Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any evidence that difficulties in recruiting UK nationals as nurses reflect changes in the UK's higher education system in recent years.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Until 1 August 2017, nursing, midwifery and allied health profession students had their training costs largely borne by the NHS, and this was not affected by changes to the wider higher education system.
From 1 August 2017, most new undergraduate healthcare students receive tuition fee loans and, for full-time courses, living costs support, administered by the Student Loans Company. The former Department of Health also confirmed that it would fund up to an additional 10,000 clinical placements to support this expansion. These students are in their first year of university study.
These reforms to healthcare student funding will help secure the future supply of nurses to the NHS by removing the artificial cap on training numbers in these professions, and enabling thousands of additional UK applicants to gain a place to study nursing at university.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the cost would be of removing the payment of employee national insurance by people under 26.
Answered by Lord Bates
The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
HMRC does not hold an estimate of the cost of making this policy change. In order to do so would require the modelling of the cost in pre-behaviour terms as well as a number of behavioral adjustments to the costing driven by the differential NICs rates on different income streams this policy would create for those under 26.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the cost to the Exchequer of the recently announced changes to student loan repayments.
Answered by Lord Bates
The government will set out the cost to the Exchequer of the recently announced changes to the repayment threshold for Plan 2 students in England next month.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
Her Majesty's Government what are the annual figures for housing starts in (1) the United Kingdom; and (2) England, from 1979 to 2016; and how these figures compare to the equivalent figures for (a) Germany, (b) France, (c) Ireland and (d) Poland.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
New build dwelling starts for the United Kingdom and England for 1979 to 2016 are shown in the table below. These cover new build dwellings only and should be regarded only as an approximate leading indicator of overall housing supply.
The Department also publishes an annual release entitled ‘Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England’, which is the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply. The most recent publication can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/housing-supply-net-additional-dwellings-england-2015-to-2016
The Department does not hold figures for Germany, France, Ireland, or Poland.
Table 1. New build dwelling starts for the United Kingdom and England
| United Kingdom | England |
Year | New build dwelling starts | New build dwelling starts |
1979 | 231,700 | 190,580 |
1980 | 160,360 | 129,740 |
1981 | 158,810 | 130,760 |
1982 | 200,650 | 165,650 |
1983 | 228,350 | 189,010 |
1984 | 204,930 | 168,720 |
1985 | 206,120 | 169,920 |
1986 | 218,380 | 181,760 |
1987 | 234,760 | 196,800 |
1988 | 259,560 | 217,290 |
1989 | 208,100 | 165,220 |
1990 | 171,633 | 133,470 |
1991 | 170,687 | 133,800 |
1992 | 164,147 | 129,300 |
1993 | 193,383 | 151,230 |
1994 | 210,993 | 165,440 |
1995 | 178,387 | 136,230 |
1996 | 185,827 | 144,710 |
1997 | 200,813 | 157,570 |
1998 | 187,920 | 149,400 |
1999 | 191,124 | 148,370 |
2000 | 186,182 | 142,610 |
2001 | 192,063 | 146,770 |
2002 | 194,369 | 150,700 |
2003 | 208,502 | 161,280 |
2004 | 227,984 | 176,680 |
2005 | 224,445 | 173,900 |
2006 | 223,953 | 170,610 |
2007 | 234,353 | 183,600 |
2008 | 141,772 | 106,890 |
2009 | 114,274 | 85,600 |
2010 | 139,234 | 110,660 |
2011 | 138,438 | 113,260 |
2012 | 125,345 | 101,020 |
2013 | 149,937 | 124,790 |
2014 | 169,907 | 140,760 |
2015 | 177,281 | 146,090 |
2016 | .. | 153,560 |
Sources:
United Kingdom and England (Department for Communities and Local Government, Welsh Assembly Government, Scottish Government, Department of Finance (Northern Ireland), District Council Building Control (Northern Ireland). Released 25 May 2017. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
Her Majesty's Government which aspects of the UK's trade in services with non-EU countries are (1) covered by WTO agreements, and (2) not covered by WTO agreements.
Answered by Lord Price
(1) There are 135 non-EU WTO members. The UK’s trade in services with WTO members is covered by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). On joining GATS, each WTO Member makes its own specific commitments to providing services market access and non-discriminatory treatment. These commitments are made sector-by-sector. Additionally, eighteen non-EU WTO members have made commitments under the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) on best-practice procurement procedures and non-discrimination.
