First elected: 1st May 1997
Left House: 30th March 2015 (Defeated)
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Adrian Sanders, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Adrian Sanders has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Adrian Sanders has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to consolidate Regulations relating to tenancies in the social and private housing sectors; and for connected purposes
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to require landlords to provide smoke alarms in rented accommodation; and for connected purposes.
Adrian Sanders has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The Department’s Ministers, from time to time, carry out official visits to different parts of the UK to conduct departmental business.
The Department does not keep a central record of such visits.
No official visits have been made to the Torbay constituency by the Department’s Ministers during the period 14 October 2013 to 14 October 2014.
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, introduced to this House on 25 June 2014, does not include provision for mandatory free-of-tie. The Government recognises that some tenant groups and campaigners support this option, which might appear to offer a simple way of ensuring that tied tenants are no worse off than free-of-tie tenants. We looked carefully at this measure but have decided not to introduce it.
The responses to the Government's consultation on a Statutory Code and Adjudicator for the pubs sector raised concerns that mandatory free-of-tie would create uncertainty for pub-owning companies and have an unpredictable impact on the wider pubs sector which could even undermine the tied model. Even among the polarised views in the industry, there is strong support for the tie as a business model. What is important to the Government is that there are protections in place so that the tied model operates fairly. The reforms being taken forward in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill will rebalance the relationship between pub-owning companies and their tied tenants, without threatening the balance of the wider industry.
MyCSP Ltd, a mutual joint venture, provides scheme administration for the Civil Service pension arrangements under a contract managed by the Cabinet Office.
Redundancy schemes under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme are covered by separate commercial arrangements between MyCSP Ltd and each individual employer.
The average time for completing these individual exercises is not collated centrally.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The Secretary of State visited the Torbay constituency on 17th September 2014. His visit was to Kents Cavern, part of the Geopark in Torbay. The invitation came from the local Conservative candidate for Torbay, Kevin Foster. All travel was provided by the Conservative party with no cost to the public purse.
Kevin Foster also passed on an invitation to visit Torbay to the previous Secretary of State, Maria Miller. This invitation came from the Torbay Tourism Association and was taken up on 5th March 2014. She attended and spoke at a lunch event hosted by the Torbay Tourism Association marking their Annual Open Day/Exhibition. The minister took the train from Paddington to Exeter St David’s and returned via the same route. The cost of three return tickets (including officials) was £192.75, so £64.25 per person. The minister was driven to Torbay from Exeter at no cost to public purse.
In both these cases, the Secretaries of State were driven by Kevin Foster, with the costs borne directly by him.
Devon and Somerset has already received nearly £32 million to provide superfast broadband to 95% of premises by early 2016. We have recently announced a further £22.75 million to extend coverage to 95% by 2017 . Devon and Somerset will also be the location for one of the pilots looking at the potential to go beyond 95% coverage.
A number of visits have been proposed by other government departments but I currently have no plans for any further foreign visits at this time.
Details of Ministers' visits overseas are published quarterly and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/expenses-and-hospitality
The latest data available at this time is:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-meetings-and-hospitality-data-october-to-december-2013
Details of Ministers' visits overseas are published quarterly and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/expenses-and-hospitality
The latest data available at this time is:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-meetings-and-hospitality-data-october-to-december-2013
Details of Ministers' visits overseas are published quarterly and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/expenses-and-hospitality
The latest data available at this time is:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-meetings-and-hospitality-data-october-to-december-2013
I visited Torbay constituency on 17 July 2014, at the invitation of my hon. Friend, the Member for Newton Abbot, Anne Marie Morris. The visit was part of a wider trip to schools in Devon which cost £427.82 in total.
The Department for Education has previously confirmed that it would be allocating £150 million in the 2014-15 financial year to support the implementation of the universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) policy. Local authorities (LAs) are also free to use their budgets for improvement and maintenance to support this objective. We allocated £1.4 billion to schools, LAs and the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund for maintenance and improvement in 2014-15.
