Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

423348

	registered interest
	date	22/10/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the findings of the Carers Trust report published on 16 September 2015, Analysis of the UK and Impact of Charges by Councils Providing Support to Unpaid Carers; and if he will make an assessment of the effect of local authority charges on carers for the support they receive to help them in their caring role.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	13008
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/10/2015 answer text <p>The Department has been clear that local authorities are not required to charge a carer for support and indeed in many cases it would be a false economy to do so.</p><br /><p>We have produced a suite of implementation support documents around the new carers’ rights, one of which is <em>The Economic Case for Investment in Carers</em>, a short factsheet for local authorities to use in considering whether to put in place a policy of charging carers, setting out the evidence that charging would be a false economy. This expands on the position set out in the Care Act statutory guidance, which at paragraph 8.50 states that:</p><p /> <p>“Local authorities are not required to charge a carer for support and indeed in many cases it would be a false economy to do so. When deciding whether to charge, and in determining what an appropriate charge is, a local authority should consider how it wishes to express the way it values carers within its local community as partners in care, and recognise the significant contribution carers make.”</p><p /> <p>The Care Act replicates the previous position where charging carers was permissible. It would not have been appropriate to impose a blanket ban on charging for carers services, because in some cases small charges are necessary to the viability of services. However, the Care Act provides additional protection to carers by making it clear that local authorities cannot charge carers for services provided to the person being cared for. This means that carers may only be charged for services provided directly to them.</p><br /><p>Most local authorities do not routinely charge carers in recognition of the valuable contribution carers make to their local communities, and the Carers Trust report confirms that this is still the case. We will continue to make the case against routine charging of carers and to monitor the situation closely through the implementation monitoring process set out below.</p><br /><p>To support implementation of the reform programme, we have established a joint Programme Management Office between the Department, Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Adults Social Services. This unprecedented partnership is driving collaborative working with the sector, influencing the local implementation of these changes to support a consistent and coherent approach. This approach was recognised by the National Audit Office as best practice and should be adopted by other programmes.</p><br /><p>The programme includes a series of stocktakes of local authority readiness and the latest, from June 2015, demonstrates an overall positive picture on implementation:</p><p>- Councils’ confidence in their ability to deliver the Care Act Reforms in 2015/16 remains high, with 99% very or fairly confident.</p><p>- 89% of councils say that they are ‘on track’ with their implementation. The remaining 11% report themselves as only slightly behind.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 30/10/2015 11:57:03 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

423775

	registered interest
	date	26/10/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Social Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the additional financial resources needed by local authorities to meet their new duties under the Care Act 2014 in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	13257
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/11/2015 answer text <p>The Department’s estimate of the additional financial resources needed by local authorities to meet their new duties under the Care Act 2014 is set out in the Care Act impact assessment, which can be found here:</p><br /><p><a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/impacts" target="_blank">http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/impacts</a></p><br /><p>Page five of the impact assessment has a summary of all estimated costs related to Part 1 of the Care Act 2014 over 10 years from 2015/16. The impact assessment sets out the basis for the estimates in each case.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 02/11/2015 17:41:39 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

423776

	registered interest
	date	26/10/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the report by Carers Trust entitled A Charge on Caring?, published on 16 September 2015, if he will take steps to prohibit local authorities from charging unpaid carers for support.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	13255
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2015 answer text <p>The Government recognises the valuable contribution made by carers, many of whom spend a significant proportion of their life providing support to family members or friends.</p><br /><p>The Care Act guidance is clear about policy on charging carers. The Care Act statutory guidance, at paragraph 8.50 states that:</p><br /><p>“Local authorities are not required to charge a carer for support and indeed in many cases it would be a false economy to do so. When deciding whether to charge, and in determining what an appropriate charge is, a local authority should consider how it wishes to express the way it values carers within its local community as partners in care, and recognise the significant contribution carers make.”</p><br /><p>The Care Act replicates the previous position where charging carers was permissible and the Government has no plans to change this. It would not have been appropriate to impose a blanket ban on charging for carers services, because in some cases small charges are necessary to the viability of services. However, the Care Act provides additional protection to carers by making it clear that local authorities cannot charge carers for services provided to the person being cared for. This means that carers may only be charged for services provided directly to them.</p><br /><p>Most local authorities do not routinely charge carers in recognition of the valuable contribution carers make to their local communities, and the Carers Trust report confirms that this is still the case. We will continue to make the case against routine charging of carers and to monitor the situation closely.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 03/11/2015 16:20:25 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

