Andrew Stephenson

The following is a list of official trade missions that have been organised by UK Trade & Investment over the past three years to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

2013/14

• Number of Outward Trade Missions to India = 10
• Number of Outward Trade Missions Pakistan = 1
• Number of Outward Trade Missions to Bangladesh = 0
• Number of Outward Trade Missions to Sri Lanka = 3

2014/15

• Number of Outward Trade Missions to India = 9
• Number of Outward Trade Missions Pakistan = 1
• Number of Outward Trade Missions to Bangladesh = 1
• Number of Outward Trade Missions to Sri Lanka = 1

2015/16

• Number of Outward Trade Missions to India = 0 (2 planned)
• Number of Outward Trade Missions Pakistan = 0
• Number of Outward Trade Missions to Bangladesh = 0 (1 planned)
• Number of Outward Trade Missions to Sri Lanka = 0 (1 planned)

UK Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) team in the High Commission in Colombo (who cover Sri Lanka and the Maldives) provide advice to and support actual and potential UK investors. This can include advice on market opportunities, local partners and legal and regulatory requirements. They also offer the full range of UKTI services and support to British companies selling or looking for opportunities to sell goods and services in Sri Lanka. The High Commissioner regularly supports British companies, including by hosting and speaking at events and lobbying for them. The High Commission team works closely with the independent Council for Business with Britain, a trade grouping that many British investors in Sri Lanka are members of, to encourage and support continuing growth in business relations between the UK and Sri Lanka.

The UK is consistently a top ten investor in Sri Lanka, ranking 7th in 2013, the latest year for which official figures are available. These investments range widely, from financial services to education, from traditional industries to cutting edge IT development.

The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers 16-24 (AGE) provides additional funding for employers who would not otherwise be in a position to so, to recruit individuals aged 16 to 24 through the apprenticeship programme on to apprenticeship frameworks.

Eligible employers are those with fewer than 50 employees, who are new to apprenticeships or have not enrolled an apprentice in the previous 12 months. Employers can be paid up to 5 grants in total. £1500 is paid to the employer for each young apprentice.

For some areas the grant is now managed locally and eligibility criteria may be different to those set out here. This is now the case for Greater Manchester, Sheffield City Region and for West Yorkshire Combined Authority from August 2015. We do not hold data for grants distributed by combined authorities.

The table below provides a breakdown of the monetary value of AGE 16-24 paid to employers for the period February 2012 to January 2015. This is for the North West (England), Lancashire, Pendle and England. The figures used are based on apprentices’ post codes.

In addition to AGE, incentive payments are available to eligible employers who employ apprentices on one of the new apprenticeship standards. Data is not yet available on this funding trial.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has been carefully analysing the responses to the consultation on the proposed amendments to certain test schedules in the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. The Government response to this consultation was published on 25 March 2015 and can be accessed at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/furniture-fire-safety-regulations-proposed-amendments.

We are reforming the further education (FE) and skills system so that it is increasingly responsive to local needs, particularly focused on Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), and driven by the needs of local growth opportunities. LEPs are responsible for identifying local skills priorities working in partnership with key players across their local economies. Growth Deals enable them to align investment in skills capital to their key growth priorities. For example, Nelson and Colne College has successfully has secured investment of £1.4m for an Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Centre. Since December 2011 Government funding has also supported capital projects at the FE Colleges of Accrington and Rossendale, Blackburn, and Burnley. Greater devolution has enabled a Lancashire LEP scheme to support 4,000 employees aged 19 and over in small and medium-sized businesses to develop the skills that will give those businesses the confidence to grow. In addition, 610 adults started apprenticeships in Pendle in 2013/14 and 7,780 in Lancashire as a whole. 6,150 adults participated in FE and Leaning in 2013/14 in Pendle and 74,840 in Lancashire.

Growth Deals

Several accelerator and incubator projects were proposed under Growth Deals and the details of these and the associated costs are attached in the annex. Note that Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) have the flexibility to reprioritise projects based on local needs.

At Budget 2015 the government announced an additional £11m investment in new tech entrepreneur hubs in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. They will create thriving local ecosystems by nurturing start-ups, fostering collaboration, and providing mentoring, learning and business support.

University Enterprise Zones

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is investing £15m capital in a three year pilot (14/15 – 16/17) to establish four University Enterprise Zones (UEZs) in Bradford, Bristol, Liverpool and Nottingham. Led by Universities, the UEZs will provide physical space/facilities for small, innovative start-up businesses. Businesses will also be able to access wraparound business support packages, specialist facilities and expert knowledge, including support from UKTI to promote inward investment onto their sites. The Government investment of £15m will leverage over £47m from private and public sector sources. The UEZs are focused on sectors of relevance to the areas – digital health, robotics, sensors and advance manufacturing.

