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  • Gareth Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gareth Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many small businesses were registered in Dartford in each of the last 10 years.

    Anna Soubry

    The number of small businesses that were registered for VAT or PAYE in Dartford between 2006 and 2015 is shown below.

    Year

    Number of small[1] businesses registered for VAT or PAYE[2] in Dartford

    2006

    2,420

    2007

    2,475

    2008

    3,180

    2009

    3,150

    2010

    3,005

    2011

    2,955

    2012

    3,135

    2013

    3,205

    2014

    3,380

    2015

    3,725

    Source: ONS, UK Business: activity, size and location.

    [1] Small businesses defined as employing less than 50 people. Data refers to Dartford parliamentary constituency.

    [2] For 2006 and 2007, only the numbers of VAT registered businesses are available.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Gareth Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people declared themselves as self-employed in each of the last three years in (a) Dartford and (b) Kent.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of efficiency savings arising from his Department’s digital strategies in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) aims to build digital services that are simpler, clearer and faster to use. In 2013-14 and 2014-15 BIS took the lead in developing five exemplar “digital by default”projects. These focused on transforming key areas in which BIS engages with the public: student finance, Land Registry data, renewing patents, redundancy payments and apprenticeships. By the end of 2014-15 all five BIS digital exemplars were either live or in trial(“beta”) use.

    Each of these is starting to bring significant benefits. For example, each year there are around 400,000 transactions for renewals of patents. The new digital patent renewal service allows patent owners and agents to complete the renewal process online in just a few minutes whereas the older, paper based service took up to 6 days to process.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the funds generated through the proposed apprenticeship levy which will be required for its administration costs.

    Nick Boles

    The Government is committed to fair and simple levy arrangements. We are working closely with Her Majesty’s Treasury and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs on the design and implementation of the levy. Further detail will be set out alongside the Spending Review later in the autumn.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what plans her Department has to close the gender pay gap.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The gender pay gap has fallen to its lowest ever level, and our ambition is to eliminate it within a generation. That is why we will require large employers to publish information on the differences between men and women’s’ pay and bonuses. Gender pay gap reporting will also be extended to the public sector. We will continue taking action to inspire girls and young women; modernise workplaces; and support older working women.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what research his Department has commissioned or undertaken to assess the potential effect on small businesses of proposed changes to Sunday trading laws.

    Anna Soubry

    We have consulted on our proposals to devolve the power to extend Sunday trading hours to local areas, to which we received a large number of responses from a wide range of stakeholders. We will be publishing the Government’s response shortly. In the consultation, we said we considered that devolving this power would enable local areas to determine the Sunday trading hours that better reflect the need of local people, providing greater choice over when and where they shop. People may choose small retailers, as for example, they offer a diverse range of products and services from convenient locations. This is perhaps why the convenience sector last year saw the opening of two new stores a day and growth in turnover of 5%.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many officials in his Department are working on the review of post-16 education and training institutions.

    Nick Boles

    The Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), along with respective funding agencies, have re-prioritised staffing resources to support the review of post-16 education and training.

    There are seven reviews in the first wave of area reviews which have either launched since September or will launch in the next few weeks. Each review will take 3-4 months to complete and will be supported by resource from the DfE, BIS, Education Funding Agency and Skills Funding Agency.

    The area reviews of post 16 education and training are being undertaken in waves and can be triggered by either the local area requesting a review or the FE Commissioner or Sixth Form College Commissioner identifying the need for a review because one or more colleges in an area are at risk of failing. The first wave is underway now and details of the following reviews have been announced and can be found on the gov.uk website :

    Birmingham and Solihull

    Greater Manchester

    Sheffield City Region

    Tees Valley

    Sussex Coast

    Solent

    West Yorkshire

    The second wave will start in January 2016 and we aim to announce details in November 2015. We are currently looking at the geographies and phasing for other areas and will aim to issue further information on this before the end of the year but in doing this we recognise that the position should remain fluid to take account of the views of local partners and also cases of failure.

    We expect all reviews to be completed by March 2017.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish the timetable setting out when each area will have its post-16 education and training reviewed.

    Nick Boles

    The Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), along with respective funding agencies, have re-prioritised staffing resources to support the review of post-16 education and training.

    There are seven reviews in the first wave of area reviews which have either launched since September or will launch in the next few weeks. Each review will take 3-4 months to complete and will be supported by resource from the DfE, BIS, Education Funding Agency and Skills Funding Agency.

    The area reviews of post 16 education and training are being undertaken in waves and can be triggered by either the local area requesting a review or the FE Commissioner or Sixth Form College Commissioner identifying the need for a review because one or more colleges in an area are at risk of failing. The first wave is underway now and details of the following reviews have been announced and can be found on the gov.uk website :

    Birmingham and Solihull

    Greater Manchester

    Sheffield City Region

    Tees Valley

    Sussex Coast

    Solent

    West Yorkshire

    The second wave will start in January 2016 and we aim to announce details in November 2015. We are currently looking at the geographies and phasing for other areas and will aim to issue further information on this before the end of the year but in doing this we recognise that the position should remain fluid to take account of the views of local partners and also cases of failure.

    We expect all reviews to be completed by March 2017.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gordon Marsden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether hon. Members are always informed when a post-16 area-based review is announced for an area which includes their constituency.

    Nick Boles

    Yes. The Joint Area Review Delivery Unit supporting the area reviews will advise Hon. Membersas a matter of course when reviews are due to be undertaken in any part of their constituency.

    Area reviews should take place as quickly as possible, the typical timescale being 3-4 months but this could vary depending on the number of colleges and complexity of the local issues involved.

    The reviews are aimed at delivering a skills system that meets the economic and educational needs of areas whilst also ensuring the long term sustainability of colleges to support productivity. Their purpose is not to secure savings to Government. However, early evidence from the pilot reviews indicates that there is potential for the reviews to secure efficiency savings.

    All applications to open a free school, academy, school sixth form or university technical college will be assessed on a case by case basis against the published criteria and taking account of local needs and circumstances.

  • Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh on 2015-10-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of TTIP on different and separate regulatory systems for compliance with current ISDS provisions in different parts of the UK.

    Anna Soubry

    The inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will not threaten the right of the UK or Devolved Administrations to regulate or determine public policy. The Commission has published a proposal for reforms to investment protections in this agreement, which includes a clause setting out governments’ right to regulate.

    The UK will work with the Commission on this proposal to ensure that UK investors are treated fairly overseas by foreign governments while allowing governments to regulate lawfully and in the public interest.