George Hollingbery

Dredging is not identified as a separate category within the Environment Agency’s budget allocations or work recording systems, as it is often carried out at the same time as other channel activities. It is included within the broader category of ‘conveyance’ on which the Environment Agency spent around £45 million and £32 million in total in 2012/13 and 2013/14 respectively. The Environment Agency carries out conveyance work, including dredging, where it cost effectively reduces flood risk to people and property. The Environment Agency estimate that, on average, conveyance work provides about £7 of reduced flood damages for every pound spent. Dredging can provide other benefits, such as land drainage and navigation.

The funding spent on conveyance in each operational Environment Agency area was:

We do not hold information on the time it took for each of the dredging operations to be undertaken.

The Environment Agency has a range of enforcement and sanction options that it can employ against those undertaking dredging or channel maintenance works incorrectly.

Environment Agency officers do issue warnings and, where appropriate, make referrals to the police. However, the Environment Agency does not hold statistics on this centrally.

Defra Research & Development project WT1505 provides estimates of the comparative costs of sustainable drainage (SuDS) versus conventional drainage (to Building Regulations) for a minor development as follows:

These estimates relate to what the research classed as “normal” permeability.

Using SuDS on sites with different permeability levels could incur higher or lower construction and maintenance costs. However, under the Government’s approach there is a presumption that conventional approaches to drainage can be used where construction costs would otherwise be higher.

The Environment Agency publishes maps of locations at risk of flooding from surface water. The maps can be interrogated by place name or postcode.

The maps can be found at:

http://watermaps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiyby.aspx?topic=ufmfsw#x=357865&y=355121&scale=1

At the December Council we secured a statement that underlined the commitment of the European Commission and Member States involved in the bass fishery to take urgent action to reduce fishing pressure, protect spawning aggregations and so prevent a collapse of the stock. The Government followed up this commitment by formally requesting emergency measures to protect bass during the spawning season (January to April). The Commission has responded positively and has now tabled such a measure based on the UK request for consideration by the fisheries management committee. If adopted, the Commission regulation will come into effect on the day after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Across government, we have sought new ways to help rehabilitate offenders from drug dependency to live drug and crime free lives. As part of this, wing-based, abstinence-focused, drug recovery services have been piloted. These focus on providing dedicated prison accommodation, treatment and support to those who are dependent on drugs and alcohol while in custody and connecting them with community support on release.

Building on the drug recovery wing ethos, the Department and Ministry of Justice have jointly funded an initiative to improve the “through the gate” provision for prisoners who are dependent on drugs and alcohol. Ten prisons in the North West are currently piloting a range of innovative interventions to provide more intensive support and supervision for people leaving custody which include the use of peer mentors, recovery housing services and take-home naloxone as they return to the community. The learning from this approach will be used to inform wider roll-out in the new system in line with implementation of the Transforming Rehabilitation Programme.

The Integrated Drug Treatment System (IDTS) programme, implemented in prisons between 2006 and 2010, sought to improve the standard and quality of drug treatment in prisons. Through IDTS, prisoners could get access to evidence-based opioid substitution treatment in prison, which they could continue in the community after release. The principles of IDTS continue to be adopted by partners responsible for commissioning health services.

NHS England is improving prison mental health services through nationally developed service specifications, which are being rolled out across the prison estate in England, ensuring that there are national standards against which services can be measured.

In addition, the Government’s Mandate with NHS England commits NHS England to develop better healthcare services for people in the criminal justice system. We have also asked the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to develop guidelines on improving the mental health for people in prison, which it expects to publish in 2016.

Liaison and diversion services seek to identify offenders who have mental health, learning disability or substance misuse vulnerabilities, and who come into contact with the criminal justice system, so that they can either be supported through the criminal justice pathway or diverted into treatment, social care service or other relevant intervention or support service. NHS England is currently rolling out a new standard model of liaison and diversion service to ensure that services are consistent and can support people of all ages. From April 2015, there will be 22 liaison and diversion sites across England covering over 55% of the population. If the model is successful, services will then be rolled out nationally by 2017/18 subject to HM Treasury approval of the full business case.

