The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the National Apprenticeship Service will continue to be (a) administered and (b) funded through the Skills Funding Agency in 2016-17.
Nick Boles
The National Apprenticeship Service is part of the Skills Funding Agency. We plan for this to continue to be the case in 2016-17.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he commissioned an independent evaluation of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills before deciding to withdraw funding from it; and if so, if he will publish it.
Nick Boles
No independent evaluation of UKCES was commissioned. The decision by Whitehall Departments to withdraw funding from UKCES during 2016-17 was taken as part of the spending review given the need to make savings in non-participation budgets to allow the core adult skills participation budgets to be protected in cash terms.
The decision had regard to the range of priorities needing to be funded from non-participation budgets. BIS is working with UKCES and the users of its services, including the Devolved Administrations, to manage the implications of this decision.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with Ofsted on assessing the quality of teaching English and mathematics in adult basic skills courses undertaken by (a) further education providers and (b) other providers.
Nick Boles
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is in regular contact with Ofsted both at Ministerial and official level to discuss the performance of further education (FE) colleges and providers. This includes the extent to which teaching, learning and assessment support adult learners to develop their skills in English and maths.
Together with Department for Education, we have invested over £30m over the past 3 years to fund a range of measures to improve the further education workforce, with a focus on improving the teaching of English and maths. This has resulted in over 1,000 bursaries to attract graduates to teach in further education and over 3,800 existing FE teachers have benefited from training to improve their capability to teach high quality English and maths courses.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2016 to Question 25741, what criteria the Government plans to use to allocate the funds secured from the European Social Fund for the period 2014-2020.
Anna Soubry
EU regulations require the United Kingdom to spend at least 45.9 per cent of its national allocation for structural funds for the period 2014-2020 on the European Social Fund (ESF). The United Kingdom’s Partnership Agreement with the European Commission, which can be found on GOV.UK at ‘European Structural and Investment Funds: UK Partnership Agreement’, sets out how the requirement was met.
Within England, notional allocations for the European Regional Development Fund and ESF were made on the basis of Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas. The total allocations to each LEP area for the 2014-2020 period can be found on the GOV.UK website at ‘EU Structural Funds: UK allocations 2014 to 2020’. Each LEP area was asked how much it wanted to devote to the ESF, drawing on guidance issued by Government to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements at national level. The guidance can also be found on the GOV.UK website. Iinformation on the Strategies for 2014-2020 prepared by each LEP area can be found on the website ‘The Network of LEPs-LEP Network’, searching by European funding. These set out how much each proposed should be spent on ESF in their area.
Management of EU structural funds is devolved. The Devolved Administrations decide the criteria for allocation of ESF within their remits, taking account of the need to meet EU regulatory requirements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-04-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Association of Employment and Learning Providers on the nature of their involvement with and contribution to the Institute of Apprenticeships.
Nick Boles
I will be meeting with the incoming CEO of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers later this month. My officials have regular discussions with the Association on all aspects of apprenticeships policy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, from which academic year the Government plans that a Sharia-compliant student loan will be available for Muslim students.
Joseph Johnson
The November 2015 Higher Education Green Paper (Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice) confirms the Government’s intention to introduce, for the first time, a new system of alternative student finance. Subject to Parliament, the Government plans to introduce the system through new primary legislation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what mechanisms there will be under the Apprenticeship Levy for additional support to incentivise employers to take on disadvantaged young people.
Nick Boles
Extra support will be provided for employers to take on disadvantaged young people, including 16-18 year olds, those aged 19-24 who have been in the care of the Local Authority, apprentices with additional learning needs, and apprentices who do not have the level of English and maths that is required to meet the minimum standard.
Further guidance will be published in June 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to apply the freeze of the student loan repayment threshold on which his Department has recently consulted to the repayment of 24+ Advanced Learner Loans.
Nick Boles
As set out in the consultation, because both higher education student loans and 24+ Advanced Learning Loans share a repayment threshold, the change will equally affect both groups of learners.
The Spending Review announced that the Government has decided to implement a repayment threshold freeze for all borrowers with post-2012 (‘Plan 2’) loans. The repayment threshold will be £21,000 at April 2016, and it will not be uplifted until at least April 2021, when the threshold will be reviewed. This threshold remains higher in real terms than that of the loans taken out before 2012.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff were employed by full-time equivalence (a) in total and (b) by region in the National Apprenticeship Service in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2012-13 and (iii) 2014-15; and how many staff will be employed by full-time equivalence in the National Apprenticeship Service in (A) 2015-16, (B) 2016-17 and (C) 2017-18.
Nick Boles
The National Apprenticeships Service is housed within the Skills Funding Agency. The tables below outline the total number of staff employed by full-time equivalence and by region in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2012-13 and (iii) 2014-15; and how many staff will be employed by full-time equivalence in (A) 2015-16, (B) 2016-17 and (C) 2017-18.
*The Skills Funding Agency is unable to forecast future headcount.
|
Year |
Total |
Region |
|
2010-11 (as at 31 March 2011) |
Headcount 382 |
East Midlands – 33 East of England – 32 London – 37 North East – 26 North West – 36 South East – 33 South West – 35 West Midlands – 27 Yorkshire & Humber – 36 National – 87 |
|
2012-13 (as at 31 March 2013) |
Headcount 340 |
London – 54 Central – 66 North East – 64 North West – 40 South East – 39 South West – 51 National – 26 |
|
2014-15 (as at 31 March 2015) |
Headcount 317 |
London – 54 Central – 66 North East – 64 North West – 40 South East – 51 South West – 39 National – 3 |
|
2015-16 (as at 11.12.15) |
Headcount 245 |
N/A |
|
2016-17* |
Not available |
N/A |
|
2017-18* |
Not available |
N/A |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to launch his Department’s consultation for target numbers of apprenticeships in the public sector.
Nick Boles
The consultation was published on 25 January 2016.