Cycling: Northern Ireland

Ms Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the cycle to work scheme in Northern Ireland; [198223]

(2) what level of uptake there has been for the cycle-to-work scheme in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) Scotland. [198239]

Mr Goodwill: The Department does not retain data on the uptake of the cycle-to-work scheme. Independently of Government, the Cycle to Work Alliance have published reports containing information on take up of the scheme. This is available at:

www.cycletoworkalliance.org.uk/news.html.

Driving: Licensing

Eric Ollerenshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many individuals applied to have their licences restored following the voluntary or enforced

13 May 2014 : Column 516W

revocation of a driving licence on medical grounds in the most recent period for which figures are available; what the average timescale was for an application to be decided in that period; and how many requests were outstanding. [197757]

Stephen Hammond: The following tables show the number of drivers that have voluntarily surrendered, or had their driving licence refused/revoked on medical grounds, during 2013 and since applied to restore their licence and the average timescale for processing these applications:

Information is not held about those applications that are still outstanding for drivers that had voluntarily surrendered or had their licence refused/revoked in 2013.

Railways

Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much from the public purse was spent on rebranding (a) engines and (b) rolling stock used on rail services in (i) Bury St Edmunds, (ii) Suffolk, (iii) the East of England and (d) England and Wales in each of the last five years. [198331]

Stephen Hammond: No money from the public purse has been spent in the last five years on rebranding of rolling stock or engines used on rail services in Bury St Edmonds and Suffolk. The Department does not hold this level of disaggregated information for the East of England or for England and Wales.

Roads: Hampshire

Mr Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much has been invested in road infrastructure in (a) Portsmouth South constituency and (b) Hampshire in each of the last four years. [198023]

Mr Goodwill: The Department for Transport is responsible for the strategic road network which is managed by the Highways Agency on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. The remaining roads are the responsibility of local highway authorities under the Highways Act 1980.

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Highways Agency spending on improving road infrastructure (including smaller schemes and technology improvements) on the strategic road over the last four financial years in Hampshire is as follows:

The strategic road network does not extend into Portsmouth South.

The Department for Transport also provides funding to local highway authorities through Integrated Transport and Highways Maintenance Block grants. This funding can be used to improve local roads that the authorities manage if they so wish. The following tables provide this information:

The Department for Transport is also supporting the Portsmouth highways maintenance project and a street lighting project in Hampshire which are both being funded through the private finance initiative. The total Department for Transport funding being provided for the scheme over a 25-year period is as follows:

Local authorities are also able to use revenue funding allocated by the Department for Communities and Local Government through the Revenue Support Grant for maintaining their local highways.

Neither capital nor revenue highways maintenance funding is ring-fenced and it is for local highway authorities to decide upon their spending priorities across the whole range of services they provide.

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In addition, the Department for Transport also provides capital funding for local major schemes, costing over £5 million. The Department for Transport has agreed to provide a funding contribution to two schemes being promoted by Portsmouth city council.

Cabinet Office

Public Appointments

Mr Jenkin: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what criteria are used to decide which public bodies and offices are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments; [198042]

(2) appointments to which public bodies and offices to which Ministers make appointments are not regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, by appointing Minister. [198035]

Mr Maude: The public appointments that are subject to regulation by the Commissioner for Public Appointments are governed by legislation-the Public Appointments Order in Council 2013. This lists the public bodies that fall within the Commissioner’s remit.

The document is available to view online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-appointments-order-in-council

Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what literature was produced to educate the public on government policy in (a) 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14. [197900]

Mr Maude: Government published material is listed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications

Respite Care

Paul Maynard: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office which organisations have received how much funding from his Department aimed at supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families experiencing all types of disadvantage in each of the last five financial years. [197819]

Mr Hurd: I am not aware of any specific direct payments of this type made by the Cabinet Office. Details of organisations funded by the Cabinet Office can be found on gov.uk.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many of his Department's employees are currently working on the digital solution for universal credit. [198243]

Mr Hurd: There are currently no Cabinet Office employees working full-time on the digital solution for universal credit.

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Cabinet Office officials have provided wide-ranging support and advice to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) universal credit digital team who have their own team working on the digital solution for universal credit.

This model of supporting departments to develop their own digital capability is core to the Government Digital Strategy, available at:

gov.uk/digitalstrategy

Culture, Media and Sport

Broadband

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of the introduction of unbundled fibre to the cabinet and sub-loop bundling of residential broadband provision. [197016]

Mr Vaizey: I favour competition at all levels of the telecoms system, where it is effective and sustainable. Sub-loop unbundling (SLU), where a competing provider takes their fibre to BT's street cabinets and connects to BT's copper lines to consumers' premises, is a standard product controlled by Ofcom. At present there appears to be limited demand from communications providers for SLU. There may be opportunities to increase the likelihood of future competition in fibre-to-the-cabinet by designing network upgrades to make such access easier at little or no additional cost at the time of deployment, but lower entry barriers subsequently. Ofcom is keeping the matter under review.

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will initiate a review of the fibre broadband wholesale pricing structure. [197017]

Mr Vaizey: On 27 January this year, Ofcom published a consultation on an update on the impact of fibre roll-out and the proposed charge control review of the wholesale broadband access (WBA) markets, following-on from its July-September 2013 consultation on the WBA market. In this context, services provided via copper, cable and fibre access networks are considered to be within the same market. The update consultation closed on 10 March.

Equality and Human Rights Commission

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 29 January 2014, Official Report, column 576W, on Equality and Human Rights Commission, if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidance referred to in the Equality and Human Rights Commission's Equality and Diversity Workforce Report 2010-11 which has been provided to all managers on how to manage a diverse workforce through organisational change. [197889]

Mrs Grant: The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent body and is responsible for its own staff management, including diversity training.

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The guidance papers requested are internal documents that were not intended for wider publication. However, I have asked the EHRC to send copies to the hon. Member.

Giro d'Italia

Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on the potential for growth in tourism as a result of the opening stages of the Giro d'Italia taking place in Northern Ireland. [198091]

Mrs Grant: I have not held any discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive on the potential for growth in tourism as a result of the opening stages of the Giro d'Italia taking place in Northern Ireland. However, I would like to congratulate them on having won the right to stage the Big Start of this major cycling race on 9 to 11 May, which will further support Northern Ireland's wonderful tourism offer and boost the economy.

Radio Frequencies

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent representations he has received on privatising a larger share of the radio spectrum; and if he will make a statement. [197734]

Mr Vaizey: Government are aware of the need to put more spectrum into the market to support innovation and growth and launched the Public Sector Spectrum Release Programme in 2011. This programme aims to release 500 MHz of sub-5GHz spectrum from public sector use by 2020. One of the early actions was to gauge stakeholder demand at a series of events. The most recent programme update was published on 10 March 2014. On the same day Government published the UK Spectrum Strategy which sets out a vision for efficient and flexible spectrum management, with specific actions and the goal of doubling the contribution of spectrum use to the economy by 2025. Both documents can be found on the gov.uk website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spectrum-strategy

Respite Care

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which organisations have received how much funding from his Department aimed at supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families experiencing all types of disadvantage in each of the last five financial years. [197821]

Mrs Grant: DCMS has not provided any funding to organisations aimed at supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families. However, DCMS and VisitEngland contributed to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Social Tourism. VisitEngland also works with the Family Holiday Association (FHA) to raise awareness of the issue of families excluded from taking holidays. I visited ‘Kent Life’ in March 2014 to promote Visit Kent’s social tourism pilot with the FHA.

