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447

registered interest
date	25/06/2013
answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
answering dept id	7
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what powers and freedoms relating to (a) skills and employment, (b) housing and (c) economic development have been devolved since May 2010 to (i) local government and (ii) local enterprise partnerships.
tabling member constituency	Congleton
tabling member printed	Fiona Bruce
uin	162343
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2014 answer text <p> </p><p><em>[Holding Reply: Monday 1 July 2013]</em></p><p>The Government is taking considerable steps to devolve power and freedom to local government and Local Enterprise Partnerships.</p><p>Through the Localism Act, councils now have the general power of competence that enables them to do anything that an individual might do, apart from that which is specifically prohibited. In addition we have radically reformed the local government finance system putting levers and incentives in the hands of local authorities, for instance:</p><p>· The removal of ring-fencing from local government grants has given councils the freedom and flexibility over the money they receive and allows them to work with their residents to decide how best to make their spending decisions to fit their local priority needs.</p><p>· rewarded places that deliver growth, through the New Homes Bonus and Business Rate Retention.</p><p>· Local authorities now directly retain 50% of business rates locally which amounts to nearly £11 billion, instead of returning it to Whitehall.</p><p>· We established five pilot Rural Growth Networks aimed at tackling the barriers to economic growth in rural areas, such as a shortage of work premises, slow internet connectivity and fragmented business networks. These pilots expect to create up to 3,000 new jobs and support up to 700 new businesses, offering a local approach to local problems. We will share the lessons they learn with other Local Enterprise Partnerships and Local Authorities to help them promote growth in other rural areas.</p><p>We have also given councils the ability to borrow against their Housing Revenue Account.</p><p>Through the city deals programme we have devolved powers and responsibilities to 26 cities. For example we have:</p><p>•provided levers to deliver the skills and jobs that local businesses and people need;</p><p>•created joint investment programmes; and</p><p>• devolved greater financial powers and incentives to invest in growth to all cities.</p><p>As we made clear in our response to Lord Heseltine's review of Growth, we intend to go further. We have committed to negotiating Growth Deals with every Local Enterprise Partnership through which we will allocate the Local Growth Fund and negotiate broader powers, freedoms and flexibilities where a strong case for decentralisation can be made. The Local Growth Fund brings together funding from skills, housing and transport and we have committed £2 billion in 2015/16 and it will continue to be at least £2 billion a year up to 2021. The Local Growth Fund includes:</p><p> </p><ul><li>over £6 billion of transport funding;</li><li>£300 million of additional Housing Revenue Account borrowing;</li><li>£50 million of Local Infrastructure Funding for housing developers; and</li><li>£300 million skills capital funding.</li></ul><p>We are also for the first time putting £5 billion of European Structural Investment Funds for the 2014-20 period under the strategic direction of Local Enterprise Partnerships, bringing the total resource (including the Local Growth Fund) under the control of Local Enterprise Partnerships to over £17 billion up until 2020.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 13/05/2014 12:00:00 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	3958 label Biography information for Fiona Bruce

10021

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential risk of losses to the public purse arising from applying the current accounting officer conventions in the period leading up to the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.
tabling member constituency	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
tabling member printed	Gregg McClymont
uin	154017
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2014 answer text <p>I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Treasury.</p><p>The UK Government is not planning for independence as it believes that people in Scotland will vote to remain within the UK. As such, the Government has made no assessment of the risk of losses to the public purse, and has no plans to change accounting officers conventions</p> answering member constituency Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey answering member printed Danny Alexander grouped question UIN 154018 question first answered 25/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1535 label Biography information for Danny Alexander
tabling member	3949 label Biography information for Gregg McClymont

10022

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with officials in his Department on how the accounting officers' conventions would apply to investment in Scotland in advance of the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.
tabling member constituency	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East
tabling member printed	Gregg McClymont
uin	154018
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2014 answer text <p>I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Treasury.</p><p>The UK Government is not planning for independence as it believes that people in Scotland will vote to remain within the UK. As such, the Government has made no assessment of the risk of losses to the public purse, and has no plans to change accounting officers conventions</p> answering member constituency Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey answering member printed Danny Alexander grouped question UIN 154017 question first answered 25/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1535 label Biography information for Danny Alexander
tabling member	3949 label Biography information for Gregg McClymont

