To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what criteria were used to select the attendees at the two roundtable meetings hosted by her Department since April 2007 in which women’s access to mosque life was discussed. [Official Report, 22 February 2008, Vol. 472, c. 11MC.] (183577)

[holding answer 31 January 2008]: The attendees were selected using a range of factors including their expertise and knowledge and the Preventing Violent Extremism agenda. All the participants are in leadership positions within key organisations and have links to grass-root communities, ensuring balanced representation across Muslim communities.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent on the development of leadership skills among Muslim (a) women and (b) young people in each year since 1997. (183584)

[holding answer 31 January 2008]: The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) was formed on 5 May 2006. Since that date £118,000 has been spent directly by the Department on projects relating to the development of leadership skills of women and £225,000 on projects relating to the development of leadership skills of young people.

DCLG has also provided £6.5 million ‘Pathfinder Funding’ to local authorities for work to build the resilience of Muslim communities and some of this work will include building the leadership skills of Muslim women and young people. A full list of all work funded through the Pathfinder Fund is available from the Library of the House.

Other DCLG projects may have supported work to develop leadership skills but it is not possible to quantify the specific impact on Muslim women and young people.