Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on (a) fair competition, (b) earnings and working conditions for workers and (c) labour market efficiency of mandating portability of reviews and ratings of service workers within sectors of the economy that are characterised by digital interfaces between customers and workers who provide services but who are not employed by the interface provider.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is now considering the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices which discusses the issues you raise. Matthew Taylor’s report is comprehensive and detailed and we are giving the report the careful consideration it deserves and will respond in full later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to empower local authorities to tackle non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Margot James
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th September 2017 to Question UIN 10031.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities to tackle non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Margot James
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) enforce the National Minimum Wage on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). In 2016/17, HMRC identified £10.9m of underpayments, owed to 98,000 workers. The enforcement budget has been increased to £25.3m for 2017/18.
Effective communications are an integral part of our strategy for promoting compliance. Both BEIS and HMRC provide information and guidance to help employers ensure they are compliant, and we encourage Local Authorities and other agencies to use these resources and others to support employer compliance.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to page 149 of the report UK Poverty: Causes and Solutions, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 6 September 2016, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing the Low Pay Commission's compliance and operational proposals in full.
Answered by Margot James
The Government carefully considers all Low Pay Commission recommendations. We continue to strengthen our enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, including the three areas identified in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report.
For example, we have increased resources available for enforcement – to £20 million in 2016/17, increasing to £25.3m for 2017/18.
Last year, HMRC identified a record £10.9 million in arrears for 98,000 workers.
Tougher penalties for non-compliance were introduced in April 2016 – underpayments occurring since then are subject to a penalty of 200% the value of the arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to page 56 of the report, UK Poverty: Causes and Solutions, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 6 September 2016, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the recommendation to support consumer organisations with funding, capacity and statutory rights, to enable them to analyse data to identify areas of detriment to people in poverty.
Answered by Margot James
The department provides £22.3 million to Citizens Advice and £2.9 million to Citizens Advice Scotland annually in core funding enabling those organisations to use their data to undertake further research to help those most in need, including the vulnerable and those in poverty.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to page 55 of the report UK Poverty Causes and Solutions, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing the recommendation in that report on the remit of regulations; and if he will make it his policy to implement that recommendation.
Answered by Margot James
The Government will shortly bring forward a Green Paper to examine markets that are not working efficiently or fairly for consumers.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the distribution of the average graduate premium by each decile of graduate earnings ten years after graduation.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The most recent Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned research (Walker and Zhu, 2013[1]) shows that, on average, a male graduate will earn £168,000 more, and a female graduate £252,000 more, over their lifetime than someone without a degree but with 2 or more A-levels, net of income tax, VAT, National Insurance and student repayments (2012 prices).
Walker & Zhu (2013) also provide a breakdown of these figures across the graduate earnings distribution, as set out in Table 1.[2]
Table 1: Graduate premiums from completion of a first degree for individuals by gender across earnings deciles
Individual Net Present Value | Graduate earnings deciles | |||||||||
| Average | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th |
Male | 168 | 173 | 168 | 163 | 161 | 167 | 157 | 154 | 166 | 206 |
Female | 252 | 247 | 240 | 241 | 241 | 245 | 255 | 252 | 285 | 265 |
Measurement unit £1,000
This research focuses on the lifetime returns from a degree. Estimates relating to ten years after graduation are not available.
BIS’ Graduate Labour Market Statistics (Q2 2015[3]) publication shows that, on average, young graduates (21-30 years old) earn £25,000 per annum compared to young non-graduates (21-30 years old) who earn £18,000. These figures do not control for differences in the characteristics of the graduate and non-graduate populations, and are gross of both taxes and student loan repayments.
The Government is taking steps to improve data collection on graduate earnings and ensure students continue to get value for money. The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act enabled linking of education and HMRC tax data. The Government is consulting on the future inclusion of this data in the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework.