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Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Government

Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to her answer of 30 April 2014, Official Report, column 723W, on Northern Ireland Government, when she last met with the Northern Ireland Minister for Social Development. [198182]

Mrs Villiers: I am in regular contact with the Northern Ireland Minister for Social Development on several issues. I last met him on 8 May 2014. I am due to meet him again shortly.

Praxis

Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will provide funding for Praxis to support the relocation of employees working on the Hillsborough Estate. [198178]

Mrs Villiers: The NIO will not provide funding for Praxis to support the relocation of employees working on the Hillsborough Estate. Praxis has benefited from generous terms over several years at the site, including an annual rent of only £1 and has been given a lengthy period to make appropriate arrangements for their service users to move to one of the other Praxis sites.

Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent support her Department has offered to Praxis to help relocate their services off the Hillsborough Estate. [198179]

Mrs Villiers: Praxis Care has benefited from generous terms over several years at Hillsborough, including an annual rent of only £1. My Department has also given them a prolonged period in which to make other arrangements; the original Notice to Quit was issued 21 months ago.

Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will meet representatives of Praxis to discuss their eviction from the Hillsborough Estate. [198180]

Mrs Villiers: I have met Praxis Care on two occasions to discuss this matter and my officials have had several further meetings with them.

In the light of the extensive discussions that have taken place with Praxis I do not feel that a further meeting would be appropriate at the present time.

Prerogative of Mercy

Mr Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when she was informed by officials in her Department that records for the period 1987 to 1988 relating to the Royal Prerogative of Mercy had gone missing; and whether she instigated an inquiry. [198181]

Mrs Villiers: I first became aware of the issue on receipt of advice from officials and a draft response to recent parliamentary questions. I have asked for an urgent review of the historical records relating to RPMs during the period 1987 to 1997 and this is now being conducted.

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Education

Child Protection

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children were on child protection plans in each Greater Manchester local authority area in the last three years for which data is available. [198220]

Mr Timpson: The data requested can be found online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/characteristics-of-children-in-need-in-england-2012-to-2013

Free Schools

Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will discuss with (a) the Whitbourne Independent School and Hub and (b) other projects whose applications for free school status were turned down those applicants' feedback on how the application process can be made easier for small independent schools. [198079]

Mr Timpson: The Department for Education welcomes all feedback on its processes and routinely surveys both successful and unsuccessful free school applicants to ensure the application process remains rigorous and fair and that only the strongest applications are approved.

The Whitbourne Independent School and Hub unsuccessfully applied to the New School Network’s development programme, but has not applied to the Department of Education to open a free school. It is welcome to do so.

GCSE

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of the cohort achieved an A* to C grade in (a) GCSE mathematics, (b) GCSE English and (c) GCSE English literature at the end of (i) year 11, (ii) year 12 and (iii) year 13 in each of the last 10 years. [198173]

Mr Laws: The following tables show the proportion of 15, 16 and 17 year olds (based on academic age) who had achieved A*-C grade in GCSE English and GCSE mathematics for the last 10 years. The figures cover young people who were in the state sector at academic age 15. Academic age refers to the age at the start of the academic year, so the majority of young people of academic age 15 will be in year 11. The data source used for this analysis does not differentiate between English literature and English language so may include those that have A*-C in either subject.

Tables that show key stage 4 results for English and English literature are available at:

http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2012-to-2013-revised

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Members: Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 24 March 2014 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr Sherratt. [198191]

Mr Timpson: The Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), replied to the right hon. Gentleman's letter on 2 May 2014.

School Meals

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the performance of the School Food Plan in increasing healthy breakfast provision in more deprived areas; and how much had been spent on this programme by April 2014. [198049]

Mr Laws: As part of the school food plan, Magic Breakfast started work in March 2014 to set up breakfast clubs in schools where over 35% of pupils are eligible for free school meals and where there is currently no breakfast provision.

We are currently tendering for a contract to evaluate the effectiveness of the breakfast clubs. The successful bidder will be announced shortly.

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education in which local authorities 30% or more pupils entitled to free school meals are not claiming them; and what steps he is taking to improve the take-up of free school meals. [198051]

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Mr Laws: The Department for Education routinely collects information on pupils who are both eligible for and claiming free school meals. This information is published in the “Schools, pupils and their characteristics, January 2013” Statistical First Release, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2013

Identifying pupils who are eligible for but not claiming free school meals is more difficult.

The Department has published a research paper, “Pupils not claiming free school meals: 2013”, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupils-not-claiming-free-school-meals-2013

which presents estimates of the number and proportion of pupils who are entitled to receive free school meals but are not claiming. The paper compares registration rates for children aged between four and 15 and highlights regions and local authorities where under-registration rates are high. A table showing under registration rates by local authority can be found in the annex.

The Department has developed a free school meals eligibility checking system (ECS). The ECS enables local authorities to check very quickly and determine whether a parent can claim free school meals by linking benefits information from DWP, HMRC and the Home Office. It represents a significant achievement in reducing bureaucracy and cost for local authorities and encouraging more parents to sign up their children for a free school lunch. The ECS has been extended to allow parents to check their own eligibility, and to apply online, for free school meals. The new system reduces the time, stigma and bureaucracy previously associated with applications for free school meals.

Resources are also available from the Children’s Food Trust to help schools increase take-up of free school meals, available at:

http://www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/resources/fsm/free-school-meals-matter-toolkit

Schools: Admissions

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make it his policy to rule out the introduction of fees for admission to over-subscribed schools supported by public funds. [198167]

Mr Laws: Education legislation prevents all state-funded schools from charging for admission. The School Admissions Code, which applies to all state-funded schools (including academies and free schools through the terms of their funding agreements), further enforces this. I have no intention of changing this legislation.

The School Admissions Code can be accessed at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code

Schools: Inspections

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the answers of 29 April 2014, Official Report, columns 559-60W and column 560W, on schools: inspections, for what reason local authorities are inspected separately from schools maintained by local authorities but academies are not inspected separately from the head offices of academy chains. [197382]

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Mr Laws: Ofsted can inspect local authorities to see whether they are fulfilling a number of statutory duties. Academy head offices do not have the same statutory duties. However, Ofsted already inspects academy chains through batched inspections. It has recently undertaken focused inspections of academies within E-ACT multi-academy trust, and has previously inspected a group of academies within the AET chain.

Sixth-form Education

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many schools and academies have (a) opened a new sixth form and (b) closed their sixth form in each year since 2005. [198172]

Matthew Hancock: The Department for Education does not collect the data in the format requested.

Work and Pensions

Carrington Wire

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects the Pension Regulator to conclude its investigation into the Carrington Wire pension scheme. [198254]

Steve Webb: This is a matter for the Pensions Regulator which has operational independence.

