Adult Skills Budget allocations are given to colleges, which then have the freedom and flexibilities to decide what provision to offer according to local demand from employers and learners. It would be for Bradford College to determine what courses to offer and at what level.

Bradford College’s Total Adult Skills Budget for 2015-16 will be £ 9,481,925. In 2014-15 it was £10,225,903.

Adult Skills Budget allocations are given to colleges, which then have the freedom and flexibilities to decide what provision to offer according to local demand from employers and learners. It would be for Bradford College to determine what courses to offer and at what level.

Bradford College’s Total Adult Skills Budget for 2015-16 will be £ 9,481,925. In 2014-15 it was £10,225,903.

Local Enterprise Partnerships have made good progress in implementing their Growth Deals, supported by Government.

The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership has a large portfolio of projects ready to start in 2015.

Government has allocated £627million to the Leeds City Region Growth Deal, this will leverage £640m of other funding. Over the lifetime of the Deal the Local Enterprise Partnership estimates that up to 10,000 jobs could be created and 2,000 new homes built.

Government has also agreed longer term funding for the West Yorkshire plus Transport Fund. This could deliver 30 transport schemes worth over £1billion.

The Chancellor announced the Devolution Deal with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in last week’s Budget. This will give West Yorkshire new powers over skills, business support and transport.

The 2015 parliamentary elections will be a watershed for Burma’s transition to democracy. They have the prospect to be the first legitimate elections since 1960. We have made clear to the Burmese government that we want to see inclusive and credible elections, underpinned by freedom of expression and a respect for human rights. The UK is taking steps to support the integrity of the electoral process. The Department for International Development has allocated around £25m over five years to strengthen democratic governance, including support to the elections. UK funding will support the provision of technical advice to the Burmese election commission, voter education and monitoring and observation of the electoral process.

Dialogue between the key political actors will be critical to ensuring a successful outcome to the election. We encourage all of the main parties to maintain regular discussions in advance of the vote, to ensure a smooth process and a smooth succession to whatever government emerges in the next Parliament.

The New Zealand Embassy in Burma made our Embassy in Rangoon aware of Mr Philip Blackwood’s case in 2014. They confirmed that Mr Blackwood travelled to the country on a New Zealand passport and they were providing consular assistance.

We have not been given any information indicating that Mr Blackwood is a British national and Mr Blackwood has not approached our Embassy for assistance.

There has been no review of our cooperation with Burma’s Home Ministry.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on students enrolled at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

The Table shows the proportion of students from Bradford Local Authority area and the UK overall who started a full-time first degree course at a UK Higher Education Institution in the academic years 2008/09 to 2013/14 and who declared that their parents did not hold a higher education qualification. Comparable information is not available for the earlier years.

Information for the 2014/15 academic year will become available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in January 2016.

Full-time first degree entrants domiciled in Bradford Local Authority and the UK whose parents do not hold a higher education qualification

UK Higher Education Institutions

Academic Years 2008/09 to 2013/14

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Record.

(1) Domicile refers to a student’s permanent or home address prior to entering their course.

(2) More information on how Parental HE is measured is available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_studrec&task=show_file&mnl=14051&href=a^_^PARED.html

We are deeply concerned by the ongoing violence and political unrest in Bangladesh. We continue to call on all Bangladesh’s political parties to take the confidence-building measures necessary to stop the violence and ensure an inclusive and participatory political process.

I raised my concerns about the violence and shrinking of democratic space in Bangladesh with Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, the Bangladesh Parliament Speaker, during her visit to the UK on 9 March. I also raised these concerns, not least the reported office confinement of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Leader Khaleda Zia, when I met the Bangladesh Law Minister on 20 January 2015. I made a public statement reiterating these messages on 5 March. We are also encouraging the UN and others in the international community to play an active role.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) publishes young participation rates by Parliamentary Constituency. These show the proportion of young people in each parliamentary constituency who entered higher education by the age of 19, for each cohort of 18 year olds between 1998 and 2011. These can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/yp/trendsyp/pment/

The statistics will be updated to include the 2012 cohort of 18 year olds in the Summer.

Whilst there is no officially agreed number of the Rohingya population, most international agencies estimate that there is up to 500,000 Rohingya people in Bangladesh.

