Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many personal independence payment assessment appointments were cancelled by Capita in (a) Corby, (b) East Northamptonshire and (c) the UK in the last year; and for what reasons such appointments were cancelled.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2016 to Question 31911, if he will make it his policy to extend the protection granted to playing fields to any community leisure facilities by ensuring that Sport England must be consulted before the sale of any such facility; and if he will ensure that Sport England is sufficiently resourced to carry out that role effectively.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
We have no plans to change policy on the protection of community leisure facilities. Local communities are best able to decide which local assets are of importance to them and, under the Localism Act 2011, communities can already ensure that they are consulted before the sale of community leisure facilities by nominating them for listing as Assets of Community Value.
In addition, the National Planning Policy Framework already provides strong protection for open spaces. The ‘Promoting healthy communities’ section of the Framework (see http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/blog/policy/achieving-sustainable-development/delivering-sustainable-development/8-promoting-healthy-communities/ ) makes clear that existing open spaces and sports and recreation facilities should not be built on unless an assessment has been undertaken which has clearly shown it to be surplus to requirements, or the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location. The Framework also enables local communities to identify green areas of particular importance to them for special protection by designating them as Local Green Space, through the preparation of local and neighbourhood plans.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much compensation has been paid to (a) all energy intensive industries, (b) the steel industry and (c) the aluminium industry under the energy intensive compensation scheme since 25 November 2015.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Across all compensation schemes (EU ETS, CPS, RO & FiT) to date, we have paid out over £189m in compensation.
Of this, the steel sector has been paid over £80m.
Since 25 Nov 2015, the aluminium sector has been paid over £464,000.
Additionally, we are processing 2016 EU ETS/CPS claims, as well as RO/FIT compensation applications, so the amounts will increase significantly in coming months.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many driving test examiners have (a) left and (b) been recruited by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency in the last (i) one, (ii) two and (iii) five years.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Driving examiner starters have to pass a compulsory training course in order to become fully qualified examiners. If they do not pass this course they are then dismissed. Information on starters and leavers is shown in the table below:
| Starters | Leavers | Of the leavers, those who did not pass the course |
In the past financial year | 232 | 152 | 8 |
In the past two financial years | 389 | 288 | 28 |
In the past five financial years | 614 | 590 | 47 |
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost of treating a patient with (a) hepatitis C, (b) cirrhosis and (c) hepatitis C and cirrhosis has been in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the table below and is from reference costs, which are the average unit cost to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year. Reference costs are published annually, with most recently available data being for 2014-15.
Reference costs for acute care are collected by healthcare resource group (HRG), which are standard groupings of clinically similar treatments that consume similar levels of healthcare resource. HRGs are organised by chapters and sub-chapters, representing different body systems, and HRG sub-chapters GC and PG describe hepatobiliary and pancreatic system disorders for adults and children respectively. The average costs in the following table will therefore include the costs to NHS hospitals of treating hepatitis C and cirrhosis, as well as the costs of other related disorders.
These costs do not include high cost drugs, or treatment in outpatient or other settings outside of hospital. They reflect the costs of a single episode of care under one consultant for a patient admitted to hospital. Patients admitted to hospital may have multiple episodes of care and each one of these episodes will be recorded separately.
Table: Average cost to NHS hospitals of treating hepatobiliary and pancreatic system disorders, 2014-15 (excluding high cost drugs, or treatment in outpatient or other settings outside of hospital)
| Average cost per unit of activity (£) |
Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders | 1,751 |
Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders | 2,344 |
Source: Reference costs, Department of Health
Notes:
GC17A Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 9+
GC17B Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 4-8
GC17C Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 0-3
GC17D Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 9+
GC17E Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 4-8
GC17F Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 0-3
GC17G Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 8+
GC17H Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 5-7
GC17J Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 2-4
GC17K Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 0-1
PG71A Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 2+
PG71B Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 1
PG71C Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 0
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding has been allocated to (a) Corby and (b) East Northamptonshire to tackle flooding in the last five years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government has spent £2.6 million on flood risk management capital and maintenance works in Corby and East Northamptonshire between 2011/12 to 2015/16. This figure is combined, as the funding is allocated to, and work undertaken in, ‘Flood Risk Management Systems’. These systems relate to the watercourses in these areas and the consequences of flooding, rather than to political boundaries. For example, the river Harpers Brook flows in and out of both Corby and East Northamptonshire several times and so the funding for these areas is combined.
Maintenance works include routine maintenance, such as blockage removal, and incident management response during a flood. Capital works include capital project work, including studies, refurbishment and improvement works.
In accordance with data retention rules, the Environment Agency does not hold financial records for more than five years.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what help is available to people with hepatitis C infection from contaminated blood.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Under the current support arrangements, people infected with hepatitis C through the use of National Health Service blood products are offered a lump sum payment of £20,000 on registering and the option to apply for certain discretionary support: both financial and non-financial. Should they develop “Stage 2” hepatitis C, the later stage of the disease, patients are then offered an additional lump sum of £50,000 and a regular annual payment of £14,749. Those people co-infected with hepatitis C stage 2 and HIV are offered a regular annual payment of £29,498. Currently 595 people are receiving these regular annual payments. In addition, 242 people are receiving regular payments for HIV infection.
However, the Department is consulting on options for a future support scheme which aims to ensure all of those infected with hepatitis C and registered with the payment schemes would receive regular annual payments, up to £15,000. There are currently 2,424 people with “stage 1” hepatitis C currently registered with the payment schemes who would benefit additionally from this proposed change.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31332, if he will estimate the cost of collecting information on the nationality of offenders referred to the court.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The nationality of offenders referred to the court is not collated centrally.
The Ministry of Justice hold data on foreign nationals held in prisons in England and Wales and publish statistics quarterly. The data does not include those offenders who receive non-custodial sentences.
To obtain even the limited data which is held would require the consideration of the files in all cases over the past three years where the Court of Appeal increased a sentence of imprisonment previously imposed to ascertain if they contained sufficient information for the data to be requested from the Ministry of Justice.
The process that would have to be undertaken would incur costs above the current disproportionate cost threshold and would in any event only provide the nationality for a limited number of offenders referred to the court.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make it his policy to extend the protection granted to playing fields to any community leisure facilities, by ensuring that Sport England must be consulted before the sale of any such facility; and if he will ensure that Sport England is sufficiently resourced to carry out that role effectively.
Answered by David Evennett
Government recognises the important contribution that opportunities for sport and recreation make to the health and wellbeing of communities. Planning policies should be based on robust and up-to-date assessments of community needs. Any change of policy to allow Sport England (or any other public body) to have similar responsibilities for community leisure facilities, as it does for playing fields, would be a matter for DCLG.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to publish further details of his Department's draft plans to change the way sports funding is allocated, with reference to pages 16 and 17 of Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation.
Answered by David Evennett
Sport England's new strategy, which is due to be published in Spring, will set out how the actions in Sporting Future will be delivered at grassroots level. This will set out the way in which funding will be allocated, in accordance with the principles set out in the government's strategy for sport.