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11 Nov 2010 : Column WA115

Source: SSDA 903

1 England totals have been rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000, and to the nearest 10 otherwise. Regional totals have been rounded to the nearest 10. Other numbers have been rounded to the nearest five. Figures of five or less, other than zero, have been suppressed and replaced with a cross (x).

2 Figures exclude children looked-after under an agreed series of short-term placements.

3 In 2009, Cheshire Local Authority split into Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester. Similarly, Bedfordshire LA split into Bedford and Central Bedfordshire.

x Figures not shown in order to protect confidentiality.

. Not applicable.

Civil Service: Recruitment

Question

Asked by Lord Ashcroft

Lord Taylor of Holbeach: On 24 May 2010, the Government announced a freeze on advertising and marketing spend. Exceptions to this are required to be cleared by Ministers.

Departments have been asked to advertise their vacancies on the Civil Service jobs site to reduce recruitment spend but for some specialist posts, for example, professional journals may be considered necessary to attract the right candidate.

On 24 May, the Government also announced a freeze on recruitment, with exceptions for frontline posts (with the approval of Permanent Secretaries, and Chief Executives), business-critical posts (with the approval of the Secretary of State) and the Fast Stream.

Civil Service: Redundancy

Question

Asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

Lord Taylor of Holbeach: These are matters which are dealt with at departmental level; the information requested is not collected centrally by the Cabinet Office.

Civil Service: Staff

Question

Asked by Lord Laird



11 Nov 2010 : Column WA116

Lord Taylor of Holbeach: For staff outside the Senior Civil Service (SCS), pay and grading is delegated to departments and agencies, enabling management to tailor reward arrangements that meet their own particular business, operational and workforce needs. Under the delegated arrangements, the Cabinet Office does not routinely collect the detailed information requested and grading classifications vary from department to department.

The Office for National Statistics collects and publishes salary information covering the Home Civil Service as part of its Annual Civil Service Employment Survey. The latest available data, as at 31 March 2009, are available at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Product.asp?vlink=2899.

The Cabinet Office does not hold the information requested on pay arrangements in the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Common Agricultural Policy

Question

Asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Henley): The 2003 common agricultural policy (CAP) reforms were reviewed in 2008 under the CAP Health Check. This made some changes to the CAP, but the UK believes that much more ambitious reform is needed. EU negotiations on CAP for the period 2014-20 will begin following the release of a Commission Communication in November 2010.

Death Penalty

Question

Asked by Lord Avebury

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): As these matters are now the subject of litigation, it would be inappropriate to comment on the substance of the case at this time. The issues are however being given due consideration.

Development Aid

Question

Asked by Lord Kilclooney



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Baroness Verma: European Union (EU) funding for China and Russia is through the Development Co- operation Instrument and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument respectively, rather than the European Development Fund.

EU commitments to Russia in 2007 were €80.9 million (£70.3 million), €42.3 million (£36.8 million) in 2008 and €7.9 million (£6.9 million) in 2009. The European Union no longer has a bilateral programme for Russia but continues to provide €15 million (£13 million) per year for student mobility and academic exchanges. Commitments to Russia are not classified as official development assistance (ODA) and the UK share does not come from the budget of the Department for International Development. EU commitments to China, which are classified as ODA, were €8.3 million (£7.2 million) in 2007, €77.5 million (£67.3 million) in 2008 and €21.5 million (£18.7 million) in 2009. The UK Government support the Commission's policy to reduce assistance to Russia and China and continue to press for more EU aid to be allocated to the poorest countries.

(Source: Europaid reports 2007, 2008 and 2009, http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/multimedia/publications/index_en.htm).

Economy: Growth

Question

Asked by Lord Beecham

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): The Government held a public consultation about the Regional Growth Fund. One of the questions in the consultation was on the suggested minimum bid threshold of £1 million.

