Bob Ainsworth

Shortly after its creation in 2010, the National Security Council (NSC) approved a new National Security Strategy (NSS) to ensure a strong Britain in an age of uncertainty. There have been no fundamental changes to our policy on national security issues since then. The NSS has provided a sound basis to guide our response to subsequent challenges to our national security. Whitehall Departments are brought together through the NSC to take collective decisions at a time of increasing strategic uncertainty.

Data on construction output is published by the ONS, in their statistical bulletin ‘Output in the Construction Industry’. This includes information on construction output for the regions of England, plus Scotland and Wales. No data for individual cities is published. This information has not been adjusted for inflation.

The Government is committed to tackling fuel poverty and is clear that we cannot leave the fuel poor behind in meeting our energy and climate change objectives.

We have a strong package of policies delivering assistance to those in need including: the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), the Warm Home Discount Scheme and the Big Energy Saving Network.

By the end of April 2014 ECO has seen the installation of 469,000 insulation and heating measures in over 394,000 low income and vulnerable households.

TheWarm Home Discount helps over 2 million households each year including more than a million low income pensioners who receive the discount automatically. This coming winter, the value of the discount will rise to £140.

DECC has also committed nearly £2million for 2013-15 to the Big Energy Saving Network, which provides grant funding to community and third sector organisations throughout Great Britain. The funding delivers help directly to communities and assists vulnerable consumers to take action by switching their tariff or payment method and taking up energy efficiency offers.

Government is preparing proposals on a new fuel poverty target and Strategy for England in line with the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000. We will be publishing our target proposals and consultation in preparation for a new fuel poverty strategy in due course.

The following table lists the contribution of manufacturing to employment and gross value added (GVA) for the West Midlands and England and to employment for Coventry. Estimates of GVA are not collected in sufficient detail to report on manufacturing in Coventry. GVA figures for 2012 by region are not yet available. Data on future capacity are not available from official sources, but the Foresight report into the future of manufacturing, published in October 2013, concluded that manufacturing is set to enter a dynamic new phase, driven by rapid changes in technology, new ways of doing business, global competition and potential volatility around the price and availability of resources. It makes recommendations for government and industry to ensure that the UK manufacturing sector is able to compete and thrive in this new world.

Source: Regional National Accounts and Business Registers Employment Survey (both ONS)

The Government is committed to improving social mobility, as set out in our social mobility strategy, ‘Opening Doors, Breaking Barriers', published in 2011. The strategy sets out a plan for improving social mobility across the whole country, incorporating polices such as early education for two year olds from lower income families, the Pupil Premium and the Youth Contract.

To assess the progress of this strategy, the Government has committed to reporting regularly on a set of key indicators to track closely whether we are moving in the right direction on social mobility; I chair a group of key Ministers to oversee delivery of the strategy, and the Government has created a new Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.

These indicators were last updated in November last year, and will be updated again shortly.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has no data on the total number of incidents of domestic violence and sexual violence that have occurred in each of the last five years and is unable, therefore, to provide an answer to the first part of the question.

Increasing the number of rape convictions continues to be a priority for the CPS. On 6 June 2014, a Rape Action Plan was jointly published by the police and CPS which sets out a series of actions designed to improve the criminal justice response in rape cases. This followed a Rape National Scrutiny Panel led by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the National Policing lead for rape, which considered the investigation and prosecution of rape cases including their referral from the police to the CPS. The prosecution of domestic violence also remains a high priority for the CPS and prosecutors receive regular training, and are provided with relevant guidance. The Rape Action Plan can be found on the CPS website at;

http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/equality/vaw/rape_action_plan.pdf

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.

I continue to press the football authorities to better engage with their fans and have been encouraged by the introduction of a designated Supporter Liaison Officer into each of the Premier League and Football League clubs.

A proposal from Supporters Direct for an expert group on supporter ownership in football is under consideration by government and the football authorities, including terms of reference and timeframes of any resulting work in the area.

The Department for Education does not collect data on the daily or weekly costs of supply teachers employed by schools, supply teaching agencies or local authorities.

The rate of pay depends on how supply teachers are employed. Supply teachers employed directly by a state maintained school or local authority must be paid in accordance with the statutory arrangements for teachers laid down in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. Other arrangements for the engagement of supply teachers, including their rates of pay, are private commercial arrangements.

Arrangements for the engagement of agency supply teachers, including their pay rates, are private commercial arrangements. The Government does not collect data on these arrangements and so is unable to make a comparative assessment with the salaries of teachers who are subject to the terms of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.

Supply teachers, who are employed by accepted employers, are able to participate in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, and already do so. These are most commonly teachers employed by local authorities to provide supply cover to maintained schools. The employer-employee relationship is important because the employer is responsible for meeting a number of obligations, which include paying both member and employer contributions to the scheme.