Projects commenced in the second half of 2014/15 and the majority of the funding will be pulled down in years 15/16 and 16/17. The first centres will open for business in spring 2016.

Profiled expenditure is in the table below.

Science Park Business Incubator

The Government is providing £4.8m capital funding in 2015/16 for a new business incubator on Cambridge Science Park (Cambridge Science Park Technology Centre). The incubator will support innovative, early stage companies, primarily in the life sciences sector. This forms part of the Government’s long term economic plan for the East of England to increase the growth rate, building on the world class science and technology base of Cambridge and the surrounding area.

Full details of current Growth Deals projects can be found in the attached document.

Information on the number of government-funded apprenticeship starts in the latest full year, by Sector Subject Area, Parliamentary Constituency and Local Education Authority is published in a Supplementary Table to a Statistical First Release (SFR).

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/400024/apprenticeships-starts-by-geography-and-sector-subject-area.xls

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) publishes young participation rates by parliamentary constituency. These show the proportion of young people in each parliamentary constituency who entered higher education by the age of 19, for each cohort of 18 year olds between 1998 and 2011. These can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/yp/trendsyp/pment/

The statistics will be updated to include the 2012 cohort of 18 year olds in the summer.

All products intended for use by consumers are regulated under the General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) 2005 which implements the EU’s General Product Safety Directive (GPSD). A producer must not supply a consumer product unless it satisfies the general safety requirement (regulation 5 of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005). Further still there is also robust legislation, in the form of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations; these implement into UK law the European Council Directive 2006/95/EEC - commonly referred to as the Low Voltage Directive (LVD) - which cover electrical products such as chargers. This requires the charger to be safe and constructed to good engineering practice and be supplied with relevant safety advice and operating instructions. The enforcement of the legislation falls to Local Authority Trading Standards Services.

The revised Tobacco Products Directive (Directive 2014/40/EU), which will enter into force from May 2016 will ensure a high level of health protection for UK citizens. It will establish new rules for the safety, quality, ingredients and presentation of consumer electronic cigarettes, as well as refill mechanisms. The new regulations will require six month prior notification of a range of information before either e-cigarettes or refills are placed on the market.

In the meantime, the Department is currently funding a market surveillance project led by Dorset Trading Standards and involving 40 local authorities across England to ascertain whether there are significant product safety issues for the e-cigarette market in the UK. The main deliverable from this project will be a report with recommendations for future steps to be taken by industry, Trading Standards and Government. The report will be shared with the relevant enforcement authorities in the UK.

The following tables show the largest increases in bilateral trade (exports + imports) in absolute value and percentage terms for goods.

It is often the case that the largest percentage increases are with the smallest trading partners because of the small value of trade with these countries. In order to not distort the percentage increase data in this way the tables only consider the UK's 50 largest trade in goods partners for 2013 and display the top 10 from those selected countries. Change in value of bilateral trade is measured between the 12 months ending September 2013 and the 12 months ending September 2014.

Trade in goods data has been used in this answer as it contains information on all trade partners whereas total trade data (goods and services) as published by ONS are not available for all trading partners.

A full list of trade values covering over 200 countries can be found on the HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics website (goods only): https://www.uktradeinfo.com/

The estimated number and proportion of households which are fuel poor in 2012 under the Low Income High Costs (LIHC) Indicator in (a) Pendle constituency, (b) Lancashire and (c) the north west are shown in the table below.

To date, the Textile Growth Programme, (England wide) has engaged with 68 companies in Lancashire, 8 of which are based in Pendle.

14 companies in Lancashire have benefited from grants through this programme to the value of about £945,000, with a target to create or safeguard about 335 jobs. Two of these companies are in Pendle and have benefited from over £200,000 with a target to create 104 jobs.

Also, in Lancashire, there are five additional business applications currently in appraisal / project board review phase.

Great Britain operates as a single energy market and therefore competitiveness is assessed on that basis.

There are 25 energy suppliers currently operating in the domestic supply market, consisting of 6 major and 19 independent supply companies. Since May 2010, 12 new suppliers have entered the market and they have more than trebled their customer base. Independent suppliers now account for around 9% of the domestic retail market up from 1% in 2010.

