| Table 3: School Teachers' Review Body | ||
| Board member | Term of office | Remunerationpaid in 2012/13 (£) |
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Teachers
Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to implement the conclusions of Great teachers: attracting, training and retaining the best: Government response to the Education Committee's Ninth Report of Session 2010-12, First Special Report of Session 2012-13, HC524, published on 16 July 2012. [155460]
Mr Laws: We have reformed teacher training and the best graduates are selecting teaching as a high status profession of choice. 71% of graduates undertaking initial teacher training (ITT) in 2012/13 have a 2:1 or higher degree, the highest proportion recorded. More schools recruit and select their own trainees, work with the accredited teacher training provider of their choice and also tailor courses to suit their own needs. Over 9,400 places have been allocated to schools under the School Direct programme in 2013/14. There are now 360 Teaching Schools representing 301 Teaching School alliances, working together to ensure high quality school-led ITT and offering professional development opportunities.
New Teachers' Standards and appraisal regulations came into force on 1 September 2012, making it easier for teachers and head teachers to assess teachers' performance. Our reforms to teachers' pay, to be implemented in schools from September 2013, will strengthen the link between pay and performance, and provide head teachers with the flexibility to target any school-level recruitment and retention problems.
Teachers: Pay
Chris Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what representations he has received on performance related pay for teachers. [156295]
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Mr Laws: The Secretary of State regularly meets leaders in education, trade unions and professional associations to discuss, among other issues, teachers' pay. He has also received and continues to receive a range of correspondence on the issue of pay reform, which includes performance-related pay.
In addition, formal consultation responses were received following the recommendations of the independent School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) in their 21st Report, which was published on 5 December 2012, and in response to subsequent revisions to the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document.
Teachers: Qualifications
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education with reference to the answer of 24 April 2013, Official Report, column 966W, on teachers: qualifications, how many teachers in secondary schools are teaching subjects in which they do not have a degree in each local education authority. [155502]
Mr Laws: Information in the form requested could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.
Information on the number of teachers teaching individual subjects in secondary schools by the level of their qualification is published in Table 13 of the ‘School Workforce in England, November 2012' Statistical First Release, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2012
| Table 13: Highest post A level qualifications(1,2) held by publicly funded secondary school teachers (head count) in the subjects(3) they taught to year groups 7-13 in 2012, November 2012, England | |||||||||||||||
| Percentage | |||||||||||||||
| Highest level of qualification(1) held in a relevant subject(3,4) | |||||||||||||||
| Degree or higher(5) | Bachelor of Education | Postgraduate Certificate of Education | Other qualification(6) | ||||||||||||
| Subject(3) | % | ± | CI(7) | % | ± | CI(7) | % | ± | CI(7) | % | ± | CI(7) | Any relevant post A level qualification % | No relevant post A level qualification % | Total head count (thousand) |
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| ‘*’ = Not applicable. ‘—’ = Nil or negligible. (1) Where a teacher has more than one post A level qualification in the same subject, the qualification level is determined by the highest level reading from left (Degree or higher) to right (Other Qualification). For example, teachers shown under PGCE have a PGCE but not a Degree. (2) Not including qualifications in Special Educational Needs provision. (3) Teachers are counted once against each subject which they are teaching. Head counts are used, so a teacher teaching French and German would be counted once in each. (4) A full list of what was deemed as a ‘relevant' qualification subject for each curriculum subject taught can be found in the SFR home page. (5) Includes Doctorates and other Level 8 qualifications, Masters and other Level 7 qualifications (e.g. Post Graduate certificates and diplomas), first degrees (excluding BEds) and other level 6 qualifications (e.g. graduate certificates and diplomas). (6) Includes Certificate of Education, Non-UK Qualifications where the level was not provided and Other Qualification at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 4 or 5 and above e.g. diplomas or higher education and further education, foundation degrees, higher national diplomas and certificates of higher education. (7) Confidence intervals have been calculated around the proportions as not all schools were able to submit curriculum information, and not all qualifications returns were complete. Qualifications information was either not provided, or the subject field was missing for 12% of the teachers in schools submitting curriculum data. The confidence intervals show the statistical accuracy for the data, and give a range within which we can be reasonably sure (95% certain) that the true value actually lies. (8) Teachers qualified in biology, chemistry, or physics are treated to teach both combined/general science and other science. (9) Teachers qualified in each of the specialist design and technology subjects are treated as qualified to teach other/combined design and technology. (10) Information and Communication Technology is abbreviated as ICT and Personal Social and Health Education is abbreviated as PSHE. (11) Includes philosophy. Notes: 1. Percentages are row percentages, and based on the number of teachers for whom curriculum and qualifications information was provided. 