Kirstene Hair

Every woman in the UK must have the support needed to fulfil her potential. This government is making this a reality by shining light on inequality through gender pay gap reporting, Returners programmes, Shared Parental Leave and flexible working.

We have invested £4 million in our two gender equality research programmes, the Workplace and Gender Equality Research Programme (WAGE) and the Gender and Behavioural Insights Programme (GABI), which are providing employers with the evidence they need about what works to create a more equal workplace.

The gender pay gap nationally is the lowest on record at 17.9%, but there is a way to go and we are committed to supporting this change.

The Places for Growth programme seeks to deliver the Government’s commitment to
move Civil Service roles and public bodies out of London and the South East of England

This commitment was set out in the Conservative Party Manifesto of 2017 and then
restated in the Industrial Strategy White Paper and the Government Estates Strategy (July
2018)

The Cabinet Office is supporting departments and public bodies to identify opportunities
for relocation of roles to cities across the regions and nations of the United Kingdom. The
Programme is providing support and coordination across Whitehall to move roles and
organisations to locations that have the skills and capacity to enable organisations and
cities to flourish

The Programme is also engaging with city leaders across the UK to understand the local
economic and industrial priorities which will inform the decision-making process.

The review of our national security capabilities is currently taking place in support of the ongoing implementation of the 2015 National Security Strategy (NSS) and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). Ministers will consider the conclusions of the review in due course.

The review of our national security capabilities is currently taking place in support of the ongoing implementation of the 2015 National Security Strategy (NSS) and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). Ministers will consider the conclusions of the review in due course.

The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund is a competitive research capital programme to support strategic research and development collaborations between universities, businesses and charities. It is managed by Research England, working with counterparts from devolved funding bodies, and only supports large scale infrastructure projects which are built on demonstrable research excellence, value for money, and can generate at least double in private co-investment.

Since 2012 over £900m of science and research capital has been committed from the Fund to 54 projects which have secured an initial commitment of over £2bn in private investment. No projects were awarded to universities in Scotland from the latest round. In the first 5 rounds, £58.98m was committed to 5 projects in Scotland which collectively secured over £121m of private co-investment. This represents 6.5% of total funding allocated and 5.5% of the initial private co-investment.

The UK Research Partnership Investment Fund is a competitive research capital programme to support strategic research and development collaborations between universities, businesses and charities. It is managed by Research England, working with counterparts from devolved funding bodies, and only supports large scale infrastructure projects which are built on demonstrable research excellence, value for money, and can generate at least double in private co-investment.

Since 2012 over £900m of science and research capital has been committed from the Fund to 54 projects which have secured an initial commitment of over £2bn in private investment. No projects were awarded to universities in Scotland from the latest round. In the first 5 rounds, £58.98m was committed to 5 projects in Scotland which collectively secured over £121m of private co-investment. This represents 6.5% of total funding allocated and 5.5% of the initial private co-investment.

The Government has devolved over £9 billion to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) in England between 2015 and 2021. LEPs are investing that money according to their individual priorities.

BEIS has supported businesses through the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme providing funding. For example BEIS allocated £500,000 to Kite Power Solutions in Glasgow to develop a high altitude wind power generating system that uses kites to capture wind energy, and up to £750,000 to redT Energy for their flow battery technology cost reduction programme in Livingston.

Through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), the Government has allocated £1.7bn to ISCF challenges over two waves of investment. Funding from the ISCF has supported technologies and future industries which benefit a number of devolved regions. For example £36 million was given to the ABC in Swansea to support the construction sector and £13 million was given to Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Scotland for the pharma industry

BEIS already has a presence in Scotland. Through the core department and 7 of its partner organisations, BEIS has a presence of over 800 people, based primarily in Edinburgh (459), Glasgow (223) and Aberdeen (120), with smaller numbers in other locations.

Last November, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster wrote to all Secretaries of State setting out the importance of the Government's commitment to relocate both public bodies and Civil Service roles into the regions and nations of the United Kingdom. To support this, the Places for Growth Programme are increasing their engagement with departments in the run up to the Spending Review and are drawing on advice and support from colleagues across Whitehall, including the BEIS Industrial Strategy Team.

For information – further detail on locations of BEIS and its partner organisations

The table below sets out these organisations (correct as of August 2018):

Ministers and officials in the Department regularly discuss a range of issues with the devolved administrations. At official level, the Department has increased its engagement with the Scottish Government. In January, the BEIS Permanent Secretary jointly chaired a Senior Civil Service away day with his Scottish Government counterpart, where amongst other issues, energy was discussed.

