Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of apprenticeship levy networks in improving small businesses’ access to apprenticeship levy funding.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The apprenticeship levy supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training. Transfers are a great way for large employers to use their levy funds to support apprenticeships in other businesses, including small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities, to help meet local or sector skills needs. This could include businesses in their supply chain.
The department continues to promote the benefits of levy transfers and has increased the proportion of their funds that levy-paying employers can transfer to support more apprenticeships in other businesses from 25% to 50%. This will help SMEs hire more apprentices by reducing their costs and enabling them to benefit from the support and experience that larger employers can provide.
Hundreds of large levy-paying employers have already taken advantage of the opportunity to transfer their unused levy funds to other businesses. Since September 2021 over 550 employers, including ASDA, HomeServe, and BT Group, have pledged to transfer over £37 million to support apprenticeships in businesses of all sizes. It is also encouraging to see regional schemes to support local businesses through transfers, including in the West Midlands.
SMEs can also access funding directly from the apprenticeships budget. The department has increased investment in the apprenticeships system in England to over £2.7 billion this financial year to support employers of all sizes, including SMEs. In addition, last year, the department removed the limit to the number of apprentices that SMEs can take on, making it easier for them to grow their businesses. This has already benefitted almost 350 SMEs. The department also now fully funds the costs of training and assessment for new apprentices aged 16 to 21 in small businesses.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support and (b) promote regional levy networks.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The apprenticeship levy supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training. Transfers are a great way for large employers to use their levy funds to support apprenticeships in other businesses, including small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities, to help meet local or sector skills needs. This could include businesses in their supply chain.
The department continues to promote the benefits of levy transfers and has increased the proportion of their funds that levy-paying employers can transfer to support more apprenticeships in other businesses from 25% to 50%. This will help SMEs hire more apprentices by reducing their costs and enabling them to benefit from the support and experience that larger employers can provide.
Hundreds of large levy-paying employers have already taken advantage of the opportunity to transfer their unused levy funds to other businesses. Since September 2021 over 550 employers, including ASDA, HomeServe, and BT Group, have pledged to transfer over £37 million to support apprenticeships in businesses of all sizes. It is also encouraging to see regional schemes to support local businesses through transfers, including in the West Midlands.
SMEs can also access funding directly from the apprenticeships budget. The department has increased investment in the apprenticeships system in England to over £2.7 billion this financial year to support employers of all sizes, including SMEs. In addition, last year, the department removed the limit to the number of apprentices that SMEs can take on, making it easier for them to grow their businesses. This has already benefitted almost 350 SMEs. The department also now fully funds the costs of training and assessment for new apprentices aged 16 to 21 in small businesses.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of illegal migrants were (a) in Stoke-on-Trent and (b) housed in hotels in Stoke-on-Trent in the last 12 months; and how many have been removed since October 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office publishes data on irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release. Data on detected irregular arrivals is published in table Irr_01 and data on returns of small boat arrivals is published in table Irr_02e of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK summary tables’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2023. Data on all returns is published in table Ret_D01 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’ as part of the ‘Immigration system statistics’ quarterly release.
These statistics should not be used to infer the size of the irregular population in the UK, nor the total number of people entering the UK irregularly. The location of irregular arrivals is not published. However, the Home Office does publish data on asylum seekers in receipt of support by local authority, some of whom will have entered the UK through irregular methods, in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement data tables’ as part of the ‘Immigration system statistics’ quarterly release.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the financial impact of contracts with Transform Schools (Stoke) Limited on existing school budgets.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Stoke Local Authority school private finance initiative (PFI) contract was signed in the year 2000 and covers 88 schools in the area. The contracts were commonplace from 1998 to 2009. The department recognises that some schools with PFI contracts face higher costs.
The department supports schools that have unavoidable extra costs related to their PFI contracts through the ‘PFI factor’ in the schools national funding formula.
Local authorities determine individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula. Local authorities can choose if, and how, to operate a PFI factor in their local funding formula. How they do this will vary between local authorities, reflecting in each case the specific nature of the PFI contract in question.
The purpose of the factor is to fund the additional costs to a school of being in a PFI contract, but not necessarily the full cost, as some costs may be covered within other factors and are not unique to PFI schools.
In 2024/25, the department is allocating £3.1 million in funding through the PFI factors for schools in Stoke.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in Stoke-on-Trent were built under a private finance initiative (PFI) contract with Transform Schools (Stoke) Limited.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Stoke Local Authority school private finance initiative (PFI) contract was signed in the year 2000 and covers 88 schools in the area. The contracts were commonplace from 1998 to 2009. The department recognises that some schools with PFI contracts face higher costs.
From the information provided by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, the department understands that the 13 schools listed in the attached PDF were built under the PFI contract with Transform Schools (Stoke) Limited (TSSL). The department is also aware that other schools covered by the same contract received various levels of refurbishment. Stoke-on-Trent City Council will hold the detail relating to this.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which schools in Stoke-on-Trent are included in the PFI contract with Transform Schools (Stoke) Ltd.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Stoke Local Authority school private finance initiative (PFI) contract was signed in the year 2000 and covers 88 schools in the area. The contracts were commonplace from 1998 to 2009. The department recognises that some schools with PFI contracts face higher costs.
Information on the Stoke-on-Trent schools in the PFI contract with Transform Schools (Stoke) Limited was provided by the local authority and can be found in the attached PDF.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on ensuring that every school in (a) Stoke-on-Trent, (b) Kidsgrove and (c) Talke has a defibrillator.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
On 17 July 2022, the department announced that it would be ensuring all state-funded schools in England had access to an automated external defibrillator (AEDs).
In July 2023, the department confirmed that the defibrillator programme had successfully completed the rollout of over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 schools, ensuring that all state-funded schools in England have access to this life saving first-aid equipment. This includes schools in Stoke-on-Trent, Kidsgrove and Talke.
More information about this programme is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-children-get-access-to-life-saving-defibrillators.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding the Government has given to (a) schools in Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Transform Schools (Stoke) Ltd in relation to the PFI contract between Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Transform Schools (Stoke) Ltd in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Stoke Local Authority school private finance initiative (PFI) contract was signed in the year 2000 and covers 88 schools in the area. The contracts were commonplace from 1998 to 2009. The department recognises that some schools with PFI contracts face higher costs.
No payments are made by the department directly to Transform Schools (Stoke) Ltd in relation to the Stoke PFI contract. All payments under this PFI contract to Transform Schools (Stoke) Ltd are made by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Departmental funding for the Stoke PFI contract is sent via other organisations, rather than directly to schools, and for each of the last ten years is set out in the table attached.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress his Department has made on ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As a result of the range of measures put in place to stop the boats, reform the management of the asylum accommodation estate, and deliver alternative forms of accommodation sites, we have successfully met our ministerial commitment of closing over 50 hotels in January 2024.
We continue to work with our providers on closing further hotels across the estate and will write to local authorities and MPs when a decision to close a site has been made.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing financial incentives for businesses to manufacture medicines in the UK.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2021, the Government’s Life Sciences Vision set out our ambition to create a globally competitive environment for Life Sciences manufacturing investments. To help meet these ambitions, the Government has launched three capital grant schemes, with up to £118 million of grant funding allocated. To date, these schemes have delivered £416 million of public and private investment and helped create or secure over 1,400 jobs. We anticipate announcing the next round of grant recipients over spring 2024.
In 2023, the Government announced a further £520 million of funding for Life Sciences manufacturing. This funding, available from 2025 over five years, will help to ensure that the United Kingdom remains a world leading location for Life Sciences manufacturing investments.