Work Coaches assess claimants’ digital capability at their initial work search interview and, where help is needed, they can refer claimants for Assisted Digital and Digital Inclusion Support. These services are offered as part of the Universal Support package which provides additional assistance to build claimants’ confidence and competence with IT, enabling them to manage their Universal Credit account online, as well as accessing on-line job search facilities and training to comply with their Claimant Commitment.

Our research shows that, in June 2016, 99.7 per cent of submissions of information to support claims and 90.0 per cent of reported changes of circumstances were completed by claimants using the UC full service online system.

All jobcentres across the country have Wi-Fi and computers available for claimants to access the internet. Claimants who are unable to manage their claim online can receive telephone and face to face support.

Work Coaches assess claimants’ digital capability at their initial work search interview and, where help is needed, they can refer claimants for Assisted Digital and Digital Inclusion Support. These services are offered as part of the Universal Support package which provides additional assistance to build claimants’ confidence and competence with IT, enabling them to manage their Universal Credit account online, as well as accessing on-line job search facilities and training to comply with their Claimant Commitment.

Our research shows that, in June 2016, 99.7 per cent of submissions of information to support claims and 90.0 per cent of reported changes of circumstances were completed by claimants using the UC full service online system.

All jobcentres across the country have Wi-Fi and computers available for claimants to access the internet. Claimants who are unable to manage their claim online can receive telephone and face to face support.

Work Coaches assess claimants’ digital capability at their initial work search interview and, where help is needed, they can refer claimants for Assisted Digital and Digital Inclusion Support. These services are offered as part of the Universal Support package which provides additional assistance to build claimants’ confidence and competence with IT, enabling them to manage their Universal Credit account online, as well as accessing on-line job search facilities and training to comply with their Claimant Commitment.

Our research shows that, in June 2016, 99.7 per cent of submissions of information to support claims and 90.0 per cent of reported changes of circumstances were completed by claimants using the UC full service online system.

All jobcentres across the country have Wi-Fi and computers available for claimants to access the internet. Claimants who are unable to manage their claim online can receive telephone and face to face support.

Work Coaches assess claimants’ digital capability at their initial work search interview and, where help is needed, they can refer claimants for Assisted Digital and Digital Inclusion Support. These services are offered as part of the Universal Support package which provides additional assistance to build claimants’ confidence and competence with IT, enabling them to manage their Universal Credit account online, as well as accessing on-line job search facilities and training to comply with their Claimant Commitment.

Our research shows that, in June 2016, 99.7 per cent of submissions of information to support claims and 90.0 per cent of reported changes of circumstances were completed by claimants using the UC full service online system.

All jobcentres across the country have Wi-Fi and computers available for claimants to access the internet. Claimants who are unable to manage their claim online can receive telephone and face to face support.

The Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (SCIPSA) is not responsible for creating HR policies for MPs’ staff. Its remit is to consider candidates proposed by the Speaker for the posts of Chair and members of the Authority, following fair and open competition, and to approve IPSA's annual estimate of resources.

MPs are the legal employers of their staff. It is for them to use their discretion to provide their staff with caring leave. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority provides template contracts for MPs to use with their staff. These allow for up to five days at full pay for time off work to deal with unforeseen circumstances and emergencies involving a dependant.

Installation of traffic lights is the responsibility of the local traffic authority. They do not have to obtain approval to do so from the Department.

Cumbria County Council sought advice from the Department in January 2016 about placing traffic signals on the B5345 at Meadow View, but this did not constitute an application for approval.

Legislation restricts the use of traffic lights to places where there is conflict, either between vehicles or vehicles and pedestrians. This means junctions, places where the headroom or width of the road is permanently restricted, or crossing places. The Department’s view was that this site did not fall within any of these circumstances and Cumbria County Council was advised accordingly.

Parliamentary question 54886 was answered on 08 December 2016.

The replacement of the buildings at Whitehaven Academy has previously been considered through capital bids to the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP), which were unsuccessful.

The £4.4 billion PSBP programme is intended to replace or refurbish those school blocks in the worst condition across the country. By focusing on those individual buildings in the worst condition, we are targeting limited funding in the most effective way possible and securing best value for money for the taxpayer.

DfE officials visited the school in April and October 2016 to help identify priority condition issues and gave advice to the Bright Tribe Trust as to how they should focus investment using funding from the annual school condition allocation that the Bright Tribe Trust receives.

The table below gives the top 20 A roads with the highest number of fatal accidents in Great Britain for 2015. The fatal accident rate per 100 miles of route length has also been provided as this allows the length of road to be taken into account when comparing the safety performance of the roads.

