Lord Smith of Clifton

The amount of funding allocated to the Skills Funding Agency is set out in the Skills Funding letter attached here .The letter sets out the funding priorities and available budget for the further education (FE) and skills sector for the 2015 to 2016 financial year. The letter confirms that £172.8m has been allocated for Learning Support and £23.1m for Skills Infrastructure.

Table 1 shows the number of apprenticeships starts for those aged 18, 19, 20 and 21 for each Level and in total in 2013/14.

Table 1: Apprenticeship Starts by Age and Level, 2013/14

Notes:

1) The source is the Individualised Learner Record.

2) Volumes are rounded to the nearest 100.

A large number of organisations play a part in securing compliance with the law. They include national regulators, local authorities, and bodies independent of Government, some of which have statutory regulatory functions. [Data on coverage of sectors by regulatory agencies are not available].

Her Majesty’s Government has for the first time published details of the main national regulators, their remits and regulatory budgets and staff resource as well as the regulatory functions undertaken by local authorities on the BIS website: http://discuss.bis.gov.uk/focusonenforcement , a copy of which is attached for information.

This exercise mainly focuses on regulatory functions carried out in England. In the case of Scotland, it only applies to regulatory functions exercised in reserved matters. In Northern Ireland, it only applies to regulatory functions which have not been transferred. It does not apply to regulatory functions which are only exercisable in or as regards Wales.

Data about regulators was not collected or collated in this manner by Her Majesty’s Government. A decade ago, however, Sir Philip Hampton did publish details of a range of relevant bodies and a copy of this material is also attached for information.

Table 1 shows the number of apprenticeship starts for 16, 17 and 18 year olds in 2012/13 and provisional full year apprenticeship starts for the same ages in 2013/14. Provisional data are subject to change and should not be directly compared with data from earlier academic years.

Table 1: Apprenticeship starts by age (2012/13 and 2013/14 provisional full year)

Notes

1) Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10.

2) Age is calculated based on age at start of the programme rather than based on 31 August.

3) Provisional data are subject to change and should not be directly compared with data from earlier academic years.

Estimates of employer spend on training and Apprenticeship wages are in the public domain and can be accessed via the following links:

Employer Skills Survey 2013, UK Commision for Employment and Skills (UKCES ) Jan 2014 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/304403/ukcess2013_england_slide_pack.pdf

Apprenticeship Pay Survey 2012, BIS Oct 2013 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-pay-survey-2012

61 Arm’s Length Bodies with regulatory functions are listed in the Cabinet Office publication Public Bodies 2017. Many of these bodies also have non-regulatory functions. This publication does not include regulators operating as part of Government departments, outside central government, in devolved or local government, nor those which remain unclassified. The running cost of these bodies is set out in Public Bodies 2017, but this includes the cost of non-regulatory functions – the running cost of regulatory functions is not separately identified.

No such assessment has been made by the Department. However this information is part of the audit report that is filed by all relevant UK companies at Companies House. We are aware that a number of commercial information providers are able to use Companies House data to derive information of this nature. One example of such a provider is the Bureau Van Dijk Fame Database.

We estimate that there were 13,000 funded learners aged 19-24 who participated in Access to higher education (HE) courses in the 2015-2016 academic year in England through the adult skills budget. £37 million of the adult skills budget has been spent on delivering Access to HE courses.

We estimate that there were 13,000 funded learners aged 19-24 who participated in Access to higher education (HE) courses in the 2015-2016 academic year in England through the adult skills budget. £37 million of the adult skills budget has been spent on delivering Access to HE courses.

The information requested is not held centrally.

A total of 203,890 learners aged 19 to 24 years old participated in full Level 3 courses in the 2016-17 academic year.

Additional information on further education and skills participation is attached and also available from the ‘FE data library: further education and skills’ demographic tool at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-further-education-and-skills.

The Student Loans Company publishes statistics on student loan expenditure by financial year as part of an annual national statistic ‘The Student Loans Company: Student Loans in England’. These statistics are available in the tables at:

https://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment/england.aspx.[1]

In the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18, £237.6 million and £246 million respectively were paid in part-time tuition fee loans in England.

There is no separate budget for part-time loans in the department. The budget for student loans for all types of study is included within the Departmental Supplementary Estimates. For financial year 2016-17 see the attachment entitled “Part II: Changes Proposed”, also available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplementary-estimates-2016-17, (page 185). For 2017-18 see attachment entitled “Part II: Revised subhead detail including additional provision”, also available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplementary-estimates-2017-18, (page 196).

[1] It is not possible to attach this information as it is part of a lengthy, complex and detailed data set.

Advanced Learner Loan providers are issued with a loans ‘facility’ by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), this is a notional allocation. The Department for Education reports on the proportion that is paid by the Student Loans Company to providers on behalf of 19-23 year old loans learners, split by qualification level/type for the academic year 2016/17:

Data source: Student Loans Company.

Note: The Student Loans Company uses the 19-23 age band to record learner age.

Providers have the freedom to use their facility for any eligible learners aged 19 and over for any approved learning aims at levels 3 to 6. The ESFA does not allocate funding for a particular age group or level of qualification.

The average speeds are as set out in the table below. This information is based on material published on the Transport for London website.

Average traffic speeds (miles per hour) by functional sector of London. Working weekdays, by time period. TfL’s ‘network of interest’.

In the last three years, the number of disabled people in work has increased by almost half a million. But we recognise that the gap between the employment rates of disabled people and non-disabled people remains too large. That is why we are committed to halving it.

We will soon publish a Green Paper on work and health.

All Stakeholders have an important part to play in making the transformative changes required so that everyone has the chance to go as far as their talents will take them, including people who are deafblind and those with complex needs.

Please see table below for requested information;

Notes:

Data is not available for age group 18-21 years, therefore data provided covers 18-24 years.

The Management Information cannot identify the claimants who fall under the requested age range and those which are in the work related activity group.

The information requested regarding part (1), how many claimed Jobseeker's Allowance (a) in the first six months of the year, and (b) in total, is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

There were 38,000 (rounded to the nearest thousand) claims made to ESA by 18-21 year-olds in England during the business year 2013-14, of whom 2,000 (6%) were assigned to the work-related activity group.

Between April 2014 and March 2015 there were 24,660 18 to 21 year-olds, in England, referred to the Work Programme. Please note this is rounded to the nearest ten and referrals are 'net' referrals which do not include rejections, cancellations or referrals to ESA information sessions.