The Department does not issue guidance to NHS England on sharing accountability for prescribed specialised services with clinical commissioning groups.

It is for Ministers to take the final decision as to which services should be prescribed within Schedule 4 of The National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) Regulations 2012, and therefore which services are directly commissioned by NHS England. It is for NHS England to determine the approach through which to carry out its responsibility for the commissioning of specialised services.

Since 2010 more than 10,000 Reservists have been mobilised in a variety of roles on operations worldwide including Iraq, Afghanistan and the London 2012 Olympics.

As at 28 February 2015, around 400 Reservists are mobilised. More than 60 Reservists have been mobilised so far to assist in efforts to resolve the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone. The majority of these are Army Reservists filling medical roles in the Kerry Town Treatment Unit and who I saw depart the UK last December, from Brize Norton.

For information on the distribution of the £35 million LIBOR Fund and the £40 million Veterans Accommodation Fund, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3 March 2015, to Question 221590 to the hon. Member for Gedling (Mr Coaker).

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-01-21/221590/

Subsequent to that answer there been two further announcements about LIBOR funded projects:

Gurkha Homes Project: £960,000 to Gurkha Homes Limited for various locations across England.

Scottish Veterans' Garden City Association (SVGCA) Future Shared Ownership Consortium: £551,190 for Houses for Heroes in Scotland.

As the hon. Member will have seen, the Chancellor announced in the Budget on 18 March that a total of £450 million of LIBOR fines had been used by this Government to support the Service charities and other good causes, including a further £75 million of funding over the next five years.

The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on the numbers of people who have benefited, or who may benefit, from this funding. However, given the scope of some of these projects, we anticipate that - at a minimum - this will run into the tens of thousands.

For information on the distribution of the £35 million LIBOR Fund and the £40 million Veterans Accommodation Fund, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3 March 2015, to Question 221590 to the hon. Member for Gedling (Mr Coaker).

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-01-21/221590/

Subsequent to that answer there been two further announcements about LIBOR funded projects:

Gurkha Homes Project: £960,000 to Gurkha Homes Limited for various locations across England.

Scottish Veterans' Garden City Association (SVGCA) Future Shared Ownership Consortium: £551,190 for Houses for Heroes in Scotland.

As the hon. Member will have seen, the Chancellor announced in the Budget on 18 March that a total of £450 million of LIBOR fines had been used by this Government to support the Service charities and other good causes, including a further £75 million of funding over the next five years.

The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on the numbers of people who have benefited, or who may benefit, from this funding. However, given the scope of some of these projects, we anticipate that - at a minimum - this will run into the tens of thousands.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 4 March 2015 to Question 225462.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=225462

The idea behind the starter homes scheme is precisely to offer homes at a discount to young people who want to get on the housing ladder. I would have thought that was an objective that everyone in the House would welcome. If the hon. Lady wants to look at social rented housing, in this Parliament—and continuing in the next Parliament—we have the highest annual rate of social house building than under the previous Government or for the past 20 years. During Labour’s 13 years in office, the number of social homes fell by 421,000; we have increased it by over 300,000.

There is currently no policy on the use of 3D printers.

Information on the provision of recreational prosthetics is not held centrally.

There have been no recorded incidents of non-compliances relating to the return of dangerous goods from Afghanistan within the last twelve months.

However, during that period, staff at Bastion and Kandahar identified 40 instances of potential non-compliance at the time of acceptance checks; all were corrected before the consignments entered the transport chain.

The Defence Reform Act (DRA) 2014 grants the Ministry of Defence (MOD) the power to request the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) to undertake additional analysis of the standard reports provided to it by industry. To date, the MOD has not made any such request to the SSRO.

Since such work would fall outside the core responsibilities of the SSRO, the MOD would be required to pay the SSRO for any additional costs arising. It is too soon after the implementation of the DRA to make any worthwhile estimate of the potential costs to the MOD.

The Ministry of Defence provides a wide range of training and education to meet our demand for suitably qualified and experienced personnel specialising in ordnance, munitions and explosives, including specialist courses run by the Defence Academy and military schools, together with apprentice and graduate schemes. We are also working with other organisations in the ordnance, munitions and explosives sector to understand our long term requirements and invest throughout the sector, including through joint training events.

There is currently no policy on the use of 3D printers.

Information on the provision of recreational prosthetics is not held centrally.

Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA), operated by MAXIMUS, has not been allocated specific targets in relation to the clearance of legacy work.

The Department has put in place a strong contract management and performance monitoring structure to ensure a step change in delivery is achieved, both in terms of delivering volumes and improvements to the service.

Health Education England commissions education for a range of healthcare professionals who care for patients with musculoskeletal disorders, for example, general practitioners, occupational health physicians, physiotherapists and nurses. The need for these staff is reflected in local and national workforce plans which are developed by providers working with Local Education and Training Boards and service commissioners.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is developing a system of credentialing areas of medical practice which would include areas not covered by existing specialty or sub-specialty curricula. This would enable doctors who have demonstrated competence in defined areas of practice to have their credentials in those areas recorded on the GMC register. Practitioners from musculoskeletal medicine have previously expressed an interest in applying the concept of credentialing to the field of musculoskeletal medicine.