Schools and local authorities are responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers, including decisions over whether to use private agencies to recruit and manage them. If a teacher is supplied by a private agency, this is a private commercial arrangement between the school and the agency and as such there is no employer-employee relationship between the school and teacher. It is for schools and local authorities to determine how they engage supply teachers and, depending on whether this is through private agencies or accepted employers, whether participation in the scheme is permitted.

Destination Measures data, following key stage 4 and key stage 5, are published at local authority level for the years 2009/10 and 2010/11. Parliamentary constituency level data are published for 2010/11 only.

The requested data, for the available years, are published in the Destination Measures statistical first release, here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations

The Conflict Pool is funded from an HM Treasury settlement which is separate from and additional to departmental budgets. Details of Conflict Pool allocations are provided to Parliament annually in a Written Ministerial Statement. The statements for Financial Years 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 are available on the parliament.uk website.

A Statement giving details of Conflict Pool allocations for FY 2014/15 will be laid before the House shortly.

UK aid to Kashmir is largely delivered through national programmes in Pakistan and India which the UK helps fund. This includes support to promote economic growth, improve maternal and new born health and increase access to education. The tri-departmental Conflict Pool also funds joint programmes in Kashmir, supporting conflict prevention and peace building.

It is not possible to disaggregate our multilateral support to Kashmir.

Through the South Asia Regional Trade and Integration Programme, DFID is working with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to promote trade in the region. This includes support to modernise procedures and infrastructure at the Wagah border post between India and Pakistan (to reduce transit times and business costs), and to develop an electricity connection between the two countries.

In Pakistan, DFID is also supporting, through the World Bank, the development of a regional trade strategy with India, advice to small and medium enterprises on cross-border trading, and innovative youth programmes aimed at reducing trade barriers between Pakistan and India.

Finally, the tri-departmental Conflict Pool is providing support to increase cooperation and dialogue between the Governments and the public and private sectors of both countries on trade liberalisation.

The most recent data available for regional expenditure is the Country and regional analysis for 2013, published by HM Treasury.

Table A.15 shows UK identifiable expenditure on services by function, country and region, per head, 2008-09 to 2012-13, of which: Transport

The extract below gives identifiable expenditure per head for the West Midlands and England. Committed spend is not analysed at a lower level.

The Department for Transport is not the only public body responsible for transport and a large proportion of expenditure is covered by local government bodies.

The Government does not expect an increase in the number of evictions in relation to the direct payments of housing benefit.

Most tenants in the Private Rented Sector are already used to receiving their housing payments directly, and managing their own finances.

For other tenants, including many in the Social Rented Sector, this will represent more of a change. We are working with the advice sector to ensure that claimants are able to access budgeting support services to help them to manage their money successfully. Money advice will be offered at a national and local level, and include a mix of online, telephone and face to face services.

A minority of claimants may require alternative payment arrangements. This might include paying rent direct to the landlord, making payments more frequently than monthly, or splitting the payment for a couple.

The Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat was published in February 2014. Local health, social care and criminal justice partners throughout England are expected to sign local crisis declarations by the end of December 2014.

In Operational Resilience and Capacity Planning for 2014/15 published by NHS England, NHS Trust Development Authority, Monitor, and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in June 2014 it is clear that operational resilience plans must include evidence of sign-up to local Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat arrangements.

Local declarations should be in place throughout England by the end of 2014. Progress towards this can be seen at the following webpage:

http://www.crisiscareconcordat.org.uk/explore-the-map/

There are plans for a single Crisis Care declaration, to cover the entire West Midlands Police Force area including Coventry, to be agreed in early December.

Prior to April 2013, information on the Cancer Drugs Fund was administered through clinical panels based in each strategic health authority (SHA) and data on the number of patients who received funding in each constituency and city was not collected. Information on the number of patients funded in West Midlands SHA and England in 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 is shown as follows:

¹ Some individual patients may be double-counted where a patient has received more than one drug treatment through the Cancer Drugs Fund

Source: Information provided to the Department by SHAs

NHS England has had oversight of the Fund since April 2013 and publishes information on patient numbers routinely on its website at:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/

In 2013-14, 5,695 patients in the Midlands and East region and 19,282 patients in England received funding through the Fund. In addition, 28 individual cancer drugs fund request applications were approved by the Cancer Drugs Fund panel in the Midlands and East region with 278 applications approved nationally.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), has spoken to each of his Indian, Pakistani and US counterparts in recent months about South Asia regional issues and relations between India and Pakistan. We recognise the importance of finding a lasting solution to the situation in Kashmir, but remain of the view it is not for third parties to prescribe one. We continue to follow developments in the region closely, and officials from our High Commissions in both New Delhi and Islamabad regularly discuss the situation in Kashmir with both governments and travel to the region, security situation permitting.

The Conflict Pool is part of an HMT settlement which is distinct from departmental budgets. It is tri-departmentally managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence, and the Department for International Development. In financial year 2013/14, the South Asia allocation was £20m. In the two preceding years, it was £15.5m per annum. The allocation for this financial year will be laid before Parliament shortly in a Written Ministerial Statement.

Ministers engage regularly with their counterparts in both India and Pakistan to discuss these and many other issues. We welcome the recent meeting between the countries two Prime Ministers in Delhi and subsequent exchange of letters.

This information is not available for i and ii.

The estimated number of tax credit claims paid out incorrectly in the claimants favour, due to either error or fraud, in the United Kingdom in each of the last five years is provided in Table 2 in:

2008/09: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121103084242/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtcredits-error0809.pdf

2009/10: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121103084242/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtcredits-error0910.pdf

2010/11: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130414062148/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/fin-error-stats/cwtcredits-error.pdf

2011/12:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140206214602/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/fin-error-stats/cwtcredits-error.pdf

2012/13:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-and-working-tax-credits-error-and-fraud-statistics-2012-to-2013

As part of the roll-out of the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, published by the Government in February 2014, health, social care and criminal justice partners across England have been invited to develop and sign local Concordat
declarations. The relevant Police and Crime Commissioner and Police Force are two of seven essential signatories to each local declaration.

I share the aim of the Right Honourable Norman Lamb MP, the Minister for Care and Support, that declarations should be in place throughout England by the end of 2014. Progress towards this across all areas of England can be seen at the
following webpage: http://www.crisiscareconcordat.org.uk/explore-the-map/

I understand that there are plans for Crisis Care declarations covering Coventry and the West Midlands to be agreed in early December.

According to data obtained from Her Majesty's Passport Office in respect of
customers using the passport check and send service for the period April 2013 to March 2014:

(a) 0.36% had their applications rejected by Her Majesty's Passport Office due
to completing their application form incorrectly.
(b) 0.22% had their applications rejected due to providing incorrect supporting
documents.
(c) No customer using check and send services had their applications rejected
due to providing the incorrect fee.

The following table contains the requested data for police community support
officers in:
(a) Coventry Basic Command Unit, from 31 March 2009 to 31 March 2011. Figures
at basic command unit level ceased to be collected from then to reduce the
administratvie burden on the police.
(b) figures for Coventry North East constituency are not collected by the Home
Office.
(c) (d) the West Midlands police force, the West Midlands region and England,
from 31 March 2009 to 30 September 2013.

Domestic and sexual violence are devastating crimes and are not acceptable
within our society. The Coalition Government's continued approach to tackling
such violence and abuse is set out in our Violence against Women and Girls
Action Plan, updated in March 2014.

Supporting victims is at the heart of this approach, which includes giving
victims more confidence to report, and it is encouraging that police recorded
crime figures show more victims are having the confidence to come forward.

The Government has ring-fenced nearly £40 million of stable funding from 2010
up to 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services,
rape crisis centres, the national domestic violence helplines and stalking
helpline.

Over the spending review period the Home Office funding of £28 million provides
for:
144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers, 87 dedicated Independent
Sexual Violence Advisers, 54 Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference
Co-ordinators, and funding to Coordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse
to provide support and advice to MARACs, as well as running a programme
of quality assurance and £1.2 million for three years from 2012 to improve
services for young people suffering sexual violence in major urban areas.
£900,000 a year is used towards the running costs of national helplines for
victims of domestic violence and stalking.

In 2013, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty's Inspectorate of
Constabulary to undertake a comprehensive review on how the police deal with
domestic violence and abuse. HMIC's report exposed significant failings. In
response to the Review, the Home Secretary has established a National
Oversight Group, which she is chairing, and on which I sit, to ensure HMIC's
recommendations are acted upon. The Group met for the first time on 10 June.

The Home Secretary has also written to chief constables making it clear that
every police force must have an action plan in place by September 2014, to
improve their response to domestic violence and abuse.

Domestic and sexual violence are devastating crimes and are not acceptable
within our society. The Coalition Government's continued approach to tackling
such violence and abuse is set out in our Violence against Women and Girls
Action Plan, updated in March 2014.

Supporting victims is at the heart of this approach, which includes giving
victims more confidence to report, and it is encouraging that police recorded
crime figures show more victims are having the confidence to come forward.

The Government has ring-fenced nearly £40 million of stable funding from 2010
up to 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services,
rape crisis centres, the national domestic violence helplines and stalking
helpline.

