Justin Tomlinson

I am placing the information sought by my hon Friend in the libraries of the House. Table 1 shows the number of workplaces that employ Apprentices by Region and Table 2 shows the number of workplaces that employ Apprentices by Parliamentary Constituency.

The tables will also be published online through the FE Data Library:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-other-statistics-and-research

Companies House confirms that since 2010, 5,308 companies have been registered in Swindon. This figure is based on company registration data from postcode areas, which can cross town boundaries, and should be considered an approximation.

The Government offers a wide range of support to all types of businesses to start up and grow, including franchises, for example through the Growth Accelerator, the New Enterprise Allowance, mentoring and the Start Up Loan scheme.

Women-led small and medium-sized businesses contribute around £82 billion to the economy. 42% of the 15,000 mentors trained through the Get Mentoring initiative are women and have contributed to the 27,000 strong mentoring network at www.mentorsme.co.uk. The latest figures show that over 37% of Start Up Loans have gone to female entrepreneurs.

We will continue to work closely with the Women's Business Council and others to help ensure that more women see starting and growing their own business as a real option.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is committed to tackling disability hate crime and is prosecuting, and convicting, more defendants for disability hate crimes than ever before. In 2015/16, the CPS completed 941 disability hate crime prosecutions, an increase from 666 the previous year and the conviction rate has remained steady at 75%.

The CPS delivered mandatory face to face disability hate crime training between September 2015 and January 2016 to support prosecutors to more effectively deal with disability hate crime cases.

In 2015/16, the CPS completed 941 prosecutions for disability hate crime, an increase of 41.3% on the previous year when it completed 666 prosecutions.

The number of convictions rose from 503 in 2014/15 to 707 in 2015/16, an increase of 40.6%.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) continues to support the joint police/CPS Witness Care Units (WCUs) through the provision of staff and key case information that allows the unit to support victims and witnesses throughout the progress of their case. The CPS has also recently implemented Victim Liaison Units (VLUs) in every CPS Area. These dedicated units provide victims with clear explanations of CPS decisions about their cases, in line with our Victims’ Code commitments.

Information on public sector suppliers within a specific constituency is not held centrally.

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

Voting in more than one location at a General Election or at other national polls such as a referendum is a crime which carries an unlimited financial penalty.

We take this matter very seriously. I have raised this issue as a priority with the Electoral Commission and look forward to their report on the 2017 General Election.

It is possible to determine whether an individual has voted twice at a General Election by checking the marked register of those who have voted. If anyone has evidence of someone voting twice, then they should report this to their local returning officer and to the police.

The Government Transformation Strategy, published in February, includes an assessment of how data sharing across Whitehall could be made more efficient. Specific opportunities for improvement identified within the strategy include the development of registers to ensure reference data is easy to maintain and use.

The potential of data sharing to save time and resource in several key areas across Whitehall has been analysed as part of the data sharing measures set out in the Digital Economy Bill. These measures enable easier data sharing to improve the public services and functions we deliver. For example, providing automatic rebates to those in fuel poverty would cost less than £1 per household to deliver, while non-automated methods can cost up to £30 per customer.

Industries outside the public sector will also benefit from cost savings enabled by the Digital Economy Bill: the transformation of data collection practices will lead to reduction, over time, of costs associated with compliance, currently estimated at £24 million annually for UK businesses.

The Government Transformation Strategy, published in February, includes an assessment of how data sharing across Whitehall could be made more efficient. Specific opportunities for improvement identified within the strategy include the development of registers to ensure reference data is easy to maintain and use.

The potential of data sharing to save time and resource in several key areas across Whitehall has been analysed as part of the data sharing measures set out in the Digital Economy Bill. These measures enable easier data sharing to improve the public services and functions we deliver. For example, providing automatic rebates to those in fuel poverty would cost less than £1 per household to deliver, while non-automated methods can cost up to £30 per customer.

Industries outside the public sector will also benefit from cost savings enabled by the Digital Economy Bill: the transformation of data collection practices will lead to reduction, over time, of costs associated with compliance, currently estimated at £24 million annually for UK businesses.

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

In May 2016 Government launched an online survey to understand which assistive technologies people use to access GOV.UK. We are using the survey results to help us decide which assistive technologies we will use to test GOV.UK. We will also use the results to help us decide which assistive technologies we will advise other departments to test with.

Details of this research, together with the broader work that GDS is undertaking to ensure that we are building inclusive digital services across GOV.UK, can be found on the GDS accessibility blog (accessibility.blog.gov.uk).

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) does not track the cumulative impact of all its work over time, only some of which focus on reducing spending or increasing revenue collection.

However, BIT has now run some 350 trials, each of which shows the impact of different policy interventions in different contexts. These show that the team has helped to save or bring forward hundreds of millions of pounds of revenue and has made efficiency improvements in many different areas of UK Government policy.

This includes:

-changing the messages in letters from HMRC to late tax payers was part of a group of trials that helped bring forward more than £200m of late tax debts;

-changing the messages in letters sent by Local Authorities to late payers of Council Tax is estimated to bring forward an extra £3m in one local authority alone;

-changing the way that Jobcentres support people back to work has been rolled out to some 25,000 Job Advisors and is expected to help hundreds of thousands of people back to work faster.

-informing GPs who overprescribe antibiotics that most practices prescribe fewer antibiotics than theirs reduces the number of unnecessary prescriptions by around 150,000 per year; and

-working with HMCTS to send personalised text messages to people who were delinquent in their court fines. This intervention, which significantly increased payment rates prior to a bailiff intervention, could raise £860,000 per week if rolled out nationally and prevent up to 150,000 bailiff interventions per year.

