Written Ministerial Statements
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Insolvency Service (Performance Targets 2009-10)
The Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs (Mr. Pat McFadden): I have today agreed to the publishing of the Insolvency Service’s corporate plan for the period 2009-12.
Because of the current uncertainty in the economy the Insolvency Service is currently planning to deal with a level of new compulsory insolvency cases within a range of 86,000 to 92,600. The service is also planning to deal with a range of 180,000 to 220,000 redundancy payments and other insolvency-related claims during 2009-10.
The service’s “Enabling the Future” strategy, a major programme of IT-led investment, will deliver savings over the period of the current comprehensive spending review. I have set the service a target to have reduced its case administration fees by 15 per cent. in real terms by 31 March 2011.
Action will continue to be taken against bankrupts and company directors in respect of financial misconduct or dishonesty and the service’s companies investigation branch will continue to investigate the affairs of companies in the public interest. I have asked the service to maintain the level of enforcement outputs achieved in 2008-09 during 2009-10 and I have also set a target in relation to the timeliness of instigating disqualification proceedings in appropriate cases. The service will also be commissioning a new stakeholder survey in 2009-10 with a view to setting a new stakeholder satisfaction target for confidence in its enforcement regime in 2010-11.
I have set targets in relation to the timeliness of processing claims for redundancy payments and in relation to the overall satisfaction levels of the service’s users.
The corporate plan is available at: http://www. insolvency.gov.uk/aboutus/CorporatePlan.pdf
I will place a copy of the corporate plan in the Libraries of both Houses.
In addition to these targets the service is required to meet centrally promulgated targets relating to replying to correspondence from hon. Members and making payments to suppliers. The service will also look to maintain charter mark and Investors in People accreditation following reassessments during 2009-10.
| Other Targets | Target — 2009-10 | Target — 2008-09 |
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Reply to correspondence from Members of Parliament within 10 days | ||
In addition to the central target to pay 100 per cent. of invoices within 30 days, the Government have also instructed Departments and agencies to maximise levels of payment of undisputed invoices within eight days.
Regional Development Agencies
The Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs (Mr. Pat McFadden): My right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has made the following statement.
It is 10 years since the RDAs were set up, as business-led organisations, to promote enterprise throughout the country and drive up economic growth in their regions. They provide regional economic leadership, co-ordinate strategy, deliver vital programmes to provide real help to people and business today, invest for our future, and help join up the full range of public sector economic activity in the region. They have brought inward investment successes to the regions and worked closely with UKTI in supporting the growth of UK businesses through international trade. They also lead the regional response in times of economic difficulty, offering real help now to businesses and people to support them through the downturn and ensure they are well placed to respond to the opportunities in the recovery.
The independent performance assessments carried out in 2006-07 by the National Audit Office showed that all of the RDAs were operationally performing well or strongly. We now have an independent evaluation of the economic impact of RDAs, commissioned by BERR and RDAs and published today by PricewaterhouseCoopers, demonstrating the considerable success that RDAs have had in improving their region’s economy. The PwC report finds that the RDAs add real value: supporting business, helping people to increase their employability and productivity, and investing in infrastructure and communities. PwC assessed that RDA programmes will generate at least £4.50 for every £1 spent over the programmes’ lifetime. I have placed copies of the PwC report in the Library of the House.
All regions have significant centres of industrial strength and competitive advantage. For these centres to thrive and provide the foundation for our national economic success, national, regional and sub-regional bodies need to align their efforts to provide the best possible environment for business. The RDAs have a key leadership role. They catalyse investment in key infrastructure that will support the sustainable economic environment needed for the future. Through the funding they provide, the leadership they give, particularly in developing the new single regional strategy with the leaders boards, and their links with national and local partners, they have a prime role in delivering industrial policy, regenerating the economy, and moving to a low carbon economy. This delivery is built on RDAs’ precise regional knowledge and their ability to engage and work with other regional and sub-regional partners to lever and powerfully align funding and priorities at the national, sub-regional and local level.
