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143445

	registered interest
	date	07/11/2014
	answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
	answering dept id	92
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
	hansard heading	House of Lords: Select Committee Reports
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Leader of the House how many times in the last 10 years no Government response to a Lords Select Committee report was forthcoming eight months or longer after the report’s publication; and what were the subjects of the report or reports in question.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL2730
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/11/2014 answer text <p>This information is not held centrally; it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Stowell of Beeston question first answered 21/11/2014 14:44:34 answering member 4205 label Biography information for Baroness Stowell of Beeston
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

143456

	registered interest
	date	07/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Politics and Government: Greater London
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the effectiveness of the current structures of governance in London.
	tabling member printed	Lord Kennedy of Southwark
	uin	HL2741
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2014 answer text <p>Since 2010, the Coalition Government has made a series of reforms which have decentralised power down to local government and down to local communities below it.</p><p> </p><p>This has included strengthening the governance structures in London at a variety of levels: by devolving power and funding over housing, economic development and the Olympic legacy to the Mayor and Assembly through the Localism Act 2011; by abolishing unelected bodies such as the Government Office for London and London Development Agency; supporting the creation of a London-wide economic partnership; and delivering a broader set of reforms to local government transparency, accountability, housing finance and local government finance which the London Boroughs in particular have benefited from.</p><p> </p><p>The London Enterprise Panel was established by the Mayor in 2012 in response to the Government’s invitation to areas to form Local Enterprise Partnerships. It provides a forum which enables the Mayor, London Boroughs and the private sector to work together to take a strategic view of regeneration, employment and skills in the capital. The Panel has successfully negotiated a growth deal which includes delivering £120 million of investment in London’s Further Education colleges and work to develop new ways to help those furthest from the labour market into work.</p><p> </p><p>As set out in the Government response to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee Report: <em>Post-Legislative Scrutiny of the Greater London Authority Act 2007 and the London Assembly</em> (Cm 8761), the Government believes there is scope for governance reform in the relation to the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers have serious concerns about the governance in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets following an independent inspection report, and are consulting the council on the report and a proposed package of interventions as outlined in the Oral Statement of 4 November 2014, <em>Official Report</em>, House of Commons, Column 663.</p><p> </p><p>The Coalition Government considers that power should be devolved to the lowest appropriate level including to communities and individuals. For instance, we have introduced powers for local communities in London to establish neighbourhood forums to take forward neighbourhood planning and introduced a range of ‘community rights’ such as the Community Right to Challenge and the Community Right to Bid for Assets of Community Value.</p><p> </p><p>Parish councils can also provide communities with a democratically accountable voice and a structure for taking community action. London saw its first parish council in decades have its first elections in May 2014, in Queens Park, Westminster. A number of other local communities in London are now campaigning for parish councils to be set up. The Government is also making it easier to set up new town and parish councils where they do not currently exist and is seeking to amend legislation to do so.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 20/11/2014 15:18:11 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
	tabling member	4153 label Biography information for Lord Kennedy of Southwark

147376

	registered interest
	date	10/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Refuges
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 31 October (HL2419), why they do not centrally record the number or location of refuges in England; and what consideration they have given to collecting such records as a means to developing nationwide policy.
	tabling member printed	Lord Harrison
	uin	HL2780
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/11/2014 answer text <p>My Department funds UKRefugesOnline a UK-wide database of domestic violence services which supports the national 24 hour free phone domestic violence helpline. This service enables those working with victims of domestic violence to identify appropriate services and potential refuge vacancies around the country so that victims can get the help they need as quickly as possible.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In terms of government records, such information has never been centrally held. Refuges are not commissioned at a national level, and are generally either provided by local authorities or by independent voluntary sector organisations. To start recording the number and location would involve creating a new monitoring and data reporting regime on local government. It is the broader policy of the Coalition Government to try to reduce the burden of data reporting on local government, as it costs taxpayers’ money and diverts resources away from frontline services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>More broadly, this Government has secured £6.5 billion investment to help vulnerable people through housing related support. This forms a key element of refuge funding through local authority commissioned services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have also allocated £40 million of funding for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services until 2015. This funding is used to part-fund 54 multi-agency risk assessment conference co-ordinators and 144 independent domestic violence advisers. We have piloted and rolled out Clare’s Law and domestic violence protection orders; extended the definition of domestic abuse to cover controlling behaviour and teenage relationships; run two successful campaigns to challenge perceptions of abuse; and placed Domestic Homicide Reviews on a statutory footing to make sure lessons are learned from individual tragedies.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We are keeping this matter under review, and are keen to support best practice and greater joint working.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 18/11/2014 14:11:28 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
	tabling member	2488 label Biography information for Lord Harrison

