Sadly, bus fares have been rising above inflation for many decades, including throughout the Labour Government, from 1997 to 2010, although some of these bus fares are determined locally by support from local authorities, so the picture varies across the country. The good news, however, is that overall bus mileage is holding up. In fact, last year saw a record 4.7 billion bus journeys, the highest since deregulation.

An investigation by the Liverpool Echo last month discovered that the cost of catching a bus in Merseyside has risen by two and a half times the rate of inflation since privatisation under the Thatcher Government. The cost of public transport in Merseyside is a barrier to employment and makes the labour market less flexible. Will the Minister congratulate the Echo on its work and tell us what he proposes to do about it?

A breakdown of households affected by the benefit cap by parliamentary constituency has been placed in the library and can be found at:

http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1587/LibraryDocument125527.pdf

Please note that household numbers are rounded to the nearest 100. Areas with fewer than 100 households affected are denoted by “..”, as additional disclosure control has been applied to these areas. For this reason, figures will not sum to the total number of households affected in the July 2012 impact assessment for the household benefit cap. Due to these disclosure controls we are unable to state how many of those affected live in either social housing and/or private-rented housing.

Around 900 households in Merseyside may be affected by the benefit cap, and around 40% of those affected live in social housing and 60% in private rented housing. Figures for Merseyside are based on a combined total of those affected in Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton, the Wirral and Knowsley local authorities.

Around 52,000 households in England may be affected by the benefit cap, and of those affected around 55% live in social housing and 45% live in private rented housing.

Please note as the benefit cap will be applied through a phased roll-out from 15 April 2013 and at a national level from 15 July 2013, at present no households have been affected by the cap. The figures are consistent with the impact assessment published on 16 July 2012. The figures in the table assume that the situation of these households will go unchanged, and they will not take any steps to either work enough hours to qualify for working tax credit, renegotiate their rent in situ, or find alternative accommodation. The Department is identifying and writing to all the households who are likely to be affected by the cap and we are offering advice and support through Jobcentre Plus, including, where appropriate, early access to the Work programme before the cap is introduced.

The disregarding of housing costs for those in supported exempt accommodation announced in the autumn statement can not be allocated geographically therefore this has not been removed from the estimates presented here.

DWP is unable to provide the information requested as this data is not gathered at either national or local level.

DWP is unable to provide the information requested as this data is not gathered at either national or local level.

Local figures on local authority financing can be found on my Department's website:

Revenue account budget 2012-13:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2012-to-2013-individual-local-authority-data

Revenue outturn 2011-12:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2011-to-2012-individual-local-authority-data--2

Revenue outturn 2010-11:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2010-to-2011-individual-local-authority-data--5

2013-14 figures are not currently available.

I am sure Ofgem will have heard the hon. Gentleman’s question. He will also know that Ofgem has proposed major reforms of tariff, which we believe will help many people, particularly those stranded on the so-called dead tariffs who are paying far more than they need to. This will, I believe, support competition in the market. Let me point out that the hon. Gentleman’s Front-Bench team is in favour of abolishing Ofgem—a particularly interesting position.

In my Stroud constituency, we have a large number of innovative energy firms eager to pursue research and development projects. One area I think worth developing is energy storage, particularly storing electricity, which answers quite a few questions about engineering and providing an industrial base, as well as the peak problem in relation to renewable energy. What measures will the Government take to encourage investment in energy storage?

The following Round 1 and Round 2 projects and programmes in Merseyside have received finalised awards:

The Department will provide details of Round 3 and 4 projects when the awards are finalised.

In aggregate, these projects have drawn down a total of £43,455,162. The Department is not able to provide details of the draw down for individual projects as the disclosure of this information may prejudice the commercial interests of some beneficiaries.

The Department has not collated or published details of funding that has been committed or spent at a sub-regional level and unfortunately the information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

From the Regional Growth Fund, the following sums were committed to 12 projects and programmes in the metropolitan county of Merseyside (Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral):

The sum of Regional Growth Fund payments to date to beneficiaries in the metropolitan county of Merseyside in the same period was:

The amount paid in 2012-13 is less than the amount committed for this financial year because there are still some outstanding payments to be made before the year end (31 March 2013).

The most recent data available for regional expenditure is the National Statistics Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses for 2011-12. This is identifiable expenditure on services, including transport, by function, country and region.

In 2009-10, spend on the transport element of economic affairs for the North West was £2,432 million, in 2010-11 it was £2,169 million and £1,967 million in 2011-12. Spend is not broken down below regional level.

The Department for Transport is not the only public body responsible for transport and a large proportion of expenditure is covered by local government bodies.

Committed spend is not analysed at a regional level.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not record this information centrally, and to collate it could be achieved only at disproportionate cost.

