The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) Policy Programme Evaluation Board has met five times since its creation and is due to meet again on Monday 29 April 2013. The previous meetings have been held on:

27 July 2011

9 November 2011

29 February 2012

17 May 2012

14 September 2012

The FCO Policy Programme Evaluation Board is Chaired by Ann Cormack, a Non-Executive. The Members are:

David Lidington, Minister for Europe

Barbara Woodward, FCO Director-General Economic and Consular

Iain Walker, FCO Finance Director

Julia Bond. Non-Executive

Neil Wigan, Her Majesty's Ambassador Kinshasa

Martin Harris. Her Majesty's Ambassador Bucharest

Carolyn Miller, Non-Executive

Department for International Development (DFID) representative (to be confirmed, following a change in personnel).

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) Policy Programme Evaluation Board has met five times since its creation and is due to meet again on Monday 29 April 2013. The previous meetings have been held on:

27 July 2011

9 November 2011

29 February 2012

17 May 2012

14 September 2012

The FCO Policy Programme Evaluation Board is Chaired by Ann Cormack, a Non-Executive. The Members are:

David Lidington, Minister for Europe

Barbara Woodward, FCO Director-General Economic and Consular

Iain Walker, FCO Finance Director

Julia Bond. Non-Executive

Neil Wigan, Her Majesty's Ambassador Kinshasa

Martin Harris. Her Majesty's Ambassador Bucharest

Carolyn Miller, Non-Executive

Department for International Development (DFID) representative (to be confirmed, following a change in personnel).

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport deploys staff flexibly across a range of projects and priorities. Currently, eight full-time staff are deployed on projects that include work on the creative industries, led by a deputy director who is responsible for creative industries as part of a wider portfolio. Press officers and legal advisors also support the work in this area.

Government support for the creative industries is primarily channelled through the Creative Industries Council which was established as a joint forum between the creative industries and Government to address areas

where there are barriers facing the sector. Jointly chaired by the Secretaries of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Nicola Mendelsohn, President of the IPA, the Council focuses on finding practical solutions to issues across the sector.

The Government is committed to creating the right environment to start and grow a business, making sure that people working in the creative industries have the right managerial and leadership skills to succeed, access to finance to grow their business and a skilled work force to draw upon. In April this year we will add to the tax relief already available for British film, with three new tax reliefs available for high-end TV, video games and animation.

HMRC officials meet with, and receive representations from, a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors as part of the usual policymaking process. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such representations.

We have taken immediate steps to restructure the Department following the findings of the Laidlaw inquiry and Brown review, including the appointment of a director of rail franchising and director general of rail.

This strengthened governance will help provide more assurance to Ministers, who will continue to remain closely involved in decision making on rail franchising policy.

Laidlaw and Brown's detailed recommendations deserve, and are getting, careful consideration by the Department, including its Ministers, and the Secretary of State for Transport will be making a statement on the future franchising programme and policy in the spring.

Representatives of churches and other faiths have often described the obstacles they have encountered in receiving a fair hearing from local and central government. The Government are committed to giving faith communities a seat at the table in public life, not a privileged position but that of an equal informer in the debate.

There is no policy of positive discrimination: the perspectives of people without a religious faith are just as important in the formulation and implementation of policy as those of faith.

The Government believe that religious belief is an important motivation for service to community. However, it is obvious that the needs and perspectives of all interested groups, whether religious or non-religious, should be taken into consideration when policy is formulated and implemented.

The Government recognise that both religious and non-religious groups have valid perspectives to contribute to the formulation and implementation of policy, and departments are committed to proper engagement processes. The specific role of the Minister for Faith and Communities is to ensure that the voice of people of faith is heard, which has not always been the case.

The coalition priorities for which the Department for Education is responsible are stated in its business plan. The detailed steps the Government are taking to implement their agenda are contained within the structural reform plan section of each department’s business plans. The DfE business plan has six coalition priorities: increase the number of high quality schools and introduce fair funding; reform the school curriculum and qualifications; reduce bureaucracy and improve accountability; train and develop the professionals who work with children; improve support for children in the foundation years; and improve support for children, young people and families, focusing on the most disadvantaged.

