The UK has spent £39 million since 2002 supporting the reform on Nigeria’s power system. Of this around £7 million has been spent directly on support to privatisation and around £14 million on market and regulatory reform.

Support has been provided through two phases of the Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF) programme. The first phase ran from 2007 to the end of 2011 (and spent £15.5 million on the power sector, of which £4 million was on privatisation). The second phase started at the end of 2011 and runs to December 2016 (and has spent £23.5 million on the power sector to date, £3 million on privatisation). DFID support has helped more than double the power supply.

This is a devolved matter but in England and Wales more than 70 public, private and voluntary sector organisations now support activity under the digital inclusion charter, working together to help individuals, small businesses and charities to realise the benefits of being online. Later today the Government will launch the Digital Friends initiative that will call on civil servants to go out into their communities and teach digital skills to friends, family, neighbours, or colleagues who are offline.

I know the whole House will wish to join me in offering our deepest condolences to the families and friends of all those killed in yesterday’s Airbus crash in France. It is heartbreaking to hear about the schoolchildren, the babies and the families whose lives have been brought to an end. As the Foreign Secretary has said, it is very likely that some British nationals were involved. At this stage, three British nationals have been identified as having been on the flight. The Foreign Office is working urgently to establish whether any further British nationals were among those on board. We are providing consular assistance and will give further information as it becomes available. Our ambassador to France is at the crash site today. I spoke to Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Rajoy last night and made it clear that the UK is ready to offer any assistance we can. I expect to speak to President Hollande later today.

This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others, and in addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

What has happened on my watch is that 174,000 more people are employed in Scotland. Zero-hours contracts account for one in 50 jobs, and it is this Government who have outlawed exclusivity in zero-hours contracts—after the 13 years of inaction from the Labour party. In the hon. Lady’s own constituency, the claimant count has fallen by 32% since the election. That is evidence that our economic plan is working in Scotland, as it is throughout the rest of the United Kingdom.

As I said, this is a devolved matter. The Scottish Government published their digital participation strategy in April 2014, led by the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop MSP, and supported by a ministerial advisory group.

I repeat that since 2010 there has been an increase in the number of visa applications from overseas students. It is difficult to say what the drivers are for our seeing more students from some countries and fewer from others. For example, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of students from China, which indicates that it is not the reforms that are stopping people from coming.

The number of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) decisions to apply a sanction by Jobcentre Plus office is published at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm

Information requested on the average length of sanctions is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Section 39 of the Act provides for a review of the operation of the regulatory regime governing third parties at the 2015 General Election.

The Government announced on 28 January 2015 that Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbots will conduct this review.

First, on prosecutions for tax evasion, the figures are that they have gone up fivefold under this Government since 2010—2,650 cases, leading to hundreds of years of imprisonment, taken as a whole. That is what has happened, but there is an important point here, which is that, in our country, the tax collection agency, HMRC, is independent of Government and independent of Ministers, and it has to raise the taxes, carry out the investigations and order

the prosecutions. It is very important in a free country that Ministers are not given the details of who is being investigated and what the prosecutions are. This does not happen in other countries, and we have a word for it: it is called corruption, but it seems to be the path suggested by the Labour party.

The introduction of online registration makes registering to vote quicker, simpler and more convenient than ever before. Over 1 million applications to register to vote have been made by young people.

On 4 February the Government announced that a number of national organisations will receive funding to promote voter registration. The organisations include the British Youth Council and UK Youth. We will also fund student organisations including the NUS.

In addition we have supported data sharing initiatives whereby universities share directly with Electoral Registration Officers the details of students who can then be contacted individually.

As previously replied and reiterated in the Debate on the matter, the Department doesn’t make an estimate of the amount of benefit that would have been withheld as a result of benefit sanctions.

As previously replied and reiterated in the Debate on the matter, the Department does not estimate the amount of benefit withheld as a result of benefit sanctions.

There has been healthy interest in the Corporate Covenant from large corporations to small businesses, and Scotland is no exception. To date, 12 organisations in Scotland have signed the Corporate Covenant, and many more have expressed an interest in doing so. In addition, many national organisations have signed up and would of course also have sites/branches in Scotland.

I apologise: I missed the question. What I do know, however, is that no one has any limits, or targets, or whatever it may be, for benefits or for sanctions. There are no targets for sanctions, and there will be no numbers.

The Scottish Government is participating in the "Civil Service Reserves 1% Challenge" which seeks to raise awareness amongst civil servants of the opportunities in the Reserves and encourage more to join.

The Insolvency Service first received information that a national logistics firm was at risk via email on 9 December and passed this to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on 10 December. Requests for the company name were rejected as the information was commercially sensitive. On the basis of the available information, officials worked with the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus to be ready to provide support should a failure actually materialise.

It is not uncommon for BIS to receive commercially sensitive information about companies or facilities at risk in strict confidence, though not all of these result in a company or site closure or significant job losses. BIS treats any such information with the utmost discretion in order to avoid precipitating a failure, which we would all wish to avoid.

Shale gas exploitation has the potential to benefit rural communities. It will create jobs in the industry and supply chain. Communities will also benefit locally from a share of the revenues and from additional business rates. The Department of Energy and Climate Change lead on the economic benefits of shale gas. Any potential impacts, including those on the local environment, are fully considered through the rigorous permitting and planning processes.

The information is in the tables below.

Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract and Local Authority subsidy returns.

Notes:

1. Benefit expenditure is available for financial years only.

2. Housing Benefit expenditure by Parliamentary Constituency is not available prior to 2011/12.

3. Figures at 2014/15 prices are deflated using GDP deflators published following the 2014 Autumn Statement at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/383988/GDP_Deflators_Autumn_Statement_December_2014_update.xls

4. Information for the city of Glasgow and Scotland is available in the “Benefit Expenditure by Local Authority from 2000/01 to 2013/14” tables at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2014

Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract

Notes:

1. All amounts in this table have been rounded to the nearest £10

2. Housing Benefit information by Parliamentary Constituency is not available prior to 2011.

3. Figures at 2014/15 prices are deflated using GDP deflators published following the 2014 Autumn Statement and published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/383988/GDP_Deflators_Autumn_Statement_December_2014_update.xls