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1612593

registered interest
date	19/04/2023
answering body	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
answering dept id	208
answering dept short name	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
hansard heading	Afghanistan and Iran: Women
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the situation of women and girls in (1) Iran and (2) Afghanistan; and in each case what steps they are taking to coordinate international action on the issue.
tabling member printed	Lord Alton of Liverpool
uin	HL7267
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/05/2023 answer text <p>In Afghanistan, the UK Government has repeatedly condemned the Taliban's decisions to restrict the rights of women and girls. Since April 2021, the Government has disbursed £532 million to Afghanistan, and committed that at least 50 per cent of those we reach with our aid are women and girls.</p><p>In Iran, the UK Government supports women and girls standing up for fundamental rights, holding the Iranian regime to account. We raise human rights directly with the Iranian authorities. We work with international partners and NGOs. We supported a UN Fact Finding Mission and Iran's removal from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon grouped question UIN HL7266 HL7268 question first answered 04/05/2023 15:10:54 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
tabling member	738 label Biography information for Lord Alton of Liverpool

1453821

registered interest
date	23/03/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Languages: Education
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the importance to the UK's (1) economic, and (2) diplomatic, interests of encouraging school students to learn and gain accreditation in (a) Arabic, (b) Mandarin, (c) Russian, (d) Turkish, and (e) Urdu.
tabling member printed	Baroness Coussins
uin	HL7267
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/04/2022 answer text <p>The government understands the importance of all languages for the UK’s economic and diplomatic interests, as well as the many personal and social benefits learning another language can bring. This is why the study of languages is a statutory part of the national curriculum for pupils in key stages 2 and 3.</p><p>French, Spanish and German remain the most popular languages for pupils to study at school. The government provides resources and professional development for teachers in these languages through the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Hub programme, run by the National Centre for Excellence in Language Pedagogy.</p><p>An increasing number of pupils now choose to study Mandarin, and the government supports many of these pupils through the £12 million Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP). The MEP is the department’s flagship programme for the study of Mandarin, with the aim of providing a pipeline of fluent Mandarin speakers to meet the UK’s future economic and diplomatic needs. We are currently considering what steps might be taken to provide greater support for the study of other languages, including Arabic and Urdu.</p><p>Schools are free to offer any language which they feel best meets the needs of their pupils and the wider community. GCSEs and A levels are available in Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Turkish and Urdu. All these languages count towards the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) school performance measure, ensuring that most young people study a core of academic subjects at GCSE. The provision of these qualifications is ultimately a decision for awarding organisations. However, the department is supportive of ongoing opportunities to study these languages, signifying Britain's role as an outward-facing, vibrant country, enriched by the diversity of its people.</p><p>Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and unique circumstances in 2021, the government made a grant available to support exam centres to meet costs associated with the additional demands of assessment for private candidates, including those taking community and heritage languages. The claims window opened on 29 November 2021 and closed on 10 January 2022. The department subsequently carried out quality assurance checks on the evidence provided by centres to ensure the accuracy of claims and payment allocations. The assurance checks that needed to be carried out always meant that payments would be made to centres at the end of the 2021/22 financial year. Centres that supplied the evidence required in the claims were due to be paid on 31 March 2022. This included a payment to the Community Language Examination Centre.</p><p>The grant was only available for teacher assessed grades produced in summer 2021, not to any other assessment period, due to the unique circumstances in 2021. It has helped centres to meet costs and will not have led to any exam entry reductions.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran grouped question UIN HL7265 HL7266 question first answered 04/04/2022 13:40:39 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	3829 label Biography information for Baroness Coussins

1227869

registered interest
date	23/07/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Taxation: Electronic Government
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to fund appropriate standards of broadband connection for those who live in areas with poor broadband connectivity to ensure that they can participate in the Making Tax Digital programme.
tabling member printed	Lord West of Spithead
uin	HL7267
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/07/2020 answer text <p>The Government understands that some people with disabilities, those in rural locations with poor broadband services, and those who are digitally excluded for other reasons may find it more difficult to comply with Making Tax Digital (MTD) requirements. MTD exemptions have operated successfully since the introduction of MTD for VAT in April 2019 for businesses with taxable turnover in excess of the VAT threshold. These exemptions will continue to be available to businesses within the expanded scope of MTD.</p><p> </p><p>There will be no specific allowances or payment made to those using MTD for time spent complying with MTD requirements. However, the Government accepts that there will be time spent in familiarisation with the new MTD obligations (digital record keeping and quarterly submission of information). The Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2019 found that those who are the most digitally engaged save a day a week in administration by going digital. Once businesses are used to operating the new MTD processes, the Government anticipates that they will find that MTD makes it easier for them to get things right, reducing errors and saving time in administering their tax affairs.</p><p> </p><p>MTD is not a response to any changes in HMRC workforce. It is a key part of the Government’s long term goal for HMRC to become one of the most digitally advanced tax authorities in the world, and forms part of the Government's 10-year strategy to build a trusted, modern tax administration system. As well as helping to tackle the part of the tax gap arising due to error and failure to take reasonable care, MTD will help to make the tax administration system more resilient and effective in responding to future shocks, while also providing businesses with access to real-time data and a more accurate overview of their financial position.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will not be funding specialist software or training, but will continue to work to ensure that any additional costs to business are minimised. Free Income Tax software will be available for businesses with the simplest tax affairs. For VAT, there are already over a dozen free packages available as part of a highly competitive market with over 500 products for different business needs. On training, the HMRC customer support model includes a multi-layered approach stretching across agents, third party software support, through to telephony support, webchat, and HMRC’s Extra Support service, as well as signposting to information and guides and to local or third party providers of digital skills courses or support already offered by external providers.</p><p> </p><p>For those with slow speeds and no access to other commercial alternatives, the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) came into force in March 2020. The USO gives people in the UK the right to request a decent and affordable broadband connection. The Government has pledged £5 billion to support the rollout of gigabit-capable networks to the hardest to reach 20% of the country.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton grouped question UIN HL7263 HL7264 HL7265 HL7266 question first answered 30/07/2020 12:13:23 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	3834 label Biography information for Lord West of Spithead