Work is currently underway with the Ministry of Justice on developing mental health care in the criminal justice system, which will ensure that prisoners receive mental health treatment equivalent to what they would receive in the community and support continuity of treatment between custody and community.

During 2005/06 to 2009/10, the number of councils which set their local eligibility at the “substantial” banding within the existing guidance increased by nearly a third, and the number of councils setting their eligibility at “moderate” decreased by a similar proportion. This indicates councils making restrictions in access and eligibility over this period.

The following table sets out the percentage of councils in each of the bandings between 2005/06 and 2009/10. The bandings were set out in 2003 guidance and updated in 2010 by Prioritising Need in the Context of Putting People First: A whole system approach to eligibility for social care, which retained the same eligibility framework based on four bandings.

Source: The Care Quality Commission. This is provided as % as the total number of local authorities (LAs) providing social care changed over this period.

To resolve substantial and longstanding concerns from people with care needs that the existing framework is opaque and not applied consistently across England, the Government is introducing a national minimum eligibility threshold for adult care and support from 1 April 2015. This will provide more clarity on what level of needs are eligible for care and support. LAs will no longer be able to tighten the criteria beyond this threshold, but they will have the flexibility to meet other needs that are not eligible, if they chose to do so.

Between May 2010 and October 2014, the official statistics published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of National Health Service directly employed doctors, including locums, increased by 9,300 and the number of NHS directly employed nurses, midwives and health visitors increased by 5,800.

In addition, over the same period, it is estimated that service from agency nurses increased by approximately 6,000 FTE. The use of agency doctors remains unchanged.

Advisory non-departmental public bodies (ANDPBs) do not generally employ staff but are supported by their parent department. Seven of the Department’s eight ANDPBs do not have staff and the eighth, the Independent Reconfiguration Panel, reported two full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the Public Bodies 2014 Report.

Of the eight ANDPBs, the Independent Reconfiguration Panel has a paid Chief Executive/Secretary position with a salary of £112,200.

The average Chief Executive remuneration for the executive agencies is £167,500.

The average number of FTE staff for the Department’s executive agencies as at 31 October 2014 was 3,244.

The average Chief Executive remuneration for executive non-departmental public bodies is £175,357.

The average number of FTE staff for the Department’s executive non-departmental public bodies as at 31 October 2014 was 1,635

Non-ministerial departments (Food Standards Agency):

The last period for which figures are available is the 2013-14 financial year.

For that period the Chief Executive remuneration was a salary of between £140,000 and £145,000 plus bonus of between £10,000 and £15,000.

The average number of FTE staff was 1,264 for 2013-14. This figure excludes the board and temporary staff (contractors, agency staff, casuals and staff on fixed term contracts). The average FTE staff including temporary staff and Board members was 1,787. Both figures exclude staff who are members of the FSA Scientific Advisory committees.

The last annual report and accounts for the FSA can be found at:

http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/multimedia/pdfs/publication/fsa-report-accounts-2014.pdf

The Department does not have any tribunal non-departmental public bodies.

Care First was funded as part of the Young Person’s Guarantee. The final budget allocation for Care First was £75m across 2009/10 and 2010/11. The Young Person’s Guarantee was replaced by the Youth Contract.

We now have a locally-led Planning system. As a result the Department does not hold projections of future planning applications, nor does it publish forecasts of housing completions. However the National Planning Policy Framework requires local planning authorities to identify, update annually and publish a deliverable five year housing land supply. Local planning authorities are expected to report on progress on delivery of new homes through their Authority Monitoring Reports.

In addition, the Department publishes official statistics on planning applications including those on minor sites, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-applications-statistics

We are committed to ensuring that victims of crime are fully supported and are making more money available than ever before for victims’ services. Under this Government funding for support services has more than doubled from £40.52million in 2009/10 to over £92 million in 2015/16, including an increase in local budgets to fund vital services on the ground.

The following table shows the funding that the MoJ has provided to organisations supporting victims of crime since April 2010.

1) Figures for 2011-12 onwards include income from the Prisoners’ Earnings Act.

2) The figure for 2014/15 is forecast only and therefore likely to change at the end of the financial year. This does not include the £4.85m transfer of funds to the Home Office for support for victims of Child Sexual Exploitation.