The information is not available in the format requested.

On 29 January the Government announced a £17.2m expansion of the Growth Deal with the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership. We understand the LEP intends to use around £1.85m of that additional funding to support transport interventions to support growth. This is in addition to the £179.4m Local Growth Fund support that we allocated to local transport improvements in last July’s Growth Deal with the LEP, supporting delivery of 16 transport projects across Lancashire, including the Burnley to Pendle Growth Corridor.

This funding is in addition to £49.9m integrated transport block allocated to the 3 Lancashire transport authorities (Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire County Council) since the 2010 Spending Review, together with £98.6m for highways maintenance. In addition, we have announced a further £55.2m integrated transport block funding and £136.8m highways maintenance funding for these authorities covering the period 2015/16 to 2020/21. We have also given the go ahead to two local major schemes in Lancashire, the Heysham Link Road and Pennine Reach, both of which are under construction and have been supported by over £142 million of Government funding. A further £5.7 million local pinch point funding is addressing local congestion hotspots in Blackpool, Blackburn and on the A582 near Preston.

The Government launched the Roads Investment Strategy on 1 December 2014. It contains firm proposals to deliver the A585 Windy Harbour to Skippool Bypass, which will tackle congestion on the main route to Fleetwood, as well as a new Junction 2 on the M55, to support links between Lancashire’s Enterprise Zone sites at Samlesbury and Warton as well as support future housing growth in Preston.

The Highways Agency is due to shortly complete over £14.3 million pinch point fund investment to relieve traffic congestion at four hotspots in Lancashire on the A585 - Windy Harbour Junction and Bourne Way to West Drive, M6 junction 32 and M55 junction 1, and M65 junction 5.

The Government and Lancashire County Council are also investing heavily in improvement of the rail network in Lancashire, including the electrification of lines between Blackpool, Preston and Manchester, the re-opening of the Todmorden Curve, a new station at Buckshaw Parkway and a commitment for the new franchises for Northern and TransPennine Express to deliver new trains, more capacity and replace Pacers.

We are reforming the further education (FE) and skills system so that it is increasingly responsive to local needs, particularly focused on Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), and driven by the needs of local growth opportunities. LEPs are responsible for identifying local skills priorities working in partnership with key players across their local economies. Growth Deals enable them to align investment in skills capital to their key growth priorities. For example, Nelson and Colne College has successfully has secured investment of £1.4m for an Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Centre. Since December 2011 Government funding has also supported capital projects at the FE Colleges of Accrington and Rossendale, Blackburn, and Burnley. Greater devolution has enabled a Lancashire LEP scheme to support 4,000 employees aged 19 and over in small and medium-sized businesses to develop the skills that will give those businesses the confidence to grow. In addition, 610 adults started apprenticeships in Pendle in 2013/14 and 7,780 in Lancashire as a whole. 6,150 adults participated in FE and Leaning in 2013/14 in Pendle and 74,840 in Lancashire.

The table below provides the number of part time equivalent funded early education places, in Lancashire, from 2005 to 2014:

Source: Early Years Census (EYC), School Census (SC), and School Level Annual School Census (SLASC). Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

Prior to 2010, the number of part-time places filled was derived by counting children taking up: 12.5 hours per week as one place; 10 hours per week as 0.8 places; 7.5 hours per week as 0.6 places; 5 hours per week as 0.4 places; and 2.5 hours per week as 0.2 places. A child taking up a place at a maintained nursery or primary school was counted as one part-time funded place. Since 2011, a part-time equivalent place has been equivalent to 15 hours. The part time equivalent places filled is derived from the number of funded places filled according to the amount of free entitlement a child receives. A child who holds a place at a maintained nursery or primary school is counted as one part time equivalent funded place.

The latest statistics can be found online at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/provision-for-children-under-5-years-of-age-january-2014

Employers and wider society both benefit from recruiting more disabled people. Disability Confident is a campaign to help employers discover for themselves the talents and value that disabled people bring to business.

Launched in July 2013 by the Prime Minister, supported by business leaders and disability employment organisations, Disability Confident sets out the business case for those employers unsure about the benefits of employing disabled people. It overcomes the fear factor for those employers worried about the logistics or afraid of saying the wrong thing, and emphasises the support available for employers. It highlights the great work that employers are already doing and encourages others to join in.

Disability Confident is a partnership approach – a business-to-business dialogue. Partners learn from each other about how to become disability confident, with support from Government and disability organisations.

In the first year of the Disability Confident campaign we held seven regional events across the UK, reaching more than 1,100 employers, including a well-attended event in Manchester.

In July 2014 we launched a toolkit for MPs – so they can bring together employers and disabled people in their own constituencies.

We look forward to employers throughout Lancashire attending these local events, learning from and supporting each other, and becoming more Disability Confident.