Between May 2010 and the end of October 2012, the Department for Education completed 116 structural reform plan actions, with another 46 actions still to be completed by the end of 2015. Monthly updates for the 2012 business plan are published on the No 10 website: http://transparency.numberl0.gov.uk/business-plan/15.

The Department has not issued any such guidance, but we are aware of one strategic health authority that is proceeding to implement a fluoridation scheme. NHS South of England is implementing a scheme to cover parts of Southampton and South West Hampshire. Last November the Department completed a consultation on the content of regulations on the arrangements for consideration of proposals on the fluoridation of water including proposals to terminate a fluoridation scheme. Our intention is to lay the regulations in February, in time for them to come into force on 1 April 2013 when responsibility for consultations on fluoridation proposals transfers to local authorities.

There has been no change in the Government's policy on undercover policing. The then Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert), made our position clear in the Westminster Hall Adjournment Debate on 13 June 2012, Official Report, column 104WH.

We are working with the police and others to implement the recommendations of the independent HM Inspectorate of Constabulary report earlier this year into the use of long term undercover officers. As for inappropriate sexual conduct, when police officers conduct themselves in ways that breach their own professional standards then this is a matter for the police in accordance with their professional standards.

The majority of the commitments contained within the defence section of the coalition agreement are reported within the structural reform plan section of the Ministry of Defence business plan. Copies of the business plan and progress reports up to and including May 2012 can be found on the MoD website at http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/CorporatePublications/BusinessPlans/ModBusinessPlans/BusinessPlan20112015.htm and from June 2012 onwards, on the Number 10 website at http://transparency.numberl0.gov.uk/.

The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the criminal law on prostitution; the overall lead in this area lies with the Home Office. There have been a number of meetings between my officials and their counterparts in the Home Office on the subject of prostitution during the period referred to.

Home Office Ministers and officials have regular meetings with colleagues from other Departments as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings.

The Government is committed to tackling the harm and exploitation associated with prostitution. The cross-government Action Plan to end Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sets out our commitment to ensure that those involved in prostitution are protected from violence, free from exploitation and, where appropriate, given help to leave.

The relevant Home Office commitments published in the coalition agreement have been reflected in its draft structural reform plan in July 2010 and in its business plans from November 2010. The Home Office have published its progress against these priorities monthly and this information is available on the No. 10 website.

Further information on progress can be found via the following links:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/corporate-publications/structural-reform-plan/

(progress against actions from July 2010 to May 2012 (set out in the draft structural reform plan published July 2010, business plan 2011-15 published November 2010 and updated May 2011))

http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/

(progress against actions from June 2012 (set out in the business plan 2012-15 published May 2012))

Home Office Plans:

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/department-business-plans-updated-2012/

(business plan 2012-15 published May 2012)

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/department-business-plans-updated-2012/

(revisions made to the business plan 2011-15 published May 2011 reflected in the business plan 2012-15 published May 2012)

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/department-business-plans-updated/

(business plan 2011-15 published May 2011)

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/business-plans-published-2/

(business plan 2011-15 published November 2010)

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/business-plans-published-2/

(draft structural reform plan published July 2010)

As outlined in the coalition agreement, the Northern Ireland Office and the Government continue to promote peace, stability and economic prosperity in Northern Ireland, standing behind the agreements and the institutions established by them.

A Government paper examining potential mechanisms for changing the corporation tax rate in Northern Ireland was published in March 2011 and further work in this area has been carried out by a Joint Ministerial Working Group comprising Ministers from the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.

Structural reform plans detail the concrete steps this Government are taking to implement their agenda.

Information on progress can be found in a Written Ministerial Statement (dated 31 May 2012)¹ published on 11 June 2012, which provides an update on actions as of May 2012 and the live display of the 2012-13 business plans on the structural reform plan section of the No. 10 website.

HM Treasury's latest update on progress in delivering the coalition agreement commitments in its 2012-15 business plan is available on the Number 10 website². To date, over 85% of the Treasury's actions are in progress or have been completed.¹ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd /cm120611/wmstext/120611m0001.htm² http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/business-plan/8