The Government is committed to extending geographic mobile coverage to 95% of the UK by 2022, as well as providing an uninterrupted mobile signal on all major roads.

Roaming in rural areas has the potential to improve consumer choice and could be a solution for the problem of “partial not-spots.” This is currently mandated for emergency calls so that a 999 call can be made from any mobile in all areas where there is a signal from at least one operator.

The Government’s recently published consultation on our Statement of Strategic Priorities urges Ofcom to fully consider the costs and benefits of roaming as an approach to improving mobile coverage more generally, and to maintain the option of requiring roaming by including appropriate provisions when granting rights of use for spectrum.

The Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) Programme has the following Scottish projects and potential projects:

LFFN Wave 2 Challenge Fund

Highland Council are planning to use the SWAN Framework to implement a gigabit fibre network to 152 public buildings in Inverness, Fort William, Thurso and Wick - awarded £4.3m BDUK Funding. This project is in preparation stage for the 'Ready to Procure' Assurance Gate.

LFFN Wave 3 Challenge Fund

Shetland Council have successfully passed the LFFN Investment Panel stage and are working on the final Business case to go through Assurance Gate A and if approved will be issued with a letter of offer for £2m BDUK Funding

Tay Cities combined authority are in the dialogue stage regarding a potential LFFN project in their area.

Renfrewshire Council are at the pre-dialogue stage regarding a potential LFFN project in their area

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme

To the end of September 2018 across Scotland, there have been 87 gigabit vouchers connected (value £243,953). A report up to the end of December 2018 will be released early in February

The Government’s ambition is for there to be good mobile coverage in all areas where people live, work and travel, including areas where there are low levels of superfast fixed broadband coverage.

The Government recognises that industry needs to improve coverage further, particularly in rural areas, as consumers’ experience of mobile coverage falls short of their expectations.The Government has been taking action to drive up coverage, including reforms to the Electronic Communications Code, to encourage investment in the rollout of digital infrastructure by making deployment cheaper.

We also welcome Ofcom’s recent consultation (published on 18th December) which outlined potential new licence obligations targeting rural coverage as part of the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction. This will help deliver better mobile coverage - including voice and data - and enable more people to benefit from the digital economy.

The licence to operate the National Lottery does not cover distribution of good cause funding. The roles of operating the National Lottery and distributing funds to good causes are separate and distinct. National Lottery funding is awarded by 12 distributors working at arm’s length from Government. The distributors generally aim to ensure a wide geographical reach, but ultimately funding is distributed where there is greater need and impact.

The Fourth Licence to run the National Lottery is due to come into force in 2023. Bidding criteria have not yet been set.

There is a regular and good working level relationship between DCMS and the Scottish government on the roll-out of superfast broadband.

Discussions cover superfast projects, R100, Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) projects and use of the DCMS Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme which was launched in April. To date, 425 vouchers have been issued totaling just £1.08m.

We are also engaging with Scottish Government and local bodies on the Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme announced at Budget 2018.

Apprenticeship policy is devolved to Scotland, and any measures to promote apprenticeships there are a matter for the Scottish government.

In England, we want to increase the number of high-quality apprenticeships. In January we launched a major new communication campaign, ‘Fire it Up’, which seeks to change the way people think about apprenticeships and demonstrate that they are an aspirational choice for anyone with passion and energy.

National Apprenticeship week, which took place 4-8 March this year, is an annual opportunity to celebrate apprenticeships and their impact on individuals, employers, and the economy. This year’s theme, ‘Blaze a Trail’, was inspired by the Fire it Up campaign and featured in over 1250 events across the country to encourage everyone to recognise the change that apprenticeships can bring. Over 1900 features and articles appeared during the week, in media outlets as diverse as BBC Breakfast, Cosmopolitan, and the Financial Times.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The consultation on allergen information provisions, which closed on Friday 29 March, was a joint UK wide consultation between Defra, the Foods Standards Agency in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and Food Standards Scotland. As food labelling is a devolved issue, the decision to run the consultation across the whole of the United Kingdom was dependent upon the support and involvement of the devolved administrations. Throughout the process, Defra officials have been working closely with officials from Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency.

Looking to the future, we will continue to work closely with the devolved administrations to ensure that all UK consumers have complete trust in the food they consume.

Defra received eight responses to the Seasonal Workers Pilot Request for Information.

Policies to tackle fly-tipping are devolved.

No discussions have been held with Police Scotland.