There was a wide variety of a views expressed on the level of the threshold, some arguing for a lower threshold, others arguing for a higher threshold. On balance, it was decided to operate the fund on the basis of a minimum threshold of £1 million. This should encourage a wide diversity of bids, harnessing innovation from all sectors. Smaller proposals can be presented as part of a coherent package of projects, collectively meeting the needs of local economic strategies and the aims of the fund. In some areas, small-scale proposals may be put forward as bids to investment bodies and partnerships operating Regional Growth Fund programmes.

The Government have committed the independent advisory panel to review the threshold limit after the end of the first bidding round.

Economy: Quantitative Easing

Question

Asked by Lord Myners



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The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon): The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England has operational responsibility for monetary policy including management of the asset purchase facility.

Education: ESOL

Question

Asked by Lord Greaves

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): The Government recognise that when people come here and settle it is desirable to help them learn English, to integrate into society and gain useful employment. The term "settled communities" is a generic term which will mean different groups in different communities. We are therefore considering the options for ESOL further, with a view to combining efficiency with cost effectiveness.

Educational Maintenance Allowance

Question

Asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Hill of Oareford): EMA applications received by 31 December will be processed, and those young people who are assessed as eligible will be able to claim the allowance up to the end of the 2010-11 academic year.

The education maintenance allowance scheme will close to all students at the end of the 2010-11 academic year. It will be replaced with an enhanced discretionary learner support fund, managed by schools, colleges and training providers, so that help can be targeted to those who most need it to continue with their education.

EU: UK Rebate

Question

Asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon



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The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon): Although discussions of the College of Commissioners are confidential and closed to the public, minutes are normally made available on the European Commission website. However, the minutes of some policy discussions (such as the meetings of Commissioner groups) are not made public. Given that the meeting of 7 October included a policy orientation debate on the Commission's Budget Review, it was not clear whether minutes of the orientation debate would be made public.

Minutes of the College of Commissioners' meeting of 7 October, including a summary of the orientation debate on the Budget Review, were eventually published, later than expected. The minutes contain very general references and do not attribute comments to individual Commissioners, neither do they contain any specific reference to the UK abatement. The minutes can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/10061/2010/EN/10061-2010-1931-EN-F-0.Pdf.

Meetings of the European Parliament are generally open to the public and minutes are available on the Parliament's website, although certain elements of plenary sessions are held in camera.

The Council of Ministers meets in public when it deliberates and votes on draft legislative acts, although meetings are divided into two parts and discussions of non-legislative issues are held in camera. The Council of Ministers and the European Council both publish detailed conclusions of their meetings.

Finance: Bonds

Question

Asked by Lord Myners

The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon): The Government are not currently considering issuing perpetual sterling bonds. The Government remain open to the possibility of issuing new instrument types and will continue to apply the following criteria to its consideration of any potential new types of debt financing instrument:

consistency with the debt management objective and the principles on which debt management is based;impact on liquidity and the good functioning more generally of the gilt market;the likely size of demand for the new instrument; andan assessment of the cost and resource commitment required for implementation in comparison with the potential size of demand.

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Finance: Fiscal Deficit

Question

Asked by Baroness Tonge

Lord Taylor of Holbeach: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Stephen Penneck, Director General for ONS, to Baroness Tonge, dated 5 November 2010.

As Director General of the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question to Her Majesty's Government on the proportion of the deficit that is accounted for by money used to bail out the banks. HL3447

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces statistics according to internationally agreed national accounts standards. These statistics include those on government deficit and debt reported to Eurostat, the European statistical agency, and published every six months by ONS in Government deficit and debt under the Maastricht Treaty: Statistical Bulletin, available at: www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/maast0910.pdf.

Table M9 in this bulletin details the impacts of the financial crisis on general government, that is central government and local government, deficit. It details the amounts attributed to the financial crisis relating to government revenue (guarantee fees receivable, interest receivable, dividends received and other) and government expenditure (interest payable, capital injections, guarantee calls and other).

