Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they require accredited banks to take a super-senior position when granting Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme loans.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Except in respect of a residential development facility, a Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) facility must at all times during its life, rank on at least a pari passu basis with the most senior obligations (including secured and/or super-senior obligations, if any) of the Borrower. This includes from all collateral taken by any lender from the borrower unless the borrower is a financing vehicle, whereby this will include any collateral from any member of its Group.
There are certain carveouts from this requirement including:
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what levels of security they recommend accredited banks take when granting Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme loans.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We would expect a lender to follow its normal credit policy when assessing additional security generally. Personal guarantees of any form cannot be used in respect of any Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) facilities up to £250,000. For facilities of £250,000 and over, claims on personal guarantees applied to the scheme facility cannot exceed 20% of losses on the scheme facility after all other recoveries have been applied.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in their consultation with UK businesses about the future regulation of chemicals in the UK once the participation with EU REACH ends; how many businesses they have consulted; which sectors those businesses are part of; and when they intend to publish the results of that consultation.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
UK regulators are well prepared to take on new responsibilities under UK REACH. We have already provided extra resources to both the Health and Safety Executive (HSE and the Environment Agency (EA) to prepare for UK REACH and we will continue to scale up their resources over the next two years. We have previously estimated the cost of operating UK REACH at £13 million a year at full operation. That figure includes the operation and maintenance of the Comply with UK REACH IT system and staff resourcing in Defra, HSE and the EA. We are keeping this estimate of resource requirements under regular review as planning for the end of the Transition Period continues.
We have put in place measures to enable industry to comply with UK REACH through a phased transitional period. Defra's estimates of the costs to industry broadly align with those identified by industry, and we continue to explore a range of further steps to minimise the burdens on businesses.
As part of that process we have been undertaking a focused evidence-gathering exercise to better understand costs and practical options to reduce burdens on industry. This involves a number of key stakeholders including businesses of different sizes across the supply chain, trade associations and NGOs. We are now considering how to respond to the conclusions of this work.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of the cost to the private sector of the implementation of a new UK chemicals regulation system to replace EU REACH.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
UK regulators are well prepared to take on new responsibilities under UK REACH. We have already provided extra resources to both the Health and Safety Executive (HSE and the Environment Agency (EA) to prepare for UK REACH and we will continue to scale up their resources over the next two years. We have previously estimated the cost of operating UK REACH at £13 million a year at full operation. That figure includes the operation and maintenance of the Comply with UK REACH IT system and staff resourcing in Defra, HSE and the EA. We are keeping this estimate of resource requirements under regular review as planning for the end of the Transition Period continues.
We have put in place measures to enable industry to comply with UK REACH through a phased transitional period. Defra's estimates of the costs to industry broadly align with those identified by industry, and we continue to explore a range of further steps to minimise the burdens on businesses.
As part of that process we have been undertaking a focused evidence-gathering exercise to better understand costs and practical options to reduce burdens on industry. This involves a number of key stakeholders including businesses of different sizes across the supply chain, trade associations and NGOs. We are now considering how to respond to the conclusions of this work.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the resources in place to implement the new UK chemicals regulation system replacing EU REACH; and what estimate they have made of the annual cost of that new system.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
UK regulators are well prepared to take on new responsibilities under UK REACH. We have already provided extra resources to both the Health and Safety Executive (HSE and the Environment Agency (EA) to prepare for UK REACH and we will continue to scale up their resources over the next two years. We have previously estimated the cost of operating UK REACH at £13 million a year at full operation. That figure includes the operation and maintenance of the Comply with UK REACH IT system and staff resourcing in Defra, HSE and the EA. We are keeping this estimate of resource requirements under regular review as planning for the end of the Transition Period continues.
We have put in place measures to enable industry to comply with UK REACH through a phased transitional period. Defra's estimates of the costs to industry broadly align with those identified by industry, and we continue to explore a range of further steps to minimise the burdens on businesses.
As part of that process we have been undertaking a focused evidence-gathering exercise to better understand costs and practical options to reduce burdens on industry. This involves a number of key stakeholders including businesses of different sizes across the supply chain, trade associations and NGOs. We are now considering how to respond to the conclusions of this work.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to build infrastructure at UK ports to accommodate new checks on (1) vehicles, and (2) goods, coming from the EU after 1 January 2021.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
HMRC will continue to engage with port authorities at key border locations to understand the constraints in different sites, and to discuss how to ensure ports are operationally ready for the end of the transition period.
