To ask Her Majesty's Government what amount of the income-based jobseeker's allowance of £64.30 per week for single adults aged 25 or over is included for utility bills. [HL1960]

Income-based jobseeker’s allowance is not made up of separate amounts for specific items of expenditure such as utility bills. The Government firmly believe that beneficiaries should be free to spend their benefit as they see fit, in the light of their individual needs and preferences.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of 16 to 18 year-olds in full-time education are in receipt of educational maintenance allowances; and how this compares with the previous two years. [HL1739]

The percentage of 16 to 18 year-olds participating in full-time education in school or college and in receipt of education maintenance allowances for the previous two years is provided in the table below. These data relate to England only. We are unable to provide data for the current academic year as we do not have the final number of recipients of education maintenance allowances or the final estimates for full-time participation at this stage of the year.

Notes:

1. 2009-10 data are not available until final EMA recipient numbers and full-time participation estimates are known.

2. Provisional official estimates of 16-18 full-time further education will be published in June 2010 as part of the Statistical First Release Participation in Education, Training and Employment by 16-18 year olds in England.

3. Full-time further education does not include learners on the Entry to Employment (E2E) programme, which will become part of Foundation Learning at the start of 2010-11.

4. There are three payment bands for EMA, of £10 £20 or £30 a week, subject to household income.

To ask Her Majesty's Government in the latest year for which figures are available, how many people visited those national museums and galleries which charged for admission in 2001 and are now free. [HL2031]

The most recent figures available for the number of visits to the national museums and galleries that charged in 2001, and are now free, are listed in the table.

To ask Her Majesty's Government which projects in Merseyside received Big Lottery funding in (a) 2007, (b) 2008, and (c) 2009. [HL1992]

The Big Lottery Fund has advised that it has supported projects in Merseyside for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 to the sum of £35,900,003.

A list of all projects located in Merseyside that have received funding in the requested years, and which is based on the location of the organisation delivering the project, will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Within the information supplied in the table, there may be additional projects delivered inside the constituency but where the organisation is located outside.

The table also includes the name of the applicant, the amount awarded and the Big Lottery Fund programme.

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many projects in Southport in (a) 2007, (b) 2008, and (c) 2009 received Big Lottery funding; of those, how many were (a) health projects, (b) education projects, (c) environmental projects, and (d) charitable projects. [HL1993]

The Big Lottery Fund has advised that it has funded a total of 39 projects in the Southport constituency between the 2007 and 2009 calendar years. The total value of these awards is £968,993.

It is not always possible to categorise projects into the themes you have requested, as many large projects tend to be cross-cutting. For example the Growing Business project was awarded funding in 2007 to provide work experience centred on horticulture and environmental work for people with learning disabilities.

The Big Lottery Fund has committed to give at least 80 per cent of awards to organisations in the voluntary and community sector. Projects classified as charitable deliver a wide range of projects that can offer health, education or environmental benefits.

The table provides a list of the 39 projects based on the location of the organisation delivering the project. There may be additional projects delivered inside the constituency but where the organisation is located outside.

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was paid in senior civil service performance payments to officials in the Northern Ireland Office in each of the past five years; how the level of payment was calculated; and by whom. [HL1930]

The following table shows how much was paid in senior Civil Service performance payments to officials in the Northern Ireland Office in each of the past five years.

Performance payments for senior civil servants are awarded in accordance with Cabinet Office guidance.

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the budget for home to school transport pathfinder projects has been spent; and, if not, how much remains unspent. [HL1821]

The school transport pathfinder pilots project was cancelled and all funding has been reallocated.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of fraudulent passports in circulation in the United Kingdom. [HL1909]

It is not known how many fraudulently obtained passports there are in circulation. Passport fraud by its very nature is difficult to establish and measure. A UK passport has a validity of 10 years, and the level of fraud is unlikely to have remained the same over the 10 years. It would therefore be speculative and misleading to make an estimate on this basis.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what the intentions of the Victoria and Albert Museum are for the long-term future of their antique musical instrument collection; and, if they do not plan to exhibit the collection, whether they will offer it to another museum. [HL1959]

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) closed its musical instruments gallery on 22 February, as part of the museum’s ongoing refurbishment plans. The V&A will instead display some of its musical instruments in context of its other collections within the museum. Objects from the collection will be displayed in the British galleries, the medieval and renaissance galleries, the furniture gallery (due to open in 2012) and the Europe 1600-1800 galleries (due to open in 2014).

The museum has also agreed to the long-term loan of key objects from the V&A's collection of musical instruments to the Horniman Museum in London, which has a nationally designated collection of musical instruments. The V&A is also in discussions with several other institutions with significant musical collections, and expects to be making further loans.

Any objects not on display will be accessible by appointment as part of the museum’s study collections at Blythe House in Kensington Olympia.

The V&A operates at arm’s length from the Government. Decisions on curatorial and operational matters such as the future of the musical instruments gallery are therefore entirely a matter for the museum’s trustees and executive.