The latest figures for the amounts attributed to the financial crisis, published in Table M9, and the proportions that these represent of the government net borrowing figures published in Table M1 of the bulletin, are shown in the table below:

20082009

General government net borrowing £billion

71.2

157.1

Amount attributed £billion

4.8

7.6

to the financial crisis % of total

6.7%

4.8%

Finance: Lending Rates

Question

Asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): Well-informed, empowered consumers are

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central to the Government's vision for how a credit market between customers and lenders should work. We want to encourage responsible lending and borrowing decisions and to strengthen protection where necessary, particularly for the most vulnerable. Edward Davey, Minister for Consumer Affairs, announced a joint BIS and HM Treasury review of consumer credit and personal insolvency and my department issued a formal call for evidence on 15 October. The Government have committed to tackle unfair bank charges and to give regulators the power to define and ban excessive interest rates on credit and store cards. We are using the review to gather the evidence, we need to ensure we take the right long-term decisions for consumers.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently considered the possible introduction of price controls on interest rates on products such as pawnbroking, payday loans and home-collected credit as part of its review of high-cost consumer finance products. The review concluded that price controls would not be a suitable solution to the concerns the OFT identified. The OFT made a number of recommendations aimed at improving the market for consumers and these are also being considered as part of the review.

Food: Labelling

Question

Asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Henley): The Government have made a commitment to clear and honest food labelling.

Existing legislation both on food labelling and unfair commercial practices makes misleading labelling illegal and allows appropriate enforcement action to be taken. Labelling requirements are currently under review at EU level and we are seeking as part of the negotiations greater clarity of information where some labels are considered confusing; e.g. country of origin labelling.

The enforcement of labelling regulations is the responsibility of local authorities. To support their work the Government also has a food authenticity research programme developing analytical methods to help combat misleading labelling and food fraud.

Government Department: Salaries

Question

Asked by Lord Laird



11 Nov 2010 : Column WA122

Lord Taylor of Holbeach: Individual ministerial severance payments can be ascertained by consulting Parliamentary Factsheet M6-Ministerial Salaries. Where former Ministers were eligible, payments were made of one quarter of their annual ministerial salary as at 1 November 2007. The salaries of special advisers employed under the previous Administration have never been published by Government.

Government Departments: Staff

Question

Asked by Lord Laird

Lord Taylor of Holbeach: As at 31 October 2010, seven interns are working in the Cabinet Office; each intern is paid a salary which is commensurate with the grade of the role being filled.

Higher Education

Question

Asked by Baroness Morgan of Drefelin

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Hill of Oareford): There are nine people working directly on issues and policies around the participation in education and training of 16-19 year-olds and three on policy on GCSEs and A-levels. This number includes full-time and part-time staff. Other teams within the department work on policies and programmes which also affect these-for example, in connection with provision, workforce and support for children and young people. Details of senior and junior staff working in each directorate of the department are published on the department's website at:

www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/transparency

Higher Education: Funding

Question

Asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough



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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): All higher education institutions are independent of government and are not part of the public sector. The Higher Education Funding Council for England allocates places on a full-time-equivalent (FTE) basis to publicly funded institutions. The table below gives the number of HEFCE-funded FTEs for the years 2007-8 to 2010-11. There are no figures for (3) above as, by definition, HEFCE does not allocate places to non-publicly funded providers.

FTEs funded by HEFCE 2007-08 to 2010-11
2007-082008-092009-102010-11
HEIsFECsHEIsFECsHEIsFECsHEIsFECs

Total FTEs

984,973

37,407

934,248

37,686

961,703

410,941

986,357

44,612

The reduction in places in 2008-09 is due to the equivalent and lower qualifications policy, which removed teaching grant for those students studying for a qualification equivalent or lower to one that they already hold.

Higher Education: Tuition Fees

Question

Asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): It is not possible to make an accurate assessment of the number of institutions who will decide to charge the maximum permitted contribution for some or any of the courses they offer from 2012-13 onwards. Those that do choose to do so will have to have entered into a new and strengthened access agreement with the Office for Fair Access, including a set of access benchmarks they must make acceptable progress towards. The Government's proposals for changes to graduate contributions are expected to be brought before Parliament before Christmas this year.

