Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what long-term investment plans the Government has to improve the Brighton Main Line.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Network Rail is currently developing proposals for potential upgrades of the Brighton Main Line, following the conclusions of the Sussex Route Study, and the London South Coast Rail Corridor Study, both of which highlighted significant capacity and performance constraints. Government will fund Network Rail to develop proposals as necessary.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the incidence of illegal dog fighting.
Answered by George Eustice
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 animal fights, including dog fights, are prohibited. Offences include publicising a fight, providing information about an animal fight and betting on an animal fight. The maximum penalty for such offences is six months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine or both. In addition, under section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 four types of dog have been prohibited that are have been identified either as being bred for fighting or that share the characteristics of dogs bred for fighting. The maximum penalty for possession of an illegal type dog is six months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine or both. Separately the independent Sentencing Council have recently consulted on changes to their guidelines to magistrates’ courts for a range of offences including animal cruelty offences. The Sentencing Council stated in June that in relation to animal cruelty, the Council wants to ensure that the most serious cases lead to prison sentences, and that these sentences are of an appropriate length.
The Government has also worked with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG), a grouping of welfare charities and pet industry interests, who have been lobbying operators of internet sites to adopt minimum standards for the advertising of pet animals.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether (a) a referral or (b) an appointment for an autism diagnostic assessment is captured in published mental health data (i) locally and (ii) nationally.
Answered by David Mowat
To support local areas in addressing long waits, NHS England, supported by the Department and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, initiated a series of visits to clinical commissioning groups and local authorities. These visits aimed to develop a better idea of the challenges in securing timely autism diagnosis across all ages, looking at the variability in diagnosis times and sharing good practice to help areas to improve their service. NHS England submitted a report on the visits to the 16 June meeting of the Cross Government Autism Programme Board, which includes representatives of autism third sector organisations and people who have autism. NHS England will have further discussions with relevant organisations over the summer about actions in their report, including on the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework, before reporting back to the Autism Programme Board.
In parallel, as recommended by the independent Mental Health Taskforce, the Department is undertaking a five year plan for the development of mental health data to be published by the end of the year. The plan will set out future requirements and timings for developing data to inform pathways of care, which will include requirements for autism in the Health and Social Care Information Centre Mental Health Services Data Set. Data on referrals or appointments for an autism diagnostic assessment are not currently captured in published mental health data.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress is being made on developing the Pubs Code; and when he plans that that code will be made available.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Pubs Code etc Regulations 2016 and the Pubs Code (Fees, Costs and Financial Penalties) Regulations 2016 were laid in draft before Parliament on 13 June 2016. The Regulations are available from the legislation.gov.uk website.
The Regulations are now subject to Parliamentary scrutiny before they come in effect. This scrutiny begins with consideration by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee followed by a debate in each House.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support apprenticeship providers to take on people who have special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Nick Boles
We are committed to ensuring that apprenticeships are accessible diverse range of people including young people with learning difficulties or disabilities.
We have supported the production of an employer toolkit and a Special Educational Needs (SEN) section of the Education and Training Foundation Excellence Gateway.
To encourage employers to hire apprentices, the Government funds apprenticeship training for all 16-18 year olds. This level of funding is extended for apprentices who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) aged 19-24. In addition, providers can access Learning Support funding to help apprentices who have a learning difficulty and/or disability.
A Taskforce, led by my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard), has been looking at issues around apprenticeships for people with learning difficulties or disabilities. The Taskforce is currently considering its recommendations.
Apprenticeships are safeguarded by the same equality duties under the Equality Act (2010) as any other employment. We encourage the use of the range of reasonable adjustments available so apprentices with special educational needs and disabilities (who can apply for Access to Work funding) can demonstrate what they know and can do.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides (a) at home and (b) in schools for children who have special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The system for identifying and meeting the needs of all children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and disabilities is designed to deliver the right support for all children, so that they can achieve their potential and their education prepares them well for fulfilling adult lives.
We legislated through the Children and Families Act 2014 to strengthen the system and have invested in practical and financial support for schools, local authorities and other key players in the system to help ensure that the reforms lead to a real improvement in children’s experiences. We have, for example, protected the overall school budget and increased the funding for children and young people with high needs by over £90 million this year. To ensure that local authorities have capacity to implement the reforms effectively, our additional funding included a £70 million SEN Reform Grant in 2014-15 to help local authorities plan for the SEN and disabilities reforms, and three grants (£45 million in 2014-15, £32 million in 2015-16 and £35.8 million in 2016-17) to local authorities to pay for the additional costs of implementing the reforms.
All schools are required to put in place systems for the early identification of SEN and disabilities and to use their best endeavours to meet those needs. For most pupils with SEN, schools will meet needs through ‘SEN Support’. Schools will use the ‘graduated approach’, a cycle in which they assess what support is needed, plan and deliver it and then review its impact and improve the support a child actually needs. For those pupils with more complex or severe SEN and disabilities, following a multi-agency assessment, local authorities will issue an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan setting out the provision that must be made.
A key element of the SEN and disabilities system and the recent reforms is ensuring that parents and carers are empowered to work with schools and others over the provision that is made for their children. By working together, families, local authorities and schools can provide more effective support to a child (in school and at home) to meet their SEN. For example, the 2014 Act requires local authorities to work with families over producing a Local Offer. That offer sets out in one place information about provision an authority expects to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in its area who have SEN and disabilities, including those who do not have EHC plans. This should provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date information about the available provision and how to access it. The offer should include what support is available to parents to aid their child’s development at home. The local authority has to publish a statement on short breaks for disabled children, young people and their families and this will form a core part of its offer. The statutory 0-25 SEN and Disabilities Code of Practice also describes a wide range of services that schools, Early Years providers, local authorities, health bodies and others provide to families to help meet SEN within the home. This includes, for example, services for pre-school age children and therapies that include programmes for implementation at home.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to reform the valuation of business rates.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Budget confirmed that the government will aim to deliver more frequent revaluations. A discussion paper setting out options to deliver this was published last month and can be found on gov.uk. I would encourage those who may be effected to make their views known.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times Southern Trains has cancelled a scheduled stop at Plumpton Station in East Sussex in the last 12 months for which information is available.
Answered by Claire Perry
We do not hold information to this level of detail. Govia Thameslink Railways, that operates Southern Trains, might hold this data.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to encourage uptake of sight tests amongst children and adults with learning disabilities in the Learning Disability Action Plan.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department is coproducing the learning disability action plan with self-advocates, family carers and other experts and stakeholders. It will support people with learning disabilities of any age and level of need being able to live good and fulfilling lives with the opportunities that other people have. This includes people being able to access health and care services in the right place at the right time. The programme of sight tests in special schools underway in London commissioned by NHS England from See Ability will provide evidence on access to sight tests by people with learning disabilities.
Asked by: Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations to the Palestinian Authority on allegations of its schools naming sports tournaments after terrorists.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
While we have not raised this specific issue with the Palestinian Authority (PA). We regularly raise the issue of incitement with the PA. Most recently, on 9 March, our Consul General in Jerusalem met Prime Minister Hamdallah and raised our concerns on incitement. I also raised the issue with the PA during my visit on 17 February.