To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Students: Coronavirus
Wednesday 24th February 2021

Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) emotional, and (2) social, impact on university students of remote learning; whether they plan to prioritise the return of such students to classrooms or other physical settings within the next six weeks; and if not, why not.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Protecting student wellbeing is vital, and we recognise that many students are facing additional mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why we have asked providers to prioritise student mental health during this period. The Student Mental Health and Wellbeing working group, convened by my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Universities, has discussed the emotional and social impact of the pandemic on students in detail and has created a resources document for higher education providers, collating the guidance, tools, and services available to support students’ mental health. This information is now being spread through the networks of the working group members, including university and student representatives, to raise awareness of the support available and enable people to seek help. The Minister of State for Universities also established the Higher Education Taskforce on 18 August 2020, which is formed of various sector representatives to work through challenges that students are facing.

Alongside this, the Office for Students (OfS) has been working closely with the government throughout the pandemic to support students – funding mental health support, monitoring quality, and issuing guidance. We have worked with the OfS to provide Student Space, a mental health and wellbeing platform, which has been funded by up to £3 million. We are pleased that they have been able to extend the platform to support students for the whole 2020/21 academic year, because no student should be left behind at this challenging time.

In the current national lockdown, we have had to take additional steps to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, including by significantly reducing the number of students returning to university after the Christmas holidays, and limiting the number of people travelling to and from university facilities. We are now advising providers that they can resume in-person teaching and education for students who are studying practical or practice-based subjects (including creative arts) and who require specialist equipment and facilities from 8 March 2021. Providers should not ask students to return if their course can reasonably be continued online. The government will review, by the end of the Easter holidays, the options for the timing of the return of remaining students. This review will take account of the latest data and will be a key part of the wider roadmap steps.


Written Question
Apprentices: Taxation
Monday 10th June 2019

Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much (1) the apprenticeship levy has raised in total in each of the four jurisdictions of the UK, (2) levy-paying employers have reclaimed, (3) has been used to fund new non-levy payer apprenticeships, (4) has been spent on old-style apprenticeships, and (5) has been spent on the administration of apprenticeships, in each year since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy.

Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton

The apprenticeship levy is collected from all UK employers through the PAYE system by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC publish information on levy receipts in the monthly Tax and National Insurance contribution receipts publication, and in their annual reports and accounts, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2017-to-2018.

In 2017-18, the first year following the introduction of the levy, £2.6 billion was collected from UK employers and HM Treasury (HMT) allocated £425m of the levy collected to the devolved administrations. Annual data on levy collected in 2018-19 will be published by HMRC, and data on 2018-19 spending will be available from Department for Education in due course.

Skills spending is a devolved matter and HMT committed in advance to the share of the levy that would be passed to the devolved administrations in the three-year period from 2017-18 to 2019-20. HMT published these plans at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-agrees-apprenticeship-levy-funding-deal-with-devolved-administrations.

In England, levy-paying employers can use online apprenticeship service accounts to access their funds. In 2017-18, the total spend on apprentices employed with levy payers, and who started training after the levy was introduced, was £268 million. This figure represents more than the £170 million in training and assessment costs charged to levy payers’ accounts.

This is because these employers also benefit from additional payments to support certain types of learners, and extremely generous co-investment contributions for those employers that have exhausted their levy account funds. Such costs are not currently deducted from levy accounts. In 2018-19, levy-payers drew down a further £639 million representing the costs charged to levy-payers on the learners who started since the levy was introduced (and whose training is ongoing in 2018-19) as well as the costs of learners who started in the 2018-19 financial year.

Employers’ levy funds are distinct from the department’s ring-fenced annual apprenticeship budget, which is set in advance by HM Treasury to fund apprenticeships in England. This budget has risen year-on-year, from £2.01 billion in 2017-18 and £2.23 billion in 2018-19 to over £2.5 billion in 2019-20, double what was spent in 2010.

In 2017-18, we spent £189 million on training and assessment (including additional payments) for apprentices with employers who do not pay the levy and who started their apprenticeship since the levy was introduced. This includes apprenticeships started on both frameworks and new standards.

The ongoing cost of training and assessment for apprentices who started their apprenticeship before the levy was introduced in May 2017 was £1,065 million in 2017-18 (including additional payments as detailed above).

In 2017-18, £40 million (equating to less than 2%) of the £2.01 billion ring-fenced apprenticeships programme budget was spent on the cost of delivering and running the programme. This includes spending by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. The department is provided a separate budget for other administrative spending, and in 2017-18 total administrative spend was £44 million. These two budgets cover the cost of running the online apprenticeship service, employer engagement work, and the promotion of apprenticeships, in addition to staffing and other costs.


Written Question
Apprentices: Taxation
Monday 10th June 2019

Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the annual total cost of apprenticeships compared to the amount raised from the apprenticeship levy.

Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton

The apprenticeship levy is collected from all UK employers through the PAYE system by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC publish information on levy receipts in the monthly Tax and National Insurance contribution receipts publication, and in their annual reports and accounts, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2017-to-2018.

In 2017-18, the first year following the introduction of the levy, £2.6 billion was collected from UK employers and HM Treasury (HMT) allocated £425m of the levy collected to the devolved administrations. Annual data on levy collected in 2018-19 will be published by HMRC, and data on 2018-19 spending will be available from Department for Education in due course.

Skills spending is a devolved matter and HMT committed in advance to the share of the levy that would be passed to the devolved administrations in the three-year period from 2017-18 to 2019-20. HMT published these plans at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-agrees-apprenticeship-levy-funding-deal-with-devolved-administrations.

In England, levy-paying employers can use online apprenticeship service accounts to access their funds. In 2017-18, the total spend on apprentices employed with levy payers, and who started training after the levy was introduced, was £268 million. This figure represents more than the £170 million in training and assessment costs charged to levy payers’ accounts.

This is because these employers also benefit from additional payments to support certain types of learners, and extremely generous co-investment contributions for those employers that have exhausted their levy account funds. Such costs are not currently deducted from levy accounts. In 2018-19, levy-payers drew down a further £639 million representing the costs charged to levy-payers on the learners who started since the levy was introduced (and whose training is ongoing in 2018-19) as well as the costs of learners who started in the 2018-19 financial year.

Employers’ levy funds are distinct from the department’s ring-fenced annual apprenticeship budget, which is set in advance by HM Treasury to fund apprenticeships in England. This budget has risen year-on-year, from £2.01 billion in 2017-18 and £2.23 billion in 2018-19 to over £2.5 billion in 2019-20, double what was spent in 2010.

In 2017-18, we spent £189 million on training and assessment (including additional payments) for apprentices with employers who do not pay the levy and who started their apprenticeship since the levy was introduced. This includes apprenticeships started on both frameworks and new standards.

The ongoing cost of training and assessment for apprentices who started their apprenticeship before the levy was introduced in May 2017 was £1,065 million in 2017-18 (including additional payments as detailed above).

In 2017-18, £40 million (equating to less than 2%) of the £2.01 billion ring-fenced apprenticeships programme budget was spent on the cost of delivering and running the programme. This includes spending by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. The department is provided a separate budget for other administrative spending, and in 2017-18 total administrative spend was £44 million. These two budgets cover the cost of running the online apprenticeship service, employer engagement work, and the promotion of apprenticeships, in addition to staffing and other costs.


Written Question
Apprentices: Taxation
Wednesday 5th June 2019

Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many new-style apprenticeships have started since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy.

Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton

There have been 305,200 starts on apprenticeship standards since May 2017 following the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, reported to date as at January 2019.


Written Question
Nurses: Training
Wednesday 31st January 2018

Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any evidence that difficulties in recruiting UK nationals as nurses reflect changes in the UK's higher education system in recent years.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Until 1 August 2017, nursing, midwifery and allied health profession students had their training costs largely borne by the NHS, and this was not affected by changes to the wider higher education system.

From 1 August 2017, most new undergraduate healthcare students receive tuition fee loans and, for full-time courses, living costs support, administered by the Student Loans Company. The former Department of Health also confirmed that it would fund up to an additional 10,000 clinical placements to support this expansion. These students are in their first year of university study.

These reforms to healthcare student funding will help secure the future supply of nurses to the NHS by removing the artificial cap on training numbers in these professions, and enabling thousands of additional UK applicants to gain a place to study nursing at university.


Written Question
Business: Education
Monday 14th July 2014

Asked by: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to encourage enterprise in schools and university technical colleges and to give students technical skills for employment.

Answered by Lord Nash

Lord Young in his report “Enterprise for All” has proposed a number of measures to help schools and colleges embed enterprise in their teaching to help young people develop a career and vocational skills. The Government expects to announce its response in the autumn. This will include the development of Enterprise Advisers to enable school headteachers to strengthen their focus on enterprise and engagement with the world of business and work.

These measures will also apply to university technical colleges, which provide high-quality technical education for those young people that choose to follow a more practically orientated education. Employers play a key role in shaping the curriculum to ensure that students learn practical and relevant skills for industry.

We are linking the whole education system more closely to the world of work. We have introduced Technical Awards for 14-16-year-olds. These qualifications, equivalent to GCSEs, are developed in partnership with employers and will give students the opportunity to develop real-life practical skills.

We have also introduced Tech Levels for 16-19-year-old students who want to learn technical skills as an alternative to, or alongside, A levels. The 227 Tech Levels taught from September 2014 are all endorsed by employers, trade or professional bodies, and cover most practical career paths. From September 2016, all Tech Level courses will also involve employers in the delivery and/or assessment of the qualification. We have changed the way providers are funded for 16-19 year olds so that work experience is funded on the same basis as qualifications. This gives education providers the freedom and flexibility needed to expand their work experience provision.