Julian Huppert

The Government has taken a variety of significant steps to promote stewardship and engagement on the part of institutional investors. A key focus has been to work closely with the investment industry on initiatives involving both institutional investors and asset managers, acknowledging that while some institutional investors engage directly with companies, many others delegate to asset managers to engage on their behalf.

Specific achievements include:

• a strengthening of the Stewardship Code to emphasise engagement on companies’ long-term strategy;
• the creation of an Investor Forum to improve the amount and effectiveness of collective engagement by key institutional investors;
• the development, by the National Association of Pension Funds, of a new Stewardship Disclosure Framework to encourage asset managers to report on their activities and to enable investors to hold them to account.

The Government has comprehensively reformed the legislative framework for corporate reporting to boost transparency on company directors’ remuneration and ensure annual reports are more focused on long-term company strategy. In this way we are encouraging companies to report the information which is relevant to long-term stewardship investors.

The Law Commission’s report on the fiduciary duties of investment intermediaries, commissioned by the Government, concluded that fiduciary investors such as pension scheme trustees should consider whether and how to engage with companies to promote their long-term success, either directly or through their investment managers. The Government is now taking forward the Law Commission’s recommendations in a number of areas, including by consulting currently on whether the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations 2005 should be amended to require trustees to state their policy on stewardship with reference to the Stewardship Code.

This work has been part of a broader commitment – in response to the Kay Review of equity markets - to address the longstanding concern that short-termism has impeded the creation of sustainable value by British companies. The Government published a comprehensive progress report on the implementation of the Review in October 2014. This is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367070/bis-14-1157-implementation-of-the-kay-review-progress-report.pdf

The Government is now undertaking further work in a number of areas, including:

• supporting the work of the Financial Reporting Council to monitor how signatories to the Stewardship Code are delivering against their commitment;
• supporting the work of the Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) to develop “Red Line Voting” – an initiative which will enable pension schemes and other investors to adopt common voting positions on a range of governance issues; and research to examine how shares are held by institutional and individual investors – to provide an insight into how the Government can encourage greater investment engagement.

Decisions on support for tuition and living costs support are taken on an annual basis.

The Government announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 12 March 2014 the Maintenance Grant for academic year 15/16 would be maintained at 14/15 levels. Maximum loans for living costs for new and continuing full-time students will be increased by forecast inflation for 2015/16, 3.34%. The student support package for 16/17 will be announced in due course.

I am unable to comment publicly on any activity the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) may or may not be conducting into allegations of cartel behaviour in this area, including any intelligence it may have received or reviewed in relation to any particular allegations.

The CMA has been setup up by the Government as the UK’s independent competition authority and has extensive powers to pursue cartel and criminal behaviour. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will also obtain concurrent competition powers in financial services on 1 April 2015.

As examples of the extensive powers available to the CMA and the FCA, the FCA has publicly stated that it is currently conducting an investigation relating to trading on the foreign exchange market and in November last year issued record levels of fines on banks in relation to their activities in the foreign exchange market.

An Upper Tribunal of HM Courts and Tribunal Service affirmed in July 2013 that, for the purposes of Housing Benefit, all courses of Level 4 and above were courses of higher education, and students undertaking a Level 6 Diploma in professional dance are not eligible for Housing Benefit. This decision was to be disseminated to all Local Authorities to ensure any Housing Benefit payment discrepancies would cease.

For the purposes of Higher Education student support, a course must be designated in accordance with the relevant Education (Student Support) Regulations. A key eligibility requirement is that a course should lead to an award granted by a body with UK degree awarding powers. These Level 6 Diplomas are not granted by such a body and therefore are not eligible for HE student funding.

The Department continues to provide funding through the Dance and Drama Awards scheme for a small number of dance and drama higher vocational Diplomas.

Officials in the UK Intellectual Property Office are closely and actively involved in discussions relating to the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO), including the Enlarged Board. It is the UK Government position that the Boards of Appeal should be independent of the executive of the EPO, and be seen to be so. This view is shared by other EPO member states and we expect proposals to make this clearer to be considered by the Administrative Council, the Office’s supervisory body, in March 2015.

I recently chaired a roundtable meeting on arts and health, which was attended by the co-chairs of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing, representatives from academia and health and Government officials, including from the Department of Health. DCMS will continue to work closely with the Department of Health on the promotion of the UK's arts and health sector in order to improve mental health care and wellbeing.

The Arts & Minds charity is doing important work within the arts and health sector. I recently held a roundtable meeting on arts and health focusing on some of the issues raised in the Arts on Prescription report which the Executive Director of Arts & Minds attended. Health initiatives like the Arts on Prescription scheme have the potential to result in cost savings across health and social care and health practitioners and other relevant authorities should give careful consideration to the recommendations.

The following table provides the headcount number and percentage of all regular teachers[1] in service in primary schools in each constituency in the East of England with a degree in a science subject in November 2013. This is the latest information available.