428151

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will carry out an assessment after the November Spending Review of local authorities' capacity to meet their new duties under the Care Act 2014 following changes to local authority funding.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	16245
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <br /><p>Funding decisions for 2016/17 onwards, including on adult social care, are subject to the forthcoming Spending Review.</p><br /><p>Officials in the Department and across government are working hard to understand pressures on the care system and will consider adult social care expenditure and the future demand as part of this process. This includes ongoing Care Act pressures.</p><p><br>We will continue to review and monitor implementation of the Care Act which includes a series of stocktakes of local authority readiness and the latest, from June 2015, demonstrates an overall positive picture on implementation. It details:</p><p><br>- Councils’ confidence in their ability to deliver the Care Act Reforms in 2015/16 remains high, with 99% very or fairly confident.</p><p>- 89% of councils say that they are ‘on track’ with their implementation. The remaining 11% report themselves as only slightly behind.</p><br /><p>There are two further local authority stocktakes planned for the remainder of the financial year which will monitor the progress on implementing change. It is our intention to repeat the surveys next year to continue monitoring progress, subject to agreement with local government.</p><p><br>The Department will also commission a piece of research to evaluate and inform implementation of the Care Act 2014. The research will focus on knowing more about how the Act is being implemented locally and to see how effectively the Act is achieving its underlying aims.</p><br /> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 23/11/2015 16:24:13 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

428152

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Carers: Fees and Charges
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to monitor the number of local authorities charging carers for the support they receive to help them in their caring role.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	16238
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <p>I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2015 to Question <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-10-22/13008/" target="_blank">13008</a>.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt grouped question UIN 16237 question first answered 23/11/2015 16:28:58 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

428154

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Carers: Fees and Charges
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on charging carers for the support they receive in their caring role of an increase in the number of councils charging carers.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	16237
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <p>I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2015 to Question <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-10-22/13008/" target="_blank">13008</a>.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt grouped question UIN 16238 question first answered 23/11/2015 16:28:58 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

428155

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Carers: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what decision his Department has made on the use of the £6 billion of funding allocated for the implementation of phase 2 of the Care Act 2014 now that the implementation of that phase has been postponed.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	16246
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <p>The Government recognises that social care is vital to enabling people to live healthy and independent lives.</p><br /><p>Funding decisions for 2016/17 onwards, including on adult social care, are subject to the forthcoming Spending Review.</p><br /><p>Officials in the Department and across government are working hard to understand pressures on the care system and will consider adult social care expenditure and future demand as part of this process.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 23/11/2015 16:31:15 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