Inevitably in complex cases involving foreign companies where it appears that scheme abandonment may have taken place, it can take some time for the Regulator to complete the thorough investigations needed to establish whether the legal tests in relation to its ‘anti-avoidance’ powers, including the power to issue contribution notices, are met.

Employment Schemes: Young People

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what underspend there has been on the Youth Contract scheme; and how any such underspend has been used. [198110]

Esther McVey: The Government have announced a number of measures to reallocate the Youth Contract underspend.

In July 2013, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that out of the £1 billion initially allocated to the Youth Contract, £50 million of underspend would be made available to City Deals to support local youth initiatives. Additionally £5 million of funding was made available to the devolved Administrations to support further youth schemes.

Funding of £35 million was also allocated to extend the successful New Enterprise Allowance scheme. The scheme has already helped over 40,000 people start up their own business. A further £20 million was allocated for start-up loans.

Further funds were allocated to enable pilots for 18 to 21-year-olds with low levels of skills including maths and English, and 16 to 17-year-olds to receive help from Jobcentre Plus.

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Jobcentre Plus

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what training is provided to front-desk jobcentre staff on understanding and being sympathetic to the variety of difficulties that some people with ill health or disability face. [198185]

Esther McVey: It is really important that DWP staff have the skills required to support a range of claimants: to respect their individual needs, including those related to their health conditions and disabilities and it is DWP Policy to ensure staff have those necessary skills.

Jobcentre advisers, after initial compulsory training sessions, can regularly update their knowledge through access to a comprehensive training programme. This training focuses on raising awareness of the individual’s personal circumstances, and also recognises that disabilities and health conditions can affect individuals in different ways.

Further support for claimants is available from disability employment advisers who receive additional training which has been designed in conjunction with specialist DWP occupational psychologists to enable those advisers to provide effective support to people with particular complex needs.

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department takes to ensure that a claimant suffers no financial hardship as a result of paperwork lost by a jobcentre. [198186]

Esther McVey: In the event of maladministration, the Department provides for a special payment scheme. The scheme is designed to allow us to restore the claimant to the financial position they would have been in, had there been no maladministration. Information about the scheme can be found on gov.uk

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many sick notes have been recorded as missing by Jobcentre plus (a) annually since 2010 and (b) in each of the last 12 months. [198235]

Esther McVey: DWP does not collate this information at the level required. This could be achieved only at disproportionate cost to the Department.

Jobseeker’s Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobseeker's allowance claimants have been referred early to payment group three of the work programme since June 2011; and what proportion of all the referrals to that payment group they account for. [197913]

Esther McVey: The number of jobseeker's allowance claimants referred early to the Work Programme under payment group three between June 2011 and December 2013 is 51,440. This equates to 18.5% of the total number referred under this payment group.

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Mortgages: Government Assistance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claimed how much support for mortgage interest in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) January to April 2014. [198226]

Steve Webb: Available figures on the average number of claimants in receipt of support for mortgage interest (SMI), and total SMI expenditure, are based on financial years.

The following table includes outturn figures for the years up until 2012-13, together with estimates for 2013-14, and the forecast for 2014-15. These figures were published on 23 April 2014.

Occupational Pensions

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of women with multiple part-time jobs whose total earnings are above the threshold for automatic enrolment; and if he will make a statement. [197739]

Steve Webb: There are 230,000-260,000 female workers with multiple jobs who have total earnings above the automatic enrolment earnings trigger (£10,000 in 2014/15). Just 40,000-50,000 of these are ineligible for automatic enrolment because they earn less than the earnings trigger in any one of their jobs. A majority of these workers have earnings above the lower limit of the automatic enrolment qualifying earnings band (£5,772 in 2014/15) in at least one job and so can opt-in to a pension scheme with a mandatory contribution from their employer. Further detail is available in Workplace Pension Reform: Multiple Jobholders, DWP, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/211729/ad-hoc-multiple-jobs.pdf

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of working age (a) men and (b) women who do not meet the wage criteria for eligibility for auto-enrolment; and if he will make a statement. [197764]

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Steve Webb: The analysis required to answer this question is not currently available. To answer this question requires analysis across a number of data sources to include all women and men of working age.

If a robust outcome can be reached it will be published on the DWP website.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the net benefits in 2011-12 prices of the Universal Credit programme in the period 2010-11 to 2022-23. [198217]

Esther McVey: The net benefits of the universal credit programme are set out in the NAO report: “Universal Credit—Early Progress” HC 621 published on 5 September 2013.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when his Department first approached the Computer Electronics and Surveillance Group of GCHQ about security in the universal credit IT system. [198224]

Esther McVey: Similarly to other Government Departments, DWP has a long history of working with GCHQ on issues of security as and when necessary.

Part of GCHQ, The Computer Electronics and Surveillance Group is the national lead for information assurance. The Department has been working with them from the start of universal credit design to develop the IT security of universal credit. We continue to work closely to ensure that all aspects of the system are appropriately secured.

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he commissioned recruitment firms to assist in the appointment of a new director general for universal credit. [198225]

Mike Penning: The director general of universal credit was appointed on a two-year contract to May 2015. To ensure a smooth transition in advance of the next general election, the search for a replacement to lead the programme through to its completion will commence in due course.

Treasury

Air Passenger Duty

Gavin Shuker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate his Department has made of the potential effect on GDP of the reform to the air passenger duty banding system announced in the 2014 Budget; and if he will make a statement; [197769]

(2) if he will commission a dynamic modelling study on the economic effects of air passenger duty; and if he will make a statement. [197770]

Nicky Morgan: The economic and fiscal effects of Government policies are routinely assessed by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Information can be found in the OBR’s economic and fiscal outlook, at:

http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/economic-fiscal-outlook-march-2014

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The Government expect the reform to air passenger duty announced in Budget 2014 to support export trade confidence by strengthening UK links to overseas markets.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne), keeps the use of dynamic modelling under review.

Debts: Developing Countries

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will undertake a review of the effectiveness of the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010 in preventing the use of the English legal system by vulture funds to extract funds from developing countries. [198104]

Andrea Leadsom: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the former Financial Secretary to the Treasury, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid), on 6 January 2014, Official Report, column 160W, which includes information on the Government’s approach to promoting debt sustainability among low-income countries.

The impact assessment for the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010 indicates direct benefits to heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) of between zero and £26 million a year. The Government’s decision to make the Act permanent on 25 May 2011 was taken following consultation with relevant stakeholders; evidence from that exercise suggested that the Act had some benefit on HIPCs and no evidence was found of unintended or adverse effects.

The UK continues to be at the forefront of international efforts to promote responsible lending and borrowing practices, including our ongoing support for the IMF/World Bank Debt Sustainability Framework and OECD lending principles covering official export credits. The UK also supports the World Bank’s debt reduction facility, which enables countries to buy back their commercial debt at a deep discount with donor backing, and the African Legal Support Facility, which provides legal advice to countries facing litigation.

