Richard Burden

My department provided no direct financial assistance to those organisations or to businesses to cover costs and losses during the implementation of Operation Stack in 2015.

The Business Support Helpline was available to businesses seeking advice on managing disruption throughout.

In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer committed £250 million into finding a long term solution to Operation Stack.

Innovate UK has supported more than 5000 individual companies since it was established in 2007. It publishes an Annual Report which details its activities during the year and any reviews undertaken of individual programmes. A copy of Innovate UK’s latest Annual Report is in the library of the House and can also be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/446302/FINAL_-_Innovate_UK_Accounts_2014-15_.pdf.

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement made by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Mr Letwin) on 21 July 2015 announcing the publication of an updated Cabinet Committees list including a new Economic Affairs (Airports) sub-Committee, Official Report, columns 84WS-85WS.

Copies of the list are available in the Libraries of the House.

As with all Cabinet Committees, information relating to the proceedings, including when and how often it meets and which Ministers have attended, is generally not disclosed as to do so would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.

The Government believes high standards of corporate governance promote the trust and confidence in business needed to facilitate trade, investment, prosperity and long-term growth.

In the last Parliament we took significant steps to reform corporate governance including improving corporate reporting and updating the rules on disqualification of directors.

This Government will continue to work to ensure the corporate governance framework fosters trust in UK companies and encourages long-term investment.

The Government has serious reservations about this paper. It is based on a model that was not built to assess trade policy. It does not directly model trade flows or the gains from trade.

The Government supports the Commission’s research. The UK adopted a similar approach when commissioning research for the potential impact on the UK. We also support the additional work that is underway for the Commission such as the Sustainability Impact Assessment. Whilst the trade models used by the Commission, ourselves and others have their limitations they are generally considered to be the most robust tools to examine the economic effects of trade agreements.

The Skills Funding Agency does not allocate funding to specific geographical areas. The Agency allocates funding to colleges and training providers, some of whom operate on very local geographic footprints, whilst others provide training and skills services to learners and employers across the country. College and training providers are required to work with local enterprise partnerships and local stakeholders to ensure that what they deliver locally is responding to local needs.

The Smart Metering Programme is making good progress. Consumers are already benefiting from smart meters, through accurate bills and helping them to understand their energy use to reduce consumption and save money.

Details of some key developments since December 2013 are set out in the Government’s ‘Third Annual Report on the Roll-out of Smart Meters’, published on 11 December 2014:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/third-annual-progress-report-on-the-roll-out-of-smart-meters.

In March 2015 DECC published research showing that consumers’ experience of the early rollout has been very positive: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-metering-early-learning-project-and-small-scale-behaviour-trials:

­ 82% of customers did not have any concerns about smart metering

­ 72% were satisfied with their smart meter and In Home Display overall. Only 4% were dissatisfied

­ 89% were satisfied with the installation process.

Details of the number of smart meters installed in Great Britain are set out in the Government’s ‘Smart Meters, Great Britain, Quarterly report to end September 2014’, published on 18 December 2014:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistical-release-and-data-smart-meters-great-britain-quarter-3-2014.

Over 1 million meters are operating under the Programme, which covers Great Britain. Northern Ireland is undertaking a separate roll-out programme.

Currently, data is published only at Great Britain level. Data is not collected from energy suppliers in a format that allows parliamentary constituency data to be produced.

The Climate Change Act 2008 requires that the carbon budget period including the year 2020 must be such that the annual equivalent of the carbon budget is at least 34% lower than the 1990 baseline. The third carbon budget covers the 2020 target and it was set at a level needed to meet this requirement.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change publishes emissions projections each Autumn. Last year’s report confirmed that the UK has met the first carbon budget and is on track to achieve the second and third carbon budgets, based on the projected impact of already announced and funded policies.

The Competition and Markets Authority became the UK’s lead competition and consumer body in April 2014, combining the Competition Commission (CC) with many of the functions of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). It does not keep records of its expenditure by market. However, based on approximate time allocations and all-inclusive staff costs, and taking into account some external costs such as the cost of commissioning surveys, the total cost of the CC/CMA market inquiry into private motor insurance (which ran from 28 September 2012 to 24 September 2014) was approximately £2million. On the assumption that this cost was spread evenly over time, this would have represented approximately 4% of the CC’s costs in 2013/14.

I understand that the Hon Member has already been in correspondence with the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on this issue.

The FRC publishes annual reports on its activity and in addition reports to parliament on the exercise of its statutory functions.

Details of my meetings with external organisations are published on a quarterly basis and are available on the gov.uk website.

The Government has consulted on different options for routing apprenticeship funding via employers. The consultation closed on 1 May 2014. We are currently analysing the responses and are committed to designing a system that works for employers of all sizes and in all sectors. Next steps will be announced in the autumn.

The Information requested is not held centrally.

Information on students awarded and paid Disabled Students' Allowance is published annually by Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release ‘Student Support for Higher Education England'. The latest statistics are available at the following link:

http://www.slc.co.uk/media/694170/slcsfr052013.pdf

A further breakdown for Birmingham Northfield constituency has been provided in the table for the academic year 2012/13. Equivalent figures for the academic year 2013/14 will be available from November 2014.

Current DSA recipients and disabled students applying for DSAs in 2014/15 will not be affected by these changes in 2015/16.

We are currently consulting with a wide range of stakeholders and are working through the detail of how the changes will work in practice, including the number of students affected.

Students in receipt of Disabled Students Allowance^[1] from Birmingham, Northfield constituency

Academic Year 2012/13

Effective date: 13/11/2013

Notes:

[1] Disabled Student Allowance may be paid to the Student or to a Supplier on the student's behalf.

[2] Figures are derived from the Post Code of the applicant's home address.

