Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
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 financial contribution made by employers to apprenticeship training in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nick Boles
Details of the proportions of employers who paid fees to a provider can be found in The Apprenticeships Evaluation: Employer Survey 20151.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not hold information on the financial contributions paid by employers.
1https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-evaluation-employer-survey-2015
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he plans to require non-levy paying employers wishing to recruit an apprentice from April 2017 to make a compulsory cash contribution to the cost of training.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Government will help employers who are not paying the levy to meet the costs of apprenticeships training by providing generous financial support. We will ask these employers to make a small contribution. Further detail on funding rates will be published shortly.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support the electric car industry.
Answered by Anna Soubry
It has not proved possible to respond to my hon Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what protections the Government has put in place to ensure that historic towns are not adversely affected by shale gas extraction.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has been clear that shale development must be safe and environmentally sound, maintaining the very highest safety and environmental standards.
Any impacts of shale gas exploration proposals on the historic environment are fully taken into account through the planning system. The National Planning Policy Framework explains that when considering the impact of a proposed development on the significance of a designated heritage asset, great weight should be given to the asset’s conservation. Designated heritage assets include World Heritage Sites, scheduled monuments, listed buildings and conservation areas.
In addition, the Government has consulted on measures to ensure that hydraulic fracturing cannot be conducted from wells that are drilled at the surface of our most valuable areas, including World Heritage Sites, and we will publish our response to the consultation shortly.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraph 1.302 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what progress his Department has made on consulting on options to move operations of the Land Registry to the private sector from 2017.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills launched a public consultation - Moving Land Registry operations into the private sector, on 24 March 2016. This public consultation will remain open for nine weeks until 26 May to allow public and stakeholders to respond to it.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the National Living Wage on (a) costs to businesses and (b) employee pay.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Government’s Impact Assessment for the introduction of the National Living Wage estimates the total cost to businesses at around £1.1 billion, consisting of direct wage costs, associated non-wage labour costs, maintaining pay differentials and transition costs.
Direct costs to employers contribute just under £700 million to the total cost to raise employees’ wages to the initial rate of £7.20. This will be a direct benefit to employees from receiving higher wages.
On current OBR forecasts, a full-time National Minimum Wage worker will earn over £4,200 more by 2020 from the National Living Wage in cash terms.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that businesses are able to recruit employees with the required level of skills.
Answered by Nick Boles
Officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) are working together at all levels to deliver the ambitious 16+ skills reform programme, supporting me in my role as joint Minister. This programme aims to achieve the best possible outcomes for young people and adults and set high standards and promote strong qualifications. Our work is intended to ensure that people have the education, training and skills that business and employers need in order to be competitive and grow.
Apprenticeships are our flagship policy for equipping people with the skills employers demand. For young people (aged 16-19), we want the new norm to be them considering university or an apprenticeship (or both, in the case of Degree Apprenticeships), as equally valid routes to a successful career. 2.6m apprentices have started since 2010 and we are committed to 3m starts by 2020. BIS and DfE are also supporting traineeships, which are designed to equip young people aged 16-24 with skills and experience that employers are looking for. Both apprenticeships and traineeships are joint DfE/BIS programmes that are managed through clear and collaborative joint working between both Departments and their Agencies.
The Government’s ambitious reforms to the education system raise standards in English and maths, giving people the essential literacy and numeracy skills and qualifications that we know employers seek from new recruits more than any other qualifications. Learners who did not achieve a Level 2 in English and maths by the age of 16 are now required to continue to study those subjects post-16. We have also increased the level we expect people to study in apprenticeships and in traineeships and fully fund all adults to achieve their first English and maths GCSE. In addition, we are jointly leading a programme to reform Functional Skills qualifications to ensure they are robust and credible qualifications that develop the skills that employers need.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what cross departmental work his Department has undertaken with the Department for Education to ensure that the needs of business are met by the education system.
Answered by Nick Boles
Officials from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) are working together at all levels to deliver the ambitious 16+ skills reform programme, supporting me in my role as joint Minister. This programme aims to achieve the best possible outcomes for young people and adults and set high standards and promote strong qualifications. Our work is intended to ensure that people have the education, training and skills that business and employers need in order to be competitive and grow.
Apprenticeships are our flagship policy for equipping people with the skills employers demand. For young people (aged 16-19), we want the new norm to be them considering university or an apprenticeship (or both, in the case of Degree Apprenticeships), as equally valid routes to a successful career. 2.6m apprentices have started since 2010 and we are committed to 3m starts by 2020. BIS and DfE are also supporting traineeships, which are designed to equip young people aged 16-24 with skills and experience that employers are looking for. Both apprenticeships and traineeships are joint DfE/BIS programmes that are managed through clear and collaborative joint working between both Departments and their Agencies.
The Government’s ambitious reforms to the education system raise standards in English and maths, giving people the essential literacy and numeracy skills and qualifications that we know employers seek from new recruits more than any other qualifications. Learners who did not achieve a Level 2 in English and maths by the age of 16 are now required to continue to study those subjects post-16. We have also increased the level we expect people to study in apprenticeships and in traineeships and fully fund all adults to achieve their first English and maths GCSE. In addition, we are jointly leading a programme to reform Functional Skills qualifications to ensure they are robust and credible qualifications that develop the skills that employers need.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of available gas reserves that need to be left in the ground to ensure that global warming is kept to within two degrees.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made its own estimates of the proportion of fossil fuel reserves that are unburnable under a scenario that limits warming to 2°C. However, others have made estimates such as the International Energy Agency who have suggested that around a third of current proven global fossil fuel reserves could be burned under a 2°C scenario before 2050. Different fossil fuels emit varying amounts of CO2 per unit of energy released on combustion, so calculating the proportion of proven global gas reserves within this global fossil fuel mix depends on the quantities of other fossil fuels combusted.
This Government remains committed to the Climate Change Act and to meeting our climate change target of an 80% emissions reduction by 2050 on 1990 levels. This will mean reducing the amount of fossil fuels we use – through improved energy efficiency and increased supplies of low carbon energy - as well as reducing other sources of emissions. As part of our efforts to reduce emissions I have already announced that the Government will consult on proposals to end coal power generation by 2025 and restrict its use from 2023.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of potential sources for exploring fracking sites where sufficient fresh water is not available at that site.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Companies must obtain water from their local water company or apply for an abstraction licence from the Environment Agency. Whichever option a company chooses; an assessment would be made of the availability of water, existing users and any impact on the environment.
If sufficient water is not available then the water company or the Environment Agency may not be able to grant permission for the company to use the water for all or part of the time it is required. Companies would need to plan their operations accordingly.