Nadine Dorries

No such discussions have taken place.

Under the Equality Act 2010, service providers are under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to improve access to premises or buildings and services so that disabled customers are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers. This reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty, which means that those who provide goods, facilities and services to members of the public are expected to anticipate the reasonable adjustments that disabled customers may require.

The delivery of accessible transport, including disabled access at stations and transport hubs is the responsibility of the Department for Transport.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has developed two online e-Learning courses on all types of stalking. The “Cyber Crime: Cyber Stalking” course includes cyber stalking, non-cyber stalking and harassment. The “Stalking and Harassment” course (which was released in April 2014) deals specifically with stalking and harassment offences.

The CPS maintains a central record of the number of employees who have been trained on the law on stalking by way of the e-Learning courses. 1581 of its employees in post on 23 October 2014 have completed all elements of either of the e-Learning courses in the period between 1 November 2012 (the month when the Cyber Stalking e-Learning module was revised to include the new stalking offences) and 23 October 2014.

In October 2014 the CPS issued follow-up, face-to-face training material on the Stalking and Harassment offences. It can be used flexibly at a local CPS level; accordingly, its delivery is not recorded on a central database.

Although there are no current plans for new training products to be launched, the CPS will continue to train its staff in this critical area of work.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd on 23^rd October 2014 (questions, 211141, 211143 and 211144). The previous answer included tables detailing the number of offences charged under Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(i), Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(ii) and 2A(1) of the 1997 Act broken down by each police force in England and Wales.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd on 23^rd October 2014 (questions, 211141, 211143 and 211144). The previous answer included tables detailing the number of offences charged under Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(i), Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(ii) and 2A(1) of the 1997 Act broken down by each police force in England and Wales.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

We are committed to improving station accessibility and have continued with the Access for All programme which has delivered more than 160 accessible routes at stations. We will be making further funding available in the next Rail Control Period (2019-24) and will confirm the way in which we will deliver this as soon as possible.

For schemes such as Flitwick to be considered for this future funding it will need strong support from the industry. A proportion of third party funding would also help to weight the station’s business case.

There is no published information on the average spare capacity on Thameslink trains between Bedford and London St Pancras.

There is no published information on the number of passengers travelling between Bedford and London.

The Department publishes statistical information on levels of overcrowding on an annual basis. These statistics represent overcrowding levels during a typical autumn weekday peak and are available by train operator for central London stations and major cities in England and Wales.

The table below shows the average passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC) for Thameslink services arriving and departing St. Pancras International in autumn 2016, the latest period for which data are available.

Passengers in excess of capacity (PiXC) for Thameslink services at St. Pancras International; autumn 2016

Passengers in excess of capacity, or PiXC, shows the percentage of standard class passengers above a service’s capacity at its busiest point. For example, a train with a capacity of 90 carrying 100 standard class passengers has 10 passengers in excess of capacity, and its PiXC percentage is 10% (that is, 10 passengers out of 100 are over the train’s capacity).

Further disaggregation of this data i.e. for particular services or routes are not published as they are deemed to be commercially confidential.

As a result of East Midlands Trains being unable to stop at Bedford or Luton at peak times, the Department expects approximately 1500 passengers from Bedford and 500 passengers from Luton to transfer to Thameslink services to London each day, from May 2018. However, passengers on this route will benefit from capacity improvements as a result of the Thameslink Programme which mean that GTR will provide around 2000 additional seats from Bedford and nearly 3000 extra seats from Luton, off-setting the extra demand.

In order to continue to provide some faster services between Bedford, Luton and London, GTR will remove some intermediate stops from a total of 4 trains in the morning and 6 trains in the evening. However, the improvements to capacity across the peak periods mean that GTR will still be able to provide more seats at intermediate stations than it does today.

In July 2012, the Government set out its vision of the development of high quality care services in the White Paper, Caring for our future: Reforming care and support. This was reinforced in the Care Act. It set out clearly the care and support system we want to achieve – with the support of care and support organisations, charities, carers, volunteers and the public. The Adult Social Care Workforce programme supports delivery of this vision, through increasing capacity, improving capability and developing leadership.

On the recommendation of the Cavendish report into the failings at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, we are introducing the new Care Certificate, to help ensure that healthcare assistants, social care support workers and their employers can deliver a consistently high quality standard of care.