Housing

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate his Department made before the 2012 Budget of the number of properties valued at more than (a) £2 million and (b) £5 million; [191427]

(2) what assessment his Department made before the 2012 Budget of the average annual payment required from each property valued above £2 million in order to raise a net sum of £2 billion per annum; [191429]

(3) what assessment his Department made before the 2012 Budget of the effect on stamp duty land tax and inheritance tax receipts of the introduction of a so-called mansion tax designed to raise a net sum of £2 billion per annum. [191430]

Mr Gauke: The number of residential properties in the UK valued at more than £2 million was estimated before Budget 2012 to be around 55,000.

Before Budget 2012, an assessment of the average annual payment required from each property above £2 million in order to raise a net sum of £2 billion per annum was not made.

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On 1 July 2013, during Report stage of the Finance Bill, I referred to

“a simple calculation arrived at by dividing £2 billion by 55,000 (an internal HMRC estimate of the number of properties valued at over £2 million) to give a ‘mean’ average of £36,000.”

A so-called mansion tax would depress stamp duty land tax and inheritance tax yields. The exact impact would be dependent on the rates and bands chosen.

Income Tax

Mr Ruffley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the potential cost to the public purse of raising the income tax personal allowance for 2014-15 from £10,000, (a) £10,550, (b) £11,000, (c) £11,500, (d) £12,000, (e) £12,500 and (f) £13,000. [191880]

Mr Gauke: The cost of raising the income tax personal allowance may be approximated using the “Direct effects of illustrative tax changes” table as published on the internet at the following address:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/direct-effects-of-illustrative-tax-changes

Mapeley

Charlie Elphicke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department has paid to Mapeley STEPS Contractor Limited since the sale of HM Revenue and Customs' estate to that company. [198041]

Mr Gauke: Since the financial year 2006-07, the earliest year for which records are held on HMRC accounting systems, HMRC has paid £2,364 million to Mapeley STEPS Contractor Ltd. This amount includes VAT and utility and other non STEPS costs. Payments to Mapeley are published in departmental spending reports at data.gov.uk

Minimum Wage

Liz Kendall: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which social care providers have been identified by HM Revenue and Customs as non-compliant with national minimum wage legislation; how much is owed in arrears by each such provider and to how many workers; and what value of fines have been levied on such providers to date. [195074]

Mr Gauke: The Government take the enforcement of national minimum wage (NMW) very seriously and HMRC enforce the national minimum wage legislation on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and has done so since the introduction of NMW in April 1999. It does that by investigating all complaints made about employers suspected of not paying the minimum wage, in addition carrying out targeted enforcement where it identifies a high risk of non-payment of NMW across the whole of the UK.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have a legal duty of confidentiality towards their customers. For NMW, this includes employers and their workers. This means that HMRC cannot supply all the information requested as this would breach HMRC’s statutory duty of confidentiality under s18(1) of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005.

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Fines are associated with criminal offences. Where minimum wage arrears are identified for any pay reference periods starting on or after 6 April 2009, the employer will be charged an automatic penalty. The rate of the penalty charge was 50% of the arrears falling in pay periods after 6 April 2009 (minimum penalty charge was £100 and the maximum was £5,000).

The Government have increased the financial penalty percentage from 50% to 100% of the unpaid wages owed to workers, and the maximum penalty from £5,000 to £20,000. These new limits are now in force where arrears are identified in pay reference periods on or after 7 March 2014. The Government will also bring in primary legislation as soon as possible so that the maximum £20,000 penalty can apply to each underpaid worker.

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To ensure that underpaid workers receive the arrears of national minimum wage due to them, HMRC contacts every employer for confirmation that they have paid the arrears to workers. In cases where five or fewer workers are owed arrears HMRC also contacts all those workers for confirmation of payment. In cases where more than five workers are identified as being owed arrears HMRC contacts an additional sample of workers for confirmation of payment.

HMRC records information by Standard Industry Codes. The following table shows the number of employers in the Social Care sector found to be non-compliant with NMW legislation in the last year. Also shown are the value of arrears, the number of underpaid workers identified and the value of penalties issued to employers as a result of those investigations.

Money Laundering: EU Action

Naomi Long: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he will take to implement the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive; and what plans he has to distinguish between high and low risk trusts. [198101]

Andrea Leadsom: The Treasury is leading the ongoing negotiations on the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The UK is committed to implementing measures to prevent potential misuse of trusts for illicit purposes. We support mandatory requirements on trustees to hold beneficial ownership information on their trusts and together with the new automatic exchange of tax information agreements there will be more transparency and information exchange on trusts than ever before.

National Insurance Contributions: New Businesses

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employers participated in the regional employer national insurance contributions holiday in each region. [184094]

Mr Gauke: This Government are committed to helping UK businesses grow and create jobs. The NICs holiday was a temporary, targeted scheme to help start ups take on new staff within their first year of trading. Although take up was lower than expected, the holiday benefitted over 26,000 businesses and supported over 90,000 jobs.

Building on the lessons learnt from the holiday, we are taking action to reduce the employer NICs burden on small businesses and have created the new employment allowance which is simple to administer, permanent and available to all business and charities in the UK, this is reducing their employer NICs bill by up to £2,000 each year. As a result, 450,000 employers will pay no NICs at all in 2014-15.

According to the latest available figures the break down of employers that applied for the national insurance holiday by region, throughout the scheme is as follows:

The NICs holiday attracted around 26,600 applicants over a three year period. Further statistical information on the scheme is available on a factsheet at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/nics-hol.htm

The factsheet only covers periods from the start of the scheme to December 2012.

PAYE

Stephen Timms: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many requests for annual PAYE status have been received in each month since the introduction of PAYE Real Time Information; and how many such requests in each such month have been granted. [198002]

Mr Gauke: I would refer the right hon. Gentleman to the response I gave him on 6 September 2013, Official Report, column 582W.

Revenue and Customs

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people are employed by HM Revenue and Customs in regional post rooms at each location in the UK. [196997]

Mr Gauke: As requested, please find detailed below staff numbers employed in HMRC regional post rooms employed solely in post room activities.

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I also refer the hon. Gentleman to my answer on 12 May 2014, Official Report, column 334W.

Tonnage Tax

John McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many and what proportion of qualifying companies in the Tonnage Tax scheme were in the (a) public and (b) private sector in each year the scheme has been in operation. [198293]

Mr Gauke: The information requested is not available.

UK Asset Resolution

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what discussions he has had with UKAR regarding the potential effect on customers of a rise in interest rates; [182195]

(2) what assessment he has made of the potential effect of an interest rate rise on customers whose mortgages are held by UKAR; and what support is available to assist such customers to switch providers. [182196]

Andrea Leadsom: This Government’s long term economic plan has kept interest rates at record lows for hardworking people across the country.

Many lenders impose affordability stress tests on their mortgage lending decisions to ensure that the mortgage will remain affordable should interest rates rise. The Financial Conduct Authority’s Mortgage Market Review rules, which came into force in April this year will require all mortgage lenders to conduct such a stress test.

Although UKAR does not engage in new lending, UKAR runs a range of modelling scenarios to understand the potential effects of interest rate rises on customers. This work helps UKAR to identify customers who may be susceptible to higher interest rates and to engage with such customers at an early stage.

UKAR assists all customers who wish to switch mortgage providers.

NRAM and Bradford and Bingley are managed by UK Asset Resolution Limited (UKAR) which was established in 2010 to manage the disposal and rundown of outstanding assets at Bradford and Bingley and Northern Rock Asset Management in an integrated way, with a view to creating value for the taxpayer. UKAR is managed at arm’s length from Government, on commercial principles.

It is therefore not for the Chancellor to discuss detailed commercial matters with UKAR.

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Written Questions: Government Responses

Liz Kendall: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he intends to answer Question 195074, from the hon. Member for Leicester West, on social care providers and non-payments of the National Minimum Wage. [197784]

Mr Gauke: I have done so today.

Energy and Climate Change

Electricity

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether all independent renewable energy generators will have agreed project terms with their financiers at the time of submitting a Contracts for Difference auction bid. [198289]

Michael Fallon: The Government are committed to ensuring that a broad range of developers and projects are able to access the CfD, and is introducing the Offtaker of Last Resort (OLR) to guarantee independent renewable generators a route to market and improve their ability to raise project finance. Ultimately the financing of individual projects is a matter for developers. Projects applying for CfDs will be at different stages of development, including the extent to which they have engaged with and/or agreed terms with financiers. However, the CfD offers a number of important advantages over the renewables obligation, including providing developers and their financiers with the certainty of a private-law contract which will be awarded to successful projects years ahead of the point at which some projects can accredit under the renewables obligation.

Solar Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many reviews of solar PV support schemes his Department has undertaken since 2010. [197688]

Gregory Barker: The level of support for solar PV generation under the renewables obligation (RO) was last reviewed in 2012 as part of the comprehensive RO banding review. The results of the solar review are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/levels-of-banded-support-for-solar-pv-under-the-renewables-obligation-for-the-period-1-april-2013-to-31-march-2017

A comprehensive review of the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme was carried out during 2011 and 2012, with a fast-track review of FIT support for larger-scale PV in March 2011. The link for the FITs reviews is:

https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/increasing-the-use-of-low-carbon-technologies/supporting-pages/feed-in-tariffs-scheme

Solar PV Strategy Group

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many meetings of the Government industry solar strategy group have taken place since it was established in 2012; and on what dates that group met. [197678]

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Gregory Barker: The Solar PV Strategy Group has met three times, on the following dates:

8 March 2013;

7 June 2013; and

11 December 2013.

They plan to meet again early this summer.

Communities and Local Government

Burglary

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the link between (a) street and (b) ambient lighting and the incidence of burglaries. [198177]

Brandon Lewis: As I stated in my answer of 10 February 2014, Official Report, column 419W, street lighting plays an important role in road safety, as well as ensuring the personal safety of pedestrians. There may be some roads where lights could be dimmed in the very early hours, saving taxpayers’ money. However, this should be a local decision by elected local councillors, reflecting local circumstances-specially in relation to any concerns about crime. Equally, not every neighbourhood wants street lighting, as some communities, especially in rural areas, value dark skies.

We believe that councils should listen to the views of their local residents, and then adopt appropriate local policies based on the neighbourhood, the precise location and the usage of the road/street. I previously noted that “Manual for Streets” contains some useful guidance on getting the balance right when providing street lighting, taking into account the different issues around safety, crime prevention, street clutter and light pollution. Ultimately, there is no prescriptive Whitehall guidance, and any assessment will depend on local circumstances and local views.

Notwithstanding, I would observe that Her Majesty’s Opposition seem to have a short memory about their actions on cutting street lighting when they were in office:

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

When the right hon. Member was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, his Department and its quangos lectured local councils to switch off or reduce street lighting to minimise carbon emissions. For example, in 2007, he personally launched the Carbon Trust Standard, which was tied to an extensive programme to reduce street lighting as part of the Local Authority Carbon Management Programme. As DEFRA Ministers told the House:

“All authorities should be seeking to reduce energy usage both to cut costs and to help combat climate change. As street lighting accounts for a significant proportion of the energy used by authorities, it should be readily identified as an area that should be examined for potential efficiency savings”

(6 November 2006, Official Report, column 709W).

Department for Transport:

The Minister of State for Transport, the noble Lord Adonis (now a Shadow Minister for Infrastructure) when asked about reducing the hours of operation of street lighting, noted that

“the Government also support the Carbon Trust’s local authority carbon management programme, which provides councils with support and guidance to help them realise carbon emissions savings from street lighting”

(17 December 2008, Official Report, House of Lords, column WA52). Transport Ministers also endorsed the Highways Agency’s

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‘Efficiency Strategy for Road Lighting’ which led to switching off motorway lighting at night (21 April 2008,

Official Report

, column 1444W; Highways Agency

,

“Efficiency Strategy for Road Lighting Midnight Switch Off for Motorway Lighting”, 2009).

Department for Communities and Local Government:

The right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) (now Shadow Home Secretary), when as Minister in the precursor Department to DCLG, noted there was nuanced debate on the extent of street lighting:

“We all recognise the fact that there is a series of tensions around light pollution. People in the cities will never have the same view of the night sky as one can get in the middle of Dartmoor... There can be tensions too at neighbourhood level between the security-obsessed householder who has glaring white security lights stuck to every corner of the house, which flicker on every time a little bird flies past or the cat runs across the garden, and the neighbour who... has a telescope and cannot see across the garden, let alone into the skies”

(12 February 2004, Official Report, column 510WH).

Department of Energy and Climate Change:

In 2008, the right hon. Member also personally launched the Carbon Reduction Commitment, which resulted in councils cutting carbon emissions from street lighting, including dimming or switching off lights. The Highway Agency’s “Energy Strategy for Roadside Equipment” (April 2010) explained that the approach of “dimming, trimming and partial night lighting” was a consequence of the requirements to meet the Carbon Reduction Commitment. As DECC Ministers said to the House:

“DECC is working to include street lighting in the Carbon Reduction Commitment. This will provide an incentive for local authorities to improve the energy efficiency of street lights. DECC is working closely with Communities and Local Government to develop the policy, in so far as it relates to local authorities”

(19 June 2009, Official Report, column 515W). Of course, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change at that time was the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) now Leader of HM Opposition.

I hope this illuminates the historical fogginess of the Labour party’s current campaign on municipal street lighting. I would suggest the last person out of Labour HQ tonight should turn off the lights.

Derelict Land: Recreation Spaces

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will assess the potential merits of retaining brownfield enclaves within urban areas as greenspaces for local amenity rather than being used for in-fill building. [198307]

Nick Boles: The National Planning Policy Framework recognises that access to high quality open spaces can make an important contribution to the health and well-being of communities. At the local level, planning policies should be based on assessments of need for open space, sports and recreation facilities and opportunities for new provision. The Framework also enables local communities, through the preparation of local and neighbourhood plans, to identify for special protection green or open areas of particular importance to them as Local Green Space. This includes land in urban areas.

Empty Property: Bristol

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of empty properties in (a) Bristol North West constituency and (b) Bristol. [198256]

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Stephen Williams: Statistics on vacant dwellings in England and in each local authority district, including Bristol, are published in the Department’s live table 615 which is available at the following link.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants

This table shows the annual total numbers of empty homes and those vacant longer than six months and also vacant in the local authority, housing association and other public sector tenures:

Data are collected only at local authority district level and are not available by parliamentary constituency.

The number of vacant dwellings and long-term dwellings, for the City of Bristol and England, are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

Housing

Mr Raynsford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he expects to publish the findings of the research he commissioned from the University of Sheffield into the New Homes Bonus. [R] [196708]

Kris Hopkins: The Department is undertaking a wider evaluation of the New Homes Bonus; its findings will be published in due course.

Housing: Construction

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what progress has been made on plans to increase house building by 2030. [183915]

Kris Hopkins: [holding answer 23 January 2014]: The Government do not have a Whitehall building target. The last Administration had a state target to increase house building to 240,000 dwellings a year, yet house building then fell to its lowest peacetime rate since the 1920s.

By contrast, the coalition Government have put in place a range of measures to get Britain building again, fix the broken housing market and help hard-working people get the home they want.

Action taken includes wide-ranging planning reform through National Planning Policy Framework; new incentives to deliver housing growth through the New Homes Bonus; as well as the Government’s broader

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long-term economic plan to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration and keep interest rates down. I would note:

We have already delivered 420,000 new homes since 2010.

New orders in residential construction have risen to their highest level since 2007 according to the Office for National Statistics;

Housing starts are at their highest since 2007 according to DCLG figures;

The number of first time buyers is at its highest since 2007 according to the Council for Mortgage Lenders;

Repossessions are at their lowest since 2007, according to the Council for Mortgage Lenders; and

New home registrations rose by 30% in 2013 in England, the highest since 2007, and are up 60% in London, according to the NHBC.

In relation to specific programmes:

Affordable housing

170,000 affordable homes have been delivered in England since April 2010.

Our Affordable Homes Programme will deliver 170,000 homes over the current spending review period (2011-2015) levering in £19.5 billion of public and private funding. We have announced a new ‘Affordable Rent to Buy’ scheme which will deliver affordable homes through a recoverable fund. We have also published details of a new Affordable Homes Programme for the next spending period, which will lever in up to £23 billion in public and private funding to deliver 165,000 homes from 2015 to 2018.

The Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme is worth up to £3.5 billion (with further lending capacity held in reserve according to demand) and supported by up to £450 million grant funding in England. Up to 30,000 additional affordable homes will be underway by December 2017. Affordable Housing Finance Plc was awarded the licence for the Affordable Housing Guarantee Scheme in June 2013. The first eight housing associations to be approved to borrow through the scheme were announced in January 2014, who will raise over £400 million of debt to facilitate the delivery of over 4,000 new affordable homes. We also announced a European Investment Bank loan facility worth £500 million. More borrowers will follow.

The Right to Buy Scheme, allowing eligible social tenants to buy their homes at a discount has achieved almost 24,000 sales since April 2010, with the majority (16,200) since we reinvigorated the scheme in 2012. A total of 2,845 council properties were sold between October and December last year, a 42% increase on the same period in 2012. The reinvigorated Right to Buy ensures, for the first time, that the receipts from the additional sales, that is those over what was forecast prior to the change, are reinvested in helping to fund new homes for affordable rent. So far, £300 million has been generated from additional sales and already over 2,000 homes have been started on site or acquired since April 2012.

Home ownership schemes (Help to Buy)

Since April 2013, the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme has offered buyers a 20% equity loan that can be used towards the cost of buying a new build homes, allowing people to buy with a 5% deposit. There were over 30,000 reservations and 19,394 completed loans across England by the end of March 2014, with funding

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for up to 74,000 sales by March 2016. Alongside this, the Help to Buy: NewBuy scheme has so far supported a further 5,173 households purchase new build homes by the end of March 2014. The Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme was extended through the 2014 Budget announcement to 2020 to help 120,000 more households purchase a new build home.

The FirstBuy scheme was announced in the Budget 2011 to help support 10,000 first time buyers on the property ladder. The scheme was replaced in April 2013 with Help to Buy. There were 11,590 FirstBuy sales to the end of March 2014.

Since the end of last year, the Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee scheme is providing up to £12 billion of Government guarantees to support people to buy with a 5% deposit, and over 2,500 homes have so far (by the end of January 2014) been brought through this route, and has helped lower interest rates for those with smaller deposits. The three Help to Buy schemes complement each other, and their success can be taken in the whole.

Private rented sector

The £1 billion Build to Rent programme, which provides development phase finance, is supporting new high quality development purpose built for private rent and is on track to create up to 10,000 new homes. The programme received £1.4 billion of bids under Round One, which is expected to support 15 developments which will provide over 2,600 homes across England in locations which include Durham, Liverpool, Manchester and London. Five contracts to the combined value of over £74.5 million have already been agreed which will deliver over 1,000 new homes for private rent; construction has already started in Southampton (Centenary Quay) and Manchester (Three Towers); more contracts will follow.

Bidding for Round Two of the Build to Rent Fund was significantly oversubscribed receiving 126 bids to the value of around £3 billion. 36 projects on the shortlist from Round Two are now going through a competitive due diligence process, with successful bids receiving funding to deliver thousands of new homes. A list of all shortlisted bids has been placed in the Library of the House. The shortlist is over-programmed, meaning not all shortlisted projects will receive funding. Shortlisting and due diligence are the first stages of the Build to Rent approval process. The Homes and Communities Agency will continue to work with bidders until exchange of contracts in order to ensure value for money for taxpayers.

In addition to direct funding, the Government’s Private Rented Sector Taskforce is continuing to build the private rented sector as an investment market and have identified £10 billion of domestic and foreign investment available in the private rented sector.

The Private Rented Sector Guarantees scheme will provide a government guarantee for up to £3.5 billion debt (with further lending capacity held in reserve according to demand) for borrowers investing in new build private rented sector homes across the UK. The guarantees will use the UK Government’s hard-earned fiscal credibility to help lower the cost of borrowing and incentivise investment in the sector. DCLG is open for business to issue direct guarantees and is actively discussing potential applications with a number of borrowers looking to invest in large scale developments. On 18 March, we

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also launched a procurement inviting bids from the market to be our delivery partner for Private Rented Sector Housing Debt Guarantees, with the aim of maximizing take up of guarantees including for small and medium enterprises. My Department will be evaluating bids to perform the role in due course.

Infrastructure and development finance

The Get Britain Building investment fund has been provided over £500 million of finance to unlock smaller stalled sites. As at February 2014, it has helped kick start 11,893 new homes on stalled sites.

The Growing Places Fund is providing £770 million to deliver the infrastructure needed to unlock stalled schemes that will promoted economic growth, create jobs and build homes. The fund has been fully allocated to Local Enterprise Partnerships and the devolved administrations to fund local projects. Progress updates in June 2013 reported that £652 million of capital funding had been allocated to 305 projects across England. Local Enterprise Partnerships expect these projects to create 4,900 businesses, 94,000 jobs and 27,000 houses. A further update will be published in due course.

The £474 million Local Infrastructure Fund is helping to unlock large scale housing developments. To date, we have unlocked 15 sites capable of delivering almost 80,000 homes through a combination of financial and non-financial support. We are currently working to unlock a further 13 stalled schemes to deliver up to 40,000 new homes. In addition to the capital investment, we have made available £13 million of capacity funding to support local authorities in fulfilling their local housing ambitions.

