Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to provide additional (a) guidance and (b) funding to (i) the Environment Agency and (ii) local authorities to help with the response to changes in the levels of fish deaths.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Data from the Environment Agency shows that by the end of June 2023 the number of confirmed incidents involving fish kills was higher than in the last five years. However, by the end of August the total number of confirmed cases was similar to that in the last five years. Extreme weather including continuous hot temperatures and thunderstorms as experienced in June can be dangerous for fish. Fish death incidents are not always due to a single cause and it is often the combination of several factors including temperature, water levels or flows, algal blooms, pollution and fish disease that are responsible. The Plan for Water sets out broad actions to improve England’s water quality and aquatic species, including reducing pollution from agriculture, sewage, wastewater and transport.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of levels of premature fish deaths in (a) rivers and (b) other fresh waterways this June; how many such deaths there were in each of the last five years; and what assessment she has made of the potential causes of changes in the levels of such deaths.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Data from the Environment Agency shows that by the end of June 2023 the number of confirmed incidents involving fish kills was higher than in the last five years. However, by the end of August the total number of confirmed cases was similar to that in the last five years. Extreme weather including continuous hot temperatures and thunderstorms as experienced in June can be dangerous for fish. Fish death incidents are not always due to a single cause and it is often the combination of several factors including temperature, water levels or flows, algal blooms, pollution and fish disease that are responsible. The Plan for Water sets out broad actions to improve England’s water quality and aquatic species, including reducing pollution from agriculture, sewage, wastewater and transport.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the military capability provided by (a) Challenger 3 armoured vehicles and (b) other tanks.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Army’s Challenger 3 Main Battle Tank Programme will deliver 148 modernised Main Battle Tanks, providing Defence’s only guaranteed, 24 hour, all weather, mobile anti-tank capability, delivering a step change in lethality and survivability over its predecessors. Alongside Ajax and Boxer, Challenger 3 will form the backbone of the Armoured Brigade Combat Teams, which are the cornerstone of the UK warfighting capability and an essential component of NATO’s deterrence objectives.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect the water quality of canals.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Plan for Water sets out broad actions to improve England’s water quality, including reducing pollution from agriculture, sewage, wastewater and transport. These actions include specific targeted policies to improve the water quality of artificial and heavily modified water bodies, which includes canals, to mitigate the impact of modifications on the environment.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the ring-fenced apprenticeship budget was in each year since 2017-18; and what proportion was raised by the Apprenticeship Levy in each of those years.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK government, via His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, collects an apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with an annual payroll expenditure of more than £3 million. The amount raised by the apprenticeship levy is available in this publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
From this, His Majesty’s Treasury sets an English apprenticeships budget for the department, and the devolved administrations receive a share of the funding calculated using the Barnett formula.
The apprenticeships budget in England is used to fund the training and assessment of new apprenticeship starts for all employers of all sizes, both those who pay the levy and those who do not. The budget is also used to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers, providers and apprentices. Apprenticeships are employer led, and the department does not allocate a specific percentage of the budget to either levy paying or non-levy paying employers.
The table below shows the total apprenticeship budget and spend in England in the last five financial years, with spend broken down by levy payers and non-levy payers. It also includes the budget for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. In addition, the table reflects the spend on apprenticeships that started prior to the introduction of the levy, and the department’s spend on the operation of the wider apprenticeship system, such as the cost of running digital services, marketing and communications campaigns.
Financial Year | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Apprenticeship budget £m | 2,010 | 2,231 | 2,469 | 2,467 | 2,466 | 2,554 | 2,585 |
Levy spend | 268 | 864 | 1,156 | 1,251 | 1,592 | - | - |
Non-levy spend | 189 | 528 | 650 | 557 | 817 | - | - |
Spend on apprenticeships started | 1,086 | 305 | 65 | 22 | 7 | - | - |
Wider apprenticeship | 43 | 41 | 48 | 33 | 39 | - | - |
Total spend | 1,586 | 1,738 | 1,919 | 1,863 | 2,455 | - | - |
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the ring-fenced apprenticeship budget has been allocated to apprenticeship funding for non-levy paying employers in each financial year since 2017-18.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK government, via His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, collects an apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with an annual payroll expenditure of more than £3 million. The amount raised by the apprenticeship levy is available in this publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
From this, His Majesty’s Treasury sets an English apprenticeships budget for the department, and the devolved administrations receive a share of the funding calculated using the Barnett formula.
The apprenticeships budget in England is used to fund the training and assessment of new apprenticeship starts for all employers of all sizes, both those who pay the levy and those who do not. The budget is also used to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers, providers and apprentices. Apprenticeships are employer led, and the department does not allocate a specific percentage of the budget to either levy paying or non-levy paying employers.
The table below shows the total apprenticeship budget and spend in England in the last five financial years, with spend broken down by levy payers and non-levy payers. It also includes the budget for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. In addition, the table reflects the spend on apprenticeships that started prior to the introduction of the levy, and the department’s spend on the operation of the wider apprenticeship system, such as the cost of running digital services, marketing and communications campaigns.
