Tag: Michelle Donelan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what cross departmental work his Department has undertaken with the Department for Education to ensure that the needs of business are met by the education system.

Nick Boles

Officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) are working together at all levels to deliver the ambitious 16+ skills reform programme, supporting me in my role as joint Minister. This programme aims to achieve the best possible outcomes for young people and adults and set high standards and promote strong qualifications. Our work is intended to ensure that people have the education, training and skills that business and employers need in order to be competitive and grow.

Apprenticeships are our flagship policy for equipping people with the skills employers demand. For young people (aged 16-19), we want the new norm to be them considering university or an apprenticeship (or both, in the case of Degree Apprenticeships), as equally valid routes to a successful career. 2.6m apprentices have started since 2010 and we are committed to 3m starts by 2020. BIS and DfE are also supporting traineeships, which are designed to equip young people aged 16-24 with skills and experience that employers are looking for. Both apprenticeships and traineeships are joint DfE/BIS programmes that are managed through clear and collaborative joint working between both Departments and their Agencies.

The Government’s ambitious reforms to the education system raise standards in English and maths, giving people the essential literacy and numeracy skills and qualifications that we know employers seek from new recruits more than any other qualifications. Learners who did not achieve a Level 2 in English and maths by the age of 16 are now required to continue to study those subjects post-16. We have also increased the level we expect people to study in apprenticeships and in traineeships and fully fund all adults to achieve their first English and maths GCSE. In addition, we are jointly leading a programme to reform Functional Skills qualifications to ensure they are robust and credible qualifications that develop the skills that employers need.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis will be made available on the NHS to people who have (a) been raped and (b) had underage sex.

Jane Ellison

NHS England has recently announced that it would make available up to £2 million over two years to enable access for high risk individuals through early implementer test sites. NHS England will work with Public Health England and the Department to confirm the criteria for patient access and assessment of expressions of interest from local authority areas to confirm successful sites. The criteria which will be used to determine the locations of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Test Sites have not yet been established.

PrEP is an intervention in advance of sexual exposure, and therefore is not relevant for rape victims who may require post exposure prophylaxis after clinical assessment. With regard to those having underage sex, eligibility for treatment through test sites will depend on the clinical assessment of risk undertaken.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) financial and (b) other support his Department provided for research into treating motor neurone disease in each of the last three years.

George Freeman

Spend by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in the Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health category ‘neurological’ has increased from £29.9 million in 2010/11 to £46.7 million in 2014/15 (the latest year for which data is available). There are no HRCS health sub-categories such as for motor neurone disease or other specific neurological conditions, and information on total annual NIHR spend on research into treating motor neurone disease is not held.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the financial contribution made by employers to apprenticeship training in the last 12 months.

Nick Boles

Details of the proportions of employers who paid fees to a provider can be found in The Apprenticeships Evaluation: Employer Survey 2015¹.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not hold information on the financial contributions paid by employers.

¹https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-evaluation-employer-survey-2015

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that businesses are able to recruit employees with the required level of skills.

Nick Boles

Officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) are working together at all levels to deliver the ambitious 16+ skills reform programme, supporting me in my role as joint Minister. This programme aims to achieve the best possible outcomes for young people and adults and set high standards and promote strong qualifications. Our work is intended to ensure that people have the education, training and skills that business and employers need in order to be competitive and grow.

Apprenticeships are our flagship policy for equipping people with the skills employers demand. For young people (aged 16-19), we want the new norm to be them considering university or an apprenticeship (or both, in the case of Degree Apprenticeships), as equally valid routes to a successful career. 2.6m apprentices have started since 2010 and we are committed to 3m starts by 2020. BIS and DfE are also supporting traineeships, which are designed to equip young people aged 16-24 with skills and experience that employers are looking for. Both apprenticeships and traineeships are joint DfE/BIS programmes that are managed through clear and collaborative joint working between both Departments and their Agencies.

The Government’s ambitious reforms to the education system raise standards in English and maths, giving people the essential literacy and numeracy skills and qualifications that we know employers seek from new recruits more than any other qualifications. Learners who did not achieve a Level 2 in English and maths by the age of 16 are now required to continue to study those subjects post-16. We have also increased the level we expect people to study in apprenticeships and in traineeships and fully fund all adults to achieve their first English and maths GCSE. In addition, we are jointly leading a programme to reform Functional Skills qualifications to ensure they are robust and credible qualifications that develop the skills that employers need.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the criteria are for a person to be eligible to receive HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis on the NHS.

Jane Ellison

NHS England has recently announced that it would make available up to £2 million over two years to enable access for high risk individuals through early implementer test sites. NHS England will work with Public Health England and the Department to confirm the criteria for patient access and assessment of expressions of interest from local authority areas to confirm successful sites. The criteria which will be used to determine the locations of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Test Sites have not yet been established.

PrEP is an intervention in advance of sexual exposure, and therefore is not relevant for rape victims who may require post exposure prophylaxis after clinical assessment. With regard to those having underage sex, eligibility for treatment through test sites will depend on the clinical assessment of risk undertaken.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is planned that the Government’s childhood obesity strategy will include measures restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

Jane Ellison

Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the summer, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese. It will set out what more can be done by all.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make additional funding available for battery and fuel cell research and development.

Mr John Hayes

The government allocated more than £600 million to support the uptake, development and manufacture of ultra low emission vehicles in the 2015 Spending Review. Our comprehensive package of support includes funding provision for research and development projects, and the scope of a new competition launched on 5 September 2016 includes battery and fuel cells.

Further details are available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-competition-low-emission-vehicle-systems-idp13.

The UK already provides one the most comprehensive support packages for ultra low emission vehicles anywhere in the world. We shall keep the funding requirements for the OLEV program under constant review.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2015-10-30.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the effect on revenue to the Exchequer of allowing devolved local authorities to keep 100 per cent of the business rates raised from car parks in (a) the UK, (b) England and (c) Wiltshire in each of the next three years.

Greg Hands

On 5^th October we announced plans to reform business rates in England, a change that will see local government retaining all revenue for the first time since 1990. The new powers will come with new responsibilities and the phasing out of grants from Whitehall to ensure that the reforms are fiscally neutral. Over the course of the next eighteen months we will be working with local government on the details of the scheme. Ahead of final decisions, it is too early to assess what the impact will be on individual areas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations her Department has received from businesses on the inclusion of design technology within the EBacc qualification.

Nick Gibb

The consultation on implementing the EBacc closed on 29 January. We have received responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including businesses. The Government response, including a list of responding organisations, will be published in due course.