Sex and relationship education must be taught in all maintained secondary schools; we believe that most secondary academies and many primary schools also teach it. Any school teaching SRE must have regard to the Secretary of State’s “Sex and Relationship Education Guidance”. The guidance makes it clear that all sex and relationship education should be age-appropriate, and that schools should ensure that young people develop positive values and a moral framework that will guide their decisions, judgments and behaviour.

There are 13 schools in Norfolk registered to participate in the Global Learning Programme, these are:

Archbishop Sancroft CofE High School
Corpusty Primary School
Duchy of Lancaster Methwold CofE Primary School
Howard Junior School
Lakenham Primary School
Long Stratton High School
Sandringham & West Newton CE Primary School
Springwood High School
St Augustines Catholic Primary School
The Iceni Academy
The James Bradfield Church of England Community Primary School
The Norman CofE Primary School
Tivetshall Primary School

However none are currently Global Learning Programme Expert Centres.

The Global Learning Programme in England aims to reach 10,500 schools by 2017, the following Schools in Norfolk have registered.

The Global Learning Programme (GLP) is reviewed on an annual basis and the reports are published on the development tracker website. (http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/projects/GB-1-201469/documents/).

To date 2,643 schools have registered for the Global Learning Programme in the UK.

I am pleased to confirm that the Department for Education announced new arrangements to allow schools to purchase automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at a competitive price on 26 November 2014. They are the result of a unique agreement between the Department for Education and the Department of Health, enabling NHS Supply Chain to purchase devices in batches from approved framework suppliers via a reverse auction process. The discount achieved on each batch is then passed on to schools through a reduced unit price.

To help schools in considering whether to purchase a defibrillator, the Department for Education has also published advice on installing and maintaining AEDs on school premises. This has been developed drawing on the expertise of NHS ambulance services and voluntary and community sector organisations.

By encouraging schools across the country to acquire these potentially life-saving devices, the Department hopes to make a vital contribution to ensuring that pupils and school staff who suffer cardiac arrests whilst at school have the best possible chance of survival. I hope that as many schools as possible will take advantage of the new arrangements.

The Department does not collect data on pay and employment conditions for supply teachers employed by agencies as these fall within private commercial arrangements.

From 2015 the Government-funded Talented Leaders programme will match up to 100 excellent leaders with challenging schools, including in Norfolk. We also fund the charity Future Leaders to develop the leadership skills of aspirant head teachers.

Recent research shows that young carers have significantly lower educational attainment at GCSE level than their peers, equivalent to nine grades lower overall. That’s the difference between nine Bs and nine Cs.

That shows why it is so important that schools are able to identify and support pupils who are young carers. However a legislative approach compelling them to do so is not in keeping with our drive to reduce burdens on schools. It is important that headteachers and governors have the freedoms they need to meet their responsibilities for the welfare of their pupils in the way they consider is most appropriate.

I am very grateful for the support of the National Governors’ Association in raising awareness about the needs of young carers and sharing resources with governing bodies. Whilst there is a lot of good practice in schools, there remains much to do to make this more widely available.

That is why I welcome two exciting new developments led by the voluntary sector. The Big Lottery Fund are financing The Children’s Society’s “Young Carers in Focus” programme to launch a national award scheme that allows schools to be recognised for the quality of support for their young carers. The Queen’s Trust too are funding Carers Trust to develop and test best practice on young carer support in schools. Both of these initiatives will build on the work my Department has been doing with The Children’s Society and Carers Trust since 2011 to share existing tools and good practice. This includes development of an e-learning module for school staff to increase awareness in schools of young carers’ needs. We are planning to update this soon to reflect the new legislation but the current version is available on The Children’s Society’s website: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/Young-Carers-Web-Pub-v13/player.html

The Department of Health are also training school nurses to be champions for young carers. They will speak up on their behalf and help headteachers and governors decide how best to support them at school.

At present we do not plan to extend the pupil premium eligibility criteria to cover young carers (or any other group). Our policy is to allocate pupil premium funding to those pupils who have experienced financial disadvantage but there is a significant cross-over between young carers and the current pupil premium target population. Research indicates that as many as 60 per cent of young carers could be eligible for free school meals, so already attract the pupil premium.

We will continue to encourage schools to use the resources that are already freely available to them and to make links to their local young carers support group.

