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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to curb gang culture across the UK.

Lord Bates

Ending gang violence and exploitation is a priority for the Government and on 13 January 2016 we published a paper setting out our refreshed approach. This has a twin focus concerned with both reducing violence, including knife crime, and protecting vulnerable individuals from exploitation by gangs. The full refreshed approach can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ending-gang-violence-and-exploitation.

This builds on our work since 2012 when we introduced the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme aimed and targeted at supporting local areas building their resilience and ability to respond to gangs. Since 2012, we have worked with 52 local areas facing problems associated with gangs through supporting peer reviews to identify the main local challenges.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made with their adult apprenticeship schemes.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Final data show that there were 499,900 apprenticeship starts in the 2014/15 academic year. 374,000 of these were aged 19+, an increase of 16.6% on 2013/14.

We have delivered 2.6 million apprenticeships starts since May 2010, 73% (1.9 million) of these were adults (aged 19+).

We are committed to reaching 3 million new apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. Our 2020 Vision for English Apprenticeships sets out how we will increase apprenticeships numbers for people of all ages – working with employers and setting new expectations for public sector procurement.

Apprenticeship reforms are being led by employers designing standards to meet their skill needs. Over 1300 employers are currently involved. 198 new standards have been published and more 150 are in development (including 60 Higher or Degree level). More Degree Apprenticeships are being developed, combining a high quality degree with an apprenticeship.

Through the UK-wide apprenticeships levy, we are also giving employers control over funding apprenticeship training in England.

We are establishing an independent employer-led Institute for Apprenticeships to regulate the quality of apprenticeships in England which will be fully operational by April 2017.

We are doubling the annual level of spending on apprenticeships between 2010-11 and 2019-20 in cash terms to £2.5bn, including income from the new apprenticeship levy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are taking steps to ensure that inward investment and job creation is encouraged on an equal basis across all the regions of the UK.

Lord Maude of Horsham

UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) actively promotes all areas of the UK and is investing significant effort and resources to fully support HMG’s drive to rebalance the UK economy, whilst staying true to UKTI’s ‘UK First principle’.

UKTI always ensures it offers the client the most suitable location options for that client’s businesses investment to be a commercial success, since success is the best guarantee of a long-term investment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are (1) currently taking, (2) plan to take, to promote trade and investment opportunities between the UK and other Commonwealth countries.

Lord Maude of Horsham

Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) is committed to helping UK business succeed overseas, including in Commonwealth countries. HMG is represented across the Commonwealth and, UK Trade and Investment has offices in around half of all Commonwealth countries as part of its global footprint. Dependent on the scale of opportunities in each country there are a range of export services that business can benefit from. In late 2013, UKTI opened in five new Commonwealth markets, and reinforced teams in four others. There are ten dedicated Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys in Commonwealth countries, charged specifically with the promotion of trade and investment in their respective markets.

I attended the Commonwealth Business Forum in November 2015 in Malta, held in the margins of The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. My participation at this event advanced UK business interests with key decision makers and businesses from other Commonwealth countries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are currently taking to improve support to children with disabilities in their early years.

Lord Nash

This Government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Children with disabilities should have the same opportunities as other children to access high-quality childcare.

Local authorities are required by legislation to secure early education places offering 570 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year for all three- and four-year olds, including those with disabilities. The Childcare Bill is delivering extended entitlement to free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds. This will provide eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks or the equivalent number of hours across more weeks per year.

Early Implementers of the extended childcare entitlement will focus on key delivery issues, including access for children with SEND, in order to provide critical learning to inform national rollout.

All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. These requirements are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2014. The SEND Code of Practice, introduced as part of the wide-ranging reforms set out in the Children and Families Act, gives guidance on how children between the ages of 0 and 25 with SEN or disabilities are to be supported and providers are statutorily required to have regard for this Code of Practice.

The Government has invested £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations this year. A number of these programmes are delivering specific SEND training to the early years workforce. In particular, the National Day Nurseries Association’s current SEND Champions grant has proven very popular amongst the workforce.

The Department funds local authorities’ high needs provision in both the early years and schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant; local authorities have reported that they are planning to spend over £90 million from their high needs budgets on children in their early years. The Spending Review provided a generous uplift in the funding early years providers will receive from April 2017 and protection for the majority of high needs funding. We recognise the critical importance of childcare to parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities; we will consider SEN funding for early years as part of wider consultations in 2016 on how we introduce a fairer funding system.

This Government is committed to helping parents with disabled children. For example, from early 2017 working parents with children under the age of 17 who have a disability will be able to access support under Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) worth up to £4,000 per child, per year. This is double that offered for children without disabilities for whom support is offered until the age of 12.