147377

	registered interest
	date	10/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Local Government: Cheshire
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to reconstitute the former Cheshire County Council by bringing together the unitary authorities of Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East.
	tabling member printed	Lord Harrison
	uin	HL2781
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2014 answer text <p>There are no plans to bring together the unitary authorities of Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East. Such resource intensive and disruptive restructuring of local government would be an unnecessary distraction. The two Cheshire councils already have the legal powers to share services and work together if they wish, and they do not need the Government’s permission to do so.</p><p> </p><p>The Tri-Borough initiative in London is a good locally-led example of how councils can work together to improve services and delivery savings without the need for local government restructuring.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 17/11/2014 12:03:32 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
	tabling member	2488 label Biography information for Lord Harrison

147396

	registered interest
	date	10/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Council Housing
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action are they taking to support council tenants who want to form housing cooperatives.
	tabling member printed	Lord Kennedy of Southwark
	uin	HL2800
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2014 answer text <p>We encourage local authorities to work closely with their communities to look at the range of options open to them. This may include forming community led groups, such as co-operatives, Community Land Trusts or Tenant Management Organisations. My officials continue to discuss issues affecting co-operative housing more generally with the co-operative sector.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Council tenants have the Right to Manage, which enables them to set up a Tenant Management Organisation (a management co-operative) to manage the homes in their area, with a management allowance from the Council. The Tenant Empowerment Programme, £2 million in 2014/15 and £1 million in 2015/16, supports social housing tenants to engage in, manage and/or take control of their housing services. This includes training, support and funding to enable tenant groups to take up their Right to Manage. There are currently over 200 Tenant Management Organisations across England, managing around 80,000 homes.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In October 2012, we funded the Co-operatives UK to establish and run the Community Shares Unit to grow a sustainable market and promote the long term success of the community shares model, as a means to raising equity finance and increasing participation in community enterprises and projects. Community-led housing is one of the areas identified as requiring development.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We are also encouraging community led organisations, including co-operatives, to apply for funding through the 2015-18 Affordable Homes Programme. The Homes and Communities Agency has held back over 25% of their £1.7 billion budget, for which it is now inviting bids. This should be of particular help to smaller community-led organisations.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 20/11/2014 15:55:45 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
	tabling member	4153 label Biography information for Lord Kennedy of Southwark

143450

	registered interest
	date	07/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
	answering dept id	63
	answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
	answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
	hansard heading	Forests
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the acreage of forest that would need to be planted in the United Kingdom in order to meet a carbon reduction budget of 50 per cent by 2025; and what is their assessment of the contribution forests and other carbon sinks can make to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
	tabling member printed	Lord Blencathra
	uin	HL2735
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2014 answer text <p>There are no sector specific carbon reduction targets for forests and other carbon sinks but the contribution of these sectors to meeting carbon budgets is set out in the 2011 Carbon Plan. Forests and other carbon sinks can play a valuable role in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the Government has put in place a range of policies to realise this reduction. These include the Rural Development Programme, the Woodland Carbon Code and the UK Forestry Standard as set out alongside Government’s wider forestry objectives in the Forestry and Woodlands Policy Statement.</p> answering member printed Baroness Verma question first answered 20/11/2014 16:40:30 answering member 3790 label Biography information for Baroness Verma
	tabling member	497 label Biography information for Lord Blencathra