428156

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2015
	answering body	Department of Health
	answering dept id	17
	answering dept short name	Health
	answering dept sort name	Health
	hansard heading	Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will create a database for local authorities on best practice in meeting their new duties under the Care Act 2014.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	16247
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/11/2015 answer text <p>To support implementation of the Care Act, a joint Programme Management Office between the Department, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Adults Social Services (ADASS) has been established. This unprecedented partnership is driving collaborative working with the care sector, influencing the local implementation of these changes to support a consistent and coherent approach across the country. Earlier this year this approach was recognised by the National Audit Office as best practice and recommended it should be adopted by other similar work programmes.</p><br /><p>As part of this programme of work the Department has provided £2.7 million to nine regional local government networks to enable them to commission tools, products and non-statutory guidance to help local authorities in implementing the Care Act. The care sector has been involved in developing these materials and making sure they meet required standards. The materials focus on areas of key risk and challenge identified by local authorities and support the development of best practice. The Department also provided £4 million in 2015-16 for the ADASS to give local authorities targeted support and to help share best practice. Information on good practice, research and innovation aimed at improving the social care infrastructure is available at the following website.</p><br /><p><a href="https://www.adass.org.uk/support-and-resources/" target="_blank">https://www.adass.org.uk/support-and-resources/</a></p><br /><p>In addition the LGA has included information on its website that details available learning and development resources, best practice guidance and practical tools to support the care sector. It also details the regional support available in each of the nine local government regions to help councils to implement the Care Act. The website is available at:</p><p><a href="http://www.local.gov.uk/care-support-reform;jsessionid=B36A65C6DFFB6012739EB96FDBE5918B.tomcat2" target="_blank">http://www.local.gov.uk/care-support-reform;jsessionid=B36A65C6DFFB6012739EB96FDBE5918B.tomcat2</a></p><br /><p>The support work described above is part of a wider package of Sector-Led Improvement that the Department has funded the LGA and ADASS to deliver, under the umbrella of the Towards Excellence in Adult Social Care (TEASC) programme. The culture of Sector-Led Improvement, and the TEASC programme, are based on the principles that local authorities are responsible for their own performance, and are collectively responsible for the performance of the sector as a whole. This includes an ongoing commitment to share experience, advice and best practice at a regional and national level.</p><br /><p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 23/11/2015 15:25:08 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

426080

	registered interest
	date	04/11/2015
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Electric Vehicles: Charging Points
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) number of electric charging points in air quality management areas, (b) number of such points needed to have an effect on air quality and (c) associated costs of upgrading the necessary grid infrastructure.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	14855
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2015 answer text <p>The Government wants almost every car and van to be a zero emission vehicle by 2050 and is investing £500m between 2015 and 2020 to help deliver this. The long-term transition to ultra low emission vehicles can help improve local air quality, and will also lower UK greenhouse gas emissions and provide high value jobs and growth, but our modelling suggests that even very rapid uptake can have only a marginal impact on today’s air quality problems because of the time taken to turn over the vehicle fleet.</p><br /><p>We are aware that a number of local authorities have been assessing electric car charging point requirements in air quality management areas.</p><br /><p>The Government is considering future grid and chargepoint requirements as part of its planning for this transition. The UK already has the largest network of rapid chargepoints across Europe and over 6000 publically accessible chargepoints have been part-funded by the Government. We will continue to collaborate with industry to ensure that the UK’s infrastructure network meets the needs of electric vehicle drivers.</p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones grouped question UIN 14767 question first answered 10/11/2015 17:30:02 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

426082

	registered interest
	date	04/11/2015
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Electric Vehicles: Charging Points
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has assessed the necessary financial support required by local authorities to deliver a charging network for electric vehicles of the scale required to have an effect on local air quality.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	14767
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2015 answer text <p>The Government wants almost every car and van to be a zero emission vehicle by 2050 and is investing £500m between 2015 and 2020 to help deliver this. The long-term transition to ultra low emission vehicles can help improve local air quality, and will also lower UK greenhouse gas emissions and provide high value jobs and growth, but our modelling suggests that even very rapid uptake can have only a marginal impact on today’s air quality problems because of the time taken to turn over the vehicle fleet.</p><br /><p>We are aware that a number of local authorities have been assessing electric car charging point requirements in air quality management areas.</p><br /><p>The Government is considering future grid and chargepoint requirements as part of its planning for this transition. The UK already has the largest network of rapid chargepoints across Europe and over 6000 publically accessible chargepoints have been part-funded by the Government. We will continue to collaborate with industry to ensure that the UK’s infrastructure network meets the needs of electric vehicle drivers.</p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones grouped question UIN 14855 question first answered 10/11/2015 17:30:02 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham