Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what evaluation they have made of the proposal by the retailer Timpsons that national insurance holidays be introduced as an incentive for employers to take on former prisoners, armed forces veterans, or long-term unemployed individuals.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Government has committed in its manifesto to introduce a National Insurance holiday for employers who take on:
- those who have committed a crime but who have repaid their debt to society;
- veterans;
- and those who have been unemployed for over a year.
We will set out any changes as part of the annual fiscal event process, in the context of broader government work on employment support, and the wider public finances.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by the retailer Timpsons for a more flexible approach to the apprenticeship levy that does not require the use of pre-approved, often non-specialised, training providers in order to qualify for a grant.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Our apprenticeship reforms have put employers in the driving seat, empowering them to design new high-quality standards that give apprentices the skills that employers need. We are replacing old-style apprenticeship frameworks, which employers told us were not equipping apprentices to do the job. There are now over 420 industry-designed standards available for employers to use. We’ve seen strong uptake of these new standards; during the first half of 2018/19 nearly 60% of apprenticeship starts were on them.
We have introduced the levy to create long-term sustainable investment in high-quality apprenticeship training. Employers are able to choose how to spend their levy, so long as they spend it on apprenticeships. It is important that we maximise the effectiveness of government investment in training and our reforms are making sure that apprenticeships are delivering the high-quality training that both individuals and employers need.
We have introduced the register of apprenticeship training providers to give employers assurance that the training received by apprentices will be of a high quality. The register ensures that only providers who are appropriately skilled, ready to deliver, and financially stable can access apprenticeship funding. Employers who want to directly deliver apprenticeship training to their own employees can apply to the register, which remains open for applications.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage the use of school libraries and reading for pleasure in primary and secondary schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
It is for individual schools to decide whether to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils. Many head teachers recognise the important role school libraries play in improving literacy and encouraging pupils to read for pleasure and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided. The current national curriculum, introduced from 2014, places greater emphasis on pupils developing the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, as they move through key stage 1 into key stage 2, having first mastered the essentials of phonic decoding. Pupils should read for themselves a wide range of stories, poems, plays and information books. From 2016 the end of key stage 2 reading assessment was changed to reflect this more rigorous curriculum.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they provide (1) funding, and (2) other support to prisons to run arts and literacy programmes; if so, what; and how they assess the impact of such programmes.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance is part-funded through the Ministry of Justice grant to CLINKS. Whilst there is no separate budget to fund arts and literacy programmes, such activity has for many years been funded at local level through prison education budgets. Both the new education commissioning routes available to governors from 1 April make explicit provision for arts, literacy and other cultural activity as a means of engaging prisoners in learning. The activity also enables progression to higher levels, develops human and social capital, and improves life skills, employability and wellbeing, thereby helping to prevent re-offending.
In 2016, ‘Arts, culture and innovation in criminal justice settings: a guide for commissioners’, published by the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance, set out and summarised a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the positive impact of the arts in criminal justice settings in engaging, motivating and providing opportunities for people to develop new skills, as well as discover new ways of behaving and relating to others. On Friday 22 March 2019, the Ministry of Justice published a tool which arts organisations can use to measure the intermediate outcomes from activity they deliver within the criminal justice system. This will support them in demonstrating their effectiveness to commissioners.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to promote and support bookshops to improve levels of literacy.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department does not have any policies that specifically target bookshops. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has set an ambition to halve the proportion of children who finish reception without the language and literacy skills needed to thrive by 2028. As part of this, we will be launching a public-facing campaign later this year to improve the quality and quantity of parent-child interactions and make it easy for parents to chat, play and read with their children. This includes working closely with the National Literacy Trust, businesses and libraries to improve access to books.
In partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation, we are also investing over £4 million to home learning environment trials in the north of England. The trials range from an intensive home visiting programme aimed at improving early literacy, to a texting initiative intended to nudge parents to do more activities that help develop literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills.
As part of the £26.3 million English hubs programme, participating schools will also receive support to improve teaching of English as an additional language phonics and to ensure children have access to decodable books for the early stages of reading.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the long-term impact on future generations is accounted for in their policy-making processes.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government requires that all programmes, projects and policies demonstrate the costs, benefits and risks associated with the intervention over its whole lifetime in line with the Government “Green Book”. This includes the impact on future generations.