2. Numbers rounded to the nearest 100 and numbers below 50 are shown as nil or negligible. 3. Totals may not appear equal to the sum of the component parts because of rounding. Base: 163,835 secondary level teachers (unweighted head count). Source: School Workforce Census | |||||||||||||||
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Training
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many officials in (a) his Department and (b) the non-departmental public bodies for which he is responsible enrolled in publicly-funded training courses in each of the last five years; what the total cost has been of such courses; and what the monetary value was of the 10 highest training course fees in each such year. [155426]
Elizabeth Truss: The following table sets out expenditure for the Department for Education (and its predecessors) on learning and development. It reflects the data on our Resource Management System against the appropriate learning and development account codes.
| £ million | |
In April 2011 the Department's Executive agencies became part of the core Department and figures after that date include their expenditure on learning and development.
Budgets are devolved to NDPBs, therefore the Department does not hold data on their expenditure.
We do not hold details of all training courses taken by staff centrally, and could collate details only at disproportionate cost.
Transport: Schools
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much each local authority spent in fulfilling the statutory duties in respect of home school travel arrangements for young people aged up to 16 years in the latest period for which figures are available. [155720]
Mr Laws: The available information on how much was spent on home to school travel arrangements as reported by each local authority for schools in England for the financial year 2011-12 is set out in the following table. This is the latest year for which data are available.
| £ | |
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| Source: Section 251 Outturn 2011-12. | |
Young People: Mental Illness
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of people of school and college age had one or more psychological conditions in each of the last 30 years; and what assessment he has made of the effect of such conditions on the ability of those students to learn. [156448]
Mr Timpson: This information is not collected centrally. However, two surveys have been carried out by the Office for National Statistics.
In 1999, the Office for National Statistics carried out a survey on behalf of the Department of Health, the Scottish Health Executive and the National Assembly for Wales. They found that 9.5% of five to 15-year-olds had a clinically recognisable mental disorder.
In 2004, they conducted a further survey entitled the ‘Mental health of children and young people in Great Britain’, 2004 (ONS 2005), which stated that 9.6% of five to 16-year-olds had a clinically recognisable mental disorder.
Attainment data are collected by the Department for Education. The latest figures, released in March 2013, show that young people who were identified as having some form of special educational need (SEN) at age 15 have considerably lower attainment levels at 19 compared to young people without any identified SEN. This is across all forms of SEN, not just those with psychological conditions.
Justice
Bill of Rights Commission
Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which people and organisations the (a) Chairman and (b) Secretary of the Commission on a Bill of Rights have met to discuss the Commission’s work since the Commission was established excluding (i) seminars, (ii) meetings with parliamentary committees and (iii) meetings during visits to Strasbourg, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh. [153903]
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Mrs Grant: The list of people and organisations the Commission on a Bill of Rights has met since it was established in March 2011 is in Annex A in the second volume of the Commission's final report, which was published on 18 December 2012.
The full report is available at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/cbr
Community Orders
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions the Crown Prosecution Service has advised the police to dispose of an offence via a community resolution order instead of charging in each of the last three years. [156290]
The Solicitor-General: I have been asked to reply.
The Crown Prosecution Service is not involved in advising the police to dispose of an offence via a community resolution order instead of charging.