Higher Education: Tuition Time

Question

Asked by Lord Ouseley

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): The reforms the Government have announced to university funding will place student choice and power at the heart of the system. Higher education institutions will need to demonstrate to students that

11 Nov 2010 : Column WA124

they are providing a high quality experience. The coalition Government expect all universities and colleges, whatever graduate contribution they decide to charge, to publish a standard set of information about their performance on the indicators that students and their parents value, including: contact hours, teaching patterns and employment outcomes.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are responsible for determining the most appropriate amount of contact time for their individual courses. This will often include a combination of tutorials, lectures, one-to-one contact or other forms of supervised scheduled study sessions. The Government have not made an assessment of the contact time HEIs provide.

HMS "Ark Royal"

Question

Asked by Lord Burnett

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Astor of Hever): The most recent refit of HMS "Ark Royal" was completed in 2001, in Rosyth dockyard, at a cost of £148 million. Since then HMS "Ark Royal" has had two further periods of deep maintenance, one in 2006 in Rosyth and one in 2009 in Portsmouth. These were completed at a cost of approximately £20 million and approximately £14 million respectively.

Following the decision, as part of the strategic defence and security review (Cm 7948), to immediately decommission HMS "Ark Royal", no further refits or deep maintenance periods will be undertaken.

Housing

Questions

Asked by Lord Bassam of Brighton

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham): Information is currently only collected on the social housing sector.

Information on the number of households receiving social housing is collected through the continuous recording of letting form (CORE). Historically CORE has only collected information from registered social landlords, though a number of local authorities are now also providing information through this process. Information on local authority lettings is taken from the housing strategy statistical appendix (HSSA).



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Number of lettings in the social housing sector, 2004-05 to 2008-09, England
LA letsRSL letsTotal

2004-05

194,100

220,200

414,300

2005-06

173,900

220,600

394,500

2006-07

160,200

222,600

382,800

2007-08

143,300

221,400

364,800

2008-09

138,600

239,600

378,200

Source: HSSA lettings returns (LA lets) and CORE lettings returns (RSL lets)

Figures exclude mutual exchanges.

Figures rounded to the nearest 100.

Asked by Lord Bassam of Brighton

Baroness Hanham: We have opened a debate about how we can create a social housing system that will provide stability where it is needed; provide more choice for tenants and prospective tenants; protect vulnerable households; and help get people into long-term employment. At the spending review, we announced plans for a new affordable rent, which will give housing associations another option to offer households in need of support. Further details will be set out shortly.

Asked by Lord Rooker

Baroness Hanham: We have no such plans. Individual local authorities, in consultation with their tenants, have discretion to decide whether to retain their landlord role.

Immigration

Question

Asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick

The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones): This Government believe that Britain can benefit from migration but not uncontrolled migration. Britain remains open for business and we will continue to attract and retain the brightest and the best people

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who can make a real difference to our economic growth, but unlimited migration places unacceptable pressure on public services.

We have consulted with business and other interested parties on how the limit should work and have also asked the Migration Advisory Committee to consult on what the actual limit should be. These consultations are now closed and we will announce the findings in due course.

Immigration: Heathrow Airport

Questions

Asked by Baroness Valentine

The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones): The UKBA Border Force at Heathrow continues to monitor performance on passenger waiting times daily against targets set out in its business plan. There has been no alteration to these targets which remain challenging but are being met through intelligent allocation and deployment of resources both through planning ahead of time (duty rosters balancing staff to anticipated demand) and more immediate daily responses to fluctuating peaks and troughs experienced as a result of arrival of aircraft outside published schedules.

Performance data, year to date, confirm that 98 per cent of passengers have been processed within agreed times. Although there are no specific incentives or sanctions, border force managers and staff continue to strive to achieve their targets while ensuring that the quality standards required to ensure the security of the UK border are maintained.

Asked by Baroness Valentine

Baroness Neville-Jones: The UKBA currently operates two automated gate schemes, e-Passport Gates and IRIS, at Heathrow Airport. IRIS is currently available at nine locations throughout the UK including Heathrow terminals 1, 3, 4 and 5. IRIS is open to all nationals who are 18-years old or over who successfully enrol on to the scheme. E-Passport gates have been available on a trial basis at 10 terminals throughout the UK since 2009 and have been recently introduced at Heathrow terminals 1, 4 and 5 and will be extended to terminal 3 in the new year as part of the current refurbishment programme. E-Passport gates are open to EEA nationals 18 years and over who hold a biometric passport.



