Tag: Peter Kyle

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the £1.5 billion for the Better Care Fund by 2019-20 announced in the Autumn Statement 2015 is in addition to existing NHS financial allocations for the next five years.

Alistair Burt

From 2017 the Government will make adult social care funding available to local government, to be included in an improved Better Care Fund, rising to £1.5 billion in 2019-20. This is in addition to the NHS’s mandated contribution to the Better Care Fund, which will continue in real terms over the Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when the Government’s response will be published to the Dowling Review of Business-University Research Collaborations.

Joseph Johnson

We are grateful for the insights and recommendations provided in Dame Ann Dowling’s Review of Business-University Research Collaborations. We recognise and support the conclusion it has reached and Innovate UK is already working to simplify its product offering. Alongside the recent Higher Education Green Paper and Sir Paul Nurse’sreport, it will now be taken forward in our review of the funding landscape to make it, as recommended by Dame Ann, more strategic, coherent and effective.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his plans are for the future of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

Nick Boles

As announced in the 2015 Spending Review, in order to prioritise funding to allow the core adult skills participation budgets to be protected in cash terms, savings are being made from the supporting budgets including the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).

Whitehall Departments will be withdrawing their funding for UKCES during the 2016-17 financial year. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is working with UKCES to manage the implications of this decision.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish monitoring his Department undertook on the impact on micro-businesses of the changes to dividend taxation included in the Finance Bill.

Mr David Gauke

At Summer Budget 2015, the Chancellor announced that the dividend tax credit will be replaced by a new £5,000 tax-free dividend allowance from April 2016, and that dividend tax rates would be amended from the same date.

A tax information and impact note setting out expected impacts was published on 9 December. This is available to view at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-changes-to-dividend-taxation/income-tax-changes-to-dividend-taxation.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 20728, when his Department plans to publish the 2013-14 report on the prior qualification levels of apprentices.

Nick Boles

A submission on this report is due to be sent up to Ministers shortly requesting approval for publication. The findings are broadly in line with last year’s study.

This report is being finalised and will be published in due course.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the present amount of Continued Professional Development funding for training teachers in the new computing curriculum will be maintained for future academic years.

Nick Gibb

Over the last three years, the Department has spent more than £4.5 million to support the implementation of the new curriculum and is committed to support the high quality teaching of computing. This includes £3m to establish the Network of Teaching Excellence in Computer Science, building a national network of over 300 ‘Master Teachers’ whom schools can commission to provide training for their teachers; £1m for Computing at School (CAS) to meet the needs of primary schools teachers who lacked the specialist computer science subject knowledge required to teach the new curriculum; and a £500,000 competitive match-funded scheme that has supported innovative approaches to promoting excellent computing teaching and lever additional investment and engagement from business.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Answer of 4 May 2016 to Question 36124, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the apprenticeship levy on apprenticeship completion rates.

Nick Boles

The apprenticeship levy is part of a range of reforms which we are introducing to increase investment in apprenticeships, raise their quality and make them more relevant to employers’ needs.

High quality training that is more relevant to the needs of employers will encourage apprentices to complete their apprenticeships so that they are fully competent in their occupations.

Information on apprenticeship achievement rates in England is published in the Statistical First Release: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/learner-participation-outcomes-and-level-of-highest-qualification-held

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on the consultation into how the proceeds of the immigration skills charge should be spent.

Robert Halfon

The income raised from the Immigration Skills Charge will support the provision of skills for the resident population, to address the skills gaps that employers face. The amount of funding generated will depend on employer use of the Tier 2 route. Further information will be set out in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people were assisted by the Homelessness Prevention Grant in 2014-15.

Mr Marcus Jones

Homelessness prevention grant is part of our £500 million investment in local authority and voluntary sector homelessness services. It has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless since 2010 and assisted 220,800 in 2014-15 alone.

The Government does not evaluate the effectiveness of local authority grants including the Homelessness Prevention Grant. As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent from Central Government and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities. Since 2010, local councils have had more flexibility over how they spend the money they receive from central government. Together with the money raised through council tax and other local sources, they have considerable freedom to work with their residents to decide how best to spend available resources on local priorities.

My Department regularly engages with a wide range of partners on homelessness prevention. We have received five written representations directly from local authorities on the future of the grant since April 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ask the Care Quality Commission to investigate the project run by South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust between December 2014 and February 2015 on the treatment of emergency calls to NHS 111.

Jane Ellison

The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and adult social care, advises the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is scheduled for a comprehensive inspection in 2016.

The CQC advises it has attended a recent risk summit conducted by NHS England. The decisions or actions arising from the NHS England risk summit will be one of the factors considered in the timing of any forthcoming CQC inspection.

NHS England undertook an external investigation of the project, the report of which was published by NHS England on 5 November 2015.

We are advised that Monitor is taking action with South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust regarding concerns about the project and the regulator is working with the Trust now to identify the negative impact this project could have had on patients. It is Monitor’s function to undertaken such investigations independently of the Department. Monitor and Departmental officials regularly discuss such issues on a routine basis.

As part of regulatory action, Monitor advises it has asked the trust to carry out a detailed independent review of the impact the project had on patients. Monitor has asked the Trust to do this with the help of an external expert, who the regulator will select. The full details of what the review will look at and how long it will take are being worked on by the trust and Monitor, including consideration of publication of the review findings.