The 2013 autumn statement also announced a further £1 billion to unlock development on large housing sites and a prospectus inviting bids was published on 14 April. During the Easter recess, we also published the Local Growth Fund (Housing Infrastructure) prospectus. This sets out the detail on how to access the £50 million part of the Local Growth Fund in 2015-16. It is designed to help speed up and restart housing developments between 250 and 1,499 units that have slowed down or stalled.

The 2014 Budget announced further funding for driving up housing supply including a £525 million Builders Finance Fund to provide development finance for small sites to support the construction of 15,000 new homes; the prospectus has also recently been published.

The Budget announced the intention to create an Urban Development Corporation for the Ebbsfleet area to accelerate the construction of a garden-city style development which will unlock up to 15,000 homes-with up to £200 million capital being made available. We have also published a prospectus to support further locally-led garden cities.

A new Estate Regeneration Fund of £150 million of recoverable investment will help kick start and accelerate the regeneration of some of our most deprived estates. And we will work with the Greater London Authority to support the regeneration of Brent Cross and unlock 11,000 homes at Barking Riverside.

We have also taken steps to scale back economically unrealistic section 106 agreements, such as from the last Administration’s housing bubble, which result in no housing development, no regeneration and no community benefits.

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Self-build

The £30 million investment fund for Custom Build Homes is currently assessing loan funding of £22.6 million with the potential to deliver 270 units. At the 2014 Budget, we announced that the Government will consult on a new ‘Right to Build’ to give self builders a right to a plot from councils, a new £150 million investment fund to help provide up to 10,000 service plots, and announced will we look to extend Help to Buy equity to custom build. We have also exempted self-build from the Community Infrastructure Levy and we are consulting on a similar policy change for Section 106 tariffs.

Empty homes

This Government have provided £235 million of funding which aims to bring up to 12,000 homes back into use by March 2015. This is part of a wider package of measures to get empty homes and empty buildings back into productive use, in contrast to the last Administration’s policy of wholesale demolition. The numbers of empty properties in England have fallen to a 10-year low, and the number of long-term vacant properties has fallen by around a third since 2009.

Public sector land

The Public Sector Land Programme has identified land with capacity for over 100,000 homes which we aim to release to the private sector by March 2015. At the end of December 2013, we had released land capable of delivering 68,000 homes to be built.

Through the Strategic Land and Property Review we have identified scope to generate £5 billion of receipts from government land and property between 2015 and 2020. This will put land and property into the hands of those who can exploit them for commercial purposes-creating opportunities for housing and economic development.

This was part of a series of measures to support brownfield development, as outlined in more detail in the answer of 3 April 2014, Official Report, column 780W.

There is more to do, but I hope this illustrates how this Government’s long-term economic plan is helping build more houses, help people move on and up the housing ladder and clean up the mess left by the last Administration.

Leasehold Advisory Service

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he expects to appoint a new chariman to the Leasehold Advisory Service. [196398]

Kris Hopkins: Consideration will be given to the position of Chairman of the Leasehold Advisory Service later this year, when the current term of office is due to end.

This will be carried out in line with the Code of Practice for ministerial appointments to Public Bodies published by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

Local Government

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what criteria he will use to assess requests for extra powers from local enterprise partnerships and combined authorities. [197627]

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Kris Hopkins: The Government are currently negotiating a ‘Growth Deal’ with every Local Enterprise Partnership, based on the Strategic Economic Plans they submitted in March 2014. The criteria being used to assess the plans are set out in the guidance published in July 2013. These are: ambition and rationale for intervention; value for money; and deliverability and risk. Combined authorities, where they exist, are represented in Local Enterprise Partnerships and will have been involved in the development of the Strategic Economic Plans.

Notwithstanding, as I indicated to the right hon. Member in my answers to him of 3 April 2014, Official Report, column 778W and 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 24W, we should be cautious about any measure which had the effect of transferring power upwards away from elected local councils. Decentralisation should devolve power to the lowest appropriate level.

Combined authorities are relatively new bodies. They now should focus on using the functions and powers that they currently have and prove themselves on delivering local growth; we do not intend to repeat the “function creep” mistakes of the Regional Development Agencies which just became unwieldy and unfocused, taking on too much and failing to deliver.

Local Government and Local Enterprise Partnerships

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what powers and freedoms relating to (a) skills and employment, (b) housing and (c) economic development have been devolved since May 2010 to (i) local government and (ii) local enterprise partnerships. [162343]

Kris Hopkins [holding answer 1 July 2013]: The Government are taking considerable steps to devolve power and freedom to local government and Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Through the Localism Act, councils now have the general power of competence that enables them to do anything that an individual might do, apart from that which is specifically prohibited. In addition we have radically reformed the local government finance system putting levers and incentives in the hands of local authorities, for instance:

The removal of ring-fencing from local government grants has given councils the freedom and flexibility over the money they receive and allows them to work with their residents to decide how best to make their spending decisions to fit their local priority needs.

Rewarded places that deliver growth, through the New Homes Bonus and Business Rate Retention.

Local authorities now directly retain 50% of business rates locally which amounts to nearly £11 billion, instead of returning it to Whitehall.

We established five pilot Rural Growth Networks aimed at tackling the barriers to economic growth in rural areas, such as a shortage of work premises, slow internet connectivity and fragmented business networks. These pilots expect to create up to 3,000 new jobs and support up to 700 new businesses, offering a local approach to local problems. We will share the lessons they learn with other Local Enterprise Partnerships and Local Authorities to help them promote growth in other rural areas.

We have also given councils the ability to borrow against their Housing Revenue Account.

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Through the city deals programme we have devolved powers and responsibilities to 26 cities. For example we have:

provided levers to deliver the skills and jobs that local businesses and people need;

created joint investment programmes; and

devolved greater financial powers and incentives to invest in growth to all cities.

As we made clear in our response to Lord Heseltine’s review of growth, we intend to go further. We have committed to negotiating Growth Deals with every Local Enterprise Partnership through which we will allocate the Local Growth Fund and negotiate broader powers, freedoms and flexibilities where a strong case for decentralisation can be made. The Local Growth Fund brings together funding from skills, housing and transport and we have committed £2 billion in 2015-16 and it will continue to be at least £2 billion a year up to 2021. The Local Growth Fund includes:

over £6 billion of transport funding;

£300 million of additional Housing Revenue Account borrowing;

£50 million of Local Infrastructure Funding for housing developers; and

£300 million skills capital funding.

We are also for the first time putting £5 billion of European Structural Investment Funds for the 2014-20 period under the strategic direction of Local Enterprise Partnerships, bringing the total resource (including the Local Growth Fund) under the control of Local Enterprise Partnerships to over £17 billion up until 2020.

Local Government: Pay

Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what recent representations he has received on levels of remuneration for local government executives. [198330]

Brandon Lewis: The Government regularly receive representations from concerned taxpayers on the levels of remuneration offered to senior local government officers. Whilst councils are independent employers we have taken steps to increase transparency and accountability on these local decisions.