11 Nov 2010 : Column WA127

In addition, we are currently working in partnership with the port operator, BAA at Heathrow Airport, to consider the delivery of the next generation of pre-enrolment or trusted traveller schemes at that location.

Automation of processes at the border can help us process larger numbers of passengers and in particular automated gates can enable us to expedite the movement of certain travellers.

Israel and Palestine

Question

Asked by Lord Hylton

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford): The UK has a strong record of lobbying hard on issues relating to house demolitions and settlement building. East Jerusalem is occupied territory under international law: we do not recognise Israel's annexation.

House demolitions or the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem, such as the recent evictions which took place in the Old City, are deeply unhelpful. We view any attempts to change the facts on the ground as a serious provocation likely to raise tensions, as well as being harmful to the peace process and, of course, in contravention of international law.

My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary underlined his concerns about ongoing Israeli settlement activity during his visit to the region on 2 to 4 November.

Local Economic Partnerships

Question

Asked by Lord Greaves

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham): On 28 October, the Government published their local growth White Paper, which set out its approach to achieving local economic growth by shifting power to local levels and helping to create the right conditions for growth and recovery. This included announcing the first local enterprise partnerships which would proceed.

Government will work with the relevant local authority and business partners in Lancashire and other parts of the country where no local enterprise partnership has been announced, in order to ensure future proposals allow all areas to progress, and I have asked my officials to engage directly with local partners. Government will welcome revised proposals from these places as they become ready.



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Malaysia

Question

Asked by Lord Avebury

The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones): The Immigration Minister wrote to the Malaysian High Commission on 22 July to clarify the legal position regarding British overseas citizens who have renounced their Malaysian citizenship since arriving in the United Kingdom on the false understanding that they would then have a route to settlement or to British citizenship in their capacity as British overseas citizens. In particular, he sought clarification as to what steps those individuals could take to reacquire Malaysian nationality given that they do not have a route to settlement or a registration right to British citizenship under Section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981. He also asked the Malaysian High Commission to point out the implications in relation to United Kingdom immigration and nationality law to those seeking to renounce Malaysian nationality in the future with a view to reducing the number of erroneous renunciations. I will arrange for a copy of this letter to be placed in the Library.

I am afraid that to date no response has been received to this letter. However, the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has been pursuing this with the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we hope that this matter will be resolved in the near future with a view to those affected being deemed to have retained, or being able to reacquire, Malaysian citizenship.

Papal Visit

Question

Asked by Lord Smith of Finsbury

The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon): At the request of Lord Patten of Barnes, as the Prime Minister's Personal Representative for the Papal Visit, the Treasury proposed in July 2010 a division of costs.

Ministers agreed that costs of the state visit falling to the Government would be divided among departments with an interest in the visit and involved in the planning process. Some costs relating to devolved issues will fall to the Scottish Government and to some local authorities. Policing costs will be covered from within existing police budgets.



11 Nov 2010 : Column WA129

People Trafficking

Questions

Asked by Lord Patten

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford): The UK has just led a resolution, passed by consensus at the September UN Human Rights Council, on contemporary forms of slavery, which calls upon all Governments to co-operate fully with the UN special rapporteur on the subject.

Although there have been no recent discussions with the Governments of Bangladesh, India and Nepal on bonded labour specifically, we raise our human rights concerns with these Governments at every appropriate opportunity. In Nepal the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights actively monitors the Government's commitments to rehabilitate former bonded labourers. In Pakistan, the UK and EU raise the issue of bonded labour with the Government of Pakistan as part of our regular dialogue on human rights.

Asked by Lord Hylton

The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones): The national referral mechanism (NRM) is a multi-agency victim identification and support process.