HMRC will also continue to keep their plans for additional infrastructure under review, depending on what is needed as part of the future trading relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the average amount spent from apprenticeship levy pots by companies; how much of the apprenticeship levy fund was spent in total in 2019; whether that total represents an (1) overspend, (2) underspend, or (3) spend as forecast; and how the forecast overspend of that fund was calculated.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The apprenticeship levy is collected by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive a share of levy funding, which increased to £459 million in 2019-20. It is for the devolved administrations to decide how their allocations should be used.
The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the Department for Education’s annual apprenticeships budget, which is set to fund apprenticeships in England only and is set irrespective of actual levy receipts. This budget is used to fund training for new apprenticeship starts in levy and non-levy paying employers and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training. It is also used to cover the cost of end-point assessment and any additional payments made to employers and providers.
In 2018-19, we spent £1.7 billion of the £2.3 billion ring-fenced budget. The underspend of £489 million against this budget is set out on page 71 of the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s annual report and accounts, published in July 2019 and attached. In 2019-20, our total budget allocation is £2.5 billion. Final end-of-year outturns will be published in the 2019-20 annual report and accounts.
Spending on the apprenticeship programme is demand-led and employers can choose which apprenticeships they offer, how many apprenticeships they offer and when they offer the apprenticeships. We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them but they are able to do so if they wish.
In 2018-19, levy paying employers spent, on average, around 30% of the funds available to them in their apprenticeship service accounts. In the same period, spending on apprenticeship training and assessment in non-levy paying employers was £0.5 billion.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of the apprenticeship levy fund is currently being spent by non-levy payers.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The apprenticeship levy is collected by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive a share of levy funding, which increased to £459 million in 2019-20. It is for the devolved administrations to decide how their allocations should be used.
The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the Department for Education’s annual apprenticeships budget, which is set to fund apprenticeships in England only and is set irrespective of actual levy receipts. This budget is used to fund training for new apprenticeship starts in levy and non-levy paying employers and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training. It is also used to cover the cost of end-point assessment and any additional payments made to employers and providers.
In 2018-19, we spent £1.7 billion of the £2.3 billion ring-fenced budget. The underspend of £489 million against this budget is set out on page 71 of the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s annual report and accounts, published in July 2019 and attached. In 2019-20, our total budget allocation is £2.5 billion. Final end-of-year outturns will be published in the 2019-20 annual report and accounts.
Spending on the apprenticeship programme is demand-led and employers can choose which apprenticeships they offer, how many apprenticeships they offer and when they offer the apprenticeships. We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them but they are able to do so if they wish.
In 2018-19, levy paying employers spent, on average, around 30% of the funds available to them in their apprenticeship service accounts. In the same period, spending on apprenticeship training and assessment in non-levy paying employers was £0.5 billion.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much in total the NHS has contributed to the apprenticeship levy fund to date; and what proportion of that total has been spent on apprenticeships.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We are working closely with employers, Health Education England and other delivery partners to make sure that the National Health Service is supported to recruit apprentices, thus utilising their levy contributions, in a range of occupations. This is to ensure the NHS has a workforce that is reflective of the population it serves.
The apprenticeship levy is paid by NHS employers with a pay bill over £3 million. It is for each NHS employer to determine how to spend the funds available to them for apprenticeships. The Department for Education hold the official data on employer level spending. Individual NHS employers hold their own data on their levy spend. We do not collect this data centrally.
Asked by: Lord Fox (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the apprenticeship levy fund is being spent on, other than supporting apprentice training instigated by (1) companies, (2) levy payers, and (3) non-levy payers.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The apprenticeship levy underpins our reforms to raise apprenticeship quality and supports employers to make long-term, sustainable investments in the skills that they need to grow.
The levy is collected by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs from all UK employers with a pay bill above £3 million. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive a share of levy funding, which increased to £459 million in 2019-20. It is for the devolved administrations to decide how funds raised from the levy should be used.
The funds available to levy-paying employers through their apprenticeship service accounts are not the same as the Department for Education’s annual apprenticeships budget, which is set to fund apprenticeships in England only, and is set irrespective of actual of levy receipts. We do not anticipate that all employers who pay the levy will need or want to use all the funds available to them, but they are able to if they wish. In the 2019-20 year, over £2.5 billion is available for investment in apprenticeships in England. This is double what was spent in 2010.
The apprenticeship budget is used to fund training for new apprenticeship starts in levy and non-levy paying employers and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training. It is also used to cover the cost of end-point assessment and any additional payments made to employers and/or providers, including for apprentices who are 16 to 18, 19 to 24 and have previously been in care, or who need additional support to achieve the English and maths requirements.