Under the Localism Act, councils are required to publish an annual pay policy statement setting out their approach to pay, in particularly senior pay. In guidance to which all councils must have regard when preparing their policy statements, we have said that full council should to vote on senior salaries and exit packages of £100,000 or more.

Through the Transparency Code councils are required to publish on-line a range of workforce information including details of senior salaries for employees earning £50,000 or more and detailed organisation charts. This will further open up senior pay to greater public scrutiny. We also published “50 ways to save” a practical guide on how councils can make sensible savings in their budgets. This includes either cutting senior pay or looking at sharing chief executives and senior management teams. I would note that Ministers in this Government cut their salaries in 2010 and then froze them for the rest of this Parliament.

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Local Government: Publications

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answers of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 29W, and of 21 November 2013, Official Report, columns 980-1W, on local government publications, if he will list all councils that publish magazines or newsletters more than four times a year. [198175]

Brandon Lewis: Further to the information provided in my previous answers, my Department has not at this point undertaken a recent, definitive survey of every council in the country. It is a moving picture, as the commencement of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 has encouraged greater compliance with the Publicity Code—for example, further to my answer of 21 November 2013, Official Report, column 980W, I understand that East Northamptonshire has stopped its newspaper.

Such local initiatives are preferable to intervention. Notwithstanding, I refer the right hon. Member to the written ministerial statement of 28 April 2014, Official Report, column 35WS, which outlines the rationale for the steps taken on 17 April against five specific councils with the worst breaches, and which notes how we are prepared to take further action against other breaches of the Publicity Code.

Planning Permission

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities take into account the effect of planning decisions on neighbouring authorities when making those decisions. [198291]

Nick Boles: The Government’s reforms enshrine the Local Plan as the cornerstone of the planning system. We have confidence that local authorities will show the leadership necessary to work together in order to produce Local Plans that are effective and deliverable on important cross-boundary matters. My Department has also published an on-line set of planning guidance, which includes new advice to local authorities on the Duty to Co-operate across local authority boundaries. Furthermore, adjacent authorities are consulted on planning applications which are likely to affect land in their area, and in making its decision, the determining authority must consider all representations made.

Private Rented Housing

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he expects to publish the Government's response to the review of property conditions in the private rented sector. [198174]

Kris Hopkins: The closing date for responses to the discussion document was 28 March. We have received almost 300 substantive responses and these are currently being considered. We plan to publish an analysis of the replies and proposed next steps in the summer.

Solar Power: Planning Permission

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of solar farm planning applications were approved by local planning authorities in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014 to date. [198312]

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Nick Boles: We do not hold aggregated information on planning applications for solar farms in the form requested. However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Renewable Energy Planning Database (RESTATS) includes information on a range of renewable energy projects above 0.01 MW, including applications for solar energy developments. The database tracks the progress of potential new projects from inception, through planning, construction and operational stages, and can be accessed at:

https://restats.decc.gov.uk/cms/planning-database

Temporary Accommodation: Essex

Mr Simon Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many families were based in temporary accommodation in (a) Chelmsford constituency and (b) Essex in each quarter of the last five years. [184755]

Kris Hopkins [holding answer 27 January 2014]: The Department does not collect constituency level data. A table has been placed in the Library of the House with data for Chelmsford city council and Essex. To assist my right hon. Friend, I have provided quarterly data back for the last 10 years; the table illustrates how there are fewer households in temporary accommodation than the average under the last Administration.

This Government have retained a strong homelessness safety net protected in law, supported by £470 million in the current spending review period to prevent and tackle homelessness, rough sleeping and repossessions. We are seeing this investment making an impact with households now spending on average seven months less in temporary accommodation than at the start of 2010.

We have also made some changes to the rules under the Localism Act to enable local authorities to end the main homelessness duty by arranging an offer of suitable accommodation in the private rented sector. This means households are likely to spend less time in temporary accommodation waiting for social housing to become available.

Urban Areas: Land Drainage

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what representations he has received on requiring car-parking areas around large retail developments to retrofit sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS); and what assessment he has made of the benefits for urban flood control of such retrofitting of SuDS. [197759]

Dan Rogerson: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

We know of no such representations. The National Planning Policy Framework prioritises the use of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in developments where possible. DEFRA officials have met representatives from leading supermarkets to discuss the use of SuDS and their benefits in retail developments. Case studies assessing the benefits of SuDS on commercial developments are available on the DEFRA funded SusDrain website at:

www.susdrain.org

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Electoral Commission Committee

Electoral Register

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what recent assessment the Electoral Commission has made of electoral registration rates of attainers in (a) Scotland, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) Wales and (d) England. [197501]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold separate estimates of registration rates of attainers for England, Scotland and Wales. However, its 2011 report on the completeness and accuracy of the electoral registers in Great Britain found that 55% of 17-18 year olds were registered to vote. The sample size of the survey does not allow for country breakdowns.

The Commission further informs me that their 2012 report on the Northern Ireland register found that 66% of 16-17 year olds were registered to vote.

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the percentage annual canvass return rate was for each local government area in (a) 2011 and (b) 2012. [197583]

Mr Streeter: A copy of the information requested by the hon. Gentleman has been placed in the Library.

Electorate: Visual Impairment

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what assessment the Electoral Commission has made of the number and proportion of visually impaired voters who receive election communication in a format they can understand. [197581]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that returning officers (ROs) are responsible for issuing election-related communications such as poll cards and postal voting statements which must, by law, contain information telling the recipient what to do if they need the information provided in a different format. It is for ROs, in discharging their duties, to identify how best to meet the needs of individuals in their area who are visually impaired. The Commission has made no assessment of the numbers of voters who receive information from ROs in their preferred format.

The Commission also informs me that it ensures that its public information campaigns are accessible to those with visual impairments, and that the voter registration and information materials it produces are available in a variety of formats including Braille and Easy Read. The Commission has written to the RNIB, following the evidence they gave to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee on 1 May, to offer to meet to discuss what else could be done to help ensure that those with visual impairments can register and vote.

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what steps the Electoral

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Commission is taking to cross-reference data on visual impairment with the electoral register for the purpose of improving election communications with the visually impaired. [197582]

Mr Streeter: The Electoral Commission informs me that it ensures that its public information campaigns are accessible to those with visual impairments, and that the voter registration and information materials it produces are available in a variety of formats including Braille and Easy Read. The Commission has written to the RNIB, following the evidence they gave to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee on 1 May, to offer to meet to discuss what else could be done to help ensure that those with visual impairments can register and vote.

The Commission also informs me that electoral registration officers (EROs) are responsible for compiling and managing electoral registers and returning officers (ROs) are responsible for issuing election-related communications to those on the register. This includes poll cards and postal voting statements which must, by law, contain information telling the recipient what to do if they need the information provided in a different format. It is for EROs and ROs, in discharging their duties, to identify how best to meet the needs of individuals in their area who are visually impaired.

International Development

Developing Countries: Education

Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much the UK plans to give to the Global Partnership for Education at its next funding round. [198097]

Lynne Featherstone: The UK is by far the largest donor to Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the largest bilateral donor to basic education. We are currently considering the level of future UK support to GPE based on their case for investment and the results to be delivered under their new funding model.