The person will always be seen by one or more of the national referral mechanism's constituent members prior to the reasonable grounds decision.

When legal submissions are made available to the competent authority decision-maker they will be considered as part of the decision-making process.

There is no requirement under the Council of Europe convention against trafficking to create a specific right of appeal. The reasonable grounds decision is a low threshold which is made following multi-agency consultation and engagement. There is also an opportunity for interested parties to provide additional information if the competent authority is initially unable to make a positive identification. This helps to ensure that the right decisions are taken and victims are properly identified. There are also standard avenues for appealing immigration decisions, and a reasonable grounds decision can be subject to judicial review.

Asked by Lord Hylton

Baroness Neville-Jones: Through the national referral mechanism (NRM), identified victims of trafficking can access all of the convention entitlements. With regard to compensation and legal redress, victims receive counselling and information regarding their legal rights and assistance to enable their rights and interests to be presented and considered at appropriate stages of criminal justice proceedings against traffickers. There are various means by which redress can be sought.

This includes prosecutors requesting compensation orders upon a conviction and through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. Victims can also seek redress from the offender through the civil courts.

Asked by Lord Hylton

Baroness Neville-Jones: The Government are committed to the non-discrimination principle set out in Article 3 of the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. Its primary concern is to identify and protect victims of human trafficking and bring to justice those that exploit them. Any consideration of a victim's nationality or immigration status is of secondary importance.

The national referral mechanism which was set up under the convention to identify and support trafficking victims is open to potential victims of all nationalities. Individuals from 79 different nationalities, including Britain and EU countries have had their cases referred for consideration in its first 18 months of operation.

Asked by Lord Hylton

Baroness Neville-Jones: Women suspected of being trafficked are not routinely detained, whether or not they have asylum claims to be considered. If an individual is already detained at the point trafficking is first suspected by the UK Border Agency they would normally be released, pending consideration of their case by an expert competent authority. Detention of recognised trafficking victims occurs only in exceptional cases-for example, following a criminal conviction.

Private Sector: Degree Awards

Question

Asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): All higher education institutions are independent

11 Nov 2010 : Column WA131

of the Government and are not part of the public sector. Non-publicly funded companies providing higher education, like any other provider of higher education, have been able to apply to the Privy Council for powers to award their own degrees since the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 came into force. In 2007 BPP University College of Professional Studies became the first private sector company to be granted taught-degree-awarding powers.

The Government want to make it easier for new providers who can offer excellent teaching and a high-quality experience for students to enter the higher education sector. However, this is one of a number of institutional issues in the wake of Lord Browne's independent review of higher education and student finance which requires thorough debate and consultation. We intend therefore to publish a higher education White Paper with proposals to which experts from the sector can react, leading to a higher education Bill.

Questions for Written Answers

Question

Asked by Lord Laird

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Strathclyde): The Guide to Parliamentary Work, published by the Cabinet Office in October 2009, contains the following guidance about the use of published documents and web-based statistics in parliamentary Answers:

Readily available information and published sources

7.32 Members are advised that Questions "must be seeking information that is not readily available elsewhere in the public domain 1'' (including in Answers to identical or similar Questions in a previous Session). Increasingly, this is the case as more and more information is available on government websites, though not necessarily in the format requested in the Question.

7.33 Where an Answer makes use of published material (e.g. statistics, economic data or quotations from reports) the source should be given, as appropriate, either in the text of the Answer or as a footnote. Attached papers (for example, statistical tables) should be deposited in the Libraries of the House. If reference is made to documents in a response, copies of these documents must also be placed in the Library.

Referring to websites or other published material

7.37 Where information already exists on a Government website, it may not be appropriate to simply give the web address in the Answer. MPs may want information placed on the permanent record (ie in Hansard) and web pages are rarely permanent. Furthermore, departments should be helpful to MPs and Peers, particularly where the fact or figure requested is contained in a much larger set of information.



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7.38 If referring to websites, it is important to consider the implications. Departments are advised to ensure that any URL given in an Answer connects directly to the information referred to (not a departmental homepage) and is working.