[holding answer 7 February 2013]: Information on the number of looked after children who were (a) placed for adoption and (b) adopted for the years ending 31 March 1997 to 2012 is shown in the tables. Information at constituency level is not available.

Information on the number of children who started to be looked after following the breakdown of an adoptive family is not currently available. Information on children who return to care following the breakdown of a previous adoption will be collected for the first time in 2014.

Improving social mobility is the principal goal of this Government's social policy which is why we are introducing policies such as early education for disadvantaged two-year-olds, the Pupil Premium, and the £1 billion Youth Contract. These policies will help to improve social mobility across the country, including on Merseyside.

Liverpool city council has committed to turning around the lives of 2,105 troubled families by the end of this Parliament. In the first year, the local authority has committed to work with a third of this total.

My Department is about to commission an independent evaluation of the Troubled Families programme which will look at the outcomes that areas such as Liverpool demonstrate and the savings made as a result.

The available information relates to crimes recorded by the police in Merseyside. Firearms and knife crime data are only collected at police force

area level and so data are not available for Liverpool Walton and Liverpool. The Home Office does not collect any data on offences using physical weapons.

The latest available firearms data is for 2010-11 and shows that there were 226 firearms offences (excluding air weapons) recorded in Merseyside. Data for 2011-12 will be published by the Office for National Statistics on 7 February 2013.

Latest data for knife crime relates to 2011-12 and shows that there were 599 offences recorded by the police in Merseyside that involved a knife or sharp instrument. This figure only includes the offences of attempted murder, threats to kill, actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm, robbery, rape and sexual assaults.

The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking feasibility work which will include an examination of operating and funding arrangements and determining in more detail the most appropriate location, role and size of a prison.

The Ministry of Justice will work with the relevant parties in the three priority locations—the north west, north Wales and London—as part of the feasibility work, which will include the search for a suitable site.

Working family tax credit was abolished in March 2003 and replaced by the current child and working tax credit system.

All figures provided in this answer are based on the current tax credits system, as at December 2012. Further information can be found in HMRC's published National Statistics, which can be found here:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/personal-tax-credits.htm#1

(i) Final tax credit entitlement for a given year is based on income in that year if that is: more than £2,500 lower than the income in the previous year; or exceeds it by more than £10,000. A year on year income fall of less than £2,500; or increase of less than £10,000 is disregarded in calculating the current year's final tax credit entitlement, and the previous year's income is used. The disregard for an income rise is to be lowered from £10,000 to £5,000 from April 2013.

(ii) Any family eligible for any element of working tax credit (WTC) can receive their full entitlement until their annual household income reaches £6,420 p.a.—the first income threshold. After this point, their tax credit entitlement is tapered away. Table 1 details the number of families in each of the requested regions, who are eligible for WTC and whose annual income is above £6,420.

(iii) Any family eligible for child tax credit (CTC) only, can receive their full entitlement until their annual household income reaches £15,860p.a.—the second income threshold. After this point, their tax credit entitlement is tapered away. Table 2 details the number of families in each of the requested regions, who are eligible for CTC only and whose annual income is above £15,860.

(iv) The baby element of child tax credit was abolished from April 2011; therefore there are no current recipients.

(v-vii) Table 3 shows the number of families in the requested regions receiving the WTC basic element, WTC lone parent or couple element, and the WTC 30 hour element.

(viii) The 50+ Return to work element of working tax credit was abolished from April 2012; therefore there are no current recipients.

(ix) The hours rules for couples claiming working tax credit changed in April 2012. A couple that is responsible for a child or young person must work at least 24 hours between them, and one adult must be working at least 16 hours. If the couple is not responsible for a child one adult must be over 25 years old and working at least 30 hours a week.

(x-xi) The information requested is not currently available, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

(xii) Statistics on how many people living in Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton or St Helens, receive contribution based employment and support allowance can be found at:

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=tabtool

Guidance for users is available at:

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/guidance.pdf

(xiii) We have no indicator on our datasets that would identify claimants under the youth provision of ESA. However an ad hoc publication was produced, using estimates, to provide information about youth provision of ESA and this can be found at:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/eia-esa-youth-provisions-wr2011.pdf

We are informed by the NHS Information Centre for health and social care that it collects and publishes data on the number of adults—those aged 18 to 64 and 65 and over—who are permanently admitted to local authority-supported residential and nursing care. Information on the numbers of people who arrange and fund their own care is not collected.

The Information Centre does not collect data at constituency level, or for Merseyside, as this does not exist as a single local authority.

The following tables show data, provided by the Information Centre, on the rate per 100,000 population of local authority-supported permanent admissions to residential and nursing care of those aged 18 to 64 years and 65 and over for Wirral, Sefton, St. Helens, Liverpool and Knowsley local authorities since 2007-08. These authorities are collectively referenced as serving the Merseyside area.