Financial Year | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Apprenticeship budget £m | 2,010 | 2,231 | 2,469 | 2,467 | 2,466 | 2,554 | 2,585 |
Levy spend | 268 | 864 | 1,156 | 1,251 | 1,592 | - | - |
Non-levy spend | 189 | 528 | 650 | 557 | 817 | - | - |
Spend on apprenticeships started | 1,086 | 305 | 65 | 22 | 7 | - | - |
Wider apprenticeship | 43 | 41 | 48 | 33 | 39 | - | - |
Total spend | 1,586 | 1,738 | 1,919 | 1,863 | 2,455 | - | - |
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much from the public purse her Department ringfenced for the apprenticeship budget for England in (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK government, via His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, collects an apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with an annual payroll expenditure of more than £3 million. The amount raised by the apprenticeship levy is available in this publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
From this, His Majesty’s Treasury sets an English apprenticeships budget for the department, and the devolved administrations receive a share of the funding calculated using the Barnett formula.
The apprenticeships budget in England is used to fund the training and assessment of new apprenticeship starts for all employers of all sizes, both those who pay the levy and those who do not. The budget is also used to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers, providers and apprentices. Apprenticeships are employer led, and the department does not allocate a specific percentage of the budget to either levy paying or non-levy paying employers.
The table below shows the total apprenticeship budget and spend in England in the last five financial years, with spend broken down by levy payers and non-levy payers. It also includes the budget for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. In addition, the table reflects the spend on apprenticeships that started prior to the introduction of the levy, and the department’s spend on the operation of the wider apprenticeship system, such as the cost of running digital services, marketing and communications campaigns.
Financial Year | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Apprenticeship budget £m | 2,010 | 2,231 | 2,469 | 2,467 | 2,466 | 2,554 | 2,585 |
Levy spend | 268 | 864 | 1,156 | 1,251 | 1,592 | - | - |
Non-levy spend | 189 | 528 | 650 | 557 | 817 | - | - |
Spend on apprenticeships started | 1,086 | 305 | 65 | 22 | 7 | - | - |
Wider apprenticeship | 43 | 41 | 48 | 33 | 39 | - | - |
Total spend | 1,586 | 1,738 | 1,919 | 1,863 | 2,455 | - | - |
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the apprenticeship budget has been spent by (a) apprenticeship levy payers and (b) non-levy payers in each year since 2017.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK government, via His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, collects an apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with an annual payroll expenditure of more than £3 million. The amount raised by the apprenticeship levy is available in this publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
From this, His Majesty’s Treasury sets an English apprenticeships budget for the department, and the devolved administrations receive a share of the funding calculated using the Barnett formula.
The apprenticeships budget in England is used to fund the training and assessment of new apprenticeship starts for all employers of all sizes, both those who pay the levy and those who do not. The budget is also used to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers, providers and apprentices. Apprenticeships are employer led, and the department does not allocate a specific percentage of the budget to either levy paying or non-levy paying employers.
The table below shows the total apprenticeship budget and spend in England in the last five financial years, with spend broken down by levy payers and non-levy payers. It also includes the budget for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. In addition, the table reflects the spend on apprenticeships that started prior to the introduction of the levy, and the department’s spend on the operation of the wider apprenticeship system, such as the cost of running digital services, marketing and communications campaigns.
Financial Year | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Apprenticeship budget £m | 2,010 | 2,231 | 2,469 | 2,467 | 2,466 | 2,554 | 2,585 |
Levy spend | 268 | 864 | 1,156 | 1,251 | 1,592 | - | - |
Non-levy spend | 189 | 528 | 650 | 557 | 817 | - | - |
Spend on apprenticeships started | 1,086 | 305 | 65 | 22 | 7 | - | - |
Wider apprenticeship | 43 | 41 | 48 | 33 | 39 | - | - |
Total spend | 1,586 | 1,738 | 1,919 | 1,863 | 2,455 | - | - |
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that the Apprenticeship Levy will raise in (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The latest receipts forecast for the Apprenticeship Levy is published by Office for Budget Responsibility which can be found online at:
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June to Questions 188238, 188239 and 188240 on Apprentices: Finance, whether the (a) Scottish, (b) Welsh and (c) Northern Ireland government receives funding under the Barnett formula for the provision of apprenticeships.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The devolved administrations receive Barnett consequentials as a result of changes to UK government department DEL associated with spending in devolved areas. Rather than receiving funding for specific programmes or policy areas, the devolved administrations receive block grants from the UK Government. It is generally for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their block grant funding in devolved areas.
A full breakdown of how the block grants for the devolved administrations are calculated is published in Block Grant Transparency (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-december-202) which will be updated on 20th July. The Statement of Funding Policy (Statement_of_Funding_Policy_update_Feb_2023.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk) also lists the breakdown of comparability factors for each programme the devolved administrations receive funding from.