Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 3 March (HL5641), what is the average wait time for new claims for a new job where the claimant received Access to Work support in their previous employment.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Applications with jobstarts in the next four weeks are prioritised; however, the specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
However, the Access to Work statistics includes how many applications result in provision being approved from 2007/08 to 2021/22.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here: Access to Work statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what mechanism has been proposed to select backbench peers for attendance at the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III on 6 May.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A number of tickets have been made available for members of the House of Lords to attend the Coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort. These have been split between the different parties and groups in the House of Lords, with this split agreed by all parties and groups who will distribute the tickets to peers.
There will be other opportunities for peers to be involved with the Coronation, outside of attending the Coronation service, both on the day itself and in the preceding weeks. These opportunities will be allocated on the same basis with tickets split across all parties and groups.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what their total financial contribution to local authorities in England will be in the financial year 2023–24 for (1) revenue spending, (2) capital investment, and (3) one-off grants, specifically excluding any funding towards local authority expenditure raised locally.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England. Where locally raised council tax is excluded the figure is £25.7billion.
The only one-off grant introduced into the Settlement was the one-off funding guarantee to ensure that every council sees at least a 3% increase in Core Spending Power next year before any local decisions on Council Tax rates.
However, not all funding to local government is provided through the Settlement. For example, the Government is providing capital funding including through the second round of the Levelling Up Fund which will see £2.1billion of taxpayer subsidy provided to 111 local infrastructure projects across the UK. Alongside this, there is the annual Public Health Grant at a total of over £3.4 billion per annum, amongst many other grants.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 14 February (HL5193), whether that figure includes (1) claims made within a person's Access to Work agreement, and (2) new claims for a new job where the claimant received Access to Work support in their previous employment.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The figure provided on 14th February (HL5193) is inclusive of both, claims made within a person’s Access to Work agreement and new claims for a new job where the claimant received Access to Work support in their previous employment.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the population in each of the 10 largest cities in England are in receipt of prescription medication for high blood pressure.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they used to determine the range of subjects in which Alternative Academic Qualifications (AAQs) will be funded from 2025.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The approach the department has taken to determining the range of subjects that we will fund was informed by two public consultations and reflects our priority to ensure that as many students as possible benefit from world class A levels and T Levels.
The range of subjects where the department will approve small alternative academic qualifications (AAQs) for funding (and which can be studied alongside A levels) will be focused on those that are strategically important (such as STEM subjects and those supporting the NHS), and those that are less well-served by A levels. Large AAQs (equivalent in size to at least 2 A levels) will be considered for public funding from 2026 in subjects where there are no T Levels; there is a need for a large qualification enabling entry to more specialist areas of higher education such as performing arts; and there is a clear and direct progression link into higher education.
This is based on a range of evidence including departmental analysis of student outcomes and independent data sources such as research undertaken by the Nuffield Foundation and the Sixth Form Colleges Association. The detail of this evidence is set out in the department’s second stage consultation, and the subsequent government response and policy statement. Further details on the government’s response is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3-second-stage. This evidence shows that pupils who take programmes consisting of A levels alone generally have better earnings and employment outcomes than those pursuing non-A level or mixed programmes, after controlling for background characteristics.
Additionally, reforms to level 2 qualifications, alongside the T Level transition programme and our work with providers to pilot an Academic Progression Programme, will enable students to work towards level 3 or enter skilled employment.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average GCSE score for students in England studying (1) A levels, (2) Applied Generals, (3) a combination of A levels and Applied Generals, and (4) T levels, in the last year for which data are available.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The average GCSE points of students that took A level examinations was 6.47. For those that took applied general examinations, it was 4.90, and for those that took both A level and applied general, it was 5.42. The number of students taking A levels was 284,380, the numbers taking applied general was 119,853, and the numbers that took both A level and applied general examinations was 61,024.
Figures are based on students at the end of 16 to 18 study in 2021/22 and derived from data underpinning the ‘A level and other 16 to 18 results’ statistical release. This statistical release is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results-2022-revised.
Transparency data for T Levels was published on the first T Level results day on 18 August 2022. This is based on information reported to the Department through the manage T Level results service, but does not include data on student prior attainment at Key Stage 4. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/t-level-results-academic-year-2021-to-2022-provisional.
Attainment data for T Levels will be published for the 2023/24 cohort of students, the first year that T Levels will be included in school and college accountability measures.
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total NHS expenditure on outpatient paediatric ophthalmology services in 2021/22.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The table below sets out the cost to the National Health Service in England in financial year 2021/22 of providing General Ophthalmic Services. These figures are derived from draft accounts and will not be finalised until they are published on the NHS England website.
| £ million | Proportion |
NHS Sight Tests | 307 | 56.6% |
NHS Optical Vouchers incl. Repairs & Replacements | 222 | 41% |
Other General Ophthalmic Services contract costs | 13 | 2.4% |
The table below shows the cost for secondary care organisations submitted via the National Cost Collection for outpatients within Treatment Function Code ‘Paediatric Ophthalmology’, for the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21, which is the latest available data.
| £ million |
2019/20 | 43.7 |
2020/21 | 50.5 |
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total NHS expenditure on general ophthalmic services activity in 2021/22; and what proportion was on (1) NHS sight tests, and (2) NHS optical vouchers.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The table below sets out the cost to the National Health Service in England in financial year 2021/22 of providing General Ophthalmic Services. These figures are derived from draft accounts and will not be finalised until they are published on the NHS England website.
| £ million | Proportion |
NHS Sight Tests | 307 | 56.6% |
NHS Optical Vouchers incl. Repairs & Replacements | 222 | 41% |
Other General Ophthalmic Services contract costs | 13 | 2.4% |
The table below shows the cost for secondary care organisations submitted via the National Cost Collection for outpatients within Treatment Function Code ‘Paediatric Ophthalmology’, for the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21, which is the latest available data.
| £ million |
2019/20 | 43.7 |
2020/21 | 50.5 |
Asked by: Lord Blunkett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the average length of time taken to process claims under the Access to Work Scheme was from 1 January to 31 December 2022.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The average length of time taken to process claims under the Access to Work Scheme for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 was 52.1 days
The time taken to process different application types can vary, some can be cleared very quickly, and decisions made in a day, whereas others, if complex, may take longer and require a Workplace Assessment to recommend a tailored package of support for individual customers.
Access to Work has received a significant increase in applications over the last year. In response, we have recruited new staff to meet the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions, and we are continuing with this over the year. We are also transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation, that will make the service more efficient, make the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.