DFID provides core contributions to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which manages the official camps for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as well as through other partners such as the European Commission. This support includes providing shelter, access to water and sanitation, vocational training and food supplies to malnourished refugees.

Claimants are only asked to meet reasonable requirements in order to move off benefits and into work. Where claimants have good reason to miss an appointment, such as probationary commitments, then a sanction will not apply.

Amazingly, data on start-ups is not available for years before 2008. The estimated number of business start-ups in a) the Bradford East constituency and b) Bradford local authority from 2008 and 2014 are shown in the table below.

Source: BankSearch: number of new business bank accounts opened. All figures rounded to the nearest 10.

Estimates of the number of income tax payers by borough, district or unitary authority, and Parliamentary Constituency are published in tables 3.14 and 3.15 of HMRC’s Personal Incomes Statistics’

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/258887/tables3-11_3-15a.pdf

These tables contain the following estimates of the number of taxpayers in Bradford East and Bradford for financial years 2009/10 and 2012/13. Figures are to the nearest thousand:

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

The Government fully appreciates the efforts and the often very dangerous conditions experienced by those who worked in munitions factories producing vital equipment for the armed forces that helped contribute to winning the Second World War.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has given careful consideration to possible formal recognition of the enormous contribution made by all those who manufactured munitions during the War. Given the disruption to employment in the War years and the time elapsed since, it would unfortunately be very difficult to identify all those involved. Many of companies no longer exist and the consequent lack of records for those they employed means that there would be difficulties in verifying any entitlement. It was concluded that it would not be practical to find a way to recognise the contributions of individual workers. However we are aware that an All Party Parliamentary Group on Recognition for Munitions Workers has been set up to explore ways to recognise the collective efforts of those who worked in munitions factories and we are open to working with them on any recommendations they bring forward.

The Department does not hold information on when and where individual wind turbines are installed.

The Department has reported that the provisional number of households in receipt of ECO measures in Bradford East constituency was 5,414, up to 30th September 2014 (the second highest number of households in receipt of ECO measures in all Parliamentary constituencies in Great Britain). In Bradford Local Authority there were 15,935 households in receipt of ECO measures, up to 30th September 2014.

The statistics referred to can be found in Tables 1.11e and 1.11d at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/green-deal-energy-company-obligation-eco-and-insulation-levels-in-great-britain-quarterly-report-to-september-2014

The next quarterly release covering the period up to the end of December 2014 will be published on 19^th March 2015.

The Department has reported that there were 1,692 Green Deal Assessments in Bradford East constituency up to 30th September 2014. There were also eleven Green Deal Cashback vouchers and Green Deal Home Improvement Fund vouchers paid in Bradford East constituency up to 30th September 2014.

In Bradford Local Authority there were 5,048 Green Deal Assessments, 72 Green Deal Cashback vouchers paid and 33 Green Deal Home Improvement Fund vouchers paid up to 30th September 2014.

The statistics referred to can be found in the accompanying tables here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/green-deal-energy-company-obligation-eco-and-insulation-levels-in-great-britain-quarterly-report-to-september-2014

Currently, the Department has not published any geographic breakdowns below region on Green Deal Finance Plans. These will be included in the next quarterly release planned for publication on 19^th March 2015 covering the period up to the end of December 2014.

High quality, compassionate care for the most vulnerable in society can only be delivered by a well-trained, motivated and appropriately remunerated workforce. The Government recognises that pay can be a particular concern for those with the responsibility for delivering those services.

Care providers are legally obliged to pay their workers at least the national minimum wage - relevant time spent travelling between care appointments should be treated as working time for national minimum wage purposes in accordance with HM Revenue and Custom (HMRC) guidance. This is the least that care workers deserve and should expect.

Responsibility for enforcement of the national minimum wage rests with HMRC rather than local authorities. However, the Care Act places duties on local authorities to have regard to fostering an effective workforce able to deliver high quality services.

The Government has recently published statutory guidance to support the implementation of the Care Act that describes how local authorities must meet these new duties when commissioning, which directs that local authorities should have evidence that care providers they contract with are paying at least the national minimum wage, including factoring into those calculations any time spent travelling between care appointments and that those providers found to be recently in breach of the law, should be excluded from the contract tendering process.

The Government has also worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association to co-produce a set of commissioning standards that were launched in October 2014. These standards amplify the good practice set out in the statutory guidance in regards to fostering an effective workforce.