All forms of hate crime are deplorable and it’s important that victims are protected and have the confidence to come forward. The Government is driving forward work to tackle hostility and hate crime. We have toughened up sentencing and are working closely with the police and other agencies to increase reporting, improve support and prevent these terrible crimes happening in the first place.

We continue to work with our voluntary sector partners to raise awareness of hate crime at local and national events, and explore opportunities to promote the use of the True Vision web tool further, including through targeted social media advertising with direct messages to specific groups.

The Government’s action plan on hate crime, published in 2012, and progress report, published in May 2014, outline actions currently being taken by the government to tackle hate crime, as well as the many actions which have already been completed.

The Home Office does not hold the requested information. The Home Office receives data on hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales for the five centrally monitored strands (race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity) but these data cannot be broken down by religion of the victim.

Further information on hate crimes, including force level figures, can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crimes-england-and-wales-2013-to-2014

The levels of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting in a) Pendle Borough Council and b) Lancashire County Council in those years is set out in the table below:

Data is not collected centrally on income earned from parking charges by the National Health Service.

Figures on the number of staff dedicated to dealing with domestic violence are not centrally held by the Home Office.

However, the Home Office does collect statistics on the number of police workers within the Child/Sex/Domestic/Missing function. Figures are only available at force level and cannot be broken down further. Data for 2015 have not yet been collected centrally and will not be available until the autumn.

The table provided shows the number of full-time equivalent police workers, by worker type, within the Child/Sex/Domestic/Missing function for Lancashire Constabulary, as at 31 March 2013 to 31 March 2014.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced at the 2014 Autumn Statement an extra £650 million of support for 2015-16 business rate bills, bringing the total support of 2013 and 2014 Autumn Statement polices to £1.4 billion. This help includes:

• doubling small business rate relief for a further year. In England, this means an estimated 400,000 properties will pay no rates at all, while a further 200,000 properties will benefit from tapered relief;
• a 2% cap on the increase of the small business rates multiplier. This is a continuation of the 2% cap introduced in 2014-15 as part of Autumn Statement 2013 measures;
• increasing the temporary discount for shops, pubs and restaurants with rateable values below £50,000 from £1,000 to £1,500 for 2015-16, benefitting an estimated 200,000 properties in England; and
• extending the existing transitional relief scheme for two years for properties with a rateable value up to and including £50,000.

These measures are in addition to previous Autumn Statement measures that continue into 2015-16, including:

• a 50 per cent discount for 18 months to new occupants of vacant shops;
• allowing businesses to keep their small business rate relief for a year where they take on an additional property;
• business rates relief for empty new builds; and
• allowing businesses to pay their business rate bills over 12 months, in order to assist with their cash flow.

Central Government also now funds 50% of any additional local discounts granted.

The Department does not collect data on a constituency basis, but Pendle constituency lies entirely within the boundary of Pendle Borough Council. Table 1 (attached) shows the estimated number of properties in 2015-16 within the boundary of Pendle Borough Council that benefit from business rates measures extended in this year’s Autumn Statement. Table 2 (attached) presents the same information for properties within Lancashire County Council.

Grimeford Lane will be re-opened by the end of week commencing 16 March.

The dates of closure for the other roads at present are in accordance with the following programme:

- Chorley Road – (skew bridge) full closure from 26 January – 19 June 2015

- Rawlinson Lane – full closure from 5 January – 22 May 2015

- Station Road, Blackrod – full closure from 2 February – 15 May 2015.

Network Rail took the decision to close the roads simultaneously in order to coordinate with the railway closures. These kinds of closures are planned up to two years in advance. In this area Network Rail had five bridges to rebuild and two possession slots; the intention was to split the bridge rebuilding over two years, doing two in 2014 and three in 2015. Due to environmental impacts identified at Grimeford Lane last year that particular bridge was rescheduled from the original plan to be completed this year.

This information is not collected centrally.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Grimeford Lane will be re-opened by the end of week commencing 16 March.

The dates of closure for the other roads at present are in accordance with the following programme:

- Chorley Road – (skew bridge) full closure from 26 January – 19 June 2015

- Rawlinson Lane – full closure from 5 January – 22 May 2015

- Station Road, Blackrod – full closure from 2 February – 15 May 2015.

Network Rail had a meeting with the Rt Hon Member for Chorley (Lindsay Hoyle MP) in winter 2013/14 and met with the Hon Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling MP) in February 2014 to give an overview of the bridge and tunnel works required in 2014/15. Network Rail held meetings with all tiers of local government, including town councillors, borough councillors and county councillors.

Both by successive governments and in law it has been concluded that businesses do not have an entitlement to compensation from such work. As Network Rail receives a significant amount of public funding and is responsible for over 30,000 structures it is not in a position to provide compensation for each disruption.