Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether progress has been made on plans to build a new railway station in Edginswell, Torbay.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is for local bodies who are responsible for local transport planning, in conjunction with the Local Enterprise Partnerships to determine if opening a new station and funding passenger rail services is the best way to address local public transport needs and economic growth opportunities. In this case the Department understands that plans for a new station at Edginswell are currently being considered locally.
We are keen to support new railway stations and have made up to £20m of New Stations funding available. Bids need to be received by 25 November and need to be reasonably well developed with at least 25% third party funding contribution by 2019/20.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has plans to bring forward proposals to amend the legislation requiring statutory declarations to be dated within six months of the date of the Gender Recognition Certificate application.
Answered by Phillip Lee
I refer the hon. Member to my answer to PQ 44155.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what additional earnings above base pay are received by consultants by decile.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Relevant information is shown in the following table. This includes deciles of total National Health Service earnings and non-basic pay per person received by consultants for the 12 months ending December 2015. These figures use the earnings of only those staff who worked all 12 months in this period and will not include consultants’ private income.
Decile | Total non-basic pay | Total earnings |
1 | £2,987 | £76,700 |
2 | £7,011 | £87,675 |
3 | £12,194 | £95,849 |
4 | £17,540 | £103,212 |
5 | £22,881 | £110,180 |
6 | £28,942 | £117,916 |
7 | £36,531 | £126,950 |
8 | £47,066 | £139,056 |
9 | £64,759 | £158,935 |
10 | £481,287 | £577,147 |
The following table sets out mean annual NHS earnings and mean annual non-basic pay NHS earnings per person received by consultants for the 12 months ending December 2015.
Mean non-basic pay | Mean earnings |
£29,225 | £113,569 |
Source: NHS Digital, Provisional NHS Staff Earnings Estimates, Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). NHS Digital is the trading name for HSCIC.
Notes:
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, based on today's values, what the expected lifetime earnings are for a junior doctor starting in training in August 2016 if they become (a) a consultant, (b) a GP and (c) remain a junior doctor; and what assessment his Department has made of how those earnings compare to other (i) public and (ii) private sector professionals.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The career earnings of a doctor will depend on many factors and are therefore highly specific to individual circumstances. They will depend on decisions around gap years and career breaks, part-time working, the choice between general practice and other specialties, when they leave the National Health Service or retire and on the speed of progression through training. However, indications can be provided by constructing a hypothetical career based on reasonable assumptions in-line with current data.
It is estimated that assuming a 40 year full time career from Foundation Programme up to consultant or partner in General Practice, a junior doctor starting training in August 2016 could expect to earn around £4 million or an average of around £100,000 per year in 2016/17 prices.
Comparisons of pay across industries and sectors are notoriously difficult, capturing differences in pressures and working patterns is particularly complicated. Comparison of recent earnings growth for doctors compared with other high-earning occupations shows that doctors remain one of the very highest-earning occupations in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the new junior doctors' contract on the average pay of junior doctors.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The average pay of junior doctors will not change. The cost neutrality of the new contract means that the contract cannot in anyway be used to save money – it maintains the current spend for the current number of full-time equivalent doctors working the current average working week. The British Medical Association itself acknowledged this commitment and communicated it to its junior doctor members before the vote on the contract. Any growth in the junior doctor workforce/commitment will be funded from outside that envelope and the same average pay would apply to new juniors working the same working patterns.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Legion d'Honneur applications are outstanding in his Department.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Ministry of Defence has received approximately 5,300 applications from veterans for the French award of the Legion d'Honneur. We have passed the majority of these to the French in accordance with the maximum permitted rate of 100 per week. We now only have 85 remaining applications to pass to the French, which will be submitted next week, and 130 applications with missing information which, therefore, cannot be processed - the Department is working to resolve these.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government plans to give people with dyslexia in the armed forces protection under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
There are no plans to extend the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to cover Service personnel who have dyslexia. The Defence Direction for Specific Learning Difficulties (contained within Joint Service Publication 898 'Defence Direction and Guidance on Training, Education and Skills') provides direction to all Service personnel who have dyslexia, and line managers, trainers and commanders who are required to manage Service personnel with dyslexia. It provides a learning support framework for those identified with dyslexia, ensuring that the Ministry of Defence meets its obligations as a responsible employer.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a comparative estimate of the level of proposed average pay under the new junior doctor's contract for a junior doctor working (a) part-time, (b) full-time and (c) as a full-time trainee.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Under the new contract, which is based on the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and pay for hours worked, full time trainees working at the same level of responsibility will receive the same basic pay and will be paid the same unsocial hours and weekend allowances depending on how many they work. Less than full time trainees working at the same level of responsibility will receive equal pay to full timers pro-rated to the number of hours that they work. Weekend and on-call allowances are also pro–rated.
Those trainees working at ST4 and above will continue to be paid under the terms of the old contract, under transitional arrangements.
At the British Medical Association’s request, it was agreed that there would be four levels of responsibility within the junior doctor training path for pay purposes.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make plans to introduce number plates for all mobility scooters to ensure that such scooters could be traced in the event of a collision with a pedestrian.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Mobility scooters have to comply with the prescribed conditions and requirements set out in the ‘Use of Invalid Carriages on Highways Regulations 1988’ which divides them into two main categories.
The Class 2 type can travel at 4mph and is primarily intended for use on the footway or footpath. 4 mph is considered appropriate for pavement use as it is akin to a brisk walking pace.
The Class 3 type can travel on the road at up to 8 mph, but must have the facility via a limiter to be driven at no more than 4 mph when used on the footpath.
Users of new or second hand Class 3 vehicles are required to register their vehicles with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for use on public roads. However, there is currently no requirement to display the vehicle registration number on the scooter and I have no plans to change this.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a comparative assessment of the level of proposed weekend pay under the new junior doctors' contract with weekend pay for (a) prison officers, (b) fire fighters, (c) police officers, (d) call centre workers, (e) consultants and (f) nurses, midwives and physios.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Junior doctors already work weekends, and they will continue to be fairly rewarded for work undertaken at the weekend using the weekend allowance proposed by the British Medical Association negotiators. Comparative rates are set out in the attached table.
Because of the allowance based approach to weekend working, the effective hourly rate juniors are paid will vary depending on how many hours they work over how many weekends. In almost all cases junior doctors will receive weekend pay better than other National Health Service professional staff.
A typical rota for a junior doctor involves an average of 6.5 hours a week being worked at weekends. (i.e. they work two long shifts of 13 hours every four weekends). This is split evenly over Saturdays and Sundays and includes night work.
For working those weekend hours the percentage hourly supplement across all the hours worked for different groups of NHS staff would be
- 66% for a junior doctor (37% for night work plus an additional 7.5% weekend allowance set as a percentage of basic pay)
- 56% for a band 3 Health Care Assistant (37% for Saturday, 74% for Sunday)
- 45% for a nurse (30% for Saturday, 60% for Sunday)
- 33% for a consultant