Tag: Gordon Marsden

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, which of the proposals in Higher education: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice, published by his Department on 6 November 2015 are intended to enhance part-time higher education.

Joseph Johnson

Proposals in the Green Paper, ‘Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice’ will benefit both full-time and part-time higher education. Through the Teaching Excellence Framework all students will get better value for money and have more information about the courses they are applying for. Our proposals on social mobility and widening participation will apply to all students and creating a competitive, well regulated higher education system will benefit current and prospective part-time students as well as full-time.

We have taken steps to support part-time students including introducing non-means tested fee loans and extending 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 and are engaging actively with the sector on this issue.

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 the (a) Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and (b) Chancellor of the Exchequer on how the Apprenticeship Levy will operate in combined authorities to whom powers over skills and training are devolved.

Nick Boles

Apprenticeship funding is not devolved and we have no plans to do so.

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.

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 heads of further education colleges about the implications for recruitment and retention of college staff of the Government’s restrictions on public sector pay increases.

Nick Boles

Further Education (FE) colleges are independent organisations. Each college determines the terms and conditions of its employees, in accordance with their own circumstances. FE Colleges are therefore not affected by the Government’s restrictions on public sector pay increases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2016 to Question 30445, what target she has set for the (a) number of enterprise coordinators to be appointed and (b) timeframe for those coordinators to be put in place.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) has made excellent progress in its work to transform the provision of careers, enterprise and employer engagement experiences for young people.

The CEC is aiming for Local Enterprise Partnerships to recruit 50 Enterprise Co-ordinators and 300 volunteer Enterprise Advisers between September 2015 and March 2016. The Department for Education is in the process of agreeing the CEC’s funding and targets for the forthcoming financial year.

The number of full-time equivalent staff currently employed by the CEC is 18. Further recruitment will depend on the funding available to the company and its objectives for future years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 April 2016, HCWS701, what estimate he has made of the number of students affected by the proposed changes to eligibility to student support for people with long residency in the UK.

Joseph Johnson

We estimated at the time of proposing the changes that they could lead to an additional 2,400 claims for student support in the first year after the changes take effect. This estimate was derived from information on those people who had non-asylum discretionary leave to remain and had applied for student support. However, we do not have information on the length of time these individuals have been in the UK or their age. It is therefore not possible to determine exactly how many of these individuals would meet the criteria in the new rules.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when his Department plans to publish its Skills White Paper.

Nick Boles

The Government is implementing reforms to the skills system to ensure we have the technical skills that the economy needs. We are considering when and how to publish details of our plans for further reform of the skills strategy.