Stephen Lloyd

The Government believes that political parties have the prime responsibility for supporting their disabled candidates. There will be ways that the Government can help, which is why the Minister for Women and Equalities announced that the Government Equalities Office will, with others, undertake a programme of work in this area. Within 12 months, we hope to have political parties offering and advertising support, as well as solutions to help independent candidates. The funding of up to £250,000 that the Minister for Women and Equalities announced is intended to provide support for disabled candidates in the interim, while that programme of work is on-going.

We are working on what the interim funding will cover and how it will be delivered. Further details will be announced in due course.

The Government believes that political parties have the prime responsibility for supporting their disabled candidates. There will be ways that the Government can help, which is why the Minister for Women and Equalities announced that the Government Equalities Office will, with others, undertake a programme of work in this area. Within 12 months, we hope to have political parties offering and advertising support, as well as solutions to help independent candidates. The funding of up to £250,000 that the Minister for Women and Equalities announced is intended to provide support for disabled candidates in the interim, while that programme of work is on-going.

We are working on what the interim funding will cover and how it will be delivered. Further details will be announced in due course.

The Skills Funding Agency does not allocate funding to specific geographical areas. The Agency allocates funding to colleges and training providers, some of whom operate on very local geographic footprints, whilst others provide training and skills services to learners and employers across the country.

Colleges have all now received their allocations for 2015/16 and they will be in the public domain during June 2015.

Allocations for all providers in 2014/15, including those in the South East and Eastbourne areas, can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2014-to-2015.

Ahead of the Government’s ‘Power to Switch’ campaign to encourage people to switch supplier and save money the most recent industry switching data produced by Energy UK and Electralink shows the number of electricity customers switching to in an independent supplier in each month of 2014 to be:

The 2014 Apprentice Pay Survey was published on .Gov.uk on 18 December 2014. The report shows levels of pay by age, gender, ethnicity, industry sector and apprenticeship level.

Government departments undertake a policy impact assessment when developing new legislation. Where relevant, impact assessments include consideration of how a policy may decrease or increase greenhouse gas emissions. This is reflected in our strong progress on climate change – we have reduced emissions by 42% since 1990, while growing our economy by two thirds, and transformed our power sector with over half of our electricity now coming from low carbon generation.

Officials from the Department attended the EU consultation forum in December 2017, the most recent discussion of this issue in Brussels, to discuss the latest Ecodesign lighting proposals. The Department has subsequently made representations to the European Commission in writing and in person to discuss the issue of stage lighting and potential solutions. I understand that representatives from the industry have also met with the Commission and will be drafting an alternative proposal for stage lighting for their consideration.

It should be noted that this is only a proposal at this stage and remains open for discussion, with a final decision on the draft regulation likely to be made towards the end of the year. We will continue to engage with both industry and the European Commission in the meantime.

Employees who are employed for one month or more have a statutory right to receive a written statement setting out the main particulars of their employment.

Employees who do not receive a written statement, or who believe it to be inaccurate or incomplete, may refer the matter to an employment tribunal.

An employee is engaged under a contract of employment, which is brought into existence by an employee’s acceptance of the terms and conditions of employment offered by an employer. The terms of the contract may be expressed or implied, and if expressed, may be written or oral.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport monitors proposed changes to library service provision throughout England, however the Department does not hold complete figures on the number of public library closures in each local authority in the South East of England in the last 12 months.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport monitors proposed changes to library service provision throughout England, however the Department does not hold complete figures on the number of public library closures in each local authority in England in the last 12 months.

In 2012, Sport England invested £134,620 of National Lottery funding into UK Deaf Sport to support the UK team attend the Deaflympics at Sofia in 2013. No lottery funding has been allocated to Deaflympics by UK Sport. £75,000 of Exchequer funding was provided by UK Sport to support Deaflympics 2005.

Team GB won 65 Olympic medals and Paralympics GB won 120 Paralympic medals at London 2012. The investment for that cycle can be found on UK Sport’s website here: http://www.uksport.gov.uk/sport/summer/

Team GB won four Olympic medals and Paralympics GB won six Paralympic medals at Sochi 2014. The investment for that cycle can be found on UK Sport’s website here: http://www.uksport.gov.uk/sport/winter/

In 2012, Sport England invested £134,620 of National Lottery funding into UK Deaf Sport to support the UK team attend the Deaflympics at Sofia in 2013. At the games, the GB team won two silver and three bronze medals.

UK Deaf Sport is one of seven national disability sport organisations Sport England is working closely with to get more disabled people playing sport. Sport England has invested £281,974 into UK Deaf Sport to provide disability and impairment expertise to create more opportunities for deaf people to play sport regularly. This is part of Sport England’s £171 million investment into disability sport.

The Department recently published its response to the public consultation on increases to teachers’ pensions employer contributions. All representations made by stakeholders have been considered, alongside all evidence relevant to the issues involved. The Department has decided to maintain its original proposal, to fund schools which receive public funding and Further Education providers for 2019-20, and not to fund Higher Education Institutions or Independent Schools. Funding beyond 2019-20 is a matter for the upcoming Spending Review.

The full response can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/funding-increases-to-teachers-pensions-employer-contributions.

In addition, it is worth noting that all registered Higher Education providers are required to meet the Expectations of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which sets a high baseline for quality and standards.

