There have been no changes to the reporting requirements for businesses below the VAT threshold. Making Tax Digital (MTD) applies only to VAT registered businesses above the £85,000 VAT threshold.

The Government has been clear that any move to extend MTD would happen only after it has assurance that the MTD for VAT service is working well, and will therefore not be mandating MTD for any new taxes or businesses in 2020.

Any form of sexual harassment or discrimination in the workplace is clearly unacceptable. The Government does not accept any behaviour that causes people to feel intimidated or humiliated in the workplace.

The Government has consulted on proposals to prevent the misuse of confidentiality clauses in cases of sexual harassment and discrimination. It will be publishing a response with its final proposals, in due course.

We have launched a consultation on sexual harassment in the workplace led by the Government Equalities Office. This consultation welcomes suggestions of alternative interventions to prevent and better monitor cases of sexual harassment and discrimination.

The rules about transparency of political donations are clearly set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Those rules are effective at root because they prevent non-UK nationals living abroad from making large donations to political parties here and provide for transparency by publishing donations and loans on the Electoral Commission website under Donations and Loans.

The Government will continue to work with the Electoral Commission to ensure there is sufficient guidance on donations to political parties and campaigners.

The most recent review of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme, published by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in May 2013, is available in the House of Commons Library.

The Government has recently commissioned the MAC to assess the impact of leaving the EU on the UK labour market. The MAC will report in September 2018 but may produce interim reports before then.

The UK Government is among the most transparent in the world and each Department is responsible for publishing a range of data on its activities. We will be working with departments over the coming months to improve the publication process to ensure we continue to meet our obligations in this important area.

The data in the National Pupil Database helps give us a clear picture of how the school system is working. The Department takes privacy extremely seriously and access to sensitive data is strictly controlled. Allowing vetted researchers and academics access to excerpts of this data, in an anonymised format and under strictly controlled conditions, can help the development and improvement of our education system for the benefit of all.

The applications accepted to extract information from the National Pupil Database over the past 5 years are detailed in the table below. These include both the Department’s and external requests.

Public Health England will draw on ASQ-3 data from Children and Young People’s Health Services to report the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) outcome measure of child development at age 2-2½. The first reporting of the outcome measure is planned for inclusion in the PHOF in spring 2017.

The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) was rolled out across all 43 police forces in England and Wales from 8 March 2014. An evaluation was published on 8 March 2016 and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-violence-disclosure-scheme-assessment-of-national-roll-out

On 7 December 2016 the Government published updated guidance on the DVDS to provide greater clarity on the legal and common law powers of the police to make disclosures in order to protect the public. The guidance provides an updated definition of domestic violence to include controlling and coercive behaviour.

Each national health service organisation is responsible for maintaining its own medical records, and for ensuring that personal information is shared with professionals in other NHS organisations when it is in the child's best interests. Increasingly this sharing can be conducted electronically and the NHS has established national standards and specifications in relation to system interoperability to support information sharing between organisations.

The Department is sponsoring the Child Protection Information Sharing (CP-IS) project which will enable health care staff to see whether any child with whom they come into contact is the subject of a child protection plan, regardless of where in the country that child normally resides.

Patients—including children—in England will soon all have a NHS Summary Care Record, containing information about any medication they receive, allergies

and adverse reactions, and this will be accessible to clinicians working in accident and emergency, out of hours services and community settings.

The publication of surgical performance data by NHS England is designed to assist patients in having an informed conversation with their consultant or general practitioner about a medical procedure they are due to undergo. All individual analyses are supported by narratives explaining how to understand the results.

It is not a statistical exercise intended to identify poor performers. It is an exercise to provide information on activity and outcomes, support improved treatment and assure the public that the national health service offers high quality surgery.

There will inevitably be a small number of outliers, which is where the consultant's data is outside an expected range. It is important that the data is reviewed by experts so that the published data are properly understood by all.

Consultant performance data is personal data and subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. This does not prevent it from being used appropriately and legal advice has confirmed that it would be lawful to publish consultant performance data without the consent of the individual surgeons concerned. However, the Government believes that it is good practice to seek the agreement of the consultants concerned and to publish the names of those who feel that they are unable to agree along with the reasons why.

To date, around 99% of consultants have agreed or not objected to information regarding their practice being published. Consultants and their reasons for opting out of publication will be listed on the NHS Choices website.

Consultant performance data is personal data and subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. This does not prevent it from being used appropriately and legal advice has confirmed that it would be lawful to publish consultant performance data without the consent of the individual surgeons concerned. However, the Government believes that it is good practice to seek the agreement of the consultants concerned and to publish the names of those who feel that they are unable to agree along with the reasons why.

To date, around 99% of consultants have agreed or not objected to information regarding their practice being published. Consultants and their reasons for opting out of publication will be listed on the NHS Choices website.

