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20 Oct 2004 : Column 704W—continued

Stamp Duty Exemptions

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the total number of residential property purchases in each year from 1990 to 2004; what his estimate is of the number of purchases in each year which were exempt from paying stamp duty as a consequence of the stamp duty threshold; and if he will make a statement. [192123]

 
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Mr. Timms: The estimate of the total number of residential property purchases in England and Wales for each year from 1990 to 2003, along with the number of residential property purchases below the lowest stamp duty threshold, are given in the following table.

		Thousand
	Residential property purchases below threshold(10)	All residential property purchases
1990	360	1,283
1991	270	1,224
1992	587	1,032
1993	630	1,114
1994	725	1,168
1995	659	1,047
1996	678	1,122
1997	726	1,296
1998	646	1,220
1999	642	1,368
2000	575	1,327
2001	479	1,343
2002	447	1,450
2003	286	1,204

⁽¹⁰⁾ The lowest threshold of stamp duty was £30,000 from 13 March 1984, £250,000 from 20 December 1991, £30,000 from 20 August 1992 and £60,000 from 16 March 1993.

Tax Credits

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effect on payments to working tax credit claimants of overtime working; and if he will make a statement. [192629]

Dawn Primarolo: The working tax credit was introduced in April 2003 and the deadline for finalising 2003–04 awards (except for the self-employed) was 30 September. As a result data on the effects on awards of changes in income are not yet available. The tax credits system disregards income rises from the previous tax year of up to £2,500, so tax credit recipients whose overtime increases their pay by up to this amount will not see any reduction in their current year's award.

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

GCSE (English and Maths)

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of pupils achieved GCSE grades A*-C in (a) English language and (b) mathematics in each of the last five years, broken down by local education authority area. [190784]

Mr. Miliband: The information requested has been placed in the House of Commons Libraries.

Language Assistants (Coventry)

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many language assistants are employed in primary schools in Coventry. [192155]

Mr. Miliband: This information is not collected centrally.
 
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Student Loans

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students who applied for student loans (a) before and (b) after the deadline are waiting for (i) the loan to be finalised and (ii) the money to be issued. [192798]

Dr. Howells: Some 800,000 applications have been received to date, 521,000 of which were received on or before 2 July 2004 (which is the published deadline for new applications).

All applicants who submitted a fully and properly completed application form on or before 2 July should receive, shortly after their university or college confirms their attendance, either a fully assessed loan payment or an interim payment (under our contingency arrangements for continuing students). Some 12,000 interim payments have been made to date, and these students will receive full assessments and a further loan payment (if appropriate) within a few weeks. A further 1,000 interim payments are scheduled for release once confirmation of the relevant students' attendance is received from the appropriate institutions.

279,000 applications have been received since 2 July, of which fewer than 89,000 are still being processed. As is the case every year, a significant number of students have applied well after the published deadlines (some 94,000 applications have been received since early September). Local authorities and the Student Loans Company have never been able to guarantee payment at the start of term to late applicants. The Student Loans Company has paid over 530,000 loans to date, with a further 75,000 fully approved and scheduled for payment as soon as the students' attendance is confirmed by their institution.

As in previous years, the Department has written to higher education institutions asking them to be supportive of students who do not have loans in place at the start of term.

Work-based Training

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what measures his Department is taking in conjunction with the Department of Trade and Industry to improve on-the-job training; [192022]

(2) what measures his Department is taking with other departments, to identify skill shortages and train up workers in those skills, with particular reference to (a) the Department of Trade and Industry and (b) the Home Office. [192018]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Skills Strategy White Paper "21st Century Skills—Realising Our Potential" sets out our programme to tackle the skills gap between the UK and its main economic competitors. It commits the Government and their key partners to a radical strategy of demand-led provision of skills steered by the needs of employers as expressed through a new Skills for Business Network and given a sharp regional focus through new Regional Skills Partnerships. The Government reported progress with delivering the strategy in their report published in July, "Skills Alliance: Skills Strategy Progress Report".
 
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The Skills Strategy is a cross-Government strategy, and not just a DfES one. A national Skills Alliance has been formed, bringing together the key Government Departments (DfES, DTI, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Treasury) with employer and union representatives in a new partnership, and linking the key delivery agencies in a concerted drive to raise skills. My right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for Education and Skills and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry jointly chair the Skills Alliance Social and Economic Partners Group which brings Government together with CBI, TUC and Small Business Council to drive forward delivery of the Skills Strategy. A key element of this delivery agenda is a joint strategy for engaging with industry sectors across DTI and DfES. This includes the joint sponsorship of the Skills for Business Network of Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), to ensure that the network is the vehicle for both Departments to use in pursuing the sector skills agenda together. It will give a coherent employer voice into government and a coherent response back out again. For the first time the Skills Alliance brings together these key partners in terms of the customers of the skills and training systems—employers and employees—and all the key delivery agents.

The Skills Strategy is about improving the technological and skills base of our industry, and thereby supporting business success, employment and prosperity. The growing network of UK-wide, employer-led SSCs has a key part to play in taking forward the national skills strategy. SSCs are experts on their sector, one of their key goals is to identify and address skills gaps and shortages. SSCs will work to increase opportunities to boost the skills and productivity of everyone in the sector's work force, including taking action on equal opportunities.

We are working to improve the support to the low-skilled through the New Deal for Skills (NDfS) by creating a new intensive skills guidance service, co-located with Jobcentre Plus where possible, and improving mechanisms of financial support for those for whom training provides a route back to work.

We recognise that there are variations in the skills base of different regions. This is being addressed by Regional Skills Partnerships (RSPs) which are being established in each region, co-ordinated by Regional Development Agencies (sponsored by DTI). RSPs involve LSC, Jobcentre Plus, Small Business Service and Skills for Business Network. They are bringing together skills and work force development with support for innovation and business development and labour market services in an integrated approach to deliver Regional Economic Strategies.

For example, the DTI have recently implemented what we believe to be an excellent tool for business—Benchmark Plus—which enables business to understand better the link between the skills of its workforce and its overall performance. We will be piloting the use of Benchmark Plus within the Employer Training Pilots in preparation for a national programme.

We are also working with the Home Office, Department of Trade and Industry and other Departments across government on ways by which
 
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selective and controlled migration can also help address skill shortages in the UK. This includes specific migration schemes such as the Highly Skilled Migration Programme as well as sector based schemes and developing new avenues for MBA graduates. We are developing a broader understanding of the role that migration has to play within the wider context of upskilling the UK work force as a whole.

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