The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Danczuk on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what steps he is taking in support of Action 12 of the EU Citizenship Report 2013, com (2013) 269.
Greg Clark
The issue of voting in domestic elections is a matter for national governments and we do not accept the Commission’s view of a European Public Space.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graeme Morrice on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many meetings his Department has had for which the check off system of paying trade union fees was on the agenda.
Mr Francis Maude
As was the case under the previous administration, details of internal meetings are not normally published.
Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graeme Morrice on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department has any plans to end the employee trade union membership dues check-off system.
Jenny Willott
I have no plans to end the Department’s check-off arrangements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the cost was of the recent triennial review of the Research Councils.
Mr David Willetts
The cost of the review primarily relates to the salary costs of review team members, who undertook the review as a corporate objective alongside their existing responsibilities. On average, the review team spent around 10% of their weekly core work hours on the review across its duration. There were additional costs associated with the extensive stakeholder engagement and in year awards to review team members to recognise their personal contribution in completing the review. These awards are consistent with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) In-Year Awards policy of recognising and rewarding contributions to business performance and demonstrating the BIS values.
The estimated maximum total cost to BIS of the review team is £81,350, which represents 0.002% of total Research Council funding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alun Cairns on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when his Department plans to publish its response to the consultation on Streamlining Regulatory and Competition Appeals launched in June 2013; and on what timetable he intends to introduce reforms arising from that consultation.
Jenny Willott
We hope to publish the Government response before Summer. Any legislative changes we decide to make will be taken forward when Parliamentary time permits.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2014, Official Report, column 744W, on National Careers Service, what assessment his Department has made of the National Careers Service’s progress in achieving its key strategic aims for marketing.
Matthew Hancock
The National Careers Service marketing strategy using targeted on-line activity has been pursued since October 2013.
Through regular market research we have seen an increase in awareness[1] of the support the National Careers Service offers since the campaign started from 24 per cent to 29 per cent. All of the targeted groups show a greater awareness than the remainder of those sampled:
· Awareness among individuals looking to advance their career has increased by 28 per cent increase to 39 per cent;
· Awareness among those who are looking for a better job to support a change in circumstances has increased by 14 per cent to 32 per cent;
· Awareness among those who have been or are about to be made redundant has remained broadly the same with 37 per cent aware of the Service.
Over 56 per cent of these three groups are likely to use the Service, compared with only 8 per cent of others surveyed.
[1] Both spontaneous and prompted.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many businesses received support through the UK Guarantees Exports Refinancing Facility in 2013-14.
Michael Fallon
Following the Chancellor’s announcement in the 2014 Budget UK Export Finance formally launched the Export Refinancing Facility (ERF) on 30 April 2014.
ERF is aimed at supporting UK bids for projects that require finance above $150m. As these projects typically involve lengthy contract negotiations, it may be sometime before we see a pipeline of deals that benefit from the ERF.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to disabled students’ allowances on the number of disabled students completing higher or further education.
Mr David Willetts
The announced changes to Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) will be subject to a full equality analysis to determine the impact of these changes on students with protected characteristics. The equality analysis will be given full consideration before regulations are laid before the House.
These changes will apply to all full-time, full-time distance learning, part-time and postgraduate students in higher education applying for DSA for the first time from the 2015/16 academic year. DSAs are not available to further education students, as the Government provides Learning Support funding to further education colleges and providers to help meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Katy Clark on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will support the introduction of legislation at EU level to ensure that pay between assignment contracts does not result in agency workers being paid a lower wage than other employees.
Jenny Willott
There are no proposals for change to the relevant legislation on agency workers at EU level at this stage.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Katy Clark on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Government spent on full-time university education for undergraduates in 2013-14.
Mr David Willetts
Full-time undergraduate student support expenditure by the Student Loans Company for the 2013-14 financial year included £8.9bn of cash outlay on maintenance and fee loans and £1.9bn of grant expenditure (on maintenance grants and other allowances). These totals include expenditure on English-domiciled students in the UK and EU students in England.
For the financial year 2013-14, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) estimate that £2.1bn of the expenditure set out in the 2014 grant letter refers to teaching grant for full-time undergraduate study. It is not possible to calculate a full-time undergraduate share of every element of recurrent teaching grant such as Senior Professional pay, teaching strategy funding, institution-specific initiatives or additional funding for Equivalent Level Qualifications and vulnerable science subjects.
The figures do not include expenditure by other Governments departments.