Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of information available to carers about (a) the existence of carer's allowance and (b) the rules on who is able to claim it.
Answered by Mark Harper
Information and advice about entitlement to Carer's Allowance is available from a range of outlets including Jobcentre Plus offices, the Government website (www.gov.uk), local authorities, Citizens Advice, public libraries, health clinics, doctors' surgeries and health visitors. Advice can also be sought from voluntary organisations such as Carers UK. In addition to this the Carer’s Allowance Unit have a regular out reach programme for the caring community.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much funding his Department has allocated to research into motor neurone disease in each of last 10 years.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Prior to the establishment of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in April 2006, the main part of the Department's total health research expenditure was devolved to and managed by national health service organisations. From April 2006 to March 2009, transitional research funding was allocated to these organisations at reducing levels. The organisations have accounted for their use of the allocations they have received from the Department in an annual research and development report. The reports identify total, aggregated expenditure on national priority areas but do not provide details of spend on research into specific diseases including motor neurone disease (MND).
Expenditure on MND research by the NIHR from 2009-10 through research programmes, research centres and units, and research fellowships is shown in the following table.
£ million
2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 |
0.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
Total spend by the NIHR on MND research is higher than this because expenditure by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) on this topic cannot be disaggregated from total CRN expenditure.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health (Jeremy Hunt) has had no discussions on funding for MND research with the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing in Scotland on funding for research into motor neurone disease.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Prior to the establishment of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in April 2006, the main part of the Department's total health research expenditure was devolved to and managed by national health service organisations. From April 2006 to March 2009, transitional research funding was allocated to these organisations at reducing levels. The organisations have accounted for their use of the allocations they have received from the Department in an annual research and development report. The reports identify total, aggregated expenditure on national priority areas but do not provide details of spend on research into specific diseases including motor neurone disease (MND).
Expenditure on MND research by the NIHR from 2009-10 through research programmes, research centres and units, and research fellowships is shown in the following table.
£ million
2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 |
0.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
Total spend by the NIHR on MND research is higher than this because expenditure by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) on this topic cannot be disaggregated from total CRN expenditure.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health (Jeremy Hunt) has had no discussions on funding for MND research with the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the average amount of time it takes for terminally ill people to receive a decision on their benefits claim.
Answered by Mark Harper
We have taken your question to refer to Personal Independence Payment. Statistics on clearance times for Personal Independence Payment are intended for future publication and the Department's analysts are currently considering what information will be included in the release.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on fast-tracking benefits for terminally ill people.
Answered by Mark Harper
I refer the Hon.Member to the written answer that the previous Minister for Disabled People gave on 14 July 2014, Official Report, column 589w, to the Hon. Member for East Lothian, Fiona O’Donnell.
Previous answer:
Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will classify motor neurone disease as a terminal illness which qualifies for a fast-track assessment for welfare claims. [204826]
Mike Penning: Claims to attendance allowance, disability living allowance, employment and support allowance, incapacity benefit and personal independence payment from people who are terminally ill, as defined in law, are fast tracked. Claimants are considered to be terminally ill if they have a progressive disease as a result of which they are not expected to live longer than six months. Motor neurone disease is considered to be a progressive disease.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discusssions she has had with the Passport Office about the updating of advice on timescales during busy periods for (a) the renewal of a passport and (b) the time it will take for staff to call an applicant back.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Ministers have held frequent recent discussions with Her Majesty's Passport Office.
Current advice for customers on expected service standards is published on
https://www.gov.uk.
The current guideline for returning calls to customers is to do so within 48
hours. Her Majesty's Passport Office gives priority to those with the most immediate
travel plans.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the average waiting time for people (a) applying for a passport renewal and (b) waiting for a call back from the Passport Office.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is as follows:
(a) Expected service standards for passport renewals are published at
https://www.gov.uk.
(b) The current guideline for returning calls to customers is to do so within
48 hours. Her Majesty's Passport Office gives priority to those with the
most immediate travel plans.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that former oil refineries being converted to bulk storage and distribution terminals meet post-Buncefield health and safety requirements.
Answered by Mike Penning
The COMAH Competent Authority (CA), comprising HSE and the environment agencies, is responsible for ensuring that oil refineries and fuel storage and distribution terminals meet new safety and environmental standards introduced in 2009 following the Buncefield fire and explosion. The standards were developed jointly by industry and the CA and published by the Process Safety Leadership Group (PSLG).
Refineries were required to produce risk-based action plans to implement the PSLG safety standards at their existing fuel storage facilities. HSE led the assessment of these plans during 2011 and has been inspecting sites to ensure the planned improvements are made. The timings of upgrades to containment standards at refineries' existing fuel storage facilities is based on risk and will vary for each site. Agreed improvements are embedded in environment inspection plans for each site and followed up to ensure measures are implemented on time.
The CA is working with refineries undergoing conversion to fuel storage and distribution terminals to ensure the PSLG standards are applied in full to their new facilities.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what deadline has been set by his Department for former oil refineries being converted to bulk storage and distribution terminals to make the necessary upgrades to meet post-Buncefield standards; and how rigorously such standards are being enforced by the Environment Agency.
Answered by Mike Penning
The COMAH Competent Authority (CA), comprising HSE and the environment agencies, is responsible for ensuring that oil refineries and fuel storage and distribution terminals meet new safety and environmental standards introduced in 2009 following the Buncefield fire and explosion. The standards were developed jointly by industry and the CA and published by the Process Safety Leadership Group (PSLG).
Refineries were required to produce risk-based action plans to implement the PSLG safety standards at their existing fuel storage facilities. HSE led the assessment of these plans during 2011 and has been inspecting sites to ensure the planned improvements are made. The timings of upgrades to containment standards at refineries' existing fuel storage facilities is based on risk and will vary for each site. Agreed improvements are embedded in environment inspection plans for each site and followed up to ensure measures are implemented on time.
The CA is working with refineries undergoing conversion to fuel storage and distribution terminals to ensure the PSLG standards are applied in full to their new facilities.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of marine dredging applications that will be dealt with by the Marine Management Organisation using the online marine licensing system in 2014-15.
Answered by George Eustice
Since the beginning of 2014-15 the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has dealt with five 15 year marine licences for aggregate dredging.
For non-aggregate dredging Defra's Impact Assessment on exemptions and navigational dredging predicted 872 applications ranging from simple, routine and complex applications for 2014-15 (Ref: IA No DEFRA 1118 – The Marine Licensing (Exempted Activities) (Amendment) Order 2013). The actual annual number of applications being received so far is currently running at between 10-20% of the forecast.