The Government provides substantial financial help through disabled students’ allowances (DSAs) for English-domiciled students with a disability or long-term health condition, including specific learning difficulties. DSAs are provided in respect of the extra costs a student may incur as a direct result of their

disability, so as to enable them to participate in higher education on an equal basis to their peers. DSAs cover a range of support, including assistive software.

In England, before receiving any support through DSA, eligible students are required to attend a DSA study needs assessment with an independent assessor who will consider and recommend any additional equipment and support that the student might need to enable them to study on their course. Students with specific learning difficulties may receive funding for appropriate software where they have an additional need for this in comparison with students on the same course.

I have no plans to estimate how many of the over 100,000,000 apps now available are aimed at children and feature in-app purchasing. Rather DCMS efforts are focused on discussion with industry about the steps they should be taking to ensure that parents are properly informed about in-app purchasing and have easy access to the tools to block it where they choose to do so.

My Department is committed to supporting the Government's ICT plans and is adopting the relevant key components of the common ICT infrastructure that includes the greater use of open source, as laid out in the April 2012 Cabinet Office policy document.

www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/All_About_Open_Source_v2_0.pdf

In line with this, we are taking forward our applications roadmap and where appropriate we will recommend the use of open source products to replace our existing applications.

The new gov.uk website which DCLG uses is built on open source software. The single domain is built using ruby on rails

www.rubyonrails.org/

and the micro sites that sit beneath the main platform are based on Wordpress content management.

www.wordpress.org

Further information can be found at the following link:

http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/10/12/coding-in-the-open/

In my Department, we also utilise several free system administrator tools, including spice works and wall watcher.

In my department's publication “50 Ways to Save”, we have encouraged the use of open source software as a cost effective option for local authorities.

In November 2012, the Government published the ‘Building Information Modelling—Industrial Strategy’ which outlines a number of growth opportunities generated from the success of the Government's programme

to embed the use of Building Information Management (BIM) in all centrally procured public construction projects by 2016. The strategy underlines the need to put in place a clear approach to exploiting the UK's expertise on BIM to develop our international construction competitiveness. The strategy identifies ICT technology development and service provision as BIM-related opportunities for UK industry. BIS officials are working closely with the BIM Task Group and the BIM Technology Alliance to on how best to assist with new market opportunities; in liaison with UKTI—which sees BIM as a central part of the UK sustainable construction offer.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA)—and its successor body the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)—work closely with banks to ensure that their systems are operating correctly, to resolve any difficulties and to minimise disruption for customers. The FSA is working with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBSG) following the problems experienced last week.

In a programme as complex as universal credit, which includes new IT developments and changes to existing IT assets, both agile and waterfall methods may be appropriate at different times. As examples, initial development used agile techniques while, in its final stages of testing for the pathfinder from April 2013, the programme is using the waterfall approach—a standard DWP testing methodology.

Apprenticeships are central to our skills ambition. Starts on the IT, Software, Web and Telecoms professional apprenticeship have risen year on year since 2007/08. In 2010/11, 11,780 individuals commenced the apprenticeship, with a further 7,470 embarking on an IT user qualification. The framework can include key software capabilities, with the advanced apprenticeship specifically targeting software and web development.

Through the UK Commission for Education and Skills, BIS has supported a number of industry initiatives aiming to improve the pipeline of talent into IT and computing.

This includes funding to help establish key industry initiatives such as the Information Technology Management for Business degree (ITMB), the E-skills professional placement, development of fit for purpose apprentice frameworks, and the Computing for Girls initiative.

In addition significant funding has been made available to support projects such as Informed Choices which includes an ambition to develop a stimulating new IT curriculum for students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to develop both higher education and vocational pathways.

The training software produced by BRE first went live on 27 May 2012. Subsequent updates have been released throughout the year. The version of the software released on 5 December 2012 was approved by DECC for the creation of live Green Deal occupancy assessments.

All Green Deal assessment software is tested by our technical contractors against the standard calculation methodology before being approved for live use. Two software tools have been approved to date and others are still undergoing testing. The raw outputs of the testing process are not available in a format suitable for easy publication. However, I can confirm that one of the above tools achieved entirely accurate results for all test cases, and the other achieved results with an average deviation of less than 1%.

DECC officials continue to work closely with software developers and our contractors following the release of software to ensure the early identification of any enhancements required and their swift implementation.

We are unable to provide this level of detail due to cost and complexity of the work involved.

The universal credit programme has to date used a mix of agile and waterfall software development where it has been appropriate to do so.

As the IT delivery requires the development of new systems and re-use of some existing IT assets, the programme intends to continue to use methodologies which are fit for purpose.

Green Deal assessment software is being developed by a number of commercial software vendors. Once the market is fully developed, we expect there to be a choice of different software tools available for assessors, just as is the case now with EPCs. These tools are not commissioned by Government, but to ensure accuracy and consumer protection they must be approved as adhering to the standard calculation methodology developed by the Government's contractors,

BRE, who are responsible for the technical standards which underpin building assessment processes of this sort.

Government commissioned BRE to produce a limited, training version of a software tool, to ensure that the training of Green Deal advisers could begin in good time. This has been available free since May this year. In the summer, in discussion with the sector, we became aware that third-party software was still some way off full development and validation, so we asked BRE to upgrade the software they had developed for assessor training so that it could be used for real assessments to avoid any gap developing in the market.

I am pleased to say that the first commercial assessment software was launched, following its approval against the BRE standard. Further commercial software tools are being tested and are expected to be approved shortly. We expect to be in a position in the spring to withdraw the BRE occupancy assessment software from the market, making it available for training purposes only.

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings and discussions with a wide variety of stakeholders as part 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 and discussions.

Access to work assessments carried out by Access to Work external assessment partners should always include checks and confirmation with an employer of compatibility where IT solutions are being considered.

AtW Guidance to external assessment partners states that they must address issues of compatibility with employers IT systems.

There will be occasions where bespoke systems will require scripting to ensure accessibility by visually impaired or blind customers. This process can take some time to complete and in such cases Access to Work will always provide interim solutions such as a support worker where this is appropriate.

All AtW partners are required to undertake continuous professional development and as part of this keep up to date with changes and availability of new IT solutions for all disabled people.

Open source software can deliver significant savings, as indicated by evidence from both the public and private sectors, in the UK and overseas. However it's not always the best solution, and as such the scenario of replacing all software has not been costed.

There are already clear guidelines that all civil servants follow relating to the use of Government computers for non-business purposes.

Quantitative research undertaken by HMRC in November 2011, with a sample size of 711 employers, suggested that 23% of employers do not currently use a payroll agent or commercial software for PAYE. Most of those employers said they used HMRC's free products.

Total software costs have not yet been estimated. Software developers will need to implement changes in their products, and these costs may be passed on to employers via increased software charges. HMRC is working closely with software developers on the implementation of RTI but, for commercial reasons, many developers are not prepared to disclose their development costs or upgrade charges. Some employers are also expected to move to using software for the first time.

Employers with nine or fewer employees will have the option to use HMRCs free Basic PAYE Tools.

Indicative costs for those purchasing commercial software for the first time are currently in the region of £200 to £300 but some software developers provide payroll packages free of charge for employers with nine or fewer employees and other packages are available from less than £70.