[3] The effective date is that of the November 2013 Awards Statistical First Release. The figures are therefore provisional and do not include students who were awarded DSA after November 2013.

[4] DSA Payments may be made at any point during the Academic Year or after the end of the Academic Year.

[5] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10. Totals do not add to the sum of the components due to rounding.

The Government recognises that electronic components and systems are key enabling technologies which underpin many key industrial sectors both in the UK and worldwide. In line with the Industrial Strategy, the Government is working with the industry-led Electronics Systems Community (ESCO) Council to support its aims of achieving sustainable growth within the sector. This Council is co-chaired by myself and Warren East, formerly Chief Executive of ARM, and is made up of senior business leaders from within the electronics systems sector.

The ESCO Council is working within the UK electronics community, with government, with academia and is building close ties with leadership groups from other industries in taking forward the industry's blueprint for transforming the electronic systems sector in the UK. The Council's aims and priorities are set out in the 'Electronic Systems: Challenges and Opportunities' report, which the industry published in summer 2013. The ESCO Council has set itself the goals for 2020 of increasing employment in the electronics systems sector from 850,000 to 1,000,000, and the contribution that electronics makes to the economy from around £80bn to £120bn per year.

Details of official and charity receptions held at Downing Street are published on a quarterly basis. Details can be accessed via the gov.uk website.

The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

The ward results for the area requested are as follows:

Results for all wards are available on the Commission's website here:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

Under transparency policy, we release the data annually (6 months in arrears) through the IPA Annual Report. The most recent report can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535243/ipa_annual_report_on_major_projects_2015_2016.pdf

All projects are ultimately the responsibility of individual government departments. However, with £400 billion in the Infrastructure Pipeline and £400 billion in the Major Projects Portfolio, the Cabinet Office has a central team, the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA), to support departments to deliver on time and within budget. The IPA provides expertise and practical help, a supportive environment to enable major projects to succeed, and manages an independent assurance process to ensure projects are delivered to time and within budget.

• IPA deploys expert commercial, financial and delivery support
• IPA delivers independent high quality assurance and oversight
• IPA develops standards, insights and tools, developing the project leadership and project finance professions
• IPA delivers key finance schemes (PF2 & guarantees) to enable key projects to proceed

The IPA works with all partners in infrastructure and major projects - government departments, project teams, HMT, Cabinet Office, and the private sector - to do this. The IPA reports jointly to HMT and Cabinet Office Ministers.

I will place this correspondence in the Library as requested, following the end of the pre-referendum period.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today.

The information requested is not held centrally. We are currently working on improving the data collected on grants through the development of an internal Government Grants Information System. The clause will apply to all grants except in exceptional circumstances as set out at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-grants-register.

Cabinet Office officials undertook several discussions with DCLG on this matter. The discussions were varied, extensive and frequent, and covered both development and implementation.

The few representations received about implementation of the new clause in Government grants have given us the opportunity to explain that the clause does not stop grant recipients from lobbying, but prevents them from spending government grant funded by taxpayers given for a different purpose on lobbying.

Responsibility for public procurement policy rests with the Crown Commercial Service, an executive agency of the Cabinet Office.

Responsibility for the Local Government Pension Scheme rests with the Department of Communities and Local Government. Guidance will be issued to local authorities and other public bodies reminding them that their procurement and investment decisions should provide value for money and be consistent with UK Government policy.

Procurement guidance issued by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) deals with operational matters and clarifies existing policy, set out in the EU Public Procurement Directives and the Public Contracts Regulations (2015), which were subject to Parliamentary process.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave to him on 1 February 2016 to UIN: 24475.

Cabinet Office issues any revision to guidance from time to time.

In line with previous answers on this topic, information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet Committees, including when and how often they meet, and which Ministers have attended, is generally not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.

Cabinet Office will shortly issue guidance that reminds public authorities of their international obligations when letting public contracts. Foreign policy is not a matter for local authorities. The guidance will make clear that boycotts in public procurement are inappropriate and may be illegal, outside where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions that have been put in place by the Government.

Cabinet Office will shortly issue guidance that reminds public authorities of their international obligations when letting public contracts. Foreign policy is not a matter for local authorities. The guidance will make clear that boycotts in public procurement are inappropriate and may be illegal, outside where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions that have been put in place by the Government.

Information relating to the proceedings of recent Cabinet Committee meetings is not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion. Cabinet Committee minutes and other papers, which are not subject to national security or other restrictions, will be released to The National Archives after 20 years once the transition from the 30 to the 20-year rule has been complete. A detailed list of the Cabinet Committees, including their membership and remit, can be found on Gov.uk.

Information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet Committees, including when and how often they meet and which Ministers have attended, is generally not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.

Government policy in respect of legislation is set out in the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation published on GOV.UK. On page 110 this makes clear impact assessments are generally required where:

· legislation will impose or reduce costs on businesses or civil society organisations;

· impose or remove a new information obligation for the public sector;

· introduce any other administrative burdens or unfunded policy costs of £5 million or more (annual equivalent costs) on the public sector; or

· where there is an exchange or ‘transfer’ of costs or benefits from one group to another, even where it does not yield an overall net change in costs and benefits.

The guidance we published in December 2013 set out that departments should use prefixes offering a geographic call rate as a default policy position for the provision of core public services. This was not the case in the past.

My officials are working with the cross-Whitehall group on customer service lines.

We will publish information from departments on their customer telephone lines later in the summer.

Cabinet Office is investing £470 million over the Spending Review period directly to support charities and voluntary groups. In most cases these payments are made under the Charities Act 2006.

Data on the legal powers exercised to make these and previous allocations to charitable, benevolent and philanthropic institutions by the Cabinet Office is not held.