Source: School Workforce Census

[1] Includes qualified and unqualified teachers.

[2] Includes teachers with a first or higher science degree but excluding those with a science PGCE where no record of a science degree exists and those with a BEd in sciences.

[3] Those recorded with a qualification (degree or higher, Bachelor of Education, Post-Graduate Certificate in Education, Certificate in Education, other qualification at NVQ level 4 or higher, relevant non-UK qualification) in any subject, (the total in the sample from which the rate is calculated).

[4] The range within which we can be 95% confident that the true value exists.

The Department for Education does not cover the VAT costs of sixth form colleges. To do this in full would cost around £30 million each year.

The Department for Education funds sixth form colleges in England, not in the rest of the UK. We estimate that the total cost of VAT for sixth form colleges in England has been approximately £30 million for each of the last three years.

Officials at the Department for Education have had discussions with officials at HM Treasury regarding VAT paid by sixth form colleges. There are no plans to change existing policy.

In January 2014 the Department for Education published revised statutory guidance on children missing from home or care.[1] This sets out the steps that local authorities and their partners should take to prevent children going missing and to protect them when they do. The guidance is clear that within seventy hours of a missing child being found, the council should offer them an independent return interview to uncover information that will help protect children from:

1. The risk of going missing again.
2. The risks they may have been exposed to while missing.
3. The risk factors in their home.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-who-run-away-or-go-missing-from-home-or-care

The Government will be providing a response to the Natural Capital Committee’s third State of Natural Capital report in the second half of 2015. Government officials are now analysing the package of recommendations put forward by the Natural Capital Committee so ministers can be comprehensively briefed post-election.

The draft legislation on the carrier bag charge includes a requirement to review existing standards for the biodegradability of lightweight plastic material. The review will report to Parliament by 5 October this year on whether there is an appropriate industry standard for an exemption from the charge, and if so, how it would be implemented. Industry and academic experts are working with the Department on this review. The Government is looking for a standard that will tackle biodegradability in different littered environments as well as in managed waste streams. The composting industry is represented on the Stakeholder Advisory Group and we will be taking account of their views along with those of other stakeholders.

We value the work that the ACRE Network does at the local level to ensure the rural voice is heard and to inspire community action. Future funding is being carefully considered and no final decision has yet been made. No assessment has therefore been prepared.

Neither I nor any of my Defra Ministerial colleagues have met representatives of either the oxo-biodegradable or compostable bag industries in the last 12 months.

At the official level, I set up a Stakeholder Advisory Group in September last year, which will be consulted as part of the review of industry standards for the biodegradability of plastic material. The Stakeholder Advisory Group met twice last year and includes Government officials as well as representatives of the Renewable Energy Association (who represent the compostable bag companies), the Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association, academics and a number of other industry stakeholders such as the British Plastics Federation and the Plastics and Films Association. We expect that this group will meet on three further occasions this year.

In addition, officials have met representatives of oxo-biodegradable firms on two occasions in the last 12 months to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications for funding under the Small Business Research Initiative. Officials have also met representatives of companies manufacturing compostable bags on three occasions in the last 12 months.

DFID is directly and indirectly supporting a wide range of work that has an agro-ecological component, from soil and water conservation and land use management to climate resilience and conservation agriculture. We are working in a number of African countries, supporting programmes like the Community Land Use Fund in Mozambique and programmes for soil and water conservation such as the Karamoja Resilience programme in Uganda. DFID’s global climate change and agriculture food security research programme is building the evidence base for how better to deliver agro-ecological approaches, while the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme supports farmers to adapt agricultural systems to be climate resilient. The full range of our programmes can be found on the Development Tracker.

The UK has committed £600m to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. Of this £480m is for pre-existing programmes in the six DFID partner countries participating in the New Alliance, and £75m is a contribution to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme. These pre-existing programmes satisfied the following criteria: (i) they occur in one of the DFID partner countries participating in the New Alliance (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria); and (ii) they include components on food security, agriculture and nutrition. The UK’s new financial support to the New Alliance of £45m has focused on “enabling actions” that support agriculture, food security and nutrition – specifically, the development of policy instruments, technology and innovation, and risk management.

Forecasts of trip by mode and distance were last published by the Department in Road Transport Forecasts 2011 at

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/4243/road-transport-forecasts-2011-results.pdf

The Department has more recently in 2013 produced estimates for the whole of GB using the National Transport Model (NTM). The trip information has not been published but is set out in the tables below.

Average Trips per person annually by mode (GB, RTF13 central forecast)

Average length of trips by mode (GB, RTF13 central forecast)

Notes on the tables:

• These are for personal trips based on main mode of travel. The NTM does not produce mode information for different stages of the same trip.
• These forecasts are based on the central forecast in the Road Traffic Forecasts 2013 (see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-transport-forecasts-2013. NTM forecasts of trips by mode for the high and low demand scenarios have not been produced.
• The NTM Road Traffic Forecasts should not be viewed as what we think will actually happen in the future, or what we want the future to look like. They are based on our understanding of the way people make travel choices, the expected path of the key drivers at the time the forecast is made and assume no change in government policy beyond that already announced.
• The forecasts do not account for the Departments Cycling Delivery Plan, as this is still in development.
• The NTM is not the Department’s primary forecasting tool for Rail. Therefore the forecasts may not match with Rail forecasts the Department has published elsewhere.

