Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will review (1) the time requirements for telecommunication companies to respond to reported service failures and restore telephone lines and broadband, and (2) the level of compensation for service failures.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
These are matters for Ofcom, the UK’s designated enforcer of consumer law and regulation for the UK communications industries. Ofcom do not handle individual complaints, but look at how problems affect UK consumers as a whole and then make decisions on whether to open enforcement investigations. Ofcom also has powers to introduce new consumer regulations under its General Conditions of Entitlement, which apply to all providers of electronic communications networks and services must comply with if they want to provide services in the UK.
In March 2017, Ofcom consulted on introducing an automatic compensation scheme for fixed broadband and landline telecoms to protect consumers who suffer from specific service failures. Subsequently, industry agreed to introduce a voluntary automatic compensation scheme, which came into effect from 1 April 2019. The new scheme applies to new orders placed or problems reported from 1 April 2019 and sets out compensation amounts for delayed repairs following a loss of service, missed repairs or provision appointments, and delays to the start of a new service. Ofcom plan to review the scheme after it has been in place for 12 months.
Where an individual feels that their service fault has been dealt with in an unsatisfactory manner by their telecoms provider, and if their complaint has not been resolved after eight weeks, they can refer their case to an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. ADR schemes can review individual cases and any decisions they make are binding on telecoms providers. There are two ADR schemes for telecoms, the Ombudsman Services (OS) and the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS), and all communications providers must be members of one of these schemes.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether primary schools with pupils who have type 1 diabetes receive additional funding towards the extra adults required to take care of such pupils; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
All school funding is in place to ensure that schools makes provision for all children. This includes an allocation for children with special educational needs and disabilities. Mainstream schools are expected to meet the first £6,000 of special educational need support costs for each child from their budget, which is calculated under a local formula that includes factors that provide extra resources to schools for their pupils with additional needs.
Where a school finds that further support is required, they can ask the local authority to provide top-up funding. It is for the local authority to determine what level of top-up funding is required for each pupil, based on individual needs.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 14 March (HL14136 and HL14137), what is the number of individual farmers who are awaiting (1) Countryside, (2) Entry Level, and (3) Higher Level, stewardship payments from (a) 2016, (b) 2017, and (c) 2018.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
A farm business may hold more than one agreement and make multiple claims. As of 17 March 2019:
1) All eligible Countryside Stewardship 2016 and 2017 claims have received a payment apart from exceptional cases such as those that cannot be paid for legal reasons such as probate.
There are just over 6,100 2018 claims still due an advance payment. Any claim that has not been paid a 2018 advance payment by the end of March will be issued a bridging payment in early April.
RPA are on track to complete 95% of 2018 final payments on claims by the end of July.
2) The information held on Environmental Stewardship claims does not currently separate between Entry and Higher Level agreements.
All eligible 2016 claims have received a system advance and/or final, or a bridging payment. All eligible 2017 claims received an advance or bridging payment.
RPA is on track to complete 95% of 2017 final payments by end of July. There are just over 9,500 2018 claims due their advance payment.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of primary school children who have type 1 diabetes.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there has been a underspend of the apprenticeship levies in each of the last three years; if so, by how much; and what consideration they have give to allowing any such underspends to be allocated to training schemes for the upgrade of skills.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Spending on the apprenticeship programme is demand-led. Employers choose the type, quantity and level of apprenticeships that they offer in order to meet their current and future skills needs.
Employers pay the apprenticeship levy to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Employers in England can then set up accounts on the apprenticeship service, allowing them to direct funds to cover the costs of training and assessment for their apprentices. Employers who pay the levy have up to 24 months to spend their levy funds in their accounts. We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all of the funds in their accounts, but they are able to do this if they wish.
There is a difference between what employers see in their levy accounts and the department’s annual apprenticeship budget set by Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT). Levy accounts include up to 24 months of levy funds. The department’s annual apprenticeship budget must fund the whole apprenticeship programme, including apprenticeships with smaller employers who do not pay the levy and apprenticeships that started before the levy was introduced.