Links provided should be available in perpetuity. Any information referred to in this way should be supplied to the Member in hard copy, and deposited in the Library in accordance with relevant guidance. In short;

when copying the link use the URL that connects directly to the webpage/document referred to. Do not simply provide a link to the relevant website;when the URL has been inserted double-check it is accurate by clicking on it and checking that there is a straight link to the relevant Webpage/document; andit is helpful to add in the title/heading of the Webpage/document, its author and the website the information appears on to assist users in interpretation.

7.39 It is advised that the Answer should give the Member the factual information requested (including supplying paper copies of the website pages), with an additional line in the Answer indicating that the information is already made readily available. In the long term, this may help to reduce the amount of questions seeking information that is already publicly available.

7.40 Similarly, where the information requested is available in a document that has already been placed in the Library it may not be appropriate to simply refer to the document. Departments are advised to copy the requested information from the main document, where this is appropriate, to assist MPs and Peers. This is particularly helpful where a requested figure is contained as part of a much larger table.

7.41 Where an Answer makes use of published material (e.g. statistics, economic data or quotations from reports) the source should be given, as appropriate, either in the text of the Answer or as a footnote. Attached papers (for example, statistical tables) should be deposited in the Library. If reference is made to documents in a response, copies of these documents must also be placed in the Library.

The Guide to Parliamentary Work is produced by the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons. It is published on the Cabinet Office website at the following address:

www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/parliamentary-clerk-guide.aspx

A hard copy of the Guide has been deposited in the Library of the House.

1 Business of the House and its Committees - a short guide (July 2008)

Railways: Ticketing

Question

Asked by Lord Bradshaw

Earl Attlee: Officials at the Department for Transport have already had several discussions with Stagecoach South Western Trains (SSWT) on how they plan the use of their resources to meet their obligations in terms of queuing standards and actions that they are taking to improve their performance.

Government officials will continue to keep this under review with the train operator.

Schools: Male Teachers

Question

Asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Hill of Oareford): The available information is given in the table and shows that in 2008-09 there were 9,810 male trainees in the first year of an initial teacher training course.

Initial teacher training: First year trainees by course route, phase and gender:
Year 2008-09
Coverage: England
MainstreamEmployment-based routes
PrimarySecondaryTotalPrimarySecondaryTotal

Males

2,150

5,670

7,820

410

1,580

1,990

All trainees

15,050

15,150

30,200

2,300

4,270

6,570

Percentage of trainees who are male

14.3%

37.4%

25.9%

17.7%

37.1%

30.3%

Source: TDA's Performance Profiles

1. Includes trainees in the first year of their initial teacher training course.

2. Percentages show the number of male trainees as a proportion of all first year trainees.

3. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

Spending Review 2010

Questions

Asked by Lord Barnett

The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon): Departmental administration budgets cover all spending which is not directly related to frontline service provision. For the most part, the pay and private office support costs of Ministers will therefore fall within administration budgets.

It is for individual departments to decide how to implement their administration budget reductions. Reductions of one third are not required in every budget area, but across each department's administration

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budget as a whole. There is, therefore, no necessary connection between cuts in administration budgets and the number of Ministers.

The Cabinet decided to take a 5 per cent pay cut when the coalition Government came into office. Pay will then be frozen for the next five years.

Asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough

Lord Sassoon: In future, an enhanced discretionary learner support fund, managed locally, will enable schools, colleges and training providers to target support to those young people facing the most significant financial barriers to participation. The Department for Education will announce further details in due course.

The Spending Review announced the end of education maintenance allowances (EMAs). EMAs were introduced as an incentive for young people to participate. In the context of raising the participation age to 18 in 2015, after which it will be compulsory for all young people to participate in learning, a payment designed as an incentive to participation is no longer the most appropriate way to provide support. Those currently in receipt of EMAs will continue to receive them until the end of this academic year. The scheme will be closed to new applicants from January 2011.

In addition, provision will still be made to pay child benefit to qualifying young people aged 16 to 19 in the normal way. In order to be a qualifying young person, the 16 to 19 year-old must be undertaking non-advanced further education or qualifying work-based learning courses.

