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20 July 2009 : Column 1131W—continued
Retail Trade: Kent
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when his Department intends to consult on the wider application of the Kent County Council Act 2001 and the Medway Council Act 2001 for the regulation of markets and occasional sales. [280890]
Kevin Brennan: A consultation on measures to tighten the regulation of markets and occasional sales was recommended in the Gower Review of intellectual property. However, the Department's resources are limited and current efforts are focused on providing targeted help and protection for consumers struggling to make ends meet as a result of the global downturn. It is therefore not possible to give a specific timeframe for implementing this recommendation.
Skilled Workers
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is taking to increase levels of management skills among employers. [284621]
Kevin Brennan: The Train To Gain Leadership and Management programme provides support and funding for senior managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access personalised training that meets their development needs. Specialist advisers work with individuals to understand their needs and recommend suitable opportunities. A grant of up to £1,000 can be allocated for employers to spend on any leadership and management development activity deemed appropriate. As part of the Government's package of support developed for SMEs in the economic downturn, the leadership and management programme is now available to all employers with between five and 249 employees.
The Government are increasing investment in Train to Gain. This will rise to over £1 billion by 2010-11.
Skilled Workers: Milton Keynes
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the skills base in Milton Keynes. [279737]
Kevin Brennan:
The Department utilises data and advice from the UKCES and the National Employer Skills Survey to provide a national level picture of skills needs. Information is also available on a regional basis. However, the Department would look to our key partners, regional development agencies and local authorities to
work closely with Sector Skills Councils and employers in order to identify skills needs in more defined geographical areas.
South East England Development Agency: Redundancy Pay
Robert Neill: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much the South East England Development Agency has paid out in redundancy payments in the last 24 months; and how much each individual payment was. [286677]
Ms Rosie Winterton: SEEDA has made 33 individual redundancy payments, totalling £663,659.54, between July 2007 and June 2009. These payments have been made as a result of the completion of projects and programmes and the need to restructure teams to focus on new goals requiring different skill sets. Individual payments are listed as follows:
£80,891.90
£49,897.34
£46,174.15
£43,601.33
£36,038.14
£34,285.07
£27,194.50
£24,787.31
£24,539.85
£23,977.98
£23,545.60
£23,497.64
£23,489.37
£19,481.68
£17,620.82
£16,893.12
£16,023.72
£12,844.43
£12,119.94
£11,180.73
£10,121.15
£8,699.71
£8,638.16
£8,469.91
£8,445.29
£8,132.01
£7,718.75
£7,462.54
£7,318.59
£7,292.02
£6,541.63
£3,968.45
£2,766.71
Robert Neill: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether the South East England Development Agency takes account of service in previous public sector employment when calculating redundancy payments for individuals. [286680]
Ms Rosie Winterton: SEEDA is bound by the Civil Service Compensation Scheme for calculating redundancy payments and SEEDA includes service in previous public sector employment in calculating redundancy payments where such service satisfies the rules of the scheme.
Students: Fees and Charges
Stephen Williams: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of ending tuition fees for first degree (a) full-time and (b) part-time undergraduates. [286229]
Mr. Lammy: There are no plans to end tuition fees for either full-time or part-time undergraduate students studying at English Higher Education institutions. Such fees generate an income of around £3 billion annually for Higher Education institutions and it helps them to tackle the challenges Government identified when introducing the new fee and student support arrangements to maintain and improve high standards, to expand and widen access to meet rising skills needs, and to compete globally. Both the number of overall entrants to higher education and those from low participation neighbourhoods has increased since the introduction of tuition fees in 2006.
Students: Loans
Stephen Williams: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many live accounts the Student Loans Company holds in respect of which no repayment is being received; what the reasons are for which no repayments are being made; and how many live accounts are not receiving repayments for each such reason. [286833]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 14 July 2009]: The information requested is published in table 2(ii) for mortgage-style loans and in table 2(iii) for income contingent loans of the Statistical First Release entitled Student Loans for Higher Education in England, Financial Year 2008-09 (provisional) which is available at:
A copy has been placed in the House Library.
Stephen Williams: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what proportion of students enrolled on their first degree course have received a tuition fee loan in each year since 2006. [286834]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 14 July 2009]: The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that 981,500 English-domiciled students studying in UK and EU students studying in England enrolled on their first degree in academic year 2006-07 and 1,000,000 in 2007-08. Figures for the 2008-09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
The latest figures published by the Student Loans Company show that 397,300 of English-domiciled students studying in UK and EU students studying in England received a tuition fee loan in academic year 2006-07, 553,600 in 2007-08 and 713,700 in 2008-09 (provisional figures).
