Written Statements

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Written Statements

Thursday 23 October 2014

Serious Fraud Office (Contingencies Fund)

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Written Statements

[The Solicitor-General (Mr Robert Buckland)]

I would like to inform the House that a cash advance from the Contingencies Fund has been sought for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

In line with the current arrangement for SFO funding agreed with HM Treasury, the SFO will be submitting a reserve claim as part of the supplementary estimate process for 2014-15.

The advance is required to meet an urgent cash requirement on existing services pending parliamentary approval of the 2014-15 supplementary estimate. The supplementary estimate will seek an increase in both the resource departmental expenditure limit and the net cash requirement in order to cover the cost of significant investigations and the settlement of material liabilities.

Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £26,500,000 will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the Serious Fraud Office. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £26,500,000 will be met by a repayable cash advance from the Contingencies Fund. Should further resources be required, the Serious Fraud Office will seek authority through the Treasury in the normal way.

The advance will be repaid upon Royal Assent of the Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Bill.

Sporting Legacy

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mrs Helen Grant)]

In July, the Government and the Mayor of London published “Inspired by 2012”. This second anniversary report detailed the activities which took place in the second year since the 2012 games.

As the Minister responsible for sport and equalities, I am committed to delivering a lasting sports legacy from London 2012 for all. I would like to update the House on progress on the Government’s sport legacy plan since July.

The UK has shown that it remains one of the best places in the world to stage major sporting events with incredible and inspiring events such as the Invictus games. Each major sporting event hosted in this country helps to build on the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games and inspires new people to get involved with sport.

In February of this year the Government and Mayor of London launched our “Moving More, Living More” initiative to promote physical activity as part of the legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. As part of that initiative we see today:

the launch of Public Health England’s physical activity implementation framework, “Everybody Active, Every Day”, which will provide local authorities and other organisations with guidance, evidence and supportive materials to help them when commissioning local physical activity interventions. The framework has been developed following extensive consultation with members of the public and stakeholders.

the announcement by Sport England of a new £5 million fund, “Get Healthy, Get Active”, which will allow local communities to apply for funding to help to tackle inactivity and which will be aligned to local strategies.

There will also be a number of other Government announcements relating to physical activity over the coming months, including the launch of a cycling and walking delivery plan, being led by the Department for Transport.

For the last year, the DCMS Women and Sport Advisory Board has been meeting to discuss further ways to address the issues surrounding women and sport, from participation to commercial sponsorship and women on sports boards. I am convening the Government’s first conference dedicated specifically to the issues surrounding women and sport on the 30 October. This invites public engagement to further this important agenda and demonstrates the Government’s commitment to women in sport.

The “I Will If You Will” 12-month pilot programme—launched in Bury in September 2013—tested what helps to encourage more women and girls to be more active, more often. With £2.3 million of national lottery funding from Sport England, and delivered by Bury council, the innovative programme has the support of the local sports providers, community groups, businesses and volunteer champions. It has helped engage more than 6,500 women and girls across the borough, delivered nearly 25,000 activity sessions and allocated approximately £35,000 of grant money for local groups. The second phase of the programme will start in early 2015 and run for two years. Exact plans and the learnings from the pilot will be revealed later in the year.

Elite sport

At the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games, England finished top of the medal table and Scotland’s fourth place was its highest ever finish. In fact, England, Scotland and Wales won more medals than ever before at a Commonwealth games.

The England women’s rugby team won the 2014 rugby world cup in Paris on 17 August. I can report that at a grass-roots level, nearly 14,000 women and girls are currently registered as playing rugby each week and the Rugby Football Union is targeting growth of a further 10,000 participants by 2017.

UK Sport has doubled investment in British Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports preparing for the next games in PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018. Following the games in Sochi, winter sports were able to make a compelling case to UK Sport for increased investment in the next cycle. UK Sport will invest up to £31 million in eight winter Olympic and Paralympic sports, which have demonstrated credible medal potential for PyeongChang 2018 or in 2022. This will contribute towards a collective ambition for Great Britain to have yet another record-breaking winter games in four years’ time. This is more than double the investment in the Sochi cycle—the four years leading up to the Sochi games—of just over £14 million.