A community resolution can be issued by a police officer to both adults and youths as a proportionate response to lower level crime.
Employment Tribunals Service
John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to publish the research on non-payment of employment tribunal awards referred to in paragraph 103 of the Government response to Mr Justice Underhill's review of tribunal rules of procedure. [156402]
Jo Swinson: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has commissioned IFF Research to carry out this research project and work is currently under way. The final report is due to be completed in late July to early August, after which the findings will be made publicly available.
Fireworks: Fixed Penalties
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many fixed penalties were issued relating to the misuse of fireworks in (a) Bassetlaw constituency, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) Nottinghamshire in each of the last five years. [154158]
Jeremy Wright: The penalty notice for disorder (PND) scheme was introduced in all 43 police force areas in England and Wales in 2004, under the provisions of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. Under the scheme, the police are able to issue penalty notices to persons aged 16 and over for a range of offences related to the misuse of fireworks including throwing fireworks, breach of fireworks curfew (11 pm to 7 am), possession of a category 4 firework and possession by a person under 18 of adult firework. All these offences attract the higher tariff of £80. The aim of the PND scheme is to provide operational officers a quick and effective alternative disposal option for dealing with low-level, anti-social and nuisance offending.
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The number of penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued to offenders aged 16 and over for offences related to the misuse of fireworks, in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire police force areas, in each year between 2007 and 2011 (latest available) can be viewed in the table. These data are not available at parliamentary constituency level.
Information on the use of PNDs in 2012 is planned for publication in May 2013.
| Number of penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued to offenders aged 16 and over for offences related to the misuse of fireworks, in South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire police force areas, 2007 to 2011 | |||||
| Police force area/Offence | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| (1) Offences under the Explosives Act 1875, S.80: Throwing, casting or firing any fireworks in or into any highway, street, public place etc. (2 )Offences under the Fireworks Regulations 2004 under s11 of the Fireworks Act 2003. Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services within the Ministry of Justice. | |||||
Legal Aid Scheme
Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether, within the consultation on reform of criminal legal aid, any consideration has been given to how a service based on geographical areas might impact on specialist firms who may have to act outside their area. [154286]
Jeremy Wright: The Government are currently consulting on a proposed model of competitive tendering via the “Transforming Legal Aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system” consultation which closes on 4 June 2013. We have been clear we must continue to bear down on the cost of legal aid, including the £1 billion of taxpayers’ money spent on criminal legal aid a year, to ensure we are getting the best deal for the taxpayer. As we have made clear on numerous occasions, we believe the single most effective way of doing this is to move away from the current complex system of administratively set fees, through the introduction of competitive tendering, where providers compete to offer their services at the best possible price. We are actively engaging with stakeholders on the proposals and welcome all responses to the consultation.
Under the proposed model, a contract to deliver criminal legal aid defence services in one procurement area would not permit a provider to deliver services in
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another procurement area except where a case crossed procurement area boundaries. This restriction would only apply to those classes of work against which we propose to set the price by the competition. All other services, for example, prison law services, would not be restricted to delivery in the specific procurement area. However, every contractor awarded a new contract following competitive tendering would be obliged to deliver all services as prescribed under their contract.
The proposed model would ensure that providers would be guaranteed a specific share of the work available (and control of the case from beginning to end). By awarding longer and larger contracts with greater certainty of volumes, providers would have increased opportunities to grow their businesses, become more efficient, and thereby reduce cost to the taxpayer.
The Ministry of Justice has provided an impact assessment of the proposals set out in the consultation paper which is based on the data it currently holds and would welcome information on other factors that should be taken into consideration when evaluating the impact of the proposals. The Ministry of Justice would welcome feedback on the proposed model via the Ministry’s website at:
https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-legal-aid
Legal Aid Scheme: Cornwall
Sarah Newton: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which providers have been chosen to deliver the (a) Standard Crime, (b) Standard Civil, (c) Family and (d) Community Legal Advice legal aid contract in Cornwall; what the value is of each such contract; and what estimate he has made of the number of people assisted through each such contract. [154441]
Jeremy Wright: The providers selected to deliver legal aid contracts in the Cornwall procurement area(1) in the categories of Standard Crime, Standard Civil and Family are detailed in the annex.