11895

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to consult on eligibility for free school meals ahead of the introduction of universal credit.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield South East
tabling member printed	Mr Clive Betts
uin	153906
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/02/2014 answer text <p>We are working very closely with other departments, including the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions, to simplify free school meals criteria under universal credit, while ensuring that free lunches continue to be available to the families who need them most. These discussions, which include consideration of a phased implementation timetable, are in recognition of the significant number and complexity of passported benefits across Government, most of which have different eligibility criteria.</p><p>We will allow good time to enable schools, local authorities and children's charities to comment on our proposals before we introduce new entitlement criteria for free school meals under universal credit.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Yeovil answering member printed Mr David Laws question first answered 26/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1473 label Biography information for Mr David Laws
tabling member	394 label Biography information for Mr Clive Betts

5107

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the rate of underemployment in each UK parliamentary constituency in Scotland in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow East
tabling member printed	Margaret Curran
uin	153939
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2014 answer text <p>The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.</p> answering member constituency Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner answering member printed Mr Nick Hurd question first answered 25/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1561 label Biography information for Mr Nick Hurd attachment 1 file name Letter from ONS for uin 153939.docx title Letter from Office for National Statistics
tabling member	3982 label Biography information for Margaret Curran

5108

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the total loss to the economy as a result of underemployment in Scotland.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow East
tabling member printed	Margaret Curran
uin	153940
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2014 answer text <p>This is not a matter for Cabinet Office Ministers.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 25/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	3982 label Biography information for Margaret Curran

5741

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how his Department scrutinises the Fundraising Standards Board; when a review was last conducted; and what the outcome was of this review.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Glamorgan
tabling member printed	Alun Cairns
uin	153902
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2014 answer text <p>Lord Hodgson assessed the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) as part of his review of the Charities Act 2006 and concluded in his report &lsquo;Trusted and Independent: Giving charity back to charities&rsquo; that it had broadly met 10 of the 12 success criteria set out when it was established in 2006. The FRSB and Cabinet Office are members of the Steering Committee established in response to Lord Hodgson's recommendations to drive forward further progress in strengthening self-regulation.</p> answering member constituency Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner answering member printed Mr Nick Hurd question first answered 25/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1561 label Biography information for Mr Nick Hurd
tabling member	4086 label Biography information for Alun Cairns

7952

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of people employed on zero-hours contracts in each government office region.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	154029
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2014 answer text <p>The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.</p> answering member constituency Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner answering member printed Mr Nick Hurd question first answered 25/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1561 label Biography information for Mr Nick Hurd attachment 1 file name Letter from Glen Watson.docx title Letter from ONS
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

9

registered interest
date	08/05/2013
answering body	Deputy Prime Minister
answering dept id	58
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what assessment he has made of the outcome of his Department's matching of the electoral register with Department for Work and Pensions data in communities with (a) seaside towns and (b) towns with high student populations; and what effect this work will have on the size of electorates in these constituencies.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
uin	154454
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2014 answer text <p>As part of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER), entries on the electoral register will be matched against data held by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for the purposes of confirming existing electors, a process which will simplify the transition for the majority of existing electors. Last year the Cabinet Office undertook pilots to test this process and we published our evaluation of these pilots earlier this year which is available to download from:</p><p>https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplifying-the-transition-to-individual-electoral-registration</p><p> </p><p>The evaluation report includes an analysis of match rates by population groups and while no specific analysis was undertaken of seaside towns, the results did suggest that match rates were lower in areas with high student populations. However, anyone who cannot be confirmed will still be invited to register individually and will retain their ability to vote in the 2015 general election. By using confirmation to simplify the process for the majority of electors it means resources can be focused on maximising registration among those people who cannot be confirmed, including individuals who are not currently registered. We are also currently running a separate set of pilots exploring whether data matching against DWP and other trusted national data sets can be used to find potential electors who are not currently registered but may be eligible to do so, in order to invite them to register. The results of the pilots, which are specifically targeted at boosting registrations among students, attainers and home-movers, will be published in the summer.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 25/02/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane