Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for International Development:
What steps her Department is taking to protect the world’s (a) forestry and (b) biodiversity.
Answered by James Duddridge
DFID is at the forefront of global efforts to tackle illegal logging and promote sustainable trade in timber, and eliminate deforestation from supply chains. These programmes, and other assistance from the UK, are helping to preserve the world’s most valuable habitats and address biodiversity loss.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that local authorities provide sufficient short breaks to children with life-shortening conditions in England.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local Short Breaks Duty Statement showing what services are available, how they are responding to the needs of local parent carers, and how short breaks can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are responsible for funding this short breaks provision.
Between April 2011 and March 2015, the government made available £800 million to local authorities for short break provision, along with an additional £80 million of capital funding for equipment and infrastructure.
Between April 2015 and March 2016, we awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children, and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing, and taking up short breaks for disabled children. The Department for Education has allocated £200m funding over the next 4 years to support innovation and improvement to children’s social work practice. We are currently considering how we can use some of this funding to support local innovative approaches to short breaks for disabled children and their families and for making services more accessible.
The Department’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Advisory Team is continuing to offer support and challenge to local authorities to help make sure they meet all of their statutory requirements and that quality continues to improve. From this summer, there will be opportunities through the new Ofsted/Care Quality Commission SEND inspections framework for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND, including their need for short breaks services. In addition, Together for Short lives, the UK charity for children and young people with life limiting conditions, received £551,029 from the Department for Education over a 3 year period – between April 2013 and March 2016, to help ensure children and young people with life limiting conditions benefited from the SEND reforms.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the estimated cost is of introducing a National Defence medal; and what plans his Department has to reconsider the award of a National Defence medal.
Answered by Matt Hancock
An independent review undertaken by Sir John Holmes estimated the costs of producing a national defence medal to be £475million. This was based on an approximate figure of 7 million recipients who had completed four years of regular or Reserve Service, or completed national service (back to 9 September 1945), and 100% take up. There are no current plans to reconsider the award of the National Defence Medal.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make representations to the Egyptian government on the possibility of submitting human remains found in the Western Desert in 2012 if still in existence to new DNA tests to compare them with DNA samples provided by the family of Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping whose aeroplane crashed in the Sahara on 28 June 1942.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
Rigorous DNA tests undertaken by the Egyptian authorities at our behest some three years ago were unable to provide viable DNA samples due to the age and degradation of the human remains found. There are no plans to undertake new DNA tests.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will change local authority public health team regulations to ensure that (a) public mental health no longer falls under the heading of miscellaneous and (b) there is parity of esteem between physical and mental health in the activity of such teams.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We accept entirely the centrality of mental health and wellbeing to public health and the need for parity of esteem across health services. While it is right for local authorities (LAs) to determine their own local priorities and account to their own electorates, the Department’s Public Health Outcomes Framework – which defines areas for improvement across the public health system, and to which LAs must have regard – includes a number of indicators that relate directly to mental health. Public Health England collects and publishes LA-level data for all these indicators and will continue to support and advise LAs on the evidence base for effective mental health interventions.
We have no plans to require LAs to report spending on public mental health. LAs’ public health functions cover a wide range of activity, and it is important for central government to limit its demands for information from local government to a minimum. LAs would also be unable to disaggregate their spending on, for example, a drug or alcohol misuse service in order to isolate a sum that could be attributed purely to the mental health aspect of the service.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions the Minister for Public Health has had with mental health charities on the importance of public mental health interventions.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Minister for Public Health has not held any recent discussions on this subject.
Promoting good mental health is a key strategic objective of Public Health England’s (PHE) public mental health programme, alongside preventing mental illness and improving the lives of those living with mental illness. PHE is working with the National Health Service, local authorities and other partners to help more people have good mental health, improve the physical health and wellbeing of those with mental illness, and ensure few people as possible suffer avoidable harm.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to respond to recommendation 2015/105 from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch in its 2/2015 Investigation Report, on adoption of the Boat Safety Scheme by the Lake District National Park Authority.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The National Park and the Broads Authorities are independent bodies operating within the local government framework and therefore it is for the Lake District National Park Authority to decide whether to adopt the recommendation to implement the Boat Safety Scheme. I understand the National Park Authority will shortly be seeking its members’ views on the recommendation.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will introduce lessons on managing the risk of injuries related to digital screen use to school curriculums.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The national curriculum sets out the essential skills and knowledge that children must be taught at school. Schools have the freedom to teach subjects or topics beyond the national curriculum to ensure that their pupils receive a rounded education.
Using technology safely is covered at each key stage in the computing curriculum, which is compulsory for all pupils aged 5-16 in maintained schools.
The programmes of study for the national curriculum in computing are published online at:
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many legal cases are being brought against schools in the UK related to injuries caused by digital screen use.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education is not aware of any legal cases that have been brought, or are in the process of being brought, against schools in the UK in relation to injuries caused by digital screen use.
Asked by: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many days of absence were reported to her Department on grounds of musculoskeletal injury in the (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15 school year.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not hold information on absences resulting from musculoskeletal injury.