argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Contracted-out Health Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-12-18
Topic: Health
Questions: What recent assessment he has made of the (a) accuracy and (b) efficiency of contracted-out health assessments for (i) employment and support allowance and (ii) personal independence payments.
Sarah Louise Newton (Conservative, Centre-right): I am looking forward to discussing this matter in more depth with the Select Committee when I come before it on Wednesday. However, I can absolutely assure the hon. Lady that all the assessors receive absolutely appropriate training for what they are there to do. These are functional assessments, and people are properly trained to make those assessments—there are doctors, nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists. We constantly keep the accuracy of the process under review, and that includes the experience of the claimants themselves.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2017-12-18
Topic: Defense
Questions: I welcome my right hon. Friend’s recent announcement of the extension of auto-enrolment to 18 to 21-year-olds. In the meantime, does he have any figures on how many people have started saving and benefited from auto-enrolment in individual constituencies, including mine?; What steps has the Department to taken to help older people who are looking, perhaps after redundancy or caring responsibilities, to get back into work?; I thank my right hon. Friend for the flexibility he has shown in the budget in terms of the changes to universal credit. Will he continue with the dialogue and the flexibility as the roll-out continues?; Some 68% of personal independence payment decisions taken to tribunal are being overturned by judges, so is it any surprise that my constituent Mr Parish and others in his situation have no faith in the assessment process? What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the accuracy of PIP assessments in the light of statistics that show that there has been a ninefold increase in complaints to the Department in just one year?; A constituent of mine in Bradford West had three same-day assessments cancelled in a period of five weeks. Eventually, she got an appointment—a home visit—after seven months. What assessment has the Department made of same-day cancellations of work capability assessments by Maximus-employed health professionals—the number, the reasons given and the impact on the mental health of applicants?; I recently met Hope Rising action group, which works in my constituency to support those affected by the Government’s benefit cap, and heard stories about just how hard people are being hit by a policy that is so cruel the High Court found it unlawful and guilty of causing misery. Will the Minister tell me how many people in Bradford will be affected by this policy?
Thomas Christopher John Pursglove (Conservative, Centre-right): What steps is the Department taking to ensure that DWP staff are aware of military covenant issues, so that they are best able to support our brave men and women when they leave the armed forces?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2017-12-18
Topic: Defense
Questions: I welcome my right hon. Friend’s recent announcement of the extension of auto-enrolment to 18 to 21-year-olds. In the meantime, does he have any figures on how many people have started saving and benefited from auto-enrolment in individual constituencies, including mine?; What steps has the Department to taken to help older people who are looking, perhaps after redundancy or caring responsibilities, to get back into work?; I thank my right hon. Friend for the flexibility he has shown in the budget in terms of the changes to universal credit. Will he continue with the dialogue and the flexibility as the roll-out continues?; Some 68% of personal independence payment decisions taken to tribunal are being overturned by judges, so is it any surprise that my constituent Mr Parish and others in his situation have no faith in the assessment process? What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the accuracy of PIP assessments in the light of statistics that show that there has been a ninefold increase in complaints to the Department in just one year?; A constituent of mine in Bradford West had three same-day assessments cancelled in a period of five weeks. Eventually, she got an appointment—a home visit—after seven months. What assessment has the Department made of same-day cancellations of work capability assessments by Maximus-employed health professionals—the number, the reasons given and the impact on the mental health of applicants?; I recently met Hope Rising action group, which works in my constituency to support those affected by the Government’s benefit cap, and heard stories about just how hard people are being hit by a policy that is so cruel the High Court found it unlawful and guilty of causing misery. Will the Minister tell me how many people in Bradford will be affected by this policy?
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise that issue. Veterans make a considerable contribution to our country and it is right that we support them as they move on in their careers. DWP staff receive continual training to ensure that they can signpost veterans correctly. The "See Potential" campaign champions veterans and encourages employers to see the incredible skills they bring to the workplace.
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-01
Topic: Health
Mary Elizabeth Twist (Labour, Centre-left): Today’s Office for National Statistics suicide statistics show that middle-aged men remain at the highest risk of suicide. It is well established that recessions can lead to increases in suicides, but that is not inevitable. What will the Secretary of State do to ensure that suicide prevention is a Government priority and that this group of people is supported through the recession caused by the covid-19 pandemic?