As part of the continued Government funding for elite sport to 2016, all funded athletes have been asked to give up to five days a year to inspire children and young people to get involved in sport. UK Sport’s most recent survey of this activity, completed in April 2014, revealed that athletes had given more than 8,200 days to community and school sport since London 2012.

World-class facilities

The south of Queen Elizabeth Olympic park reopened in April 2014. Since the north of the park began to open in July 2013, more than 3 million people have visited for a wide variety of community, cultural and sporting events or simply to enjoy the new parkland.

The park’s world-class sporting venues continue to draw huge crowds. The London Aquatics Centre attracted more than 500,000 visitors since it opened in March 2014, the Copper Box arena drew in 300,000 visitors in its first year while Lee Valley VeloPark has had more than 300,000 visitors since it opened in March 2014. The Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre also opened its doors to the public in June 2014.

The park also plays host to a range of major sporting events. On 8 June 2014 thousands of people came to the park to enjoy the Queen’s baton relay on its journey to Glasgow for the Commonwealth games. A festival of sport, part of the park’s three-year Active People, Active Park programme, was staged as part of the relay to encourage local people of all ages and abilities to get active with more than 30 different sports on offer. The park formed part of the route for this year’s Tour de France while the Prudential Ride London event attracted more than 20,000 amateur and professional cyclists who began their Prudential Ride London event from the heart of the park in early August. Later in the month 30,000 people attended a wide variety of sporting activities to mark National Paralympic day and in September, 65,000 spectators watched 400 injured, sick or wounded servicemen and women from 13 countries compete in the inaugural Invictus games.

Major sports events

DCMS, with UK Sport and Sport England, are planning to capitalise on the UK hosting major events to increase sport participation. Later this year DCMS and UK Sport will publish an updated major events strategy which will demonstrate a collaborative partnership which aims to identify, attract and deliver up to 100 major international sporting events by 2023, including World and European championships such as the world artistic gymnastics (2015), world athletics championships (2017) and UEFA European championship finals package (2020).

UK Sport’s £41 million gold event series funded through the national lottery will support the bidding and delivery of a majority of these events. In 2013, Sport England launched a £2 million engagement fund to support the gold event series by enabling participation programmes to be wrapped around major events hosted in England.

Interest in volunteering for major events remains high. UK Sport is encouraging an emphasis on good training and orientation to create a successful event and to create a positive volunteering experience. A report on the rugby league world cup 2013 confirmed that over 700 volunteers were part of the event, and 300 of these were new to volunteering. Outcomes of the report were good and demonstrated a positive experience for volunteers. The Yorkshire Tour de France Grand Depart 2014 utilised over 10,000 volunteers selected to become “Tour Makers”. Interest in volunteering for the rugby world cup was high. England 2015 received over 20,000 applications for 6,000 volunteer roles across the UK. Seventy-five per cent of applications for “The Pack” were from the rugby community in line with the tournament vision. Selection events, or “Try Outs”, began in June and will be held in every host city until December 2014.

Community

Places people play

Sport England’s investment in grass-roots sports facilities now stands at £91 million, with over 1,670 clubs already having benefited from the “Inspired Facilities” programme.

Youth sport strategy

Sportivate and satellite clubs are two of Sport England’s leading community sport programmes that have already got more than half a million young people playing sport every week. Sportivate introduces 11-25 year olds to sport through a six-week coaching course. Satellite clubs bring community sports clubs into schools and colleges and help young people continue their sporting habit after they leave school.

A total of 495,132 14 to 25-year-olds have completed the Sportivate coaching course, with over 300,000 continuing to participate. There are now 3,615 satellite clubs operational and 480 of these are girls only. This is an increase of 1,615 satellite clubs since July 2014, of these 280 girls-only clubs started during this period. These continue to bring sport to young people in very local venues and may attract young people who are not typically very sporty.

In September, Sport England’s university sport activation fund awarded £11.3 million of national lottery funding to support the universities to get nearly 195,000 new students playing sport by offering them the chance to take up new sport or to continue playing a sport they used to play at school or college.

Volunteering

Summer 2014 saw Join In co-ordinate a relay of volunteering across the UK, sending sports stars back to where their careers began to highlight the importance of volunteers to the success of local sport. Over 1,000 people attended the 10 stops across the country, supported by 100-plus volunteers.