Standard Crime Contracts commenced in July 2010. All face to face civil legal aid work is delivered under a Standard Civil Contract. Contracts for Family work, along with Immigration and Asylum and Housing and Debt commenced in April 2013. Contracts for all other civil legal aid work commenced in November 2010. Organisations may deliver work across more than one category of law/contract but are counted once only in each of (a), (b) and (c) above. Details provided exclude Family Mediation providers.
Civil Legal Advice (CLA) (formerly Community Legal Advice) specialist telephone advice contracts are national contracts, which are not split into separate procurement areas by region but cover the entirety of England and Wales. Current CLA contracts commenced on 1 April and offer civil legal advice in Family, Housing and Debt, Education and Discrimination. At 9 May 2013 the organisations holding CLA contracts are shown at the annex.
For the Standard Crime and Standard Civil contracts, there is no ‘value' assigned and as such the Legal Aid Agency cannot provide this information. This is because the contracts issued authorise organisations to undertake work but do not guarantee income. For criminal work,
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providers are allocated ‘duty slots' in which they obtain clients whose cases arise during that session. For civil face to face work, providers are allocated a number of ‘matter starts' which authorise them to undertake initial advice for clients which attracts a fixed fee. However, cases that subsequently require legal representation are funded on a case by case basis with costs agreed accordingly. For CLA contracts, the contract value in practice is determined by the number of calls received nationally.
The Legal Aid Agency does not record the number of individuals who receive legal aid. Instead it records the number of ‘acts of assistance'. One individual may receive a number of separate acts of assistance if they have a range of problems or need different levels of service eg advice and representation at Court. Estimates are not made of the total number of acts of assistance at a regional or individual firm level. Although there is an estimation of the number of ‘matter starts’ allocated at a firm and procurement area level (which roughly corresponds to a local authority area) there is no corresponding estimation of certificates granted to individuals. This is because the number of legal aid certificates granted is dependent on the number of applications that satisfy the legal aid eligibility criteria.
(1) Procurement area boundaries differ by area of law, for example, for the purpose of the Standard Crime Contract, the contracting area (Criminal Justice Service area) that includes Cornwall encompasses the whole of Devon and Cornwall. Detail has therefore been provided for organisations whose procurement area covers Cornwall, although in some instances providers may not be located in this specific area.
(a) Standard Crime—As at 10 May the following organisations within the Devon and Cornwall Criminal Justice Service area held a Standard Criminal Contract:
Foot Anstey LLP
Trobridges
Almy & Thomas
Gowmans
Qualitysolicitors Dunn & Baker
@Cornwall Law LLP
Slee Blackwell
Windeatts
WBW Solicitors
Julian Jefferson
Toller Beattie LLP
Bazeley Barnes & Bazeley
Woollcombe & Yonge
Coodes
Brewer Harding & Rowe
Walters & Barbary
Rundlewalker
Ralph & Co. LLP
DB Law
D B LAW
Owen Lawton
Michael Oerton
C Nicholls Solicitors
Darby & Darby
Walker Lahive
Alan Harris Solicitors Ltd
Tony Dart Solicitor & Advocate
Parlbys Solicitors
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Bay Advocates Ltd
Bay Advocates Ltd t/a Teign Advocates
Howell Hylton Ltd
Nunn Rickard Solicitor Advocates
St James Solicitors
Hansell Drew & Co. Ltd
Phoenix Solicitors & Advocates
Smiths Solicitors
David Teague Solicitors
Cox Burley Solicitors
Michael Crumley Solicitor
Glanville Robinson Ltd
Trinity Advocates
Cornwall Defence Solicitors LLP
Smith Leaning Criminal Advocates
Baileys Law LLP
Boyle Leonard Willden Ltd
Jacobs & Tricks
(b) Standard Civil (Non-Family authorisation)—As at 10 May, the following organisations with an office in Cornwall held a Standard Civil Contract with authorisation to undertake civil non-family work:
Follett Stock
Coodes
Preston Goldburn
CVC Solicitors
Conroys
Trobridges
John Boyle & Co. Solicitors LLP
Shelter—Cornwall
