Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what requirements her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies place on suppliers in respect of their payment terms to subcontractors as part of their standard terms and conditions.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education’s standard terms and conditions contain a clause requiring contractors to pay subcontractors within 10 days where the subcontractor is an SME, or 30 days either where the subcontractor is not an SME or both the contractor and the subcontractor are SMEs.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of suppliers to her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid subcontractors within 30 days in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
An answer could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the amount (a) her Department and (b) its agencies and non-departmental public bodies spent on procurement was paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (i) directly and (ii) through the supply chain in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government has overhauled public procurement to open it up to businesses of all sizes. On 25 February 2015, we announced that central government spent £11.4 billion with SMEs in 2013-14, a record 26.1% of direct and indirect spend. This meets our aspiration, set in 2010, that 25% of government procurement spend would be with SMEs by the end of this Parliament.
The data on central government spend with SMEs in 2013-14 is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/central-government-spend-with-smes-2013-to-2014
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of suppliers to her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are signatories to the Prompt Payment Code.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not ask suppliers if they are signatories to the Prompt Payment Code. Our standard terms and conditions contain prompt payment clauses that are equal to or better than the standard 30 day period in the Prompt Payment Code.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprentices employed by (a) her Department and (b) its executive agencies and associated bodies are aged (i) 16 to 18, (ii) 19 to 24 and (iii) 25 years or older; and how many of those apprentices employed in each form of body and of each age group were previously employed by the Government.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education currently employs 46 Apprentices. The information requested is supplied in the table.
DfE apprentices by age - at end January 2015 | |||||||
Number of staff (number previously worked in Civil Service1) | |||||||
All | DfE | Agencies | |||||
Total | 46 | (1) | 27 | (1) | 19 | (0) | |
Age Band | 16-18 | 7 | (0) | 2 | (0) | 5 | (0) |
19-24 | 38 | (1) | 24 | (1) | 14 | (0) | |
25+ | 1 | (0) | 1 | (0) | 0 | (0) | |
Source: DfE HR | |||||||
1. Where civil service start date is before DfE start date | |||||||