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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to work with credit card companies to support customers who are struggling with persistent debt.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Government has fundamentally reformed regulation of the consumer credit market, which includes the credit card sector. Consumer credit regulation transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 1 April 2014.

The FCA is currently undertaking a thorough review of the credit card market through its ‘credit card market study’. The market study is investigating three areas, one of which is the extent of unaffordable credit card debt. On the 3rd November 2015 the FCA published its interim report which found that the market was working reasonably well for most customers. However, the FCA expressed concern about the scale of potentially problematic debt in this sector and the incentives for firms to manage this.

The interim report also included the FCA’s early thinking on potential remedies which include measures to give consumers more control over their credit limits, measures to encourage customers to pay off debt quicker when they can afford to, and proposals that firms do more to identify earlier those consumers who may be struggling to repay and take action to help them manage their repayments. The FCA is currently asking for feedback on the findings and potential remedies.

The Government is looking forward to the full report in the spring and would encourage interested parties to give their views to the FCA to assist it in addressing the issues it has identified.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures are in place to promote apprenticeships in the construction sector.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

In 2013/14 there were 15,890 apprenticeships starts in the Construction, Planning and the Built Environment Sector Subject Area.

We are taking action to support apprenticeships in all sectors to meet our commitment to 3 million starts. We are working with large and small businesses to encourage employers, colleges and schools to work together to increase the number of apprenticeships.

Over 1300 employers – including in the construction sector – are currently involved in designing new apprenticeship standards. These include apprenticeships in construction occupations at a range of levels such as Construction Technician (L6), Quantity Surveyor (L6), Construction Site Management (L6), Advanced Carpentry & Joinery (L4) and Steel Fixer (L2)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to encourage more firms to use name-blind job applications in order to counter unconscious bias.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Government is committed to tackling discrimination in the graduate jobs market. On 26 October the Prime Minister announced that agreement to implement name-blind applications had been reached with a range of major public and private sector graduate employers. The agreement covers some of the largest graduate employers, including the NHS, Teach First , HSBC, Deloitte, Virgin Money, KPMG, BBC, Learn direct and local Government and the Civil Service. Collectively, the organisations that have signed up to this agreement employ 1.8 million people in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help SMEs expand overseas.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Small businesses can find out what support is available to them by contacting their local Growth Hub. There are now 30 Growth Hubs across England that are bringing together local and national business support so that people can find the help they need quickly and easily. This includes referring on to UK Trade & Investment those businesses who want help and advice on how to export

UK Trade and Investment provides a range of support to help companies develop their capacity to export; that includes elements such as helping companies devise an export strategy, guide them on researching and selecting markets, and addressing language and culture barriers. UKTI also helps companies access international markets by organising a wide range of events and missions, supporting companies at overseas exhibitions and highlighting export opportunities.

UKTI supported almost 55,000 businesses in 2014/15, around 90% of which were SMEs

UK Export Finance (UKEF) also continues to support those who wish to export, including small and medium sized businesses and mid-sized businesses (MSBs)

In 2014/15 UK Export Finance provided over £2.7bn of support to help 160 exporters (129 of which were smaller businesses) win overseas contracts in over 100 markets.