(c) Standard Civil (Family authorisation)—As at 10 May, the following organisations with an office in Cornwall held a Standard Civil Contract with authorisation to undertake Family work:
Blight Skinnard
Stephens & Scown LLP
Ralph & Co. LLP
Brains Solicitors
C Nicholls Solicitors
G & I Chisholm
Walters & Barbary
DB LAW
D B LAW
Trobridges
@Cornwall Law LLP
Coodes
John Boyle & Co. Solicitors LLP
(d) At 9 May 2013 the following organisations held CLA contracts:
Duncan Lewis
Cooperative Legal Services
Duncan Lewis
DHA
Shelter
Carillion Energy Services
MG Law Ltd
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The Children's Legal Centre
Tower Hamlets Law Centre
Stephensons
Howells
Merseyside Employment Law
Legal Aid Scheme: Wales
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many firms received criminal legal aid payments in (a) Wrexham constituency and (b) north Wales in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [154855]
Jeremy Wright: The Legal Aid Agency records costs relating to firms by legal aid procurement area, which is broadly based on local authority boundaries. The information requested falls under the remit of the Legal Services Commission, however, the same applies as the information has historically been recorded by local authority.
This information is provided in the following table in relation to the Wrexham local authority and the north Wales region.
| Criminal legal aid firms | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
Please also note that solicitor-advocates are treated as barristers and not included as part of the firm.
Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many firms received criminal legal aid payments in (a) Alyn and Deeside constituency and (b) north Wales in each of the last three years. [155157]
Jeremy Wright: The Legal Aid Agency records costs relating to firms by legal aid procurement area, which is broadly based on local authority boundaries. The information requested falls under the remit of the Legal Services Commission, however, the same applies as the information has historically been recorded by local authority.
Therefore, this information is provided in the following table in relation to the Flintshire local authority and the north Wales region, as the Flintshire local authority covers the area of Alyn and Deeside.
| Criminal legal aid firms | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
|
North Wales: Alyn and Deeside (Sir Y Fflint/Flintshire local authority) | |||
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Please also note that solicitor-advocates are treated as barristers and not included as part of the firm.
Parole
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many licence breaches there were in (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012. [154433]
Jeremy Wright: Where offenders are released on license and they fail to comply with their licence conditions or their behaviour indicates that it is no longer safe for them to remain in the community they can be returned to custody. The total number of recalls for breach of licence conditions in 2010, 2011 and 2012 were 15,424, 16,227 and 16,481 respectively.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Prisoner Transfers
Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what reasons were recorded for the transfer of prisoners out of each prison establishment in England and Wales in each year from 2008 to 2012; [154927]
(2) what the average number of transfers was between prison establishments per inmate serving a sentence of (a) six months or under, (b) between six and 12 months, (c) between one and four years, (d) between four and 10 years and (e) over 10 years in each year from 2010 to 2012. [154941]
Jeremy Wright: Prisoners are held in establishments that provide appropriate levels of security, are suitable for their gender, age and legal status, provide facilities to reduce their risk of reoffending and, wherever possible, at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.
We do not generally hold data on the individual reasons for a prisoner's transfer or on the average length of time a prisoner spends in a prison before a transfer. Where this is available, the information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost as it would involve a manual trawl through the individual records of every prisoner.
Prisoners: Families
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners are in the same prison as other members of their family. [154395]
Jeremy Wright: This information could be determined only at disproportionate cost.