NHS England began the staged publication of mortality rates for individual hospital consultants in 10 specialties, leading a drive to give patients more information about their treatment, helping the national health service drive up and maintain the quality of care.

It is intended that publishing outcomes will encourage professionals to implement treatment options that are proven to be most effective for high risk patients, enabling an increased number of high risk patients to successfully undergo surgery.

Where possible, data are adjusted to take into consideration the risk of a procedure on patients with different risk factors. Improvements in risk adjustment methodologies will be stimulated by putting data into the public domain.

There will inevitably be a small number of outliers, which is where the consultant's data is outside an expected range. A surgeon could be an outlier due to the difficult cases that they undertake and does not necessarily reflect an issue in performance. It is important that the data is reviewed by experts so that the published data are properly understood by all.

Monitoring and evaluation of data on performance outcomes will be conducted by NHS England and Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership which will include surgeons taking on complex cases with high risks.

In adult cardiac surgery, where results have been published at consultant level since 2005, there is no evidence that publication encourages risk averse behaviour. There has been an annual increase in high risk patients receiving cardiac surgery in the United Kingdom. Despite these high risk patients being given the option of surgery, mortality rates have actually gone down significantly.

NHS Choices will act as the central hub of information and specialist societies and audits are encouraged to be innovative in the way that data are presented in order to stimulate further research.

The Department has not commissioned any research specifically surrounding the effects on patient outcomes from the surgeon performance data and publicly naming surgeons who do not publish performance data.

NHS England began the staged publication of mortality rates for individual hospital consultants in 10 specialties, leading a drive to give patients more information about their treatment, helping the national health service drive up and maintain the quality of care.

It is intended that publishing outcomes will encourage professionals to implement treatment options that are proven to be most effective for high risk patients, enabling an increased number of high risk patients to successfully undergo surgery.

Where possible, data are adjusted to take into consideration the risk of a procedure on patients with different risk factors. Improvements in risk adjustment methodologies will be stimulated by putting data into the public domain.

There will inevitably be a small number of outliers, which is where the consultant's data is outside an expected range. A surgeon could be an outlier due to the difficult cases that they undertake and does not necessarily reflect an issue in performance. It is important that the data is reviewed by experts so that the published data are properly understood by all.

Monitoring and evaluation of data on performance outcomes will be conducted by NHS England and Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership which will include surgeons taking on complex cases with high risks.

In adult cardiac surgery, where results have been published at consultant level since 2005, there is no evidence that publication encourages risk averse behaviour. There has been an annual increase in high risk patients receiving cardiac surgery in the United Kingdom. Despite these high risk patients being given the option of surgery, mortality rates have actually gone down significantly.

NHS Choices will act as the central hub of information and specialist societies and audits are encouraged to be innovative in the way that data are presented in order to stimulate further research.

The Department has not commissioned any research specifically surrounding the effects on patient outcomes from the surgeon performance data and publicly naming surgeons who do not publish performance data.

NHS England began the staged publication of mortality rates for individual hospital consultants in 10 specialties, leading a drive to give patients more information about their treatment, helping the national health service drive up and maintain the quality of care.

It is intended that publishing outcomes will encourage professionals to implement treatment options that are proven to be most effective for high risk patients, enabling an increased number of high risk patients to successfully undergo surgery.

Where possible, data are adjusted to take into consideration the risk of a procedure on patients with different risk factors. Improvements in risk adjustment methodologies will be stimulated by putting data into the public domain.

There will inevitably be a small number of outliers, which is where the consultant's data is outside an expected range. A surgeon could be an outlier due to the difficult cases that they undertake and does not necessarily reflect an issue in performance. It is important that the data is reviewed by experts so that the published data are properly understood by all.

Monitoring and evaluation of data on performance outcomes will be conducted by NHS England and Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership which will include surgeons taking on complex cases with high risks.

In adult cardiac surgery, where results have been published at consultant level since 2005, there is no evidence that publication encourages risk averse behaviour. There has been an annual increase in high risk patients receiving cardiac surgery in the United Kingdom. Despite these high risk patients being given the option of surgery, mortality rates have actually gone down significantly.

NHS Choices will act as the central hub of information and specialist societies and audits are encouraged to be innovative in the way that data are presented in order to stimulate further research.

The Department has not commissioned any research specifically surrounding the effects on patient outcomes from the surgeon performance data and publicly naming surgeons who do not publish performance data.

NHS England is committed to building a modern health and care data service through the care data programme, which will provide timely, accurate data linked across the different components of the patient journey and the outcomes resulting from treatment. This underpins the rights and pledges set out in the NHS Constitution, including the right to choose the most appropriate provider and setting of care. Part of this will include the NHS England’s planning document “Everyone Counts: Planning for patients 2013/14” offer of publishing consultant level quality and outcomes information for 10 key specialties by summer 2013.