Tag: Gordon Marsden

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that injured military veterans do not have to pay social care costs out of their military compensation; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

Armed forces veterans injured in service receive payments either through the War Disablement Pension (WDP) or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS). The AFCS applies to veterans injured from 6 April 2005. These payments are divided into a personal injury compensation element and other payments. Traditionally, only the personal injury compensation payment has been fully disregarded.

Since October 2012 Guaranteed Income Payments made to veterans under the AFCS have been disregarded. The Department has been in discussion with the Royal British Legion about how WDP payments are treated. Currently the first £10 per week of WDP payments is disregarded. The Government is considering how WDP payments to veterans should be treated in the financial assessment for social care charging in future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the implementation of the Prime Minister’s commitment of April 2015 to utilise the proceeds of the £227 million fine on Deutsche Bank to create a new three-year fund to create 50,000 apprenticeships.

Nick Boles

This Government will be spending twice as much in cash terms on apprenticeships by 2020 compared to 2010. Spending on apprenticeships in England will be £2.5bn in 2019-20. The Department for Business Innovation and Skills spending review settlement for apprenticeships reflects the government’s commitment regarding the proceeds of the Libor fine the FCA announced in April 2015.

Further announcements that support the Government’s commitment to delivering employment opportunities for young people will be announced in due course.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Skills of 10 March 2016, whether the £1.5 billion raised by the apprenticeship levy in England referred to will be part of the £2.5 billion for 2019-20 or additional to it.

Nick Boles

By 2019-20 we expect the apprenticeship levy to raise £3 billion annually. We expect to spend £2.5 billion on apprenticeships in England. This is an increase of £1 billion on the £1.5 billion committed to apprenticeships in 2015-16.

This increase in expenditure demonstrates the importance that the Government places on high quality apprenticeships in supporting employers and growth of the economy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many full-time equivalent staff there were in the Education Funding Agency in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15.

Nick Gibb

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) was established in April 2012, therefore data can only be provided from that date onwards. Please see the table below for details of the number of full time equivalent members of staff in the EFA in April 2012 – April 2015.

Month and year	Number of full time equivalent members of staff
April 2012	631
April 2013	680.2
April 2014	734.5
April 2015	822.7

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-05-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 35476, whether the apprenticeship levy will be at the rate of 0.5 per cent on employers’ pay bills over £3 million in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19 and (c) 2019-20.

Greg Hands

Tthe government has confirmed that the apprenticeship levy will be set at a rate of 0.5% of company paybill and every employer will have a £15,000 allowance to offset against their levy liability. In practice, this means only employers with paybills greater than £3million will pay the levy. As with all policies, the government will keep the apprenticeship levy under review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to his Department’s White Paper, Success as a knowledge economy: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice, published on 16 May 2016, what discussions he has had with the devolved administrations on the effect of the establishment of UK Research and Innovation on their policies and funding.

Joseph Johnson

My officials have discussed the proposals in the White Paper, including the creation of UK Research and Innovation, with the Devolved Administrations. I look forward to continuing these discussions with my counterparts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Schools of 4 July 2016, Official Report, column 210WH, what the evidential basis is for the statement that 77 per cent of UK employees say that they need more employees with foreign languages.

Nick Gibb

The figure to which I referred on 4 July was derived from a survey by the Confederation of British Industry’s Education and Skills Survey 2015[1] which found that only 23% of businesses said they had no need for foreign language skills among their employees.

[1] http://news.cbi.org.uk/reports/education-and-skills-survey-2015/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the higher education sector on extending the loan book to part-time students who wish to undertake a second degree.

Joseph Johnson

We have extended fee loans for those already holding a degree to students wishing to retrain in engineering, technology and computer science. We continue to examine what more we can do to support part-time including the availability of additional fee loans and are engaging actively with the sector on these issues.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with (a) public sector employers, (b) private sector employers and (c) UnionLearn on the implications of the Apprenticeship Levy on staff training budgets.

Nick Boles

Ensuring that the apprenticeships levy works for all employers is a key priority for BIS. As such, we are engaging with both public and private sector employers, representatives from Unionlearn, and wider Government Departments on how the levy will operate and how they will build apprenticeships into their workforce training plans. We will be continuing engagement over coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK voting to leave the EU on UK students’ participation in the Erasmus scheme.

Joseph Johnson

The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of EU membership that cause so much frustration in the United Kingdom – so we get a better deal for our country and secure our future. We are confident that the right agreement can be reached.