Asked by Lord Myners

Lord Sassoon: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). I have asked the OBR to reply.

Letter from Robert Chote, Chairman, Office for Budget Responsibility, to Lord Myners, dated 4 November 2010.

As Chair of the Budget Responsibility Committee of the Office for Budget Responsibility I have been asked to reply to your recent question:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Statement by Lord Sassoon on 20 October (HL Deb col. 831) on the Spending Review 2010 in which he stated that "the Office for Budget Responsibility has ... audited all of the annually managed expenditure

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savings in today's Statement", what was the audit process; and whether they will place a copy of the audit document in the Library of the House. [HL3438]

The OBR scrutinised costings produced by the Government using the methodology set out in the Spending Review 2010 policy costings document.

Chapter 3 of the document outlines the approach that we used to scrutinise and challenge these costings.

The document was published alongside the Spending Review documents on the HM Treasury website on 20 October 2010. It is also available via a link on our website at http://budgetresponsibility.independent.gov.uk/ publications.html.

Copies were also issued to Parliament and placed in the Library of the House.

Asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): The numbers of full- and part-time students applying for maintenance and tuition fee loan support from Autumn 2012 will depend on how students and institutions respond to the changes outlined in the Government's response to the Browne Review on Higher Education Funding, and how many students decide to take up the loan support that is available to them. Confirmed projections of numbers for each of the years of the spending review are therefore not possible. However, based on current data, it is likely that, under the proposed changes to the support package, around 1 million full-time students and 150,000 part-time students will be eligible for loan support.

Asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough

Baroness Wilcox: The Government announced on 3 November, as part of their response to Lord Browne's review of higher education funding and student finance, that they provide loans to cover the cost of tuition for all eligible full-time and part-time students from Autumn 2012. The Government will also introduce a revised maintenance grant and loan for living costs for full-time students. The cost of these changes over the Spending Review period will depend in large measure on the decisions higher education institutions take in setting their charges for tuition.

Sudan

Question

Asked by Lord Luce

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford): We are in contact with the Southern Sudanese diaspora through a range of organisations including non-governmental organisations, church groups, the Sudanese embassy and Southern Sudan Liaison Office.

We will continue to work closely with relevant organisations and encourage a role for all Sudanese diaspora in the future of their country.

Taxation: Non-domiciled Taxpayers

Question

Asked by Lord Myners

The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon): As stated in my reply to the noble Lord on 8 July 2010, a detailed announcement about the form, timing and scope of the review will be made at the appropriate time.

Transparency

Question

Asked by Lord Rooker

Lord Taylor of Holbeach: Since 11 May, Her Majesty's Government have delivered on our promise to radically shake up what transparency means in government.

We have already taken those important first steps and released information about spending data, public servant jobs and salaries that had been previously unavailable data, so that people can start to really hold politicians and government to account.

We have also set up the Transparency Board to keep pushing the transparency agenda and ensure our commitments continue to be implemented across government as announced by the Prime Minister in his letter to Cabinet Ministers on 29 May. The board is itself transparent and publishes the minutes and papers. In addition to making more data available than ever before, we will also be giving people a right to data so that they can ask for any other data they want to enable them to judge the performance of each public service.

Turkey

Question

Asked by Lord Patten



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The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford): Gender equality and women's rights are key issues for the UK Government and form part of our ongoing discussions with the Turkish authorities on human rights. This issue is also covered by the European Commission in Ankara in its regular meetings with the Turkish authorities.

Gender equality in Turkey is an issue that the UK Government have also done a lot of practical work on. We have run two projects in the last two years:



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FY2009/10: Bilateral Programme Budget (BPB) project on women in employment (a study on why women are underemployed in the formal economy)FY2010/11: BPB project on women's rights (a research project with over 1,500 women establishing a baseline understanding of their situation and needs)

In support of their lobbying work, the EU has six projects on gender equality, worth approximately €8.5 million, running in FY2010/11. These cover issues such as domestic violence, honour killings, equality in education and the protection of sex workers.

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