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-18
Topic: Defense
Robert Alexander Courts (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a great pleasure to speak in this debate. I only wish to make some very brief comments because I have already spoken this evening and I am conscious of the fact that other Members wish to speak I will make a few comments about the armed forces exemption that we have just been discussing, because it has particular relevance to my constituency, where a great amount of the Royal Air Force is based at Brize Norton. We are awaiting the redevelopment of the two REEMA sites, which are particularly important. Already, a great number of Royal Air Force and Army personnel live either on the base or outside it, in particular in Bampton, Witney, Carterton and Brize Norton village I am glad that the Government have proposed this welcome measure. It falls into a similar bracket as the Armed Forces (Flexible Working) Bill, which we have discussed in the House over the past few weeks and months. It is important that we understand that expectations are changing. The armed forces offer must be able to stand alongside what can be received in the civilian world. This measure has the potential to provide exactly that At the moment, there is the anomaly that if personnel live in Ministry of Defence accommodation, it is essentially provided tax free, but if an armed forces allowance is given, there is taxation on it. That is how the rules work at the moment, so clearly personnel would be disadvantaged. We have to accept that in many cases, armed forces personnel wish to live outside a base, perhaps close to where their spouse works or where their children go to school. I welcome the measure because it moves us a step along the road towards realising that.
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-18
Topic: Defense
Michael Penning (Conservative, Centre-right): The people who serve in our armed forces today—I have some experience of this—are looking for a different model and a different way of life for their families to grow up in. In the old days, they would have been in the garrisons or the ports. My constituency is further from the sea than anywhere else in the country, yet I have Royal Marines bringing their families up in the town. They are penalised for doing that because of the way the scheme works now. The new scheme will help them and they tell me that they are looking forward to it.
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-18
Topic: Defense
Robert Alexander Courts (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for making that point. His constituency is very similar to mine in that respect. I welcome this measure and I anticipate that my constituents will as well Those brief comments are the only ones I wish to make. I very much welcome this measure because it is in the interests of west Oxfordshire, in particular Brize Norton. It helps to bring forward the offer to which my right hon. Friend refers. We have to accept that there is a change in expectation on the part of many members of the armed forces and this is welcome.
Finance (No. 2) Bill — House of Commons, 2017-12-18
Topic: Defense
Michael Penning (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman—my friend—and I agree on most things, but no one is going to force people into doing this. We must wait for the model to come forward, and I would not vote for something where we forced people into such a scheme, as the Opposition Front Bench claimed. But my friend is wrong to say we will have to address this just around the localities: we will have to do that, but these people often want to find accommodation in their own home towns, so they can be around their family structure. That is the way the armed forces are now, rather than just having the garrisons, and the super-garrisons, which are coming.
Gurkhas — House of Commons, 2017-11-13
Topic: Defense
Caroline Julia Dinenage (Conservative, Centre-right): As you will be aware, Mr Speaker, I am married to a former Gurkha, so I fully understand and share my hon. Friend’s gratitude for their bravery and service. No member of our armed forces should be disadvantaged by their service to our country. I would like to reassure her that the DWP takes very seriously our commitment to the armed forces covenant. We will do everything we can, and work as hard as we can, to help them get the best possible support.
Contracted-out Health Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-13
Topic: Health
Questions: What recent assessment he has made of the (a) accuracy and (b) efficiency of contracted-out health assessments for employment and support allowance and personal independence payments.
Justin Paul Tomlinson (Conservative, Centre-right): The vast majority of successful appeals are successful because of late additional evidence. What further consideration has been given to sharing data between the two different assessments and to providing for automatic access to health records—where the claimant is willing—in advance of an assessment?
Contracted-out Health Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-13
Topic: Health
Questions: What recent assessment he has made of the (a) accuracy and (b) efficiency of contracted-out health assessments for employment and support allowance and personal independence payments.