The GMC will be consulting on its proposals for credentialing later this year. Subject to the outcome of that consultation, and the necessary enabling legislation, it would, in due course, be possible for authoritative bodies in the field of musculoskeletal medicine to seek approval for the establishment of a GMC recognised credential in their field.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes the security and accounting of its ammunition very seriously. The MOD therefore has in place mechanisms to ensure that only units and individuals which are allowed to draw and use specific types of ammunition can do so. In addition to this, the MOD operates a rigorous internal audit system to ensure that ammunition can be accounted for at all stages of the supply chain. This includes both formal inventory checking within ammunition stores and confirmatory checks at the end of a range session; the latter includes a declaration requiring individuals to confirm they have no ammunition in their possession. The Service Police Crime Bureau has recorded all reported losses, thefts, and recoveries of MOD ammunition since 2011. Centrally held figures prior to 2011 are not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The amount of lost and stolen ammunition is shown in the following table.

Full year data for 2014 is not yet available.

As part of the Government’s announcement on 23 December 2014 in respect to local highways maintenance funding to highway authorities in England, outside London, the Department for Transport published guidance, an application form, as well as assessment criteria for the local highways maintenance challenge fund. The information is available at the following weblink:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-highways-maintenance-challenge-fund

Assessment of all the bids received by close on 9 February 2015 is based on the published criteria and will help inform the decision on successful schemes based on the evidence supplied by local highway authorities.

As part of the assessment by the Department for Transport, each bid is being subject to a dual-assessment, and will also go through a moderation exercise plus an internal Department for Transport investment decision committee approval process before Ministers make final decisions on which schemes will be awarded funding.

I am happy to look into that issue and get back to the hon. Lady.

This project is still subject to the planning application process. I am withholding the estimated cost as its release could prejudice the commercial interests of the Department.

I just explained in my answer to the previous question what the planning assumption is for replacing frigates. I can reconfirm to the hon. Lady that within the equipment plan is the capital cost of constructing both aircraft carriers, and they are coming in on time and on budget, in stark contrast to what happened under the previous Government.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the 2008 Act) all providers of regulated activities, including National Health Service and independent providers, have to register with the CQC and meet a set of requirements of safety and quality.

The 2008 Act, together with the CQC (Registration) Regulations 2009 require that all providers must have in place one or more registered managers for its regulated activities. The regulations set out some exceptions to this (for example if the provider is a health service body, or a lone individual who meets certain criteria) but in practice, the vast majority of registered providers in the social care sector must have a registered manager.

Registered managers have legal responsibilities in relation to their position. The person appointed as registered manager should be in day-to-day charge of carrying on the regulated activity or activities they apply to be registered for. The regulations do not specify that the registered manager must be on the premises at all times, but in all cases, the registered manager must be able to demonstrate how they will manage the day-to-day running of the regulated activities at each of their locations.

The CQC has supplied the following information about the registered manager regulations:

As of 5 February 2015 there are 16,426 locations which provide the regulated activity of accommodation for people who require nursing or personal care. The provider is required to have a registered manager in place for each of these locations. 14,758 locations have a registered manager in place and 1,668 locations do not.

The CQC inspectors ensure that where a manager is not in place the provider complies with Regulation 14 Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, Notice of absence, to ensure the safe management of the home while a manager is absence or in the process of being appointed. The expectation is that providers will take timely and strenuous action to appoint a manager who is suitably competent and qualified to apply for and secure registration. If providers fail to do so, in addition to enforcement action which can include the issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice or prosecution CQC will limit the rating when judging the “Well led” question as part of CQC’s new approach to inspection and ratings.

The requirements state that registered managers must have the necessary qualifications, skills and experience to manage the carrying on of the regulated activity. The CQC assesses against the requirements in Regulation 7(2) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 when it registers providers and managers (by asking about qualification, induction and ongoing training programmes, for example), as well as monitoring continuing compliance with this requirement through inspection. In CQC’s Key Lines of Enquiry, CQC inspectors are prompted to look at how providers are making sure that staffing levels have the right mix of skills, competencies, qualifications, experience and knowledge, to meet people’s individual needs, to determine whether or not a care home provider is delivering safe care.

The content and standard of medical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC), which is an independent statutory body. It has the general function of promoting high standards of education and co-ordinating all stages of education to ensure that medical students and newly qualified doctors are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for professional practice.

Health Education England (HEE) will work with bodies that set curricula such as the GMC and the Royal College of general practitioners to seek to ensure general practice training meets the needs of patients.

In addition, HEE has established an independent Primary Care Workforce Commission which is chaired by Professor Martin Roland of University of Cambridge. The Commission will identify models of primary care that will meet the needs of the future National Health Service including greater emphasis on community, primary and integrated services. It will focus on patient and population need; emerging models of care to respond to the population need; and maximising new skill sets and education and training.