Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many institutions in England (a) held and (b) were granted taught degree awarding powers in each year since 2006.

Joseph Johnson

Based on the information available to us, there were 103 institutions in England that held taught degree awarding powers in 2006. The number of such awards in each year since then is as follows:

2007 – 7

2008 – 2

2009 – 6

2010 – 0

2011 – 0

2012 – 3

2013 – 1

2014 – 2

2015 – 3

2016 – 3 (as of 5 September 2016)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the annual budget for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate was in 2011-12.

Nick Boles

The budget for the Employment Agency Standards inspectorate for 2011-12 was £776,643.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when his Department’s consultation on a new system of maintenance support for higher education students wishing to study part-time from 2018-19 will be launched.

Joseph Johnson

The consultation will be launched in the new year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what funding has been allocated for national minimum wage enforcement activity within his Department from 2015-16.

Greg Hands

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.

Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only have to pay arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker. A further increase in penalties will come into force in April 2016 and will increase the penalty percentage from 100% to 200% of the underpayments owed to each worker, up to the existing maximum.

The extra funding was allocated in two tranches. The first of £3 million has been used by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to recruit additional staff primarily into front line compliance posts to increase the scope and coverage of interventions aimed at identifying employers who do not pay the minimum wage.

The second tranche of £1 million has been used to appoint staff into new roles specifically geared to promoting compliance with the National Minimum Wage, through education and support for employers, helping workers to understand their rights, and tackling serious non-compliance where deliberate behaviour is suspected.

Staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing National Minimum Wage, including people who work in legal advice, debt management, technical support and criminal investigation. However, HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified in UIN 16853.

HMRC does not breakdown the overall budget allocated into specific activities. For details of the overall budget in 2015/16, I refer the honourable member back to the answer provided at UIN 16853. Funding allocations for 2016/17 onwards have yet to be confirmed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to include LGBT issues in sex and relationship education in schools.

Edward Timpson

All schools should offer high quality, age-appropriate sex and relationship education (SRE), and build a curriculum that meets the needs of all their students. We expect schools to ensure that young people feel that SRE education is relevant to them.

SRE is compulsory in all maintained secondary schools and many primary schools also teach SRE, in an age-appropriate manner. We expect academies and free schools to deliver relationship education as part of their provision of a broad and balanced curriculum. Any school teaching SRE must have regard to the Secretary of State’s SRE guidance.

We welcome the supplementary SRE guidance, SRE for the 21st Century, produced by Brook, the PSHE Association and the Sex Education Forum, which includes guidance on ensuring that SRE is inclusive. All children and young people, regardless of background or identity, are entitled to quality SRE that helps them build confidence and stay healthy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the benefits to his Department of conducting policy work outside of London.

Joseph Johnson

Since summer 2015 the Department has been reviewing its business model. By 2020, we want to simplify our structure, become more digital, be cheaper for taxpayers and better for users. As part of this we anticipate reducing the number of our locations from more than 80 to approximately 7 centres plus a regional footprint for the provision of local services. The intention to close the BIS Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place is based on a strategy to simplify delivery and focus expertise in specific areas. Consistent with this strategy the policy function will be in one place, close to Ministers, and the Department has made a decision to locate all its policy functions in the HQ in London. By 2020 the majority of employees in BIS and our Partner Organisations will continue to be based outside of London.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610, how many national minimum wage enquiries relating to non-payment or deductions were made to (a) the Pay and Work Rights Helpline and (b) Acas by people working in (i) domiciliary and (ii) residential care between 2009-10 and 2014-15.

Nick Boles

Information on the number of enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline or Acas by workers from the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sector is not available. The answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610 represents the most detailed breakdown of trade sector information available.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-21.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what training is provided to HM Revenue and Customs national minimum wage inspectors on identification and investigation of cases of human trafficking.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has developed a specific training package targeting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking which is mandatory for all visiting officers. This training advises officers on the indicators to look for and the responses to take where exploitation is suspected.

HMRC participates in multi-agency investigations into cases of Modern Slavery where there are potential tax or National Minimum Wage (NMW) offences. Since February 2015, HMRC has opened 73 tax investigations in cases where Modern Slavery is suspected. HMRC does not collate specific data on any NMW arrears identified in cases involving Modern Slavery.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what consultation took place with patient representative groups and charities representing older people on the changes to attendance allowance proposed in the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17.

Mr Marcus Jones

In December, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced that the Government will be consulting on giving councils in England “more responsibility to support older people with care needs – including people who, under the current system, would be supported through Attendance Allowance”. We want to explore if there is a better way to provide support for older people with care needs through local integration and we intend to launch a consultation on this in due course. Any change would not affect those already receiving Attendance Allowance. The consultation will be an open process that will give everybody a voice in determining the nature of any reform and will inform the decision about whether and how to proceed with any reform.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2016 to Question 32406, if he will make it his policy that the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service collect the number of national minimum wage inquiries relating to the domiciliary care and residential care sectors.

Nick Boles

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) only record trade sector information when a caller chooses to provide it. There are no plans to request Acas collect more detailed sector information other than the sector categories that are currently available for National Minimum Wage (NMW) calls.

NMW callers that identify as working in the domiciliary care or residential care sectors are categorised in the ‘Health, social work and child care’ sector.

More detailed sector information may be available where a call is referred to HMRC and results in a full investigation taking place.