Tag: Lord Allen of Kensington

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2016-07-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the changes that have transferred policy on apprenticeships and the responsibility for the Institute for Apprenticeships to the Department for Education, how they plan to ensure that employers and business leaders are involved in future development of policy on apprenticeships.

Lord Nash

Prior to recent Government changes, the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills were jointly responsible for apprenticeships policy. The Department for Education remains fully committed to working with and involving employers and business leaders in the development and implementation of apprenticeships policy.

The Institute for Apprenticeships will be employer-led and have responsibility for ensuring the quality of apprenticeship standards in England. The board will comprise primarily of employers, business leaders and their representatives. This will ensure that employers are fully engaged and continue to play a key role in improving apprenticeship quality.

Employer-led groups will continue to develop apprenticeship standards that meet their skills needs. Over 1,400 employers are currently involved in designing the new apprenticeship standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2016-07-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the risk to, and effect on, the UK economy and British businesses of the UK being left out of the development by the EU of a digital single market.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The UK remains a member of the EU and will continue to play an active role in the development of the Digital Single Market until the formal and legal process of leaving the European Union has been finalised.

I will be working with colleagues across government to make sure we understand the potential risks and opportunities for our economy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2016-07-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the changes that have placed responsibility for universities within the Department for Education and the responsibility for research, including for the research councils and Innovate UK with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how they plan to ensure that businesses and the university sector work closely together to maintain the UK’s research and science base, and to make the UK an attractive place to innovate.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

This Government has demonstrated its commitment to the UK’s research and science base, protecting £4.7bn funding in real terms at the Spending Review. Our proposals set out in the Higher Education and Research Bill will meet Sir Paul Nurse’s ambition to strengthen strategic leadership and maximise the benefit from the Government’s investment in research and innovation.

A single minister for Universities and Science whose portfolio spans both departments will ensure coherence and integration across universities, research councils and Innovate UK and have a strong input into our industrial strategy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2016-09-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many proposals they have received from prospective fund managers in response to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority competition for a commercial partner for its proposed Broadband Investment Fund, and when they plan to announce the successful bidder.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority has received seven proposals from prospective commercial partners for the proposed Broadband Investment Fund. Officials are currently evaluating the proposals and carrying out due diligence. The government will announce a decision in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when Innovate UK will publish its strategy for 2016–20.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Innovate UK intends to publish its Strategy for 2016-20 in the spring. This will be followed by the publication of Innovate UK’s Delivery Plan for 2016-17. This timetable takes account of the timing of the recent Spending Review.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2016-09-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to bring forward legislation to provide a statutory basis for the independent National Infrastructure Commission.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The National Infrastructure Commission has a crucial role to play in setting out the country’s infrastructure priorities. Since being set up, it has produced three challenging and authoritative reports on smart power, London transport and a long-term strategy for transport in the North, and has recently consulted on its approach to the first National Infrastructure Assessment.

The government remains fully committed to the Commission and we are considering how it can best support the government’s new industrial strategy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what key market sectors have been identified for priority assistance by Innovate UK.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Innovate UK consults widely to prioritise technology areas for investment and carefully considers issues such as global market opportunity and UK research excellence and business capability.

Innovate UK’s current priority areas are agriculture and food, built environment, digital economy, emerging technologies, enabling technologies, energy, health and care, high value manufacturing, resource efficiency, space applications, transport and urban living. Following the Government’s Spending Review, Innovate UK is considering its strategy for business-led innovation support across the UK’s technology areas for the next Spending Review period, which will be presented to Ministers in spring 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2016-09-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to appoint a new Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The process of identifying and appointing a successor Chief Executive will begin immediately.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many catapult networks have been established by Innovate UK; what is the focus of each network; and how much funding they are providing to each network.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Innovate UK has established a network of 10 Catapult Centres covering a broad range of markets and technologies and Government investment will be around £557 million by 2015/16 but the future allocation between the individual catapults has not yet been finalised”. The Catapults are:

High Value Manufacturing Catapult – seven individual centres working together to bring their expertise in different and complementary areas of high value manufacturing to provide an integrated capability and embraces all forms of manufacture using metals and composites, in addition to process manufacturing technologies and bio-processing.

Cell Therapy Catapult – working to grow a viable and sustainable cell therapy industry in the UK.

Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult – focused on development of commercially viable technologies applicable to offshore wind, wave and tidal power.

Satellite Applications Catapult – helping UK businesses to develop new satellite-based products and services.

Digital Catapult – working to position UK business to lead the introduction of radically new applications and experiences across the increasing breadth of internet services.

Future Cities Catapult – helping to make cities to become smarter and more forward thinking.

Transport Systems Catapult – supporting UK industry in exploiting the massive global market for new products and services that will drive the integration of transport and its systems and help UK businesses to develop effective and sustainable solutions to transport needs for both freight and people.

Energy Systems Catapult – working to deliver economic value to Britain by making the transformation of the UK’s energy systems sector attractive to companies that are developing and growing new technology-based products and services by creating a critical mass of world class independent engineering and social science expertise in energy systems

Precision Medicine Catapult – working to simplify and accelerate precision medicine product development and implementation, building the necessary partnerships between different therapeutic, diagnostic and informatics players in the sector, supporting existing and new companies and attracting inward investment by global life science companies

Medicines Technologies Catapult – still being established, but will work on the development of new technologies that better predict the response of humans, animals and environment to chemicals (for example prescription drugs, pesticides and cosmetics).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2016-09-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the impact of the resignation of Mr Simon Kirby as Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd on the delivery of phase 1 of the HS2 project on time and to budget.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government is committed to delivering HS2 which remains absolutely on track with strong cross-Party support. There are no plans to change the project. HS2 is on time and on budget and construction will start next year.