Prisoners: Mental Illness
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of prisoners have been sectioned in each of the last five years. [155463]
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Jeremy Wright: The number of prisoners directed to hospital for treatment under sections 47 (sentenced prisoners) and 48 (unsentenced prisoners) of the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the past five years is set out in the following table.
The table also shows these numbers as a proportion of the total prison population at the end of each period.
| Prisoners transferred to hospital under Mental Health Act 1983 | Proportion of total prison population at year end (percentage) | |
Prisons: Counselling
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hours of counselling are paid for annually from the public purse for prisoners. [155055]
Jeremy Wright: The provision of counselling to prisoners often forms a discrete part of a more complex service, a specific psychological intervention for example, which makes it difficult to disaggregate the precise numbers of hours allocated to counselling activity without having to conduct detailed enquiries, incurring disproportionate cost in the process.
Prisons: Visits
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer of 15 April 2013, Official Report, column 114W, on Prisons: Visits, what the cost to the public purse was of facilitating such visits. [154422]
Jeremy Wright: The cost of facilitating inter-prison visits is met locally by individual prison establishments. The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Central Accounting System does not record these costs centrally.
Reoffenders
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many of those released from prison on licence that were (a) low risk, (b) medium risk and (c) high risk committed criminal offences while on licence in each of the last five years; [155557]
(2) what the average number of offences committed is by those released from prison while on licence that were (a) low risk, (b) medium risk and (c) high risk in each of the last five years. [155559]
Jeremy Wright: The figures cannot be provided. The information held centrally on prison discharges (which is used to identify those released on licence) does not currently include an assessment of risk.
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Sentencing: Appeals
Chris Heaton-Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when the costs and damages ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to be paid to Mr William Beggs in its judgment of 6 November 2012 were paid. [153901]
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Mrs Grant: As Mr Beggs was tried and convicted under Scottish criminal law the implementation of the European Court of Human Rights judgment in this case, including the payment of any costs and damages, is the responsibility of the Scottish Government.
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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 20 May 2013
Business, Innovation and Skills
Arms Trade: Exports
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills which countries have received official UK Government invitations to the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition in September 2013. [155384]
Michael Fallon: A list of countries invited by the UK Government to Defence and Security Equipment International 2013 (DSEI 2013) will be released on the UK Trade and Investment website on 10 September 2013 which is when the exhibition opens. A copy of the list will be sent to the hon. Member at that time.
Clothing
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many officials in (a) his Department and (b) the non-departmental public bodies for which he is responsible have made a claim for evening dress allowance in each of the last five years; and what the total cost of such claims has been. [155440]
Jo Swinson: Within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (including UKTI Admin) between 1 December 2011 and 1 May 2013 there were a total of 23 claims for reimbursement for the costs of formal wear. The total cost of these claims was £2,807.85. Prior to this date these costs were not recorded separately within the Department and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Staff are entitled to reimbursement for hiring formal wear if they are required to accompany Ministers or represent the Department at official functions. They should not be left out of pocket from carrying out their official duties. The Department is rigorous in ensuring that all claims are legitimate and necessary.
The information relating to claims within non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally within the Department and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Community Development Finance Institutions
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the potential for community development finance institutions to (a) lend to businesses and charities and (b) create jobs; and if he will make a statement. [156478]
Michael Fallon:
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) undertook an evaluation of the Community
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Development Finance Institution (CDFI) sector in spring 2010. The report highlighted the ability of CDFIs to be efficient vehicles for improving access to finance in under-served markets. BIS has continued to work closely with the sector through liaison with the Community Development Finance association (CDFA).
Currently Government provide support to CDFIs through the following interventions:
Regional Growth Fund (RGF). The CDFA has received £30 million under the first round of the RGF. This has been matched by Co-op Bank and Unity Trust to create an overall fund of £60 million for CDFIs to onward lend to SMEs and social enterprises.