Alongside this was Join In’s volunteer co-ordination at Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games and Invictus games. This, combined with the recent Join In partnership with ITV’s local heroes campaign, has encouraged volunteering and club engagement through the Join In website.

Join In’s “Value of Volunteering in Sport” research was launched on 16 October at Admiralty House.

School games

The School games is Government’s framework for competitive school sport, which aims to give every schoolchild, no matter their ability or disability, the chance to participate in high-quality competitive sport.

The School games offer intra-school, inter-school, county festivals and national finals competition for school children. The School games national finals 2014 were held in Manchester on 4-7 September. A total of 1,600 athletes competed in 12 sports in venues across the city. With more than 10,000 spectators and more than 400 volunteers, the event provided an opportunity to highlight the importance of youth sport. The games have been a launch pad for many elite athletes—for example, 150 of the competitors at the recent Commonwealth games in Glasgow had taken part in the School games previously.

PE and school sport

The primary spaces facilities fund will enable 601 schools to improve their outdoor facilities and create spaces that will inspire and encourage pupils to take part in play.

Schools were awarded grants up to £30,000. All 601 schools have their projects planned this year; they are being installed in five waves throughout the academic year. The first 100 projects began this summer with a large number of schools and children already enjoying their newly enhanced outdoor facility.

OFSTED published a primary school sport premium survey report on 15 October looking at the first year of delivery of primary PE and sport fund. The results were positive showing lots of good practice at schools across the country.

Disability sport legacy

Following the success of the London 2012 Paralympic games, we want to inspire more people with disabilities to play sport regularly and the Invictus games were certainly inspirational. There is good evidence to show a positive relationship between attending/watching major events encourages participation, and this same inspirational impact is also felt by TV viewers. The Invictus games continues the success of the Paralympics in bringing disability sport to a mass audience—and the real benefits to the public’s perception of disabled people.

International development

The international inspiration (II) programme ended in June 2014. Active in 20 countries, II exceeded its vision of reaching 12 million young people with more than 15.6 million reached. A final evaluation report of II was published in July 2014 by Ecrorys and examined the programme’s impact with the II. The charity is working on plans to sustain the programme beyond its completion.

I will continue to provide quarterly updates to the House on progress with delivery of this plan.

Care Act 2014 (Part 1)

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

Today I am publishing the statutory guidance to support implementation of part 1 of the Care Act 2014 in 2015/16. Also today the Government’s “Response to the consultation on draft regulations and guidance for implementation of part 1 of the Care Act 2014 (Cm 8955)” has been laid before Parliament. Published alongside this document are proposed final versions of the regulations which will underpin the new legal framework, in order to provide this information to local authorities as soon as possible to support their preparations for implementation in April 2015.

Regulations subject to the negative procedure will be laid before Parliament shortly, and those subject to the affirmative procedure will be subject to the approval of Parliament in due course.

The Care Act will make a difference to some of the most vulnerable people in society for many years to come. It provides for the most substantial reform of the care and support system in England for over 65 years, enshrining individual rights and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of local authorities and other partners. The guidance and regulations associated with the Act set out how the Act will work in practice when the first phase of the reforms comes into effect next year.

Consultation on draft regulations and guidance over summer 2014 drew over 4,000 responses. We are very grateful to all who took time to contribute to this consultation process. The consultation response document summarises the many ways in which those responses have helped to shape the final guidance and regulations.

This consultation and final package published today relates to those parts of the care and support reforms which come into effect from 2015/16. A second consultation will be held later this year in relation to the reforms which are due to be implemented from April 2016, including the reforms to the funding system for care and support and the cap on care costs.

Response to the consultation on draft regulations and guidance for implementation of part 1 of the Care Act 2014 is available in the Library.

The statutory guidance and proposed regulations have been placed in the Library of the House.

Today’s publications can also be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/updating-our-care-and-support-system-draft-regulations-and-guidance

Family and Civil Cases (Support)

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Simon Hughes)]

The Government are committed to making sure that when people separate that they do it in the best possible way. Too many people end up fighting expensive and confrontational court battles when they could be helped to resolve their problems outside of the courts. However when people do end up in court it is imperative that they have the right advice and information.

After the major changes to the family court in April this year and the recent announcement in July of a free mediation session for separating couples, I am today announcing further initiatives to help people in the family and civil justice system. A new package of support has been developed aimed at keeping disputes away from court and providing better support for those who do end up in court.

