The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what wage the Government plans to pay civil servant apprentices.
Matthew Hancock
Pay below the Senior Civil Service is delegated to Departments and agencies, including for apprenticeships. There is also no single apprenticeship grade. Apprentices on the Civil Service Fast Track are paid at least £19,500 (£22,000 in London).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what projection he has made of the number of civil service apprenticeships that will be created in each department in each year until 2020.
Matthew Hancock
It is the responsibility of individual Departments to project their workforce, including apprenticeships. The Civil Service implemented a single apprenticeship target of a minimum 2.3% of the workforce in England as apprenticeships starts from 1 January 2016. Departments have agreed to achieve 2.3% of their workforce in England as apprenticeship starts. This is an annual target that will be measured by financial years based on headcount at the start of that reporting period.
We estimate that there will be at least 30,000 apprenticeship starts in the Civil Service in England by the end of the Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of diversity of membership of the Civil Service Board; and if he will make a statement.
Matthew Hancock
The Civil Service Board is the highest level of governance and the most senior collective leadership body. It is Chaired by the Cabinet Secretary and comprises the Chief Executive and senior Permanent Secretaries. Its current membership is:
Sir Jeremy Heywood
Melanie Dawes
Sir Robert Devereux
Dame Lin Homer
Sir Derek Jones
Mark Lowcock
John Manzoni
Sir Nick Macpherson
Sir Simon McDonald
Dame Una O’Brien
Mark Sedwill
Jon Thompson
Chris Wormold
Appointments to the Civil Service Board are made by the Chair and are selected from the pool of Permanent Secretaries who are heads of department. Board membership is reviewed on an ongoing basis and diversity is always a key consideration when making new appointments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps has he taken to monitor the conduct of charities when marketing commercial products.
Mr Rob Wilson
This is a matter for the Charity Commission which, as independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, issued a regulatory alert on this topic on 29 February 2016 reminding charity trustees of their legal duties. The alert was published and sent to the 1,700 charities that the Commission identified to have some form of commercial arrangement. It made clear that trustees should review existing commercial arrangements and that failure to meet the relevant requirements could result in regulatory action.
Engaging in commercial activities can be a valuable way for charities to raise funds or generate awareness of its cause. It is the responsibility of the trustees to ensure that where a charity engages in commercial activity, either through a trading subsidiary or through a commercial partnership, they follow the legal framework, they have effective oversight and ensure this activity in the best interests of the charity. This includes protecting the charity’s name and reputation which are valuable assets.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost was of producing single departmental plans for each central government department.
Mr Oliver Letwin
All departments undertake business planning and performance management as part of business-as-usual to ensure the effective delivery of government. Single departmental plans have been introduced in this Parliament to be a common framework by which departments manage this business and the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury tracks progress against its commitments to the public.
The production of plans is part of this routine business planning, rather than an additional activity at additional cost. By rationalising reporting, we expect the process to become more efficient as it embeds.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to increase the level of voter registration in schools, colleges and universities.
John Penrose
The Government has made it easier and quicker to register to vote than ever before through online registration. Since June 2014, 3.6 million people aged 16-24 have applied to register to vote, with 2.7 million of these applications made online. The Government has also worked with various youth organisations such as NUS and Sixth Form Colleges Association, to encourage voter registration among students.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.
Nick Boles
The Skills Funding Agency (and its predecessor, the Learning and Skills Council) is a co-financing organisation for the European Social Fund in England. It received £1,494,936,801.00 between January 2007 and December 2013 and £485,027,046.00 from January 2014 to December 2015, a total of £1,979,963,847.00. The money was used to support skills projects across England.
For the 2014-2020 Programme in England the Skills Funding Agency has put in place funding agreements with Local Enterprise Partnerships to the value of £725m from the European Social Fund.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Heappey on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to help support research into the Zika virus.
Joseph Johnson
In February we allocated £1 million from the Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund to help urgently tackle the Zika virus; the Medical Research Council (MRC) received over 100 applications for support through its Rapid Response Initiative. To meet this demand, in March we committed up to an additional £2 million, with a further £1 million from the Wellcome Trust, bringing the total that was available up to a maximum of £4 million of funding.
Today, the MRC has announced that it has allocated c. £3.2 million of this funding to tackle the emerging and unknown threats of this virus. Our commitment to protect the science budget in real terms to the end of the Parliament means we can react quickly to help tackle these life-threatening global challenges.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which companies have failed to pay the national minimum wage since the introduction of the new naming and shaming regulations on 1 October 2013.
Nick Boles
Since the introduction of the revised naming and shaming scheme, details of employers who have failed to pay the National Minimum Wage have been published on gov.uk. Details can be found via the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-minimum-wage-offenders-named-and-shamed-october-2015
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-minimum-wage-offenders-named-and-shamed (July 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-minimum-wage-offenders-named-and-shamed (March 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-and-shames-largest-ever-number-of-national-minimum-wage-offenders (February 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-and-shames-37-national-minimum-wage-offenders (January 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-employers-who-fail-to-pay-the-national-minimum-wage (November 2014)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-employers-who-fail-to-pay-minimum-wage (June 2014)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-gets-tough-with-employers-failing-to-pay-minimum-wage (February 2014)
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment has he made of the potential impact on innovation in the UK of his Department’s change to government research and development funding from a grant-based to a loan-based system.
Joseph Johnson
Like many of our competitor economies, we are looking to provide a wider range of financial products to support, innovation in UK industry. In the coming months, we will, be conducting market research to better understand the needs of innovative businesses in the UK.
This will be followed by a pilot to test specific financial support mechanisms, with an evaluation in late 2016, leading to a roll-out of a range of new products in 2017. We will continue to provide grant funding to support research and development where appropriate – including, for example, aerospace research supported by the Aerospace Technology Institute and automotive research supported by the Advanced Propulsion Centre.