Helen Olivia Bicknell Whately (Conservative, Centre-right): For our constituents a health assessment is an incredibly important moment, and it can be very distressing. I have been calling for routine recording of assessments, to provide evidence if they go wrong and also because recording in itself should sometimes change behaviour for the better. Will my right hon. Friend give me an update on the recording pilots?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-09-21
Topic: Health
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I am sure the Secretary of State will agree that we in Kirklees and West Yorkshire are working hard as a team to meet the crisis in these uncertain times, with tens of thousands of students now moving across the country. Will he bear in mind the fact that our system relies on fit and healthy NHS staff? The crisis we are in is getting worse, and if we get a virulent flu virus this winter, which is coming soon, and that knocks out a large percentage of NHS staff, we are going to be in serious trouble. A significant percentage of NHS workers are refusing to get a flu jab; what can we do about that?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2017-11-13
Topic: Defense
Questions: The Minister will know that motor neurone disease is a degenerative disease, so may I ask what plans the Government have to ensure that people who suffer from that terrible disease do not have to be re-assessed for personal independence payments?; Can the Minister update the House on progress with the pensions dashboard and confirm that all pension schemes will be required to release the comprehensive data required to make that system useful?; How does the increased conditionality associated with universal credit, such as the requirement to attend at jobcentres more frequently, square with the DWP’s estates review and the decision to close jobcentres, starting with Maryhill in my constituency—which, incidentally, I have visited?; Does my right hon. Friend share my concern that the inaccurate use of universal credit statistics can cause huge distress and concern to vulnerable claimants? Does he agree that everyone has a duty to check their facts before using them in this House?; Many veterans with psychological injuries carry out physical activity as part of their rehabilitation process, but some report that they are being sanctioned because of this. Will the Secretary of State give his guarantee that the Government will no longer sanction recovering veterans?
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): I will look at the facts of the case, but I cannot make a blanket commitment, because one obviously has to look at the particular circumstances. Of course, we recognise and support our veterans at every opportunity.
Northern Ireland Budget Bill — House of Commons, 2017-11-13
Topic: Health
Andrew William Murrison (Conservative, Centre-right): I certainly share the concern about long-term planning. In general, we do such planning through the normal budget system, but it is not clear to me how that is going to be achieved for the financial year 2018-19. I suspect our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be considering how that can best be achieved in short order, since we have only a matter of weeks in which to determine the budget for Northern Ireland, as for the rest of the United Kingdom, for future years My hon. Friend is absolutely right to refer to our evidence session with the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, when he expressed his concern not just about finance, but about general accountability. Given that the Northern Ireland Policing Board has not been properly constituted, because of the impasse at Stormont, he is very concerned, as she will recall, about the democratic deficit and what that implies for accountability On testing the methodology on which the estimates are based, for me the most important thing to do is to look at the biggest spending Department. The biggest spending Department and the one with the second largest cash departmental expenditure limit is of course the Department of Health. Until the end of last year, the Minister in charge of the Department was Michelle O’Neill. She said last October, in response to Professor Bengoa’s health sector reform plan, that it was "a foundation for my vision"— we could not hope for a clearer statement of ministerial intent—and formed the basis of her 10-year vision It is not clear to me where and how that vision is captured in the budget presented, but we know that David Sterling has relied on what he understood to be the ministerial intent up to the point at which the Executive collapsed. It would be useful to know in greater detail how the purposes listed under the Department of Health in schedule 1 are being addressed with Bengoa’s plans in mind, given that they have been endorsed by the last Minister of Health in Northern Ireland. As it happens, those purposes are remarkably broad, but it is one of the smallest paragraphs in the schedule, which is somewhat strange given the extent of the health budget in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland Budget Bill — House of Commons, 2017-11-13
Topic: Health
Hugo Swire (Conservative, Centre-right): On the Department of Health—this could also apply to other Departments—is my hon. Friend concerned that, although the budgets will be approved for continuing its work, there will be no room for any new initiative or flexibility, given that no Minister oversees it?
NHS Trusts: Subsidiary Companies — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): Local NHS organisations are responsible for deciding the most appropriate structures they need to deliver services to their patients within available resources. Commissioners and regulators are responsible for ensuring that NHS providers act in the best interests of patients and taxpayers. A theme of the 2015 review of performance variability across NHS hospitals, undertaken by the noble Lord Carter of Coles, sought to drive efficiency through sharing administrative functions across NHS bodies in an area. A number of trusts are creating the right structures to do so. NHS Improvement is aware of 39 subsidiaries consolidated within the accounts of foundation trusts as of 31 March 2017.