The figures are not directly comparable. The HESA figures cover students who enrolled in their first degree and include part-time students whereas the SLC figures cover students who also enrolled in their sub-degree and only cover a small proportion of part-time students i.e. Initial Teacher Training students.
Stephen Williams: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many EU-domiciled students have received a tuition fee loan in each year since 2006. [286836]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 14 July 2009]: The information requested is published in the Statistical First Release entitled Student Support for Higher Education in England, Academic Year 2008/09 (provisional) which is available at:
A copy has been placed in the House Library.
Tuition fee loans were first introduced in academic year 2006/07. Each academic year the new cohort of students becomes eligible to apply for this loan, thereby increasing the total number of EU-domiciled students who have a tuition fee loan.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of eligible students took out (a) a maintenance loan only, (b) a tuition fees loan only and (c) loans for both for maintenance and tuition from the Student Loans Company in the most recent academic year for which figures are available. [286985]
Mr. Lammy: In 2006/07 the estimated proportion of eligible English domiciled students studying in the UK who took out a maintenance loan is 80 per cent. The information is available at table 4A of the Statistical First Release by the Student Loans Company entitled Student Support for Higher Education in England, Academic Year 2008/09 (Provisional) which is available at:
A copy is available in the House Library.
It is not possible for us to determine the proportions for the further two categories because the population eligible for tuition fee loans, as opposed to tuition fee grants, cannot be estimated in a robust manner.
As at 31 March 2009, the number of English domiciled borrowers studying in the UK and EU domiciled borrowers studying in England in 2007/08 who had taken out loans is as follows:
52,100 tuition fee loans only;
237,000 maintenance loans only
514,000 tuition and maintenance loans.
Tuition fee loans were introduced in 2006/07 so these figures represent an early stage in the process.
Train to Gain Programme
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of people from the North East registered for Train to Gain courses but who have not yet commenced their training. [280703]
Kevin Brennan: The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) delivers the Train to Gain programme on behalf of the Department. It counts the number of learners who register for Train to Gain at the point where they formally start on programmes. However, there is no formal registration process before a learner starts and therefore no central mechanism is in place to measure the number of people registering an interest.
The LSC is working closely with providers to support ongoing new starts for the remainder of the 2008/09 academic year where providers are within their maximum contract value. Maximum contract values for 2009/10 academic year will be finalised during June.
Train to Gain Programme: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people resident in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire have successfully completed a Train to Gain course in each year of its operation. [284564]
Kevin Brennan: The table shows the number of Train to Gain achievements by people living in Hemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency and Hertfordshire local authority.
| Train to Gain achievements | ||
| Hertfordshire local authority | Hemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency | |
| Notes: 1. Geographic area is based on learner's home postcode. 2. Numbers within a local authority have been rounded to the nearest hundred. Numbers within a parliamentary constituency have been rounded to the nearest 10. Source: TtG ILR | ||
UK Trade and Investment: Manpower
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) staff had at least one year's experience in the commercial sector prior to joining UKTI. [281706]
Ian Lucas: Neither the Department nor UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) holds centrally the information requested and it could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
However, people working for UK Trade and Investment do have considerable commercial and business experience. Five out of six members of the UKTI Executive Team and all three of its non-executive directors have business experience as do most of the local staff based in Foreign and Commonwealth Office Posts overseas (some 1,100) and nearly all the International Trade Advisors (just under 300) based in the nine English Regions. UKTI also has a programme of secondments both to and from the private sector.
Unemployment
Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 17 June 2009, Official Report, column 420W,
on unemployment, how many and what percentage of persons in each category not in education, employment or training in the first quarter of 2009 were (a) male and (b) female. [283993]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 14 July 2009]: The following table shows the number and proportion of people aged(1) 16 to 18 and 19 to 24 not in education, employment or training in England, split by male and female. These estimates are from the Quarter 1 2009 Labour Force Survey.
| Numbers not in education, employment or training, Q1 2009 | ||||
| Male | Female | |||
| Age group | NEET | Percentage | NEET | Percentage |
| (1) Age used is academic age, which is the age of the respondent as at the preceding 31 August. Base: England only Source: Labour Force Survey Q1 2009 | ||||
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