On 6 March we launched a package of implementation support measures to help schools to provide meals to eligible pupils. This includes a national UIFSM support service, run by school food experts, which will offer advice and guidance to schools that need assistance in implementing UIFSM. The support will include a telephone helpline, the sharing of good practice, and intensive face-to-face support
The Department also announced on 6 March that it would be providing transitional funding to small schools with eligible pupils, worth a minimum of £3,000, which qualifying schools will be able to use to help them overcome delivery challenges.
The new national curriculum, to be taught from September 2014, sets out only the essential knowledge that all children should acquire, and leaves teachers to decide how to teach this most effectively and to design a wider school curriculum that best meets the needs of their pupils.
For all pupils with special educational needs (SEN), including those who attend special schools, lessons should be planned to ensure that there are no barriers to achievement. In many cases, such planning will mean that these pupils will be able to study the full national curriculum.
The SEN Code of Practice includes statutory guidance on identifying and supporting pupils with SEN and adapting teaching approaches to ensure they have access to the same opportunities as their peers.
The new national curriculum, which was published on 11 September 2013, has been developed with due regard to the views of subject experts, teachers, and the findings of international best practice comparisons. Over 2,470 of the responses to the consultation on the new curriculum were from individual teachers, headteachers and schools. In response to the representations, changes were made to improve clarity, precision and consistency of the content.
We are confident that our reform to the national curriculum will give teachers greater flexibility and freedom than ever before, which will help to raise standards and expectations for all pupils. The national curriculum has been significantly slimmed down and will free up teachers to use their professional judgement to design curricula that meet the needs of their pupils.
Schools are already required to support children with long-term medical conditions such as diabetes. Non-statutory guidance, “Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings”, is available to schools to help them manage medicines and support children with medical needs such as diabetes.
From September 2014, there will be a new duty, which was introduced in the Children and Families Act 2014, on governing bodies of maintained schools and proprietors of academies to make arrangements to support pupils at school with medical conditions and to have regard to statutory guidance. The guidance, upon which we have consulted publicly, will set out the requirements on schools to support children with medical conditions, which we would expect them to apply to conditions like diabetes.
The Department for Education consulted with a number of local authorities and schools in the autumn, in order to assess the potential capital needs to meet the new universal infant free school meal (UIFSM) entitlement. Circumstances differ between schools, and between authorities, but those discussions gave us an assessment of the range of likely costs.
Based on those discussions, we believe the £150 million of capital funding announced last December is an appropriate figure to support schools and authorities in meeting the new UIFSM entitlement. We know that many schools and authorities are still in the process of considering the best way of delivering this. That is why we are supplementing this capital support with the package of implementation support measures announced on 6 March, in order to offer advice and guidance to schools and local authorities that need assistance in implementing the policy.
There have been no official Ministerial invitations or visits to the Torbay constituency in 12 months to 14 October 2014.
At the annual EU fishing quota negotiations in December I secured a deal on quotas for 2014 which was positive both for the sustainability of UK fish stocks and our fishing industry. My position on quotas was based on three clear principles: following the available scientific advice; achieving sustainable levels of fishing (known as Maximum Sustainable Yield) by 2015 where possible and by 2020 at the latest; and reducing discards.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) makes an annual assessment of the status and trends in fish stocks. This includes assessments for the main commercial stocks in the English Channel. These are available on the ICES website.
No ministerial visits were made to Torbay constituency in the specified period. As is the convention, however, Members of Parliament would be notified in advance of any Ministerial visits to their constituency if they were to occur.
All Train Operating Companies (TOCs) are required under their franchise agreement to have in place a Passenger's Charter which will include arrangements for compensation for passengers.
In connection with the severe weather related disruption earlier this year, the Department for Transport (DfT) sought to understand what First Great Western's proposals on compensation were likely to be. Where discussions have taken place with other TOCs these will also have been to ensure that the DfT was aware of their intentions and not to seek to require these to be changed.