The Department recently published its response to the public consultation on increases to teachers’ pensions employer contributions. All representations made by stakeholders have been considered, alongside all evidence relevant to the issues involved. The Department has decided to maintain its original proposal, to fund schools which receive public funding and Further Education providers for 2019-20, and not to fund Higher Education Institutions or Independent Schools. Funding beyond 2019-20 is a matter for the upcoming Spending Review.

The full response can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/funding-increases-to-teachers-pensions-employer-contributions.

In addition, it is worth noting that all registered Higher Education providers are required to meet the Expectations of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which sets a high baseline for quality and standards.

As announced in July 2018, EU nationals who start a course in England in the 2019/20 academic year or before will continue to be eligible for ‘home fee’ status and student finance support from Student Finance England for the duration of their course, provided they meet the residency requirement. On 28 May 2019, at the EU Competitiveness Council, it was also announced that EU nationals who will start a course in England in the 2020/21 academic year will also continue to be eligible for ‘home fee’ status with student finance support for the duration of their course.

Department for Education data shows that since 2013, the number of children in need, children on child protection plans and looked-after children at 31 March have risen by 7.1%, 24.5% and 10.7% respectively. The most common factors that present themselves in children’s social care assessments are domestic abuse and mental health. These have been consistently the top two factors for the years during which we have collected this data. Data on this is available in table C3 of statistical release ‘Characteristics of children in need 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.

Demand for children’s services is associated with a number of factors including deprivation. The most deprived local authorities have more looked-after children (per 10,000 nought to 17-year-olds), and these rates have grown faster, than the least deprived local authorities.

In preparation for the Spending Review, to help ensure decisions are based on the best available evidence, the government is working with the sector to develop a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services.

We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of the government’s fair funding review of relative needs and resources, where new, up-to-date formulas are being developed to ensure funding distribution to councils is based on the best available evidence.

We welcome the contributions from the sector in this area including Newton Europe’s ‘Making Sense’ (2018) report and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services continuing research reports, ‘Safeguarding Pressures’ (2018).

The Animal and Plant Health Agency have no information or data relating to numbers of game farms keeping laying hens in raised cages.

The number of offenders found guilty of offences under Sections 4 to 8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, in the Sussex Police Force area, from 2014 to 2016, can be viewed in the table. ^(1)(2)(3)

(1) Defined as SS4-8 Animal Welfare Act 2006

(2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.

(3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

(4) Includes offences in Eastbourne

Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice.

The UK Government and, therefore, DFID recognise that freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental freedom applying to all human beings, which is recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18. Violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief are among the most common human rights violations, and people are discriminated and persecuted all over the world for having and expressing their belief (or non-belief).

DFID welcomes the analysis and recommendations contained within the report which will further enrich the government’s understanding and help to inform our approach as we continue to seek ways in which to further promote and protect freedom of religion or belief in all countries.

All DFID contractual and grant arrangements include specific clauses to prevent any discrimination against protected characteristics; this includes discrimination on the basis of religion or belief. DFID’s due diligence assessments, a necessary pre-requisite for receiving UK Aid funding, obtain assurance of a potential delivery partner’s capacity to deliver and meet those conditions set out in the contract or grant award.

The Department is considering this proposal alongside the many others put forward for possible inclusion in the second Road Investment Strategy. We intend to announce our decisions towards the end of this year.

This Government is committed to providing targeted support for people so that everyone is given the very best chance of getting into and then thriving in work.

From April 2019, Jobcentre Plus introduced an enhanced Disability Employment Adviser and a new Disability Employment Adviser Leader role, in total more than 800 individuals supporting Jobcentre colleagues to provide high quality services to disabled people and those with health conditions. One of the key transformational elements of Universal Credit is that it provides us with the opportunity to support people who are in work to progress and increase their earnings.

Using an Innovation Fund funded by DWP, DHSC, and NHS England we are testing initiatives to support disabled people and those with health conditions to get into, and then remain in, work.

The government published the voluntary reporting framework on disability, mental ill health and wellbeing in November 2018.This is aimed at large employers (over 250 employees) and it is recommended that they publically report on the pay and progression of disabled people at regular intervals. It can also be used to support smaller employers who are keen to drive greater transparency in their organisation or industry.

When considering your questions, it should be noted that those that use the Access to Work scheme are not a direct subset of the disabled adults of working age. Robust proportions cannot be estimated by simply dividing figures for Access to Work by figures for number of disabled adults of working age. This is because the data would come from different data sources and are different data types.

To be eligible for Access to Work a person must be 16 or older, there is no upper age limit to eligibility therefore some people who receive Access to Work will not be considered working age (16-64 years old). Also Access to Work is available to those that have a disability or health condition (physical or mental) that makes it hard for them to do parts of their job or get to and from work therefore covers a broad range of people not just those who identify themselves as ‘disabled’.

When answering your question, we have interpreted ‘received support’ as received a payment.

The number of people who received a payment from Access to Work for each financial year can be found in Table 8 of the annual Access to Work Statistics publication. Table 8 shows the number of people who received a payment for any Access to Work provision by various customer characteristics including by region.

The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/access-to-work-statistics-april-2007-to-march-2019

Please note, number of people for each region is based on residency of the beneficiary as opposed to place of work. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

The disability employment gap is the measure of the difference between the employment rate of disabled people and the employment rate of non-disabled people. It is not therefore something which can be measured at the level of a single organisation. The current disability employment gap in the UK is 28.9 percentage points.

The table below shows numbers of ill health retirements over the period requested.

The Department have implemented the framework and the report is due to be published by the end of October 2019.