The OBR produce both the Fiscal Risk Report and the Fiscal Sustainability Report which highlight the risks to the public finances and demographic trends that are likely to impact the public finances over the next half century. Managing Fiscal Risks, the Government’s response to the report, provides a comprehensive account of the actions the government is taking to address the 57 risks outlined by the OBR.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Social Mobility Pledge; and what steps they are taking to support its uptake by employers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Social Mobility Pledge (SMP) initiative represents an excellent opportunity for businesses to become SMP accredited employers, by committing to enhance support for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We recognise the importance of the pledge. It fits with the aims of the government’s own strategies for social mobility. We are leading by example - the attached Civil Service Workforce Plan sets out how government provides exemplary leadership on social mobility as an employer and leads the way for other organisations. In addition, the department was ranked 18th out of 106 employers who submitted entries to the 2018 Social Mobility Employer Index. This index ranks Britain’s employers on the actions they are taking to improve access and progression.
We offer similar initiatives to the SMP which supports employers to improve social mobility. For example, the Department for Education’s ‘Skills Partner’ initiative encourages employers to sign a statement of action with the government, demonstrating collective commitment to a strong skills programme that gives every individual the opportunity to succeed.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reinstate the deferred pensions of those women born in the 1950s who were meant to receive their pensions aged 60; and what assessment they have made of whether those women were given sufficient notice of the deferment.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Successive governments of different political persuasions have taken the same approach to increased life expectancy and equality between 1995–2019. The Government has no plans to revisit the policy on women’s State Pension age as brought forward by the 1995 pensions Act or the 2011 Pensions Act, and does not intend to make further concessions. The changes in the 2011 Act occurred following a public Call for Evidence and extensive debates in Parliament. A concession limiting the increase in State Pension age under the 2011 Act in any individual case to 18 months, relative to the 1995 Act timetable, has already been made during the passage Act (at the cost of £1.1 billion).
In the years after the 1995 legislation (1995 to 2011) this equalisation was frequently reported in the media and debated at length in parliament. People were notified with leaflets, an extensive advertising campaign was carried out, and later individual letters were posted out.
Evidence submitted to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee ‘Communication of state pension age changes’ in 2016 noted that there were more than 600 mentions of State Pension age equalisation in the national broadsheet and tabloid press between 1993 and 2006, an average of just under one per week between 1993 and 2006. There were 54 mentions in the press in 1995, the year in which equalisation was legislated for. This was a significant event to change the age at which women received their State Pension that had existed since 1940. This was news worthy, particularly to those that it affected. Further media coverage occurred around the Pension Acts 2007, 2011 and 2014.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that every primary and secondary school is equipped with an adequate school library.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
It is for individual schools to decide whether to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils. It is clear, however, that many head teachers recognise the important role school libraries play in improving literacy and encouraging pupils to read for pleasure and ensure that suitable library facilities are provided. The 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study indicated that 92% of year 5 pupils in England were attending a school where there was a library. This was above the international average of 87%.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of empty homes in the England; and what steps they intend to take to reduce the number of such empty homes.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Statistics on vacant dwellings in England and in each local authority district are published in the Ministry’s live table 615 which is available (attached) at the following link. This table shows the annual total numbers of empty homes, those vacant longer than six months and also vacants in the local authority, housing association and other public sector tenures.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants.
There were 605,891 Vacant Dwellings in England on 2 October 2017, an increase of 16,125 (2.7 per cent) from 589,766 on 3 October 2016. Vacant dwellings were 2.5 per cent of the dwelling stock in England on 2 October 2017.
There were 205,293 Long-Term Vacant Dwellings in England on 2 October 2017, an increase of 5,148 (2.6 per cent) from 200,145 on 3 October 2016 but remain lower than when records began on 1 Nov 2004 (318,642). Long-term vacant dwellings were 0.9 per cent of the dwelling stock in England on 2 October 2017.
Rates of council tax charged on empty homes are a matter for individual local authorities, who will take into account local circumstances in reaching their decision. In 2018, 299 out of 326 authorities reported that they were charging a premium on some of their empty dwellings, up from 291 in 2017.