In current economic conditions, we need a relentless focus on helping business and fostering growth and jobs. RDAs will be developing a different strategic mix of investments and interventions for the short-term, the medium and longer-term. The new guidance for the single regional strategy to be issued in the summer is an opportunity to set out a clear national framework setting out how RDAs, with regional and local partners, will work together to deliver sustainable growth, housing and tackling climate change, including through the Solutions for Business portfolio.
I am asking the RDAs to focus, working with and through others:
As an immediate priority, on providing assistance to business;
for the medium-term, on stimulating the recovery and growth; and
for the longer-term, on restructuring and developing each region’s strengths, supporting its growth and competitiveness in the future.
Through such investment, businesses will not only survive but thrive, with more jobs and employment created for the people in all parts of the country. This will be delivered more successfully by aligning RDAs’ business-focused capital expenditure with that of other bodies such as the Homes and Communities Agency, and sub-regional and local partners. Our ambition is to maximise economic benefits and through them the impact on people’s life chances, by targeting investment firmly on regenerating and strengthening each region’s economy.
The PwC report gives the RDAs and Government more widely, an opportunity to identify which types of investments and interventions have the greatest economic impact and in which circumstances. The evidence from the report will inform the conclusions of Public Value Programme review of RDAs to be announced in the Budget. More immediately, I have agreed with the RDAs that they should:
Reprioritise and focus sharply on measures to help their regions through the downturn and prepare for the upturn. They will look at the strategic mix of their interventions and use the evaluation work to arrive at a programme with maximum impact in the short and medium term to address the acute problems of the present and to lay strong foundations for recovery.
Ensure that robust mechanisms are in place uniformly across the network to embed learning from the evaluation into future investment planning and that experience is shared effectively across the RDA network. RDAs will also be working with BERR and others to produce new appraisal guidance which will set out a shared understanding of what, in the light of the evaluation, works well and what does not.
Draw extensively on the evaluation results and other evidence to refine their investment frameworks, to help them choose between competing investment projects to maximise the economic return to the region and the national economy. The result will provide an even more robust basis for ensuring the effective use of funds, particularly in ensuring that investment in physical regeneration complements business investment.
Update me on the immediate priorities they have agreed with their regional Ministers and partners and stakeholders such as the Homes and Communities Agency and local authorities. These should be set out in corporate plan updates so that there is clear visibility of everything they will be doing for the region over the period. This will provide the basis for more open and firmer performance management.
RDAs have agreed to provide detailed responses by the end of May.
Treasury
Revenue Protection
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Stephen Timms): I can today announce the implementation of a measure consulted on during 2008 and a measure to protect revenues.
Simplification of standard method for calculating VAT
Effective from 1 April 2009, the Government announce changes to simplify the standard method for calculating VAT for partially exempt businesses.
The changes announced today follow consultation over the summer, and will benefit up to 120,000 businesses in the UK, by making it easier for them to operate the default standard method. I am today laying regulations to effect these changes.
Value Added Tax—anti-forestalling legislation
On 25 November 2008, I announced the Government’s intention to introduce legislation as part of Finance Bill 2009 to protect the public finances from artificial avoidance which sought to exploit the change in the VAT rate (forestalling). That statement described the scope of the legislation, in particular the circumstances in which it was to apply, and set out that it would be effective from the date of the statement.
The draft legislation is today published for comment by HMRC. It includes further necessary measures to protect revenues, effective from today.
In addition, I can confirm that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has today announced that the Department of Communities and Local Government will bring forward legislation to enable businesses to spread payment of the increase in business rates bills for 2009-10 over the three years to 2011-12. Business ratepayers in England will be able to defer payment of around £600 million across 1.6 million properties, easing cash flow in the current year. Further details of the announcement can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk.