143451

	registered interest
	date	07/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
	answering dept id	63
	answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
	answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
	hansard heading	Forests
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what international action they are taking to press the case for global re-afforestation in order to act as a carbon sink.
	tabling member printed	Lord Blencathra
	uin	HL2736
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2014 answer text <p>The UK supports protection and conservation of global forests through our £3.87 billion International Climate Fund (ICF). To date, over £500 million has been committed to support a range of initiatives, including supporting forest governance; sustainable forestry, agriculture and land management, community forest management, and developing knowledge and evidence that can contribute to effective and coordinated policies and strategies. The UK also supports REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, and Conservation, Sustainable Management of Forests, and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks), through investments in pilot REDD+ projects through the ICF, and through decisions supportive of the development of REDD+ through the international climate change negotiations.</p><p>The UK played a key role in developing the New York Declaration on Forests, endorsed by over 150 governments, private sector stakeholders, civil society, non-governmental and indigenous community organisations at the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit on 23<sup>rd</sup> September 2014. The Declaration highlights the importance of reducing deforestation and increasing forest restoration to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and calls for action. It sets out an ambitious restoration goal of restoring 150 million hectares of degraded landscapes and forestlands by 2020 and significantly increasing the rate of global restoration thereafter, which would restore at least an additional 200 million hectares by 2030.</p><p>There are a number of important international processes in 2015 that can also encourage more ambitious outcomes for global re-afforestation and restoration. The UK will press the case for ambitious, quantitative forest conservation targets for 2030 in the post-2015 new sustainable development goals, and supports the inclusion of ambitious outcomes for forests as part of the post-2020 new international climate agreement. The Bonn Challenge 2.0 will also be an opportunity for countries to bring forward ambitious forest restoration targets.</p> answering member printed Baroness Verma question first answered 20/11/2014 16:43:24 answering member 3790 label Biography information for Baroness Verma
	tabling member	497 label Biography information for Lord Blencathra

147351

	registered interest
	date	10/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Energy and Climate Change
	answering dept id	63
	answering dept short name	Energy and Climate Change
	answering dept sort name	Energy and Climate Change
	hansard heading	Carbon Emissions
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to couple any expansion of airport capacity with steps to ensure that targets for the reduction of domestic carbon dioxide emissions from homes, workplaces and ground transport are increased to ninety per cent, as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
	uin	HL2755
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2014 answer text <p>The Coalition Agreement for Government rules out current airport expansion in the South East for the life of this Parliament. It will be for the Government of the day to consider the environmental impacts, including CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, of any proposed expansion with reference to the Airports Commission recommendations on options for maintaining this country’s status as an international hub for aviation.</p> answering member printed Baroness Verma question first answered 20/11/2014 16:39:42 answering member 3790 label Biography information for Baroness Verma
	tabling member	4297 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

143458

	registered interest
	date	07/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they provide to local authorities who want to make greater use of school premises for the benefit of the community outside school times.
	tabling member printed	Lord Kennedy of Southwark
	uin	HL2743
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2014 answer text <p>The Education Act 2002 gives school governing bodies the power to run community services without the need to consult or obtain permission from local authorities. Schools have the freedom to use their estates for community facilities and can provide integrated services such as health services, childcare or adult education and work in partnership with other providers as a resource for the whole community. We do not provide support for local authorities as this is a matter for schools.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 17/11/2014 12:32:56 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4153 label Biography information for Lord Kennedy of Southwark

147401

	registered interest
	date	10/11/2014
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Teachers: Recruitment
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to accelerate the Teach First programme so that all teachers are recruited by that method by 2020.
	tabling member printed	Lord Blencathra
	uin	HL2805
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/11/2014 answer text <p>Teach First is a charity part-funded by the Government to raise levels of pupil attainment in schools facing challenging circumstances. Teach First’s mission is to recruit high-performing graduates into schools with significant levels of economic deprivation and low levels of educational performance.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government has allocated 2,000 training places to Teach First for 2015/16, a 33% increase on its allocation for 2014/15. This reflects the importance the Government places on Teach First’s contribution, and will ensure that Teach First operates in all regions of the country, including in rural and coastal areas. It would not, however, be consistent with Teach First’s mission or scale of operation for it to train all of the approximately 36,000 trainees, including at undergraduate level, required annually to meet the needs of schools of all types in all parts of the country.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 18/11/2014 15:51:39 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	497 label Biography information for Lord Blencathra