(2) GATS does not cover services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority nor services directly related to air transport rights. Both GATS and GPA contain exceptions, for example relating to protection of life or to international emergencies.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of relying on agreements under the WTO for trade with the EU27 should an agreement with the EU not be reached by April 2019 in the following services sectors: (1) financial services, (2) professional business services, (3) digital services, (4) creative services, (5) air services, (6) tourism, (7) education, and (8) health-related travel services.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Department for Exiting the EU is working with officials across government and undertaking a programme of analytical work to assess the economic impacts of exiting the European Union across a range of scenarios.
As part of our analysis we are looking at more than 50 sectors within the areas of goods; services; financial services; network industries; and agriculture and fisheries as well as cross-cutting regulations. This will inform the UK's position for the negotiations with our EU partners.
However, Parliament has asked the Government to protect information that could undermine the UK's negotiating position and the Government will respect this.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to accelerating their review of the future of the rating system and the associated taxation of online businesses, in the light of the impact on the UK's towns and high streets.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government is considering the scope of possible reforms to the business rates system, including the frequency of revaluations, and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of comparative public and private sector pay, including the value of pensions, for the years for which this information is available.
Answered by Lord Bates
Analysis conducted by HM Treasury shows that on average, when including employer pension contributions, there is a premium of about 10%. Details can be found in the table below:
Year | Total Pay and Employer Pension Contributions – Differential between Public and Private Sector (%) |
2005 | 8.39 |
2006 | 7.97 |
2007 | 7.54 |
2008 | 8.8 |
2009 | 11.8 |
2010 | 14.73 |
2011 | 12.78 |
2012 | 11.88 |
2013 | 11.65 |
2014 | 9.33 |
2015 | 10.42 |
2016 | 9.12 |
Technical notes to the table:
This analysis was conducted by HM Treasury based on data from the ONS’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and compares public and private sector earnings when including employer pension contributions.
The differential obtained shows the percentage hourly compensation from working in the public sector above that of the private sector after accounting for differences in composition between the two. To factor in these compositional differences, the analysis accounts for differences in age, gender, job type (full- or part-time, permanent or temporary), occupation category, region, and tenure.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the proposal to deploy smart meters requiring wifi in homes, what progress has been made with the rollout of broadband.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
There is no direct link between the smart meter programme and the superfast broadband rollout programme, because the smart meters programme will not be using fixed broadband connections (they will instead involve transfer of small amounts of data over wireless technologies). However, i can confirm that the Government broadband programme is making good progress with over 600,000 new premises now having superfast broadband available for the first time as a result of the Government’s investment and that will rise to over 1 million by the end of Summer 2014.
Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made on the rollout of (1) basic broadband, (2) superfast broadband, and (3) mobile coverage, in rural areas; and what assessment they have made of the impact of those technologies on the rural economy.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Ofcom 2013 UK communications market report and infrastructure update report that broadband was available to 100% of UK premises, whilst 8% of connections were operating at less than 2mbps; that was down from 11% of connections in 2009.
By the end of summer 2014, 1 million new premises will have superfast broadband available for the first time as a result of our superfast broadband programme and 4 million additional premises will have superfast broadband available to them from the current projects; that will mean 90% of UK premises will be able to access superfast services. The second round of projects will add over 1 million more premises, taking coverage to 95% across the UK.
With respect to the impact of the broadband programme, an independent Broadband Impact Study by analysts SQW (with Cambridge Econometrics), revealed the Government's investment in superfast broadband is expected to deliver a major boost to the UK economy; for every £1 the government is investing in broadband, the UK economy could benefit by up to £20 by 2024. It also demonstrated that the benefits will be shared across the UK, helping the rebalancing of our economy; approximately 89 per cent of the benefits will be in areas outside London and the South East of England with rural areas set to benefit most.
The report focussed on impacts of mass market broadband services – i.e. ‘affordable broadband' for SMEs and households – and estimated that by 2024, net annual GVA impacts attributable to intervention include:
· £0.8 billion from safeguarding local enterprise employment,
· £5 billion from productivity growth for broadband-using firms,
· £0.3 billion from improved teleworker productivity, and
· £0.2 billion from increased labour force participation.
The majority of these benefits will be to SMEs, and over half to rural areas.
With respect to mobile coverage the 4G rollout will ensure we continue to have some of the best mobile broadband services in Europe. As a result of the 4G auction in 2012, O2 has an obligation to provide indoor 4G coverage to 98% of the UK population and to at least 95% in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland by the end of 2017. The other three UK mobile network operators have publicly committed to match O2's coverage obligation by the end of 2015.