In England, the Government is committed to tackling fly-tipping in rural and urban areas. We are working closely with the Home Office on a range of issues in relation to rural crime, including waste crime and fly-tipping. Local authorities and the Environment Agency have a wide range of enforcement powers to tackle fly-tipping and we have recently strengthened these. In 2016 we gave local authorities the power to issue fixed penalty notices for small scale fly-tipping and enhanced local authorities’ and the Environment Agency’s ability to search and seize the vehicles of suspected fly-tippers.

In November we laid regulations in Parliament to give local authorities and the Environment Agency the power to issue fixed penalty notices to householders who fail in their duty of care and pass their waste to fly-tippers. Two thirds of fly-tips involve household waste so this will help address the main source of the crime. We will also support local authorities in increasing householders’ awareness of their duty of care to ensure their waste is disposed of properly. On 18 December we published our Resources and Waste Strategy for England including a new strategic approach to prevent, detect and deter waste crime including fly-tipping. The Strategy is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england.

The UK Government has worked closely with the Devolved Administrations in developing the Fisheries Bill.

The Fisheries Bill respects the devolution settlements and in many ways incorporates specific asks for new decision-making powers the Devolved Administrations, including the Scottish Government, had put forward.

Implementation of the Fisheries Act is then a matter for each Devolved Administration. In some areas, however, we will continue to closely cooperate, for example, on foreign vessel licencing or in the development of a Joint Fisheries Statement.

The Department for International Trade provides support to companies in Angus, Scotland and the rest of the UK through key programmes including the GREAT campaign, sector specific export initiatives, assistance for exporters in 108 overseas markets and the financial assistance to exporters offered by UK Export Finance. We are committed to seeking continuity in current trade and investment relationships, including those covered by EU third country Free Trade Agreements and other EU preferential arrangements.

The Government is committed to ensuring that disabled people have the same access to transport and opportunities to seek employment as everyone else. In July 2018 the Government launched the Inclusive Transport Strategy (ITS) which sets out key policy and investment priorities to deliver an inclusive transport system.

Access to Work is a publicly funded employment support programme that aims to help more disabled people start, or stay in, work. It can provide practical and financial support for people who have a disability or long term physical or mental health condition. The scheme is demand-led and offers a discretionary grant, administered by Jobcentre Plus (JCP). Support for disabled workers can include travel to work and travel within work as well as specialised aids, equipment and support workers.

My officials and Transport Scotland discuss railway station accessibility at least monthly as part of the governance of the Access for All programme. We have made a further £300m available for Access for All and the Scottish Government have nominated a number of stations from across Scotland for this new funding. We intend to announce the successful stations in April next year.

The Department has not investigated the merits of offering incentives for fuel converters. Companies who have developed retrofit technologies are encouraged to utilise the Government’s Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme (CVRAS). This scheme has been designed specifically to allow them to have their performance assessed and verified independently.

As of May 2019 at a Local Authority level there were 4,400 people on UC (at the constituency level it is 3,835)

The latest available information on the number of people on Universal Credit by parliamentary constituency and local authority is published and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

We are building an agile, adaptable system, fit for the 21st century, to help people to transform their lives through work - while supporting those who cannot work and are most in need.

Using feedback from stakeholders and claimants we have had more than 100 releases to the system since it was introduced, all resulting in improvements to the claimant’s experience.

Most recently these include:

• adding a playback screen to the child details gather reducing error in moving on with incomplete child details;
• changing an appointment booking error message;
• improving password creation for new registrations;
• developing estimated award tool to assist claimants in understanding potential UC award and indicative New Claim Advance value;
• improving questions regarding other people who live with claimant, providing clarity about lodgers, family members, and anyone else living with the claimant.

The number of long term unemployed (over 12 months) stood at 358,000 in the 3 months to March 2018, down by nearly 30,000 in the past year. It has fallen by 430,000 since 2010, a decrease of 54.5%.

The available information on households in receipt of Universal Credit, by parliamentary constituency, is published and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

The number of young unemployed claimants is continuing to fall. The proportion of young people (aged 16-24) who are unemployed and not in full time education is at a new record low of 4.8% and the youth claimant count in Angus has fallen by 40% since 2010.

As planned, we have also introduced the Youth Obligation to provide intensive support for 18-21 year olds making a new claim to Universal Credit full service from April 2017. We are rolling out the Youth Obligation in line with the roll-out schedule for Universal Credit full service across Scotland, therefore, young claimants in Angus will start receiving more intensive support from the Youth Obligation from November 2017.