Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the average length was of apprenticeships in the construction, planning and the built environment sector in 2015.
Answered by Nick Boles
Estimates of the average length of Apprenticeships, overall and by Sector Subject Area, are published as a supplementary table (first link) to a Statistical First Release (second link). Latest published data in this table is for the 2013/14 academic year. Data for 2014/15 will be published at the same link in due course.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the average length of time was that an apprentice stayed on an apprenticeship in 2015.
Answered by Nick Boles
Estimates of the average length of Apprenticeships, overall and by Sector Subject Area, are published as a supplementary table (first link) to a Statistical First Release (second link). Latest published data in this table is for the 2013/14 academic year. Data for 2014/15 will be published at the same link in due course.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on legal costs related to the under-occupancy penalty.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government has incurred approximately £387,155 to date on legal costs associated with judicial review challenges to the under-occupancy penalty.
It should be noted that this figure includes VAT where this is payable (e.g. on Counsel’s fees) and disbursements but does not include costs attributable to the time spent by Government advisory lawyers, as time spent by such advisory lawyers is not recorded in a manner that allows it to be attributed to individual cases. This figure does not include all of Counsel’s fees incurred in relation to the Supreme Court hearing of MA & Others/A and Rutherford v the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (29 February to 2 March) which have not yet been billed.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many people were undertaking a construction apprenticeship in the most recent period for which figures are available; and how many of those people are studying for an NVQ (a) Level 2 and (b) Level 3.
Answered by Nick Boles
There were 32,980 learners participating in Apprenticeships on the ‘Construction, Planning and the Built Environment’ Sector Subject Area (SSA) in the 2014/15 academic year, the most recent period for which data is available.
In the same period 26,300 Apprentices on the ‘Construction, Planning and Build Environment’ SSA participated in Level 2 NVQ component aims and 6,050 participated in Level 3 NVQ component aims.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect on the economy of the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by David Gauke
As the Chancellor has said, a UK exit from the EU would be a long, costly and messy divorce. The finance Ministers and central bank governors of the G20 concluded at the weekend that a British exit would cause an economic shock not just to the UK but to Europe and the world. What people are asking for in this referendum campaign is a serious, sober and principled assessment from the Government setting out the facts. The Treasury will publish a comprehensive analysis of our membership of a reformed EU and the alternatives, including the long-term economic costs and benefits of EU membership and the risks associated with an exit before 23 June.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the work experience provision for 14 to 19 year-olds in education.
Answered by Nick Boles
It is essential that we ensure young people leave school or college prepared for life in modern Britain. This will be achieved through a range of reforms, including improving the quality of existing qualifications and giving employers greater influence over the content of courses.
We ensure schools and colleges have the freedom and autonomy to decide how best to put in place work experience provision for 14-19 year olds. In August 2013 the government reformed the post-16 curriculum and funding system to incentivise education and training providers to offer high quality work experience to young people as part of 16-19 study programmes.
Work experience elements of study programmes and traineeships are now inspected and reported on as an integral part of the inspection of provision for 16-19 year olds (and up to age 24 for traineeships) against the Common Inspection Framework for Further Education and Skills 2015.
Our focus is on ensuring sufficient support is in place, and we have recently announced new funding for our careers strategy which will include continued funding for The Careers and Enterprise Company to help young people access the best advice and inspiration, for example by building on the national network of enterprise advisers to broker strong local links between schools, colleges and employers.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on levels of self-employment in the construction industry of his proposed changes to tax relief for travel and subsistence.
Answered by David Gauke
The changes to tax relief for travel and subsistence only affect those who work through an employment intermediary. The Government’s assessment of the effects of the measure can be found in the Tax Information and Impact Note:
Further assessment can be found in the summary of responses to the consultation document published on this change: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/483389/Employment_Intermediaries_and_Tax_Relief_for_Travel_and_Subsistence_-_Summary_of_Responses__M7057_.pdf
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidelines her Department produces on the inclusion of non-conviction information or soft information on DBS forms.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Statutory guidance is issued under section 113B(4A) of the Police Act 1997 in order to assist chief officers of police in making decisions to provide relevant non-conviction information and other intelligence from local police records for inclusion in enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificates. The Home Office introduced the first edition of this guidance on 10 September 2012 and the most recent revision came into force on 10 August 2015.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the average annual change in tax relief for a person employed via an employment intermediary as a result of the Government's proposed changes to income tax relief for travel and subsistence.
Answered by David Gauke
I refer the honourable gentleman to the Tax Information and Impact Note published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-employment-intermediaries-and-relief-for-travel-and-subsistence/income-tax-employment-intermediaries-and-relief-for-travel-and-subsistence.
Asked by: Steve Rotheram (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce GP appointment waiting times.
Answered by Alistair Burt
With NHS England, we are making changes to provide more flexibility for practices to meet the needs of patients. We have invested £175 million via the GP Access Fund to commission 57 schemes across the country. In total 18 million patients in 2,500 practices have benefited from improved access to general practice.
The GP Access Fund is promoting greater innovation in how practices offer access. This could be, for example, through networks of practices offering shared clinics at evenings and weekends.
The first independent report on the national evaluation of wave one schemes looked at how schemes have provided more general practitioner appointments and expanded the type of patient appointments to improve patient and staff satisfaction. A second national evaluation report will be published soon with updated results.