Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) rate, and (2) value, of losses since the launch of the Kickstart Scheme in 2020.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Kickstart Scheme has not declared any losses.
The National Audit Office (NAO) report on the Kickstart Scheme was published in November 2021. This report contains details on spend as of the end of September 2021. You can access the NAO report here.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of (1) inflation, and (2) increased prices, on levelling-up projects being funded by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; and what assessment they have made of the likelihood of any such projects being cancelled.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The department continues to monitor the impact of inflation and increased prices through both formal reporting mechanisms and on the ground relationships. We have put reasonable adjustments and flexibilities in place to mitigate pressures, giving places greater autonomy to manage projects facing rising costs whilst maintaining value for money. We have also agreed a £65 million package of support for local authorities delivering Levelling Up Fund projects.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have participated in the 'Help to Grow' scheme since its launch; and how much has been spent on that scheme.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Help to Grow schemes have supported over 5,000 businesses so far. We will release details on the uptake and costs of both the Help to Grow schemes in due course after Help to Grow Digital has fully closed.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many British National (Overseas) visas have been issued since the visa scheme was launched; and how many of those have settled in the UK.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office releases data on the BN(O) route as part of the quarterly migration statistics. There were a total of 121,193 BN(O) route applications made out of country granted between 31 January 2021 and 30 September 2022, and a total of 23,383 BN(O) route applications made in country granted between 31 January 2021 and 30 September 2022.
14 people on the BN(O) visa route have been granted settlement in the UK up to the end of September 2022
The Home Office publishes data on visas, grants of settlement and the British National Overseas (BN(O)) route in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’ on GOV.UK.
Data on the number of entry clearance visa grants to main applicants under the BN(O) route are published in table Vis_D02 of the entry clearance visas applications and outcomes detailed dataset. Data on the number of grants of settlement are published in table Se_D02 of the settlement detailed dataset
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates up to, and including, September 2022. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assistance they are providing to those who have fled Hong Kong and are claiming asylum status in the UK; and of those applicants, how many are women.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The UK has a proud record of providing protection for people who need it.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the protests outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, what steps they are taking to protect (1) British citizens protesting peacefully in the UK against the government of China, and (2) Chinese protestors living in the UK.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights set out that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, assembly and association. This government will support these rights, including the right of individuals to engage in peaceful protest.
It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to gather together and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law.
The management of demonstrations is an operational matter for the police. In certain circumstances, the police have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect those who want to exercise their rights peacefully.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of their commitment to pay (1) 90 per cent of undisputed and valid invoices from SMEs within five days, and (2) 100 per cent of all undisputed and valid invoices within 30 days, as part of their Prompt Payment Policy.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
(1) In terms of the 90% of undisputed and valid invoices from SMEs within 5 days target: at the end of the previous financial year, 13 of 16 departments were exceeding 85% payment of all invoices within 5 days, with 7 departments paying over 90% of all invoices within this time period.
(2) In terms of the 100% of valid and undisputed invoices being paid in 30 days target: as of the same date, 14 of 16 departments were paying in excess of 95% of their invoices within 30 days, with 6 of these exceeding 99%. This information is published quarterly on GOV.UK.
Cabinet Office works with departments to improve payment performance. In addition, the Procurement Bill will ensure that 30 day payment terms are included in government supply chain contracts.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have included international students in their net migration figures.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 29 November is attached.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
The Lord Leong CBE
House of Lords
London
SW1A0PW
08 December 2022
Dear Lord Leong,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking why international students have been included in our net migration figures (HL3844).
Statistics on long-term international migration produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are estimated in accordance with international standards. The United Nations definition of a long-term migrant is: “A person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence[1] .” International students will typically live in the UK for more than a year, and so meet the definition of a long-term migrant.
However, we recognise this definition is narrow and doesn’t always meet user needs. We have plans to explore alternative definitions, including estimating net migration by reason, such as study[2] . This will help provide more context to headline measures of migration, addressing recent findings from the ONS research that most international students will leave the UK after their studies are concluded.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/ methodologies/longterminternationalmigrationestimatesmethodology#:~:text=Definition%20of%20a%20l ongterm%20migrant&text=%E2%80%9CA%20person%20who%20moves%20to,new%20country%20of%20 usual%20residence.%E2%80%9D
[2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/ articles/internationalmigrationstatisticaldesignprogressreport/july2022#how-we-are-transformingmigration-statistics
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people they have employed as part of the Civil Service Fast Stream in the last three years; and of those, how many have since left the Civil Service; and of those, how many cited low pay as a reason for leaving.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
1,909 individuals have joined the centrally managed Civil Service Fast Stream schemes in the last three years - further data on Fast Stream recruitment up to 2021 is already published externally at:
85 of these individuals have left the Civil Service. None of those who provided a reason for leaving through an exit survey stated this was due to pay and reward considerations though this does not necessarily mean it was not a consideration for them.
Asked by: Lord Leong (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likely impact of overseas students being prevented from entering the UK for their (1) graduate, and (2) post-graduate, studies on UK universities’ reputation internationally.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The UK’s HE sector has a strong reputation globally. The department is committed to maintaining the UK as an attractive study destination for international students. As set out in the International Education Strategy, we are working closely with the higher education (HE) sector and other government departments to ensure international students are welcomed and supported.
The department works with colleagues across government to ensure up-to-date immigration advice is available to students to help with their student visa journey.
The department has met the International Education Strategy’s ambition to host at least 600,000 international students per year in the UK, nearly ten years early, with a total of 605,130 international students in the UK in the in the 2020/21 academic year.