The new support will include:

Improving online information so that it is accurate, engaging and easy to find.

A new strategy, funded by the Ministry of Justice, and agreed with the legal and advice sectors which will help to increase legal and practical support for litigants in person in the civil and family courts.

A new “Supporting separating parents in dispute helpline” pilot run by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) to test a more joined-up and tailored out-of-court service.

This package of support will help provide separating couples and court users with the information, advice and guidance they need to help settle disputes in the most appropriate and proportionate way.

Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Written Statements

[The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)]

The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council met on 16 October 2014 in Luxembourg. I represented the United Kingdom.

The Council agreed a general approach on a proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a European platform to enhance co-operation in the prevention and deterrence of undeclared work. Through negotiation we have achieved textual changes which clarify that participation in activities arising from the platform’s discussions will be voluntary. The UK abstained on this vote due to parliamentary scrutiny reserve.

There was a policy debate on the mid-term review of the Europe 2020 strategy, including the evaluation of the European semester. There was general agreement between member states on the future direction of the Europe 2020 strategy; the mid-term review; and the evaluation of the European semester. The UK expressed continued support for Europe 2020 and a renewed emphasis on economic and employment growth. The UK also highlighted the need to avoid new tools of EU governance. As part of this discussion, the Council endorsed the joint opinion presented by the Employment Committee (EMCO) and Social Protection Committee (SPC). The Council also endorsed the SPC report on social policy reforms for a fair and competitive Europe.

Under any other business, the Commission delivered a presentation on a shortfall in the European social fund budget. The UK intervened to set out that while the backlog of unpaid commitments was an issue that needed to be addressed, the Commission should be managing such spending pressures. The Italian presidency provided information to the Council on the September 2014 G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ meeting. It also provided an update on the proposed tripartite social summit and on other ongoing issues. Finally, the Council paid tribute to the outgoing Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor, thanking him for his commitment to social reforms.

Universal Credit Support

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Written Statements

The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey): During the passage of the Pensions Act 2014 through the House of Lords earlier this year, concerns were raised on the ability of universal credit claimants to undertake work-related requirements when they are facing situations where they have a child in considerable distress. We wanted to ensure that we appropriately support parents in these circumstances as we recognise the importance of parental responsibilities in such acute situations. My noble Friend the Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Freud, therefore committed to an internal departmental review to consider this issue. That review has now ended and I am pleased to announce the findings.

Evidence was provided by a range of external stakeholder organisations, DWP front-line staff and officials from other Government Departments. We have also been supported in our considerations of the review findings by two external expert advisers, Dr Jane Callaghan from the British Psychological Society and Karina Dancza from the College of Occupational Therapists. I am very grateful to all those who contributed to the review, and especially to Jane and Karina for their expertise. The review concluded that there are particular circumstances where a child is likely to be in considerable distress and where it would be reasonable to allow the primary carer of the child to have their work related requirements suspended. This would be where there is significant disruption to the claimant’s normal child-care responsibilities and a need to provide additional care and support for their child. As a result, we intend to introduce an amendment to existing regulations that will allow the following improvements.

A month suspension of work-related requirements where there is a need to provide additional care and support to a child following the death of a parent, sibling, previous responsible carer of a child or a person living in the same household as the child who does not pay commercial rent;

the child experiencing or witnessing violence or abuse which would include domestic violence and abuse.

The responsible carer of the child would be able to access this month suspension once every six months for a total period of up to two years following the incidence of any of the above situations.

An extension of the existing suspension of work-related requirements from 13 weeks to 26 weeks for victims fleeing domestic violence and abuse where the claimant is the primary carer of a child.

We do not intend to seek evidence of the child’s distress, but rather on how the situation has impacted the day-to-day functioning of the parent/family. For example, the additional demands placed on the parent by having to attend numerous appointments with statutory agencies and how in turn this affects the claimant’s ability to undertake work search and their availability for work.

We have substantial evidence that points to work having a strong positive impact on the well-being of an individual and their family. The amendment to put in place a month suspended conditionality recognises the need to provide a temporary suspension of work related requirements to enable the parent to support their child and deal with the impact of their distress.

We intend to lay the amendments to regulations before Parliament on 4 November 2014.