Given the relatively small number of accidents on each road, the total number of fatal accidents could vary significantly between years. Accident numbers will vary between roads based on a number of factors, including: traffic volume and different types of vehicle, as well as the characteristic of the road itself.

Top 20 A roads with the highest number of fatal accidents in 2015, Great Britain.

1 excludes A(M) sections of road

2 Route length includes slip roads and covers the length of the road rather than length of individual carriageways.

The attached document (Appendix 1) provides the number of fatal accidents and fatal accident rates per 100 miles of route for each of the A roads where a fatal accident was recorded in 2015.

Data for 2016 is currently unavailable. The statistics will be available after publication in June 2017.

The A595 is some 85 miles in length of which Highways England is responsible for the 19 mile section between Chapel Brow and Calder Bridge and the remainder is the responsibility of Cumbria County Council. Highways England keeps the safety performance of all its roads under continuous review and has delivered safety improvements at nine locations on the A595 between January 2011 and October 2016. These include improvements to pedestrian facilities, road markings, road signs, the introduction of traffic signals and a reduction in the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph between Mirehouse and Bigrigg. The number of recorded personal injury accidents along this section in 2015 was significantly lower than in previous years.

The Chancellor will visit constituencies across the UK in due course. All his visits are recorded in the transparency data published on gov.uk.

We do not hold this information. Ofsted inspectors make graded judgements on the effectiveness of leadership and management; the quality of teaching, learning and assessment; pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare; and pupils’ outcomes.

In making these judgements, inspectors will evaluate the experience of particular individuals and groups, including those with medical needs, and this will inform the overall judgment of the school. These evaluations may not always be visible in the report, as Ofsted inspectors will be careful not to identify individual pupils.

We know how important it is that children with medical conditions are supported to enjoy a full education. That is why in 2014 we introduced a new duty to require governing bodies to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions and have provided statutory guidance outlining schools’ responsibilities in this area.

We continue to work with organisations with experience in supporting children with medical conditions to help raise awareness of the duty.

Government does not allocate funding directly to parish councils. The government acted quickly to allocate funding to unitary and upper tier local authorities to enable them to tailor and pass on support to their communities, households and businesses to help them recover from the impacts of the floods in 2015. It was for the upper tier authorities to decide how most effectively to work with, and disburse funds to, the district and parish councils in their area.

There are no current plans to do so.

Since September 2014, maintained primary schools in England must teach a modern or ancient foreign language to pupils at Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 11). Maintained secondary schools must teach a modern foreign language to pupils at Key Stage 3

(ages 11 to 14). Schools can choose which languages to teach.

The Government is committed to increasing the proportion of the population gaining language qualifications at Key Stages 4 and 5, including Japanese. As a result of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), the number of students in state-funded mainstream schools studying a language at GCSE has increased from 40% in 2010 to 49% in 2016.

In August we confirmed that EBacc entry would become a headline measure in school performance tables from this year, alongside EBacc achievement. This will encourage schools to enter more pupils for the EBacc and for languages in future, which should increase the pool of potential people studying languages at A level and beyond.

The Government also supports the efforts of the Japan Foundation to help schools teach Japanese. The Japan Foundation encourages and offers support to schools by providing teacher training, resources and financial assistance of up to £3,000 for schools wanting to develop Japanese teaching.

​I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Ochil and South Perthshire of 16 November (written PQ 52754).

Details of all FCO Ministers' external meetings are published on the gov.uk website on a quarterly basis.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 16 November 2016 to the Question 52723.

Details of Ministerial meetings will be published in the Department’s Quarterly Transparency Returns, which will be made publicly available on GOV.UK.

By 16 November, in addition to claims which the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) cannot pay due to legal reasons such as probate, all but 6 claimants had received a payment, and of those 6 none are in Cumbria or the Copeland constituency. This figure is an increase of 1 compared to the previously reported figure because the agency is completing routine final checks on nil value claims.

The RPA said it would investigate BPS 2015 claims where there is a discrepancy between the claim information and that held on the Rural Payments Service through a planned reconciliation process. This started after the BPS 2016 application window and looked at an initial stock of 13,607 claims for England. The agency continues to review new queries and has identified 1,200 claims relating to common land, of these 386 are in Cumbria and 73 are in the Copeland constituency.

The Government finalised the UK’s application to the EU Solidarity Fund on 22 September 2016. The Government has been in regular contact with the European Commission at working level, and we await their decision on the application.

My Department has paid out £57,237,780 to help local communities recover from Storms Desmond and Eva.

A breakdown of this sum will be provided to the Library of the House shortly.

We have also paid out £8.6 million predominantly match-funding to flood relief charities and community foundations.

Government has paid out over £240 million to help repair infrastructure damaged as a result of Storms Desmond and Eva.