Advanced Stop Lines are currently permitted for use at permanent signal junctions only. The revisions to the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions scheduled for March 2015 will allow their use with temporary traffic lights, but there will be practical issues to consider as many are only in place for a short time.

Paragraphs 10.2 and 10.3 of the summary of the responses to the consultation on the proposed drugs and their limits sets out the steps the Department proposes to take in communicating the new drug driving offence. The summary is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/drug-driving-proposed-regulations

The Secretary of State for Transport has made no estimate of the number of rail passenger journeys that have been double counted. The Office of Rail Regulation is responsible for rail passenger usage statistics and may have an estimate. Their contact details are:

Address:

Office of Rail Regulation

One Kemble Street

London

WC2B 4AN

Telephone: 020 7282 2000

Email: rail.stats@orr.gov.uk

The Department for Transport considers equality issues in exercising its functions, to comply with the equality legislation and to ensure it understands how its activities will affect different people. While there is no requirement under the Equality Act to carry out Equality Impact Assessment on cycling policy, the Department believes disabled cyclists should not be disadvantaged.

To help local authorities develop infrastructure for cyclists, including disabled cyclists, the Department has produced guidance through Cycle Infrastructure Design (Local Transport Note 2/08). LTN 2/08 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-transport-notes

We are currently consulting on potential changes to the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations 2005 which will support and encourage trustees of both defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes to consider their approach to stewardship. This forms part of our consultation, entitled “Consultation on changes to the Investment Regulations following the Law Commission’s report ‘Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries’” which was published on 26th February 2015. The consultation period ends on 20th April 2015 and it is the intention that a Government response will be published later this year.

The Department has reviewed its procedures for notifying hospital admissions when the customer is incapacitated and unable to contact us themselves.

We have taken account of the fact that there is no reduction in the Benefit paid for the first twenty eight days following admission, where there has been no previous hospitalisation within the preceding twenty eight days. Also, measures are in place so that the report of the hospital admission may be taken from another person, on the customer’s behalf. We have concluded that the procedures already in place are satisfactory.

We do not hold the information requested verified to the standards set by the UK Statistics Authority.

The department is committed to encouraging older people to take up the benefits they are entitled to and goes to considerable lengths to publicise benefits. Information is available from the department's offices; advice agencies, including local authorities; and leaflets are available from various locations, including post offices and doctors' surgeries. Information about all benefits and how these may be claimed is readily available on the GOV.UK website, or through the DWP Information Line.

Additionally, the department’s National Partnerships Team works with customer representative organisations, both nationally and locally, to provide a wide range of advice and support for older people. Over 300 of these partner organisations operate as an Alternative Office, taking and verifying Attendance Allowance claims on behalf of the Secretary of State. And for those unable to access services through other channels, a visiting service is available to help with information and claims.

On behalf of DWP, the Rent Officer Services, collect evidence of a wide range of achieved rents for each area and use these to set Local Housing Allowance rates, in line with the current policy for Local Housing Allowance uprating.

Currently, increases to Local Housing Allowance rates are limited to one per cent. However, in areas where there have been the greatest divergences between rates and rents, we are increasing rates by up to 4 per cent through Targeted Affordability Funding.

In 2014/15, this meant that 56 out of the 192 Shared Accommodation Rates were increased by 4 per cent. In 2015/16, there will be £95 million available for the Targeted Affordability funding and we will be increasing 63 out of the 192 Shared Accommodation Rates by 4 per cent.

The European framework for licensing of medicines is designed to ensure medicines that are placed on the market have been tested for safety, quality and efficacy and the system confers important benefits for patients and the healthcare system. Avastin is not licensed for the treatment of eye conditions and has not been assessed by the regulatory authorities for the treatment of eye conditions. However, clinicians may decide to use an off label or unlicensed medicine in cases where there is not a licensed medicine available to meet the clinical needs of an individual patient. There are no plans at this time to review the regulations that apply to licensing of medicines.

NHS England has advised that its Cancer Drugs Fund Working Party has held its first meeting and discussed its draft principles and terms of reference for its work.

The Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) runs a notification system for drug/indications included on the national CDF list. In order to commence treatment with these drugs, clinicians complete an application online and, where a patient’s needs meet the clinical criteria, they are able to access the drug(s) without any administrative delay. This is an equal system for all if the conditions are met for the drug/indication.

If the drug/indication is not on the national CDF list, an individual CDF request can be made. These are currently assessed on a regional basis. NHS England works closely with the regional teams to ensure consistency in decision making through training, sharing information and the use of a shared database.