Over the spending review period the Home Office funding of £28 million provides
for:
144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers, 87 dedicated Independent
Sexual Violence Advisers, 54 Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference
Co-ordinators, and funding to Coordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse
to provide support and advice to MARACs, as well as running a programme
of quality assurance and £1.2 million for three years from 2012 to improve
services for young people suffering sexual violence in major urban areas.
£900,000 a year is used towards the running costs of national helplines for
victims of domestic violence and stalking.

In 2013, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty's Inspectorate of
Constabulary to undertake a comprehensive review on how the police deal with
domestic violence and abuse. HMIC's report exposed significant failings. In
response to the Review, the Home Secretary has established a National
Oversight Group, which she is chairing, and on which I sit, to ensure HMIC's
recommendations are acted upon. The Group met for the first time on 10 June.

The Home Secretary has also written to chief constables making it clear that
every police force must have an action plan in place by September 2014, to
improve their response to domestic violence and abuse.

The Conflict Pool is funded from a Treasury settlement which is separate from and additional to departmental budgets and is administered jointly by the Ministry of Defence, the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for conflict prevention and mitigation work. Details of Conflict Pool allocations are provided to Parliament annually in a Written Ministerial Statement. Statements for financial years (FY) 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 are attached.

A Statement giving details of Conflict Pool allocations for FY 2014-15 will be released to the House shortly.

The UK is one of just four NATO nations to spend 2 per cent or more of gross domestic product on Defence. On current plans, defence spending will continue to meet the 2 per cent target for the current Spending Review period. Decisions on public spending after 2015-16 will be made in the next Spending Review.

The question of Defence spending by European NATO partners is regularly discussed at NATO Defence Ministerial meetings.

Since the Nimrod MR2 was taken out of service in 2009, some 12 months early, for financial reasons, by the then Defence Secretary, a range of assets were put in place by the previous Government to cover the capability, namely Type 23 frigates, Merlin Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopters and C-130 Hercules aircraft. The MRA4 project was nearly £800 million over budget, 10 years overdue and the aircraft could not pass airworthiness tests.

The Ministry of Defence is currently reviewing the UK's air intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements, including wide area maritime surveillance, and is identifying potential solutions. This work will provide analysis in support of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

I have made no such assessment.

Significant progress has been made on the withdrawal of British troops from Germany. Having closed Celle Station in 2012, the closures of the Rheindahlen Military Complex and Münster Station were completed in 2013, and Hameln Station will close by December 2014. The programme remains on track to deliver, enabling us to close and release Elmpt and Herford Stations by December 2015, followed by the closure of Hohne and Fallingbostel Stations before March 2016.

We have already reduced our military numbers in Germany by 33% through the programme of preliminary moves and unit disbandments, and the first tranche of major unit moves and re-roling from Germany will occur in 2015. These moves will result in a reduction of up to 70% of troops by the end of 2015, exceeding the Strategic Defence and Security Review target of bringing back half of those personnel based in Germany by 2015. The remaining troops will relocate by 2019, as part of our intent to base the three high readiness Reaction Force Brigades on Salisbury Plain.

The Secretary of State for Defence met with the German Defence Minister, Frau Dr Ursula von der Leyen, on 13 January to discuss a number of issues, including the withdrawal of our troops from Germany. More widely, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) continues to liaise with the German authorities at a number of levels: through Ministers and officials in the UK: the Defence Attaché in the British Embassy in Berlin; and the General Officer Commanding British Forces Germany, other regional British Commanders and a network of in-country liaison officers. MOD officials are also liaising with their German counterparts to assist in finding alternative uses for the facilities that will be vacated by the British Forces.

As part of the roll-out of the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, published by the Government in February 2014, health, social care and criminal justice partners across England have been invited to develop and sign local Concordat declarations.

I share the aim of my rt. hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Care and Support (Norman Lamb), that declarations should be in place throughout England by the end of 2014. Progress towards this across all areas of England can be found at: http://www.crisiscareconcordat.org.uk/explore-the-map/

I understand that there are plans for Crisis Care declarations covering Coventry and the West Midlands to be agreed shortly.

As outlined in the Written Ministerial Statement of 18 September 2012, Official Report, Column 32WS, my Department does not publish statistics by government office region.

National and local authority data for homelessness are published in Live Table 784a which is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness.

National and local authority data on rough sleeping can be found in Table 1 of the Rough Sleeping in England statistical release which can be found on the department's website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-in-england-autumn-2013

We are investing over £500 million over the current spending review period to help local authorities and voluntary sector partners prevent and tackle homelessness, rough sleeping and repossessions. This includes £20 million to support the roll out of the ‘No Second Night Out' standard and protect vital front line services. We have also supported the voluntary sector to deliver 'StreetLink' a national rough sleeping hotline, website and app to connect rough sleepers to local services.

On 10 June we announced that over £65 million of additional funding across Whitehall is being offered to councils and other organisations to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping around the country and ensure that vulnerable people can access a range of support and lead independent lives.