area, (b) each regional area and (c) England.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
I refer the hon. Member for Bury North to the answer I gave on 1 April 2019 to Question 237114.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the (a) terms of reference and (b) scope is of his Department's review of the Apprenticeship Levy.
Answered by Anne Milton
In the Autumn Statement last year, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that the government would work with employers and providers on the use of the apprenticeship levy after 2020.
We have been looking at how organisations have responded to the introduction of the levy and associated reforms as well as how we can help develop future demand for, and provision of, apprenticeships. We have also been exploring the impact of the levy across different sectors and regions and for different types of apprentices as well as the contribution of apprenticeships to the wider skills landscape.
Over the past few months, we have used a number of channels, including a survey and regional roundtables across England, to work with a range of different employers, providers and representative organisations. We will continue to listen to the views of employers and providers in the run-up to the Spending Review.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled, An inspection of North West Division National Probation Service, published by HM Inspectorate of Probation in February 2019, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) risk management plans in relation to domestic abuse and (b) the reporting to courts of plans are improved.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation found that the National Probation Service’s leadership team in the North West is focused on delivering a high-quality service. It assessed the work of the Division overall as “Good”.
The Inspectorate made eight recommendations for improvement, A programme of building improvement works has already been completed and an action plan has been drawn up to address the remaining recommendations. This was sent to the Inspectorate on 4 March.