BIT also works with governments around the world and is seeing similar effects in its work in Australia, Singapore and with cities across the USA.

These findings, and many others, are published once a year in BIT’s Update Report. The next edition of this is due later this month [September 2016].

The Cabinet Office has consulted public authorities, academics, civil society organisations and privacy groups to explore how data-sharing can be used to improve public services to better support citizens in need, tackle fraud and debt and inform better policy making through world class research and statistics.

The government has included a number of provisions within the Digital Economy Bill to enable government to share data more effectively, whilst also including a set of principles to strengthen the safeguards around the use of data.

The government has also worked to establish a Centre of Excellence for Information Sharing, supporting public sector organisations and government departments in identifying and overcoming the organisational and cultural issues that limit effective sharing.

Since 2010, the government has announced the following efficiency savings and benefits calculated against a 2009/10 baseline:

• For 2010/11 the Government reported savings of £3.75billion.

• In 2011/12 the Government reported operational savings of £4.8 billion, and prevention of wasteful spend by major projects and construction of £758million, totalling £5.5billion.

• In 2012/13 the Government reported operational savings totalling £8billion, and prevention of wasteful spend by major projects and construction of £2billion, totalling £10billion.

• In 2013/14 reported savings of £14.3billion. This consisted of operational savings of £10.6billion, reduction in low value spend by major projects, reduced revenue requirements and construction savings of £3.5billion and receipts from asset sales and new commercial models of £0.1billion.

• In 2014/15 reported savings of £18.6billion. This consists of operational savings of £12.4billion, reduction in low value spend by major projects, reduced revenue requirements and constructions savings of £5.1billion, receipts from asset sales and new commercial models of £0.4billion and benefits from tackling fraud, error and debt of £0.7billion.

Personal identification documents can be requested by departments to verify an individual’s identity for a service that they provide. It is for each department to determine the most appropriate method for returning these documents to the individual, taking into account the risk of loss and potential for fraud. Departments that regularly handle personal identification documents are expected to have clear procedures in place to return documentation to the owner.

The government has also launched ‘Verify’ on the GOV.uk website. As more government services are provided online and using the Verify service, the need for personal identity documents to be sent in hard copy through the postal network will be reduced.

National Citizen Service (NCS) continues to see impressive year on year growth thanks, in part, to school engagement.

NCS is promoted to senior school leadership through targeted marketing and events. The programme’s local delivery partners also deliver thousands of school assemblies and involve NCS graduates as advocates for the programme. 1,886 schools engaged in NCS in 2013 increasing to 2,630 in 2014.

National Citizen Service (NCS) continues to see impressive year on year growth thanks, in part, to school engagement.

NCS is promoted to senior school leadership through targeted marketing and events. The programme’s local delivery partners also deliver thousands of school assemblies and involve NCS graduates as advocates for the programme. 1,886 schools engaged in NCS in 2013 increasing to 2,630 in 2014.

The total number of registrations, along with other key figures, is available through the Charity Commission’s Annual Report which is available both on its website at: http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/registerhomepage.aspx and is also in the House Library.

This holds key information of all 164,000 registered charities in England and Wales. The advanced search function allows the user to search by registration date, operating area, income band, charitable purpose and other key items.

To make it easier for small businesses to access the tendering process for government contracts, we have removed unnecessary bureaucracy such as pre-qualification questionnaires from low value central Government contracts. All central Government procurements over £10k must now be advertised on Contracts Finder, which has introduced unprecedented transparency to the range of opportunities available.

In addition, the Government’s appointment of Crown Representatives for SMEs and voluntary bodies has ensured that the voice of both SMES and voluntary sector organisations is heard inside Whitehall.

Our ‘Mystery Shopper’ scheme allows suppliers to report bad procurement practice, and we have published a series of “top tips” videos to help SMEs and voluntary organisations pitch for and win government contracts.

Building on these reforms, we are now taking forward Lord Young’s recommendations to create an SME-friendly ‘single market’ for public procurement including through the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill.

National Citizen Service has been run in England since 2011. In the first year of pilots 8,434 took part and in the second 25,377. In 2013’s session there were 39,994 participants.

The 2014 NCS programme is ongoing and the number of participants will be reported as part of an independent evaluation following the conclusion of the programme.

Details of participation rates have been held at local authority level since 2012. In Wiltshire there were 69 participants in 2012 and 174 in 2013’s session.

Savings delivered by the Efficiency and Reform Group in each financial year since 2010 are as follows:

• FY10/11 £3.75bn
• FY11/12 £5.5bn
• FY12/13 £10bn
• FY13/14 £14.3bn

Savings delivered in each year are normally measured against a 2009/10 baseline and are a mixture of recurring and non-recurring savings.

All savings figures have been verified by the Cross Department Internal Auditors and reviewed by the NAO.

The Cabinet Office Efficiency and Reform Group was formed in June 2010 to drive reforms that improve public services, deliver savings and reduce wasteful expenditure.

On 10 June my Right Honourable Friend the Chancellor and I announced savings through efficiency and reform of central government of £14.3bn for 2013-2014 against a 2009/10 baseline. These savings are both recurring and non-recurring items and include £5.4bn from procurement and commercial savings, £3.3bn in project savings and £4.7bn from workforce reform and pensions savings.