The Secretary of State is in India where he is banging the drum for British business, culture, sport and tourism. Today, he has been giving a speech on the importance of a free internet for the future prosperity of the UK, India and the world. He has also launched a new programme of sport and education for girls, supported museum partnerships between the UK and India and attended a memorial event to commemorate the contribution of Indian soldiers during the first world war. Here at home, his colleagues have also been busy, and we have confirmed our £90 million investment in a new model for English Heritage. In sport, I am pleased to say that all four home nations went undefeated in their European championship qualifying matches.

This Government are committed to tackling all forms of bullying in schools, and have provided advice to schools on how to tackle this harmful behaviour. However, we know that homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying persists and we have therefore recently awarded the contract for a new project to identify the best ways to help drive out this type of bullying.

The Public Health England (PHE) Centre for Radiation, Chemicals and Environmental Hazards (and its predecessor organisation, the Health Protection Agency) does not have any specific research ongoing in respect of male sperm counts affecting fertility. PHE does though have a small experimental research programme investigating whether the genetic material carried by sperm can be affected by environmental factors including chemicals. In conjunction with the Medical Research Council, PHE has published work in the journal Epigenetics in 2012 showing that smoking can affect the composition of genetic material in sperm. The effect, if any, of this on fertility or the developing embryo was not determined. This work is continuing by PHE.

The coalition Government have taken decisive action to support families on low incomes. Increasing the personal allowance, for example, will take 3.2 million individuals out of income tax altogether by 2015-16. We have helped to freeze the council tax, frozen fuel duty and reduced energy bills, providing universal free school meals for infant schools and introducing tax-free child care support of up to £2,000, all on top of the most important thing, which is an economic plan that is delivering strong and sustained growth for this country.

EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) include a chapter on the protection, enforcement and promotion of intellectual property (IP) rights. While the protection of IP is one of a number of factors that determine the cost of medicines, we actively seek to ensure that provisions on IP rights in EU FTAs do not have negative impacts on the ability of the poorest to access low cost medicines.

On Thailand, we engage with the Commission and stand ready to support a constructive dialogue between the EU, the Government of Thailand and interested

non-governmental organisations to establish the right balance between incentivising private sector investment in Thailand and ensuring that the FTA should not undermine access to essential medicines.

The UK welcomed the joint declaration by EU Trade Commissioner de Gucht and Indian Trade Minister Sharma in December 2010 that nothing in the EU-India FTA would prevent the poorest from accessing life-saving medicines. We continue to engage with the European Commission to ensure that this is the case.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), commented on the situation in Venezuela on 18 February, during an official visit to Brazil. He expressed concern at the reports of violence associated with protests and the arrests of students and opposition politicians. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs highlighted the importance of freedom of expression and of the press and the right to protest peacefully.

I have written to the Venezuelan embassy in London emphasising the importance of respecting peaceful protest and creating the right conditions for dialogue to take place between the parties. 1 have also asked to speak to my Venezuelan opposite number. I will continue to monitor the situation carefully, and call on all sides to refrain from violence, to reduce tensions and to create the conditions for genuine dialogue.

EU High Representative Catherine Ashton also made statements on 14 and 21 February regarding the situation in Venezuela on behalf of all member states. The Government fully supports those statements.

I am deeply concerned about the reports of violence associated with protests in various cities in Venezuela since early February. I receive regular reports on the situation from our embassy in Caracas.

The majority of the demonstrations, including large-scale gatherings organised by the Government or by the opposition, have been peaceful, but some disturbances have been marred by violence. At least 30 people have been killed and over 350 injured. About half the victims are anti-government protestors, but members of the

police and national guard, pro-government supporters and bystanders have also been killed. According to official figures, there have been over 1,600 detainees, out of which around 1,300 have been released on parole and await trial. Over 100 remain in detention also awaiting trial. Over 40 police officers are being investigated for using excessive force in dealing with protestors, of which 15 have been detained.

The number and frequency of the incidents has decreased in the last two weeks but there are still violent incidents. We continue to the monitor the situation carefully, and call on all sides to refrain from violence, to reduce tensions and to create the conditions for genuine dialogue.

The UNASUR group of South American countries agreed on 12 March to send a commission of Foreign Ministers to Venezuela by early April to accompany, support and advise a broad and constructive process of political dialogue. We hope that this can play a positive role in helping to prevent violence and to promote reconciliation in Venezuela.