In total, in the 2017-18 financial year, the department spent £1.6 billion (of a £2 billion budget) to fulfil employers’ demand for apprenticeships. Lower than anticipated demand from employers led to an underspend of approximately £400 million. HMT made available a portion of the department's 2017-18 underspend, including the underspend from apprenticeships, for programmes in future financial years. We will publish the expenditure from this financial year in our 2018-19 annual report and accounts after the end of this financial year.
A review of the levy is underway in order to consider, amongst other points, how it can be used most effectively.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to increase the availability of distance learning in rural areas where transport availability is difficult.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Distance learning offers excellent possibilities to open up choice and opportunity to people from a diverse range of backgrounds, including those from rural areas, and the government believes it should be widely available at a range of educational levels. Student support for tuition at higher education (HE) level is available for students who want to study on a part-time basis or by distance learning.
The National Retraining Scheme (NRS) is an ambitious, far-reaching programme to drive adult retraining. It will help individuals to respond to the changing labour market, redirect their careers and secure better, more secure jobs of the future.
To inform the design of the scheme, the Flexible Learning Fund is supporting 31 pilot projects across England with a total value of £11.4 million. The projects are designing and testing innovative, flexible learning that is easy to access. The pilots are aimed at adults who are working, or who are returning to work, with either low or intermediate skills. A range of delivery methods are being tested; most of the projects will make use of on-line technologies to a degree, as well as ‘blended learning’ that combines online and face-to-face learning.
My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has previously announced that Educational Technology (Edtech) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be a key feature of the NRS. Technological innovation and development, including in AI, will play an important part in improving the learning experience, design and effectiveness of online training.
The government has committed up to £30 million of funding. Working closely with the technology industry we will look to innovate, test and develop ways in which technological solutions can directly answer the specific needs of NRS users alongside all learners. Details of the funding will be announced in spring 2019.
It is only right that HE providers offer a range of options which suit all students, and that students have a real choice about where and how to study. The Review of Post-18 Education and Funding will consider how we can encourage and support more learning that is flexible, like part-time and distance learning, and enable more people to study close to where they live. The review will report later this year.
The regulatory system is also a means of opening up HE to a more diverse range of provision and therefore to a wider range of students. The Higher Education and Research Act, which came into law in 2017, placed a duty on the Office for Students to consider other modes of study when promoting choice and opportunity in the provision of HE.
Through recent HE reforms, we are working to support and encourage high quality new and innovative provision that has a strong offer for students, helping providers to navigate the regulatory system and we will continue to work with new providers to tackle any barriers that might arise.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to increasing the funding available for agricultural courses where they contain significant STEM elements.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government already provides funding via the Office for Students to support subjects where the costs of teaching exceed the income that providers receive through tuition fees. This includes agricultural courses with elements of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Current rates of high-cost funding are included in the ‘Office for Students: Guide to funding 2018-19’, attached.
Future funding for higher education will be announced in the forthcoming Spending Review following the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding, which is currently underway.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what factors will be taken into account by the relevant Secretary of State in considering the applications for the £1.6 billion Stronger Towns Fund announced on 5 March.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Stronger Towns Fund prospectus will be published before Summer recess. This will set out how local partners can bid in to the fund as well as detailing the role of local partners, relevant definitions and eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many farmers are awaiting Countryside Stewardship payments from 2018.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Payments for 2018 Countryside Stewardship claims are underway and 20% of eligible agreement holders have received their advance payment. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is working towards paying 95% of 2018 advance payments by the end of March and will issue bridging payments, in early April, to eligible agreement holders who have not received a payment by the end of March. In addition the RPA is aiming to pay 95% of eligible final payments by the end of July 2019.
The RPA took on administration of Countryside Stewardship in October 2018 and is continuing to simplify the administration of the scheme as far as possible under the current EU system.
Asked by: Baroness Byford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many farmers are awaiting the final payment of their (1) Entry Level Stewardship, and (2) Higher Level Stewardship, for 2017; whether any bridging payments will be paid to such farmers; and if so when.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Over 98% of 2017 advance and over 80% of 2017 final payments have been issued to agreement holders. Recognising the importance of these payments, around £26 million was paid in bridging payments to just over 1,700 eligible agreement holders in September 2018. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is working to complete 95% of final payments by the end of July.
The RPA took on administration of Environmental Stewardship in October 2018 and is continuing to simplify the administration of the scheme as far as possible under the current EU system.