Health Education England, Skills for Care and Skills for Health launched the pilot for the Care Certificate on 28 April 2014. The pilot is taking place across a range of health and social care settings, and, subject to evaluation, the national introduction of the Care Certificate is planned for March 2015.

In order to make sure that people are held to account for the quality of care they provide, we are introducing measures to ensure that company directors who consent or turn a blind eye to poor care will be liable for prosecution. In the future, they and provider organisations could face unlimited fines if found guilty.

To ensure that social care providers and services employ and are run by people with the right values and skills, we are introducing a ‘fit and proper person’ test for Directors. Where the Care Quality Commission (CQC) considers a Director not to be fit to run a provider organisation, it will be able to insist on his or her removal.

The Government realised that the regulation and inspection of social care provision needed to improve. As a result, the CQC has introduced a new system of inspection of social care providers, backed by new fundamental standards of care. This new system of inspection is based on five important questions that matter most to people: whether services are safe, caring, effective, well-led and responsive to their needs. CQC inspections now result in a provider being rated on a four-point scale - ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’, for each of the five domains that it inspects. This results in clear, straightforward information that commissioners of services and the public can understand.

The new inspections are carried out by expert inspection teams, which include people who have personal experience of care. The CQC piloted the new approach from April 2014 and began to inspect and rate all providers against the new standards in October.

Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.

The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people and to grow and diversify their share in the market.

We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.

Employers are responsible for ensuring that any potential employee has the required level of communication skills for their role. It is essential that a workers’ command of English should be considered as part of the recruitment process. Under CQC’s current approach to inspection and regulation, it is stipulated that workers in adult social care should be able to communicate effectively with people who use services and other staff and to ensure that care, treatment and support of service users is not compromised. This applies to all workers, whatever their background or nationality.

Each local authority is responsible for the quality of social care services it commissions. There is no national register or oversight of complaints in social care. However, local authorities are required, pursuant to the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service (England) Regulations 2009, to keep a record of each complaint received, the subject matter and outcome and timescales for responding.

They are also obliged to make a summary of this information available to the public via an annual report. The Government believes that we should be committed to ensuring the system for resolving complaints about care is compassionate, personal, responsive, timely and ensures lessons are learned.

The Department established a national complaints programme board in December 2013. A comprehensive programme has been developed with national partners, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, Healthwatch England, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman, the Local Government Association, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Association, to bring about important changes to the way complainants are supported and complaints are handled across the health and social care systems.

We are informed by the CQC that it is committed to strengthening its approach to assessing complaints and concerns during inspections. During an inspection, CQC inspectors will use key lines of enquiry to ascertain the standard of care. A mandatory key line of enquiry used during inspections of adult social care is whether the service routinely listens and learns from people’s experiences, concerns and complaints.

Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.

The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people, and to grow and diversify their share in the market.

We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.

All care agencies must register with and be inspected and regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as regulator of health and adult social care services. The CQC regulates care providers against a set of registration requirements in relation to safety and quality of services. Should the CQC find a care provider is not complying with regulatory requirements, it has a range of enforcement powers which it can employ, up to and including cancelling its registration to operate.

The Department worked closely with the Home Office to set up the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The role of the DBS is to help employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups of people. The DBS provides a system of criminal records checking and barring functions, to prevent unsuitable people from being able to work with vulnerable groups in regulated work in care and health settings.

This year, the DBS has been running a programme of free events targeted at those who have a responsibility for removing individuals from posts in regulated activity where harm has occurred. The events emphasise the responsibilities of employers to make referrals for barring and explain the DBS barring and decision making processes.

The Department has reinforced this message in the safeguarding guidance issued recently under the Care Act. The guidance is very clear that safe employment practices, including the duties to refer people who have caused harm, to the DBS, are a key part of effective safeguarding policies and practice in the care sector.

In order to make sure that people are held to account for the quality of care they provide, we are introducing measures to ensure that company directors who consent or turn a blind eye to poor care will be liable for prosecution. In the future, they and provider organisations could face unlimited fines if found guilty.

To ensure that social care providers and services employ and are run by people with the right values and skills, we are introducing a ‘fit and proper person’ test for Directors. Where the CQC considers a Director not to be fit to run a provider organisation, it will be able to insist on his or her removal.

Each local authority is responsible for the quality of social care services it commissions. There is no national register or oversight of complaints in social care. However, local authorities are required, pursuant to the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service (England) Regulations 2009, to keep a record of each complaint received, the subject matter and outcome and timescales for responding.