An improved system of compensation based on delays to individual journeys, known as Delay/Repay, is being introduced for all passengers in place of the system of poor performance discounts and optional Void Days for season ticket holders. Introduction is taking place as franchises are let following competitions and opportunities arise within Direct Awards and existing franchises. Where discussions have taken place between the DfT and TOCs these will have been in this context.
Any compensation for the train operators in respect of the rail line closures in the South West of England in early 2014 would be paid by Network Rail in accordance with the track access agreement between Network Rail and the individual train operating companies, as regulated by the Office of Rail Regulation.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the ministers of his Department have made no visits in the 12 months to October 2014 to the Torbay constituency in a ministerial capacity.
The information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The Major Projects Authority has not downgraded the Work Programmes project rating. The rating was amber in 2012/13 and has remained amber in 2013/14.
In line with standard practice, as the Universal Credit risk register includes details of a sensitive nature the Department will not be putting the risk register into the public domain.
Personal independence payment (PIP) started from April 2013 and although limited data has started to feed through, we need to wait until the Department has quality assured, meaningful figures for publication. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity. We intend to publish official statistics on PIP from spring 2014 in line with our publication strategy:
An ad-hoc release of PIP information was published on 11 February 2014.
The permitted work rules in Employment and Support Allowance are based on those which applied to Incapacity Benefit. This approach was supported by evidence contained in DWP Research Report 268 “Final outcome from Permitted Work Rules”.
The average waiting time for a Work Capability Assessment in the period from March 2013 to February 2014 is as follows:
Torbay local authority area – the information is not available in respect of Local Authority areas
The South West - 110 working days
England - 71 working days
We announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 27 March our plans to achieve a reduction in waiting times and next steps, including Atos Healthcare's withdrawal from delivery of Work Capability Assessments in Great Britain before the end of the current contract .
Atos Healthcare will continue to deliver Work Capability Assessments until contract exit and will still be subject to a quality and service credit regime. We will continue to work with Atos to ensure they can deliver the best service possible to claimants until they leave the contract.
The Department has commissioned an independent evaluation of the Work Programme, and will publish findings once the evaluation is complete.
Commissioners and providers should make insulin pumps available for those people with Type 1 diabetes who meet the criteria in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s technology appraisal guidance on continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion for the treatment of diabetes mellitus (TA151) as well as ensuring that relevant structured patient education is provided to support people newly diagnosed with diabetes and at appropriate points in their life as their condition progresses.
Information on the number of people using insulin pumps is not collected centrally.
The United Kingdom Insulin Pump Audit, published in May 2013, collected data from across the United Kingdom. The audit demonstrated that 6% of adults with Type 1 diabetes and 19% of children with Type 1 diabetes were being treated with insulin pumps. The audit’s findings are available at:
www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/News/The_United_Kingdom_Insulin_Pump_Audit_May_2013.pdf
As of 31 January 2015 the number of people in England who hold a valid medical exemption certificate is 1,769,872. This is based on the number of certificates issued by the NHS Business Services Authority within the previous five years.
No estimate has been made of the number of people in England who meet the underlying eligibility criteria for a medical exemption certificate.
As of 31 January 2015 the number of people in England who hold a valid medical exemption certificate is 1,769,872. This is based on the number of certificates issued by the NHS Business Services Authority within the previous five years.
No estimate has been made of the number of people in England who meet the underlying eligibility criteria for a medical exemption certificate.
NHS England surveys capture the experiences of people with a wide range of conditions including diabetes but, with the exception of the cancer patient experience survey, they are not condition specific. As part of a forthcoming review of patient experience surveys, NHS England will consider whether it is best to collect information as it does currently or by specific conditions.
Professor Jonathan Valabhji, the National Clinical Director, has reported that last year’s Patient Experience of Diabetes Services pilot survey, which collected information from people with diabetes about their care, received very positive feedback.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.
A copy of the information requested has been attached.
