We are supporting local commissioners to ensure they have all the information they need to make informed decisions about commissioning sexual violence and domestic violence services in their area by holding a series of regional commissioning events on tackling violence against women and girls.

Local authorities have to make some tough spending decisions, but we made sure protecting vulnerable people, including victims of domestic and sexual violence, was a priority in the spending review. For the first time, the Government has ring-fenced nearly £40 million of stable funding up to 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services, rape crisis centres, the national domestic violence helplines and stalking helpline.

We will continue to work with the women’s sector to support this work on the commissioning of services.

The Home Office does not provide any direct funding to Research Councils for the purposes of non-animal tests or research, or tests or research involving animals as it performs predominately a regulatory function. Significant Government funding is deployed to encourage the development and uptake of non-animal tests, largely through the Department for Business, Innovation and Science.

The Home Office does however provide £250,000 per year to the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to fund its activities, which include developing and promoting alternatives to the use of animals in research. Some research into non-animal methods requires the use of animals for validation and other purposes. It is therefore not possible to state definitively how much of this contribution has been used for the purpose of conducting non-animal tests or research, to fund tests or research involving animals, or for the purpose of promoting the uptake of alternatives.

The Home Office does not provide any direct funding to Research Councils for the purposes of non-animal tests or research, or tests or research involving animals as it performs predominately a regulatory function. Significant Government funding is deployed to encourage the development and uptake of non-animal tests, largely through the Department for Business, Innovation and Science.

The Home Office does however provide £250,000 per year to the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to fund its activities, which include developing and promoting alternatives to the use of animals in research. Some research into non-animal methods requires the use of animals for validation and other purposes. It is therefore not possible to state definitively how much of this contribution has been used for the purpose of conducting non-animal tests or research, to fund tests or research involving animals, or for the purpose of promoting the uptake of alternatives.

On 2 February 2011, Official Report, column 46WS, the Home Secretary announced £18 million funding to tackle knife, gun and gang crime. The funding was given to police, local agencies and the voluntary sector to tackle serious youth violence and prevent young people entering a cycle of crime. This funding addressed issues of gang and youth violence including knife crime.

The two year funding supported enforcement and prevention work by police in three knife crime hotspot areas, alongside positive activities for young people and local work to bring about long-term changes in attitudes and behaviours. The money included up to:

£3.75 million (£2 million in 2011-12 and £1.75 million in 2012-13) for the three police forces areas where more than half of the country’s knife crime occurs—the Metropolitan Police Service, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands.

£4 million (£2 million in 2011-12 and £1.75 million in 2012-13 ) for a ‘communities against gangs, guns and knives’ fund—for local voluntary organisations across England and Wales working with young people to stop involvement in knife and gang violence.

£10 million for prevention and diversionary activities and engagement with young people at risk of becoming involved in crime, including knife related violence

£1million to support the development of anti-knife, gun and gang crime materials for schools and a good practice website to enable local projects to share knowledge and expertise. About 280 practitioners are now sharing information through the Knowledge Hub set up in the Local Government Association website.

£250,000 for 2011-12 of the Ben Kinsella Fund (in addition to the £250,000 provided for 2010-11) for young people to run anti-knife crime projects in their local area.

The Government ring-fenced nearly £40 million of stable funding from 2010-15 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services and national helplines. £900,000 of this funding is allocated to providing support to helplines, of which £45,000 is committed until April 2015 to the National Stalking Helpline.

The Home Office has not funded research councils funding animal research in the last five years. The Home Office makes payments of £250,000 per annum to the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research.

The Coalition Government has made a commitment to ‘work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research'. The recently published Delivery Plan shows how alternative methods can deliver fast, high quality research available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-to-reduce-the-use-of-animals-in-research-delivery-plan

The scientific case for developing new techniques that do not require the use of animals is as strong as the moral one. The Delivery Plan will cement the UK's place as an international leader in this field. A considerable part of the resource in the Home Office Animals in Science Regulation Unit is working towards the development of reduction, refinement and replacement alternatives (the 3Rs) to the use of animals in scientific procedures. Home Office Inspectors do this as part of their inspection role and when assessing applications for project licences. It is not possible to quantify the value of this resource, but it is significant.

The National Crime Agency's total spending power in 2013/14 is £463 million resource and £31 million capital. The Agency is responsible for delivering

the Coalition Government's objectives, as set through the Home Secretary's Strategic Priorities for the NCA and the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, including overseeing the law enforcement response to bribery and corruption. The Home Office and the NCA are members of the Arab Spring Asset Recovery Task Force which is dedicated to restoring the assets stolen by the former regimes in the Arab Spring countries to the people of those countries.

[holding answer 12 November 2013]:I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Department.

Decisions about provision of local services for victims of domestic violence are a local matter and it is the responsibility of individual local authorities to identify any gaps in service provision and put appropriate solutions in place. I strongly encourage local authorities to bear in mind the needs of vulnerable individuals when deciding their budget priorities. The Home Office recently hosted two events to highlight the importance of commissioning services for victims of domestic and sexual violence.

The Coalition Government's level of funding for cycling compares very favourably with other European countries. In this Parliament we have allocated £3.50 (€4.20) per person per year to cycling (based on £277 million invested since 2010 directly for cycling and the £600 million allocated for the Local Sustainable Transport Fund where 94 out of 96 projects contain a cycling element). For example, research by the European Cyclists' Federation states that national funding in Denmark is only around €4 and around €3 in the Netherlands—two countries recognised for their commitment to cycling.

Since February 2012 the Government has made an additional £159 million available for cycling infrastructure in England. As part of this, through the £77 million Cycling Ambition Grants, eight cities across England will receive an investment in cycling in excess of £10 per head per year. Along with local contributions, this equates to £18 per head of population across the funding period. City areas that will benefit are: Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Birmingham, West of England, Newcastle, Cambridge, Norwich and Oxford.

Three years on from the axing of Cycling England and its £60 million annual budget, this Tory-led Government promised £148 million for cycling. That has turned out to be an average of £38 million per year until 2016, with local authorities expected to find the rest. In comparison, £28 billion is planned to be spent on roads. Does the Minister really believe that this is the right proportion and that this Government really are the most pro-cycling ever?

Dorset County Council submitted a bid for the A338 Bournemouth Spur Road to the Department for Transport requesting funding from the Local Pinch Point Fund. The Fund was very oversubscribed with the Department for Transport receiving over 170 bids requesting funding is excess of £400 million.

The Department announced 72 successful schemes, which together offered the best value for the taxpayer. I am afraid the Dorset bid was unsuccessful on this occasion.

This does not preclude Dorset County Council seeking funding from alternative sources, for example, the Single

Local Growth Fund. I would recommend they liaise closely with their Local Transport Body and Local Enterprise Partnership on this matter.

Decisions on which projects to support are being devolved to local enterprise partnerships, supported by Local Transport Bodies. It is likely, however, that some transport projects supported through the Single Local Growth Fund will be delivered during 2015/16—the first year of the fund's existence.

None of the £2 billion funding allocated to the Single Local Growth Fund in 2015-16 is intended for the Government's costs of administering the bidding process. Local enterprise partnerships have been funded separately to develop their economic strategy which will form the basis of allocations from the Single Local Growth Fund.

Local authorities are members of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and will play an important role in drawing up the LEP strategic economic plan that forms the basis for negotiating a growth deal with Government which includes allocation of single local growth funding.

Funding for transport within the Single Local Growth Fund is not ring fenced for transport purposes only—in line with the recommendations of Lord Heseltine's report “No Stone Unturned”.

However, we will be expecting the strategic economic plans put forward by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to reflect a balanced package of measures—including appropriate transport projects for their particular circumstances—and capital funding beyond 2015/16 is provided to enable long term planning of priority transport investments in local areas.

Local Transport Bodies (LTBs) are currently drawing up prioritised list of major local transport projects to be funded, under devolved arrangements, from 2015/16. Our expectation is that, as LTB's plans should have been developed in close collaboration with LEPs, the LEP strategic economic plans should either include schemes identified in these prioritised lists or set out clearly why the LEP has taken a different view from the LTB.

Officials and Ministers from the Department for Transport will be fully involved in the assessment of the strategic economic plans that will be produced by LEPs and the associated decisions on Growth Deals and the award of Single Local Growth Funding.

Guidance on the Growth Deals that the Government will negotiate with each Local Enterprise Partnership will be published shortly. This will include a high level summary of the criteria to be used in awarding funding from the Single Local Growth Fund

Officials and Ministers from the Department for Transport are fully involved in the development of this guidance and will also participate fully in the assessment of the strategic economic plans that will be produced by Local Enterprise Partnerships and the associated decisions on Growth Deals and the award of Single Local Growth Funding.

Some elements of the Single Local Growth Fund, including some Local Authority Transport Majors funding, will be allocated on a formula basis.

Guidance on the Growth Deals that the Government will negotiate with each Local Enterprise Partnership will be published shortly. This will include a high level summary of the criteria to be used in awarding funding from the Single Local Growth Fund

Officials and Ministers from the Department for Transport are fully involved in the development of this guidance and will also participate fully in the assessment of the strategic economic plans that will be produced by Local Enterprise Partnerships and the associated decisions on Growth Deals and the award of Single Local Growth Funding.

Some elements of the Single Local Growth Fund, including some Local Authority Transport Majors funding, will be allocated on a formula basis.