Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Penny Mordaunt

Monday 21st November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

14. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that personal independence payment assessments are undertaken fairly and appropriately.

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Penny Mordaunt)]

Our policy is designed by service-user panels, provision is strictly monitored and measured by independent audit, and the provider is held to account through our contract with it.

[Jeff Smith]

Citizens Advice and the mental health charity Mind told the Public Accounts Committee in March that private contractor assessors were comprehensively failing claimants with mental health issues, so what progress has been made since in the recruitment of registered mental health nurses by healthcare assessment providers to ensure that claimants with mental health issues get the support they need?

[Penny Mordaunt]

Since then we have introduced a number of new measures, including improved training and additional recruitment. We are also monitoring to ensure those doing assessments are referring to mental health services if they feel that that is required.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Penny Mordaunt

Monday 18th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

T7. The armed forces are facing serious personnel shortages in some of the most crucial specialist trades, including nuclear engineers and flight technicians. Given that a great deal of the expertise is in the Ministry of Defence’s civilian workforce, which the Government plan to cut by 30%, will the Minister explain how the Government plan to ensure that operational capabilities are protected when those cuts go ahead?

[The Minister for the Armed Forces (Penny Mordaunt)]

For particular pinch points in particular trades, there are ongoing programmes to ensure not only that we retain people, but that we recruit. We train up people, offer apprenticeships and allow people to move in from the private sector. Those principles are well established. We will also introduce into our armed forces more flexible working patterns to allow more of that to happen and to allow people to move from regular forces to reserve forces and into civilian contracts and then back into the armed forces. That is very much our direction of travel. For each trade, there is a particular plan, and that is going very well. In fact, this month we have started recruiting apprentices into nuclear engineering, with 35 starting this month.