The CQC has advised that the attached dataset contains the breakdown (at National Health Service acute provider and clinical commissioning group (CCG) level) of bespoke analysis carried out by the CQC as part of the 'Thematic data review of diabetes care pathways: secondary care analysis comparing people with and without diabetes' that was published alongside the CQC's 2013/14 State of Care report on 16 October 2014.
The analysis compares the outcomes within each provider or CCG for people with diabetes against a reference group of similar people without diabetes. It is not a comparison of performance between providers or CCGs and it would be inappropriate to use the data in this way. The analysis at provider and CCG level should be treated as experimental and the measures should not be considered as judgements of providers or CCGs.
The attached table shows finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of hypoglycaemia and diabetic ketoacidosis by primary care trust (PCT) of residence for ages (i) 0 to 17, (ii) 18 to 64 and (iii) 65 and over from 2003-04 to 2012-13. PCT of residence has been used as this data is available for the 10 year period requested.
The data we have provided should not be considered a count of people as the same person may have been admitted on more than one occasion.
Reference should be made to the footnotes when interpreting the data.
The Patient Experience of Diabetes Services survey is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, on behalf of NHS England, and delivered by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, working in collaboration with Diabetes UK and Public Health England (PHE). It will therefore be a matter for PHE and NHS England to decide on future plans for this survey.
There has been no decision made about the future of the Patient Experience of Diabetes Survey. NHS England is currently reviewing the whole National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme collectively, including the pilots that have reported. The first of these meetings was on 11 November.
My Rt. hon. Friend, The Secretary of State meets with NHS England on a weekly basis and discusses a wide range of healthcare issues.
However, there have been no specific discussions between the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England on the future funding of the Patient Experience of Diabetes Survey or between Ministers and officials of the Department and NHS England on plans to roll out the diabetes patient experience survey across all NHS services in England.
The Patient Experience of Diabetes Services survey is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, on behalf of NHS England, and delivered by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, working in collaboration with Diabetes UK and Public Health England (PHE). It will therefore be a matter for PHE and NHS England to decide on future plans for this survey.
There has been no decision made about the future of the Patient Experience of Diabetes Survey. NHS England is currently reviewing the whole National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme collectively, including the pilots that have reported. The first of these meetings was on 11 November.
My Rt. hon. Friend, The Secretary of State meets with NHS England on a weekly basis and discusses a wide range of healthcare issues.
However, there have been no specific discussions between the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England on the future funding of the Patient Experience of Diabetes Survey or between Ministers and officials of the Department and NHS England on plans to roll out the diabetes patient experience survey across all NHS services in England.
The Patient Experience of Diabetes Services survey is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, on behalf of NHS England, and delivered by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, working in collaboration with Diabetes UK and Public Health England (PHE). It will therefore be a matter for PHE and NHS England to decide on future plans for this survey.
There has been no decision made about the future of the Patient Experience of Diabetes Survey. NHS England is currently reviewing the whole National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme collectively, including the pilots that have reported. The first of these meetings was on 11 November.
My Rt. hon. Friend, The Secretary of State meets with NHS England on a weekly basis and discusses a wide range of healthcare issues.
However, there have been no specific discussions between the Secretary of State for Health and NHS England on the future funding of the Patient Experience of Diabetes Survey or between Ministers and officials of the Department and NHS England on plans to roll out the diabetes patient experience survey across all NHS services in England.
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is attached.
This information is not available in the format requested.
Information concerning the number of finished admission episodes and a rate per 100,000 of the population where the method of admission was an emergency by primary care trust of residence for the years 2008-09 to 2012-13 is attached.
It should be noted that this is not a count of people as the same person may have had more than one admission episode within the same time period.
We do not hold information on the number of adult patients on insulin therapy who have been offered an Insulin Passport in each NHS commissioning area in each of the last five years.
The attached table shows both Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for finished consultant episodes with a primary diagnosis of diabetes and a primary or secondary procedure of amputation of the foot or toe, as well as National Diabetes Audit (NDA) figures for the number of diabetes patients in the audit having major or minor amputations the following year. The NDA figures are only available for 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Reference should be made to the notes provided with the table when interpreting these figures.