Children, Schools and Families
Young People's Learning Agency
The Minister for Schools and Learners (Jim Knight): The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learners Bill will legislate for the creation of a new post—the chief executive of the Young People’s Learning Agency; and to take over some of the functions of the Learning and Skills Council—which will be dissolved. The Bill will also legislate to confer new responsibilities on local authorities for the commissioning of education and training for young people aged 16 to 19. Subject to the passage of the Bill, these changes will take effect from April 2010.
The scale of the change that the Department is implementing is considerable. Some £7 billion per annum of public funding will be routed through the YPLA and local authorities for the provision of education and training to 16 to 19-year-olds. This new organisation will have a major role to play in ensuring the provision of education and training for young people, and that strategic skills needs are met across the country. For such a large and complex transition it is imperative that DCSF seeks to minimise the risks around transition. In particular, that we allow time for the detailed new delivery arrangements to be designed, tested and established before the transfer. This will minimise the potential for there to be any risk to public funds; avoid any disruption in delivery of education and training; and thus sustain delivery against PSA targets.
With this in mind, we want the YPLA to work in ‘shadow’ arrangements with the LSC and local authorities before responsibility and staff are formally transferred in April 2010. The ‘shadow’ period will begin at the start of the 2009-10 academic year and will end when, subject to the passage of legislation, responsibility is formally transferred to the YPLA in April 2010.
Recruiting a chief executive as early in the transition year 2009-10 as possible, will be a crucial element of facilitating a successful move to the permanent new arrangements. If recruitment activity were not to begin until Royal Assent, which is due in autumn 2009, we would not be able to guarantee that a suitable candidate would be available to take up post by April 2010. Advertising early would enable the successful candidates to take up position early in the transition year as possible, which would enable us to involve them in the crucial work to
provide Ministers with assurance that the new YPLA will have the capacity to deliver on Government’s ambition;
effectively manage the significant amounts of resource that they will be delegated; and
provide the leadership, strategy and operational plan so the YPLA is up and running from April 2010.
Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £80,000 for this new service will be sought in the main estimate for 2009-10 for DCSF. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £80,000 will be met by repayable advances from the contingencies fund.
School Teachers' Review Body
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Ed Balls):
Part 1 of the 18th report of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) is being published today, covering a range of matters referred to them in
June 2008. I am grateful for the careful consideration which the STRB has given to these matters. Copies of the report and of my detailed response to it are available in the Vote Office, the Printed Paper Office, the Libraries of the House and at www.teachernet.gov.uk/pay.
The STRB has recommended that teachers’ pay be increased by 2.3 per cent. from 1 September 2009 without prejudice to the outcome of the part 2 report in June on the appropriateness of the pay award for September 2009 and 2010. In addition a further adjustment to pay scales for teachers in inner London is recommended for September 2009.
I am grateful to the STRB for these recommendations which will allow teachers to receive an increase in September 2009, pending the STRB’s report in June, and I intend to accept these recommendations.
The STRB has recommended that new statements of responsibilities for all teachers are drawn up, separate from conditions of employment, taking account of draft statements that the STRB has produced, and that the current statements in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) be removed.
I am grateful to the STRB for its consideration of this issue and for the work it has done to prepare draft statements. I agree that account should be taken of the STRB’s draft statements for teachers as work develops in this area. I agree that existing statements within the STPCD should be replaced in due course. I also take the view that conditions of employment should be considered alongside revised statements of responsibilities.
The STRB has also made recommendations concerning the leadership group. In particular, it has recommended that certain interim arrangements for pay and conditions for leaders in the STPCD be changed to enable leaders to be paid for existing models of leadership in a consistent and transparent manner. STRB has also recommended that there should be a fundamental review of the system of reward for the leadership group.
I note the STRB’s recommendation for changes to the pay and conditions for leaders and I agree that this work should be taken further by the STRB in the course of a future remit. I believe that this work should also link with work to develop a new set of professional responsibilities for all teachers.
The STRB has also made helpful recommendations concerning pay ranges for the Excellent Teachers Scheme, which I propose to accept, and concerning payments for teachers of pupils with special educational needs, including unattached teachers. My detailed response contains further information on all these issues.
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