[2] As before, these estimates are net of tax and other costs, but also vary due to effect of income tax thresholds and the progressive nature of the student loan repayment model. For example you can see male graduates in the 1st and 2nd earnings deciles have higher graduate premiums than those between the 3rd and 8th earnings deciles as they are less likely to repay all of their student loan and will pay proportionately less income tax, National Insurance and VAT.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the average difference in salaries earned by graduates and non-graduates ten years after graduation.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The most recent Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned research (Walker and Zhu, 2013[1]) shows that, on average, a male graduate will earn £168,000 more, and a female graduate £252,000 more, over their lifetime than someone without a degree but with 2 or more A-levels, net of income tax, VAT, National Insurance and student repayments (2012 prices).
Walker & Zhu (2013) also provide a breakdown of these figures across the graduate earnings distribution, as set out in Table 1.[2]
Table 1: Graduate premiums from completion of a first degree for individuals by gender across earnings deciles
Individual Net Present Value | Graduate earnings deciles | |||||||||
| Average | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th |
Male | 168 | 173 | 168 | 163 | 161 | 167 | 157 | 154 | 166 | 206 |
Female | 252 | 247 | 240 | 241 | 241 | 245 | 255 | 252 | 285 | 265 |
Measurement unit £1,000
This research focuses on the lifetime returns from a degree. Estimates relating to ten years after graduation are not available.
BIS’ Graduate Labour Market Statistics (Q2 2015[3]) publication shows that, on average, young graduates (21-30 years old) earn £25,000 per annum compared to young non-graduates (21-30 years old) who earn £18,000. These figures do not control for differences in the characteristics of the graduate and non-graduate populations, and are gross of both taxes and student loan repayments.
The Government is taking steps to improve data collection on graduate earnings and ensure students continue to get value for money. The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act enabled linking of education and HMRC tax data. The Government is consulting on the future inclusion of this data in the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework.
[2] As before, these estimates are net of tax and other costs, but also vary due to effect of income tax thresholds and the progressive nature of the student loan repayment model. For example you can see male graduates in the 1st and 2nd earnings deciles have higher graduate premiums than those between the 3rd and 8th earnings deciles as they are less likely to repay all of their student loan and will pay proportionately less income tax, National Insurance and VAT.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the average lifetime difference in salaries earned by graduates compared with non-graduates.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The most recent Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned research (Walker and Zhu, 2013[1]) shows that, on average, a male graduate will earn £168,000 more, and a female graduate £252,000 more, over their lifetime than someone without a degree but with 2 or more A-levels, net of income tax, VAT, National Insurance and student repayments (2012 prices).
Walker & Zhu (2013) also provide a breakdown of these figures across the graduate earnings distribution, as set out in Table 1.[2]
Table 1: Graduate premiums from completion of a first degree for individuals by gender across earnings deciles
Individual Net Present Value | Graduate earnings deciles | |||||||||
| Average | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th |
Male | 168 | 173 | 168 | 163 | 161 | 167 | 157 | 154 | 166 | 206 |
Female | 252 | 247 | 240 | 241 | 241 | 245 | 255 | 252 | 285 | 265 |
Measurement unit £1,000
This research focuses on the lifetime returns from a degree. Estimates relating to ten years after graduation are not available.
BIS’ Graduate Labour Market Statistics (Q2 2015[3]) publication shows that, on average, young graduates (21-30 years old) earn £25,000 per annum compared to young non-graduates (21-30 years old) who earn £18,000. These figures do not control for differences in the characteristics of the graduate and non-graduate populations, and are gross of both taxes and student loan repayments.
The Government is taking steps to improve data collection on graduate earnings and ensure students continue to get value for money. The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act enabled linking of education and HMRC tax data. The Government is consulting on the future inclusion of this data in the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework.
[2] As before, these estimates are net of tax and other costs, but also vary due to effect of income tax thresholds and the progressive nature of the student loan repayment model. For example you can see male graduates in the 1st and 2nd earnings deciles have higher graduate premiums than those between the 3rd and 8th earnings deciles as they are less likely to repay all of their student loan and will pay proportionately less income tax, National Insurance and VAT.
Asked by: Baroness Brown of Silvertown (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what academic research he has commissioned on the expected behavioural response of employers to the introduction of the apprenticeship levy.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have commissioned academics at The Institute of Employment Research and IFF Research to undertake detailed research into employers’ response to the apprenticeship levy. We expect to be able to publish this in late summer 2016.
Additionally we are in the process of commissioning further independent work in this area.