They are also obliged to make a summary of this information available to the public via an annual report. The Government believes that we should be committed to ensuring the system for resolving complaints about care is compassionate, personal, responsive, timely and ensures lessons are learned.

The Department established a national complaints programme board in December 2013. A comprehensive programme has been developed with national partners, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, Healthwatch England, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman, the Local Government Association, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Association, to bring about important changes to the way complainants are supported and complaints are handled across the health and social care systems.

We are informed by the CQC that it is committed to strengthening its approach to assessing complaints and concerns during inspections. During an inspection, CQC inspectors will use key lines of enquiry to ascertain the standard of care. A mandatory key line of enquiry used during inspections of adult social care is whether the service routinely listens and learns from people’s experiences, concerns and complaints.

Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.

The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people, and to grow and diversify their share in the market.

We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.

Each local authority is responsible for the quality of social care services it commissions. There is no national register or oversight of complaints in social care. However, local authorities are required, pursuant to the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service (England) Regulations 2009, to keep a record of each complaint received, the subject matter and outcome and timescales for responding.

They are also obliged to make a summary of this information available to the public via an annual report. The Government believes that we should be committed to ensuring the system for resolving complaints about care is compassionate, personal, responsive, timely and ensures lessons are learned.

The Department established a national complaints programme board in December 2013. A comprehensive programme has been developed with national partners, including the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, Healthwatch England, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman, the Local Government Association, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Association, to bring about important changes to the way complainants are supported and complaints are handled across the health and social care systems.

We are informed by the CQC that it is committed to strengthening its approach to assessing complaints and concerns during inspections. During an inspection, CQC inspectors will use key lines of enquiry to ascertain the standard of care. A mandatory key line of enquiry used during inspections of adult social care is whether the service routinely listens and learns from people’s experiences, concerns and complaints.

Under the Care Act, local authorities will have a new market shaping duty, meaning that they should work with local people and communities and engage with their local care providers to facilitate a diverse supply of high quality services.

The Care Act reforms should increase transparency and support more effective competition in local care markets. This will help providers of high quality care to attract more people, and to grow and diversify their share in the market.

We have just issued statutory guidance to local authorities about their new market shaping duties. Together with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association, we are developing a series of commissioning standards to improve local authority commissioning practices and encourage more flexibility, allowing providers to engage with them in new ways. We are keen to move commissioning from a “time and task” based to an outcomes-driven activity.

The UK and our EU counterparts are supporting a range of anti-corruption programmes in Ukraine. The UK, through the Good Governance and Conflict, Stability and Security Funds, will this financial year provide between £7.5-8 million in funding for over 40 projects designed to improve Ukraine's governance and combat corruption.

The UK helped establish the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and we continue to provide it with both technical assistance and political support against attempts to undermine its effectiveness. The UK is also providing Ukraine with technical assistance to enable it to meet its Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area requirements, some of which are linked to increased transparency and accountability.

Recent achievements have been the establishment of the ProZorro e-procurement system; the creation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the asset e-declaration system for all those drawing a public salary. There is still much more to do and the UK has growing concerns about attempts to undermine successful reforms, including these flagship achievements.

The UK is providing both political and practical support to this, while urging the Ukrainian authorities to maintain progress. In July 2017 the UK hosted the Ukraine Reform Conference and a meeting between leading global businesses based in the UK and Ukrainian cabinet ministers. They discussed the business environment in Ukraine and the obstacles, particularly in the judicial sector, which inhibit Ukraine's ability to attract further foreign investment.

As well as this political engagement, the UK is funding a range of technical assistance projects, including support to anti-corruption institutions, the establishment of an intellectual property rights court, and help to reform the Ministry of Finance, the management of public finances and Ukraine's tax system. The UK is also supporting small and medium sized enterprises in Ukraine.

Ukraine has been in a political crisis since the resignation of the Economy Minister in February . Our message to Ukraine’s leaders during this time has been to stay focused on delivering reform, especially tackling corruption. The President, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament (Rada) have a shared responsibility to work together on this.

On 14 April Volodymyr Groysman, the Rada Speaker, was appointed Prime Minister together with a new Cabinet. We hope this will give the Government of Ukraine the stability it needs to deliver the security and prosperity which the people of Ukraine demand.