NHS Trusts: Subsidiary Companies — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that we have no interest in allowing NHS trusts to avoid their tax responsibilities. Guidance was sent to all trusts in September to ensure that any TUPE transfers of staff would remain subject to NHS pension rules and should not be done for tax avoidance purposes.
NHS Trusts: Subsidiary Companies — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): There has been a continuing involvement of private provision of health services since the very origins of the NHS, when GP partnerships came in, as private businesses, to provide their services. Of course, competitive tendering was introduced to NHS contracts by the last Labour Government, and the rate of private provision under that Government grew faster than it has under this Government. According to the last figures, 7.7% of services were provided by the independent sector.
NHS Trusts: Subsidiary Companies — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman, for whom I have considerable respect, is trying, yet again, the tired old approach of weaponising the NHS by alleging privatisation—seeing privatisation fairies where there are not any. This is about responding to the review of Lord Carter—one of his hon. Friends in the other place, I remind him—of driving efficiency through the NHS, which I know he supports, and about finding the right structures to allow, for example, the back offices of different NHS bodies in an area to be combined. That requires a structure, and a number of foundation trusts are setting up subsidiaries to provide those services to each other.
Shortage of Doctors: Medical Provision — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The NHS needs more doctors, which is why last year we announced one of the biggest-ever increases—a 25% increase—in the number of medical school places. Some 500 additional students will start next year and a further 1,000 the year after.
Shortage of Doctors: Medical Provision — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
David John Warburton (Conservative, Centre-right): I am pleased to hear that the Department is working on addressing these issues, but can we also look closely at other difficulties specifically facing rural areas? Local patient transport is certainly one of these. With rural bus links thin on the ground and struggling, will the Secretary of State assure us that adequate provision will be made to ensure that patients can always access the services they need?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-09-15
Topic: Health
Anneliese Jane Dodds (Labour, Centre-left): The Chancellor will be aware of concerns that the UK risks a slower recovery than comparable economies for self-inflicted reasons. Despite the devastating impact on jobs, the Treasury Front Benchers have yet again today—six times—rejected targeted wage support. Economists are concerned about this Government’s inability to get a grip on the public health crisis, which evidence from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies suggests stems in part from a failure to adequately support people who have to self-isolate. Rumour has it that the Chancellor is blocking attempts to improve sick pay, so I put it to him: can he put himself in the shoes of those low-paid workers who often have to choose between paying their rent and bills, and putting food on the table for their kids? If these workers are advised to self-isolate, they get £95.85 a week—and that is if they are even eligible for statutory sick pay. Surely the Chancellor must agree with the Secretary of State for Health that statutory sick pay is not enough to live on.
Shortage of Doctors: Medical Provision — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): With respect, I do not think it helps to reassure the brilliant NHS professionals from the EU who are working in the system when the right hon. Gentleman asks questions like that. The reality is that those people are staying in the NHS, and I take every opportunity to ensure that they feel welcome. I try to stress how important they are, and how the NHS would fall over without them. The Government continue to make every possible effort to secure a deal for their future, which we are very confident that we will achieve.
Shortage of Doctors: Medical Provision — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Grantham accident and emergency department is very important to my constituents and those of my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles). It is also very important to me, as it saved my husband’s life on two occasions. Last August it was closed overnight because there were not enough doctors to staff it safely. There are enough doctors now, but unfortunately NHS Improvement has interfered to stop its reopening, postponing it by at least a month. Does the Secretary of State agree that it should be reopened in December?
Shortage of Doctors: Medical Provision — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I think I have said to my hon. Friend in the House, and I have certainly said to my hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles)—who I am delighted to see back in the Chamber after an incredibly brave battle against cancer—that this was a temporary closure based on difficulties in recruiting doctors, so I will certainly look into the issue very carefully.
Shortage of Doctors: Medical Provision — House of Commons, 2017-11-14
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): With respect, the Red Cross was not called in. As the hon. Lady well knows—as a doctor working at Tooting hospital—NHS trusts contract with the Red Cross throughout the year. However, she is right to say that what happened last year was not acceptable. We have done a huge amount: perhaps most important is our provision of an extra £1 billion for this year’s social care budget and a further £1 billion for next year’s budget, because that is where particular pressures were, but we have also allocated £100 million to a capital fund to help A&E departments to improve their facilities.