Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to reduce vehicle theft.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The number of vehicle thefts remains significantly lower than the peak in the mid 1990s. However, we know that the methods used by criminals are constantly evolving. This is why the Home Office brought together the vehicle industry and the police to ensure that the response to vehicle theft takes account of the latest methods being used by criminals.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage more students to take up a creative, artistic and technical subject at GCSE.
Answered by Nick Gibb
At Key Stage 4, all pupils in maintained schools have an entitlement to study an arts subject and a design and technology subject.
In addition to the revised curriculum introduced into schools in 2014, new GCSEs in a number of creative, artistic, and technical subjects including music, art and design, dance, drama, design and technology, food preparation and nutrition, electronics and engineering have been developed to be more rigorous.
These GCSEs or any other GCSEs and technical awards from the Department approved list can count towards the open element of Progress and Attainment 8. These measures are designed to encourage schools to offer a broad and balanced curriculum.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms NHS England has in place to ensure that clinical commissioning groups are fulfilling their statutory responsibility to commission certain health services to meet the reasonable requirements of the persons for whom it has responsibility in (a) the prescribing of medical nutrition according to NICE Clinical Guidance 32 2006 and (b) commissioning other health services in line with section 13(2) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England has a statutory duty to carry out an annual performance assessment of each clinical commissioning group (CCG) and, in 2016/17, introduced the CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework. This framework is aligned to delivery of the Five Year Forward View and NHS Planning Guidance.
The Framework brings together in one place NHS Constitution and other core performance and finance indicators, outcome goals and transformational challenges. CCGs are also assessed against a range of indicators that consider their delivery of commitments, improved health outcomes for their populations and whether they are well-led organisations. This provides assurance that CCGs are effective commissioning organisations.
Where necessary, NHS England is supported by legislation in exercising formal powers of direction if it is satisfied that a CCG is failing or is at risk of failing to discharge its functions.
It is a matter for CCGs to determine how best to commission services to meet the health needs of their local population, and they should have regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance in doing so.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to ring-fence a proportion of the revenue raised from the sugar levy to support the least active children to exercise more.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We want all pupils to be healthy and active. Since 2013, we have invested over £600 million of ring-fenced funding to improve PE and sport in primary schools through the Primary PE and Sport premium. Evidence indicates that the funding is having a major impact, with 84% of schools reporting an increase in pupil engagement in PE during curricular time and in the levels of participation in extra-curricular activities.
Schools have the freedom to decide how best to use the funding based on the needs of their pupils, and the evidence indicates that the majority of schools are already targeting some of their funding at the least active pupils within their schools.
But we know that there is more to do, which is we have committed to using revenue from the soft drinks industry levy to double the primary PE and sport premium to £320 million a year from September 2017. This will enable schools to make further improvements to the quality and breadth of their PE and sport provision.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the reduction to £4,000 in the Money Purchase Annual Allowance referred to in paragraph 4.20 of the Autumn Statement 2016, Cm 9362, will apply to people who had already accessed their savings flexibly.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Money Purchase Annual Allowance applies to anyone who has accessed their pension savings flexibly and makes further money purchase savings. It applies at the level in force at the time of making those subsequent savings.
The Government has proposed a reduction in the allowance to £4,000 from 6 April 2017 and launched a consultation on the detail surrounding this, which ends on 15 February and is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reducing-the-money-purchase-annual-allowance
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the expiry of the National Stroke Strategy in 2017 on stroke patient outcomes.
Answered by David Mowat
No formal assessment has been made of the potential effect of the expiry of the National Stroke Strategy in 2017 on stroke patient outcomes. However the quality of stroke care is continually monitored by the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme.
The National Stroke Strategy remains valid and implementation of it continues. Action is being taken to ensure the progress made on stroke continues. This includes;
- ongoing work in virtually all parts of the country to organise acute stroke care to ensure that all stroke patients, regardless of where they live or what time of the day or week they have their stroke, have access to high quality specialist care;
- publication of the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy in 2013, which includes many stroke specific strategic ambitions;
- a CVD collaborative group is being established to bring together relevant stakeholders in the field of CVD and provide a forum where relevant work being undertaken in this area and potential new initiatives can be discussed and responsibilities for action determined;
- NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Stroke is working with Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints on how stroke care is best delivered to local communities;
- services for the management of transient ischaemic attack (TIA) are changing in many areas to meet the new standard that all TIA patients should be seen and assessed within 24 hours, not just high risk patients; and
- CCGs are being encouraged to increase the geographical coverage of early supported discharge services.
Prevention of stroke and CVDs is also a priority for NHS England, particularly attempting to reduce the very high prevalence of CVD in patients with mental health illness.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what objectives the National Stroke Strategy has remaining before its expiry in 2017.
Answered by David Mowat
No formal assessment has been made of the potential effect of the expiry of the National Stroke Strategy in 2017 on stroke patient outcomes. However the quality of stroke care is continually monitored by the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme.
The National Stroke Strategy remains valid and implementation of it continues. Action is being taken to ensure the progress made on stroke continues. This includes;
- ongoing work in virtually all parts of the country to organise acute stroke care to ensure that all stroke patients, regardless of where they live or what time of the day or week they have their stroke, have access to high quality specialist care;
- publication of the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy in 2013, which includes many stroke specific strategic ambitions;
- a CVD collaborative group is being established to bring together relevant stakeholders in the field of CVD and provide a forum where relevant work being undertaken in this area and potential new initiatives can be discussed and responsibilities for action determined;
- NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Stroke is working with Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints on how stroke care is best delivered to local communities;
- services for the management of transient ischaemic attack (TIA) are changing in many areas to meet the new standard that all TIA patients should be seen and assessed within 24 hours, not just high risk patients; and
- CCGs are being encouraged to increase the geographical coverage of early supported discharge services.
Prevention of stroke and CVDs is also a priority for NHS England, particularly attempting to reduce the very high prevalence of CVD in patients with mental health illness.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has spent on funding research into improving the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information requested is not available.
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) spent £25.5 million on respiratory disease research in 2014/15 (the latest available figure). Most of this investment (£16.6 million in 2014/15) is in infrastructure for respiratory research where spend on specific topics such as the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis cannot be separated from total infrastructure expenditure. This infrastructure includes NIHR biomedical research centres and the NIHR Clinical Research Network.
The NIHR manages the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme, which is funded by the Medical Research Council and NIHR. The programme is currently funding a £1.4 million efficacy and mechanism evaluation of treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with the addition of co-trimoxazole.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent discussions he has had with his G7 counterparts on ensuring that countries in Africa receive fair terms of trade when signing trade and investment agreements with other G7 countries.
Answered by Mark Garnier
The UK Government is committed to ensuring developing countries can reduce poverty through trading opportunities and that such impacts are taken into account in our trade policy. Trade was a key component of the G7 summit this year with commitments on Aid for Trade that will help African countries to negotiate and implement trade agreements. The G20 also expressed support at the recent summit for low-income countries to participate in Global Value Chains.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to increase the powers of local authorities to (a) remove travellers camped illegally on public land and (b) recover site clean-up costs from those illegally settled on public land.
Answered by Lord Barwell
Local authorities and the police have a range of strong powers that enable them to take action against unauthorised encampments and developments. Ministers sent a summary of these powers to all council leaders, Police and Crime Commissioners and Police Chief Constables in March 2015:
The government is open to suggestions for how enforcement could be strengthened and continues to keep this issue under review.