The best way to keep everyone’s bills down is to help people to save energy, ensure fair tariffs and encourage competition. Ofgem’s measures to reform the retail energy market are making it simpler for consumers to understand. While the Government has ensured that everyone is on the cheapest tariff that their supplier offers (that meets their preference).

In total more than 21,000 Start Up Loans have been issued to budding entrepreneurs across the country since the scheme launched in June 2012. 38 loans have been issued in Pendle constituency out of 794 loans in total across Lancashire.

Table 1 shows the number of apprenticeship starts in the 2012/13 academic year by Sector Subject Area for Pendle parliamentary constituency and Lancashire Local Education Authority.

Table 1: Apprenticeship Starts by Geography and Sector Subject Area, 2012/13

Source: Individualised Learner Record

Notes

1) Volumes are rounded to the nearest ten

2) ‘-‘ indicates a base value of less than five

3) Local Education Authority and Parliamentary Constituency are based on the home postcode of the learner.

Estimates for the number of households which do not have mains gas and which use domestic heating oil are not available. However, the number of households that did not have access to a mains gas supply can be estimated bycombining figures for the lower layer super output areas that most closely match the Pendle Constituency.

In 2012, there were approximately 1,300 households (three per cent) which had no access to mains gas in Pendle.The number of households that did not have access to mains gas in Lancashire is estimated to be32,000 (six per cent of households within Lancashire).

These data are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lsoa-estimates-of-households-not-connected-to-the-gas-network.

The Government published its response to Sir Eric Pickles’ review of electoral fraud in December, and is now looking closely at how and when the work on each of the recommendations addressed in the response can be taken forward. In the coming weeks and months, the Government will work closely with the Electoral Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, and other electoral administrators, in order to set out clearly the nature and timing of that work. We will look to implement the majority of Sir Eric’s recommendations either through primary and secondary legislation, or through new or reinforced guidance, as appropriate. In its response, the Government has clearly identified where the recommendations that it intends to bring forward will require primary legislation in order to be implemented.

The Government published its response to Sir Eric Pickles’ review of electoral fraud in December, and is now looking closely at how and when the work on each of the recommendations addressed in the response can be taken forward. In the coming weeks and months, the Government will work closely with the Electoral Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, and other electoral administrators, in order to set out clearly the nature and timing of that work. We will look to implement the majority of Sir Eric’s recommendations either through primary and secondary legislation, or through new or reinforced guidance, as appropriate. In its response, the Government has clearly identified where the recommendations that it intends to bring forward will require primary legislation in order to be implemented.

There are 47 Lord-Lieutenants in England, five of whom are in the North West. Like other counties, Lancashire has one Lord-Lieutenant.

Information on the number of serving Deputy Lieutenants is not held centrally: the number of Deputy Lieutenants in a Lieutenancy at any time is a matter for the Lord-Lieutenant, subject to limits calculated on the basis of population size. Lieutenancy websites may hold relevant information about current Deputy Lieutenants.

There are 47 Lord-Lieutenants in England, five of whom are in the North West. Like other counties, Lancashire has one Lord-Lieutenant.

Information on the number of serving Deputy Lieutenants is not held centrally: the number of Deputy Lieutenants in a Lieutenancy at any time is a matter for the Lord-Lieutenant, subject to limits calculated on the basis of population size. Lieutenancy websites may hold relevant information about current Deputy Lieutenants.

There are 47 Lord-Lieutenants in England, five of whom are in the North West. Like other counties, Lancashire has one Lord-Lieutenant.

Information on the number of serving Deputy Lieutenants is not held centrally: the number of Deputy Lieutenants in a Lieutenancy at any time is a matter for the Lord-Lieutenant, subject to limits calculated on the basis of population size. Lieutenancy websites may hold relevant information about current Deputy Lieutenants.

There are 47 Lord-Lieutenants in England, five of whom are in the North West. Like other counties, Lancashire has one Lord-Lieutenant.

Information on the number of serving Deputy Lieutenants is not held centrally: the number of Deputy Lieutenants in a Lieutenancy at any time is a matter for the Lord-Lieutenant, subject to limits calculated on the basis of population size. Lieutenancy websites may hold relevant information about current Deputy Lieutenants.

There are 47 Lord-Lieutenants in England, five of whom are in the North West. Like other counties, Lancashire has one Lord-Lieutenant.

Information on the number of serving Deputy Lieutenants is not held centrally: the number of Deputy Lieutenants in a Lieutenancy at any time is a matter for the Lord-Lieutenant, subject to limits calculated on the basis of population size. Lieutenancy websites may hold relevant information about current Deputy Lieutenants.

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The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

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The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

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The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.