Start-Up Loans. Around 18 CDFIs are currently lead parties in delivery consortia for the Start-Up Loans scheme. A further 8-10 CDFIs are also involved in providing back office functions and/or volume lender provision to other delivery partners. To date the Start-Up Loans scheme has provided around 3,900 loans to new start up businesses.
The Government's Community Investment Tax Relief scheme has enabled CDFIs to raise around £90 million to date for onward lending into the sector.
BIS has also flexed the criteria of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG), 13 accredited CDFIs now benefitting from access to the scheme.
Construction Industry Training Board
Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many small and medium-sized construction enterprises are paying levies to the Construction Industry Training Board. [156077]
Matthew Hancock: The number of micro, small and medium-sized employers (SMEs) that paid the Construction Industry Training Board levy in 2012 was 24,949.
A further 40,064 SMEs in the construction industry did not pay the levy as their total payroll costs fell below the small firms' exemption threshold.
Note:
These categories are based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) classification of SMEs. In other words:
Medium-sized: 50 to 249 employees
Small: 10 to 49: employees
Micro: 0 to 9: employees.
Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when the thresholds for payments to be made by small and medium-sized construction enterprises to the Construction Industry Training Board were last changed. [156078]
Matthew Hancock: The small firms' exemption threshold for the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) Levy was last changed in 2009 when it was increased from total payroll costs of £76,000 to £80,000.
CITB introduced a ‘taper' in 2012 such that employers with total payroll costs between £80,000 and £100,000 are only required to pay 50% of their levy liability.
Proposals for the exemption threshold levels are included as part of levy consultations with employers, and so are agreed by employers and subject to Levy Order approval through Parliament.
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Credit: Interest Rates
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of payday loans made in (a) total and (b) in each region in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12 and (iii) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement. [156479]
Jo Swinson: The Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) payday lending compliance review estimated that the total number of payday loans made in 2011-12 was between 7.4 and 8.2 million. Government are not aware of estimates covering the periods 2010-11 and 2012-13. However, Consumer Futures estimated that the total number of payday loans in 2009 was 4.1 million. Government are not aware of any estimate of the number of payday loans in each region.
We are very concerned about the mounting evidence that consumers are experiencing significant problems with payday lending across all regions. That is why on 6 March we announced a strong action plan for tackling the key problems in this market, alongside the regulators. In the immediate term, payday lending is a top enforcement priority for the OFT. They are taking strong action against the leading 50 payday lenders after uncovering evidence of widespread irresponsible lending. The full outcomes of this action should become apparent over the forthcoming months, with some early results already clear. The OFT also expect to announce in June whether to refer the payday market to the Competition Commission.
Over the longer term, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is prioritising consideration of tough new rules that payday lenders will be subject to once the FCA takes over the regulation of consumer credit in April 2014. Payday lenders will face much more stringent authorisation and enforcement procedures from April 2014.
Export Credit Guarantees: Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will take steps to strengthen international environmental standards relevant to UK Export Finance to include limits on emissions of greenhouse gases. [155548]
Michael Fallon: I refer my hon. Friend to the written ministerial statement by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the right hon. Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), on 17 July 2012, Official Report, columns 115-16WS, that the UK will seek to promote the strengthening of relevant World Bank Group international standards to include limits on emissions of greenhouse gases.
Exports: North East
Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many UK Trade and Investment export trips were made from the North East to (a) the European Union and (b) Eastern Europe; and how many companies from the North East and of what size went on them in each of the last three years. [156361]
Michael Fallon: UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) in the North East region have supported the following number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), less than 250 employees, within the last three years.
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In 2010/11, (a) two market visits within the European Union of which 13 SMEs received a UKTI subvention and (b) one market visit to Eastern Europe of which two companies received a UKTI subvention.
In 2011/12, (a) two market visits within the European Union of which 13 SMEs received a UKTI subvention and (b) no market visits to Eastern Europe.
In 2012/13, (a) four market visits within the European Union of which 18 SMEs received a UKTI subvention and (b) two market visits to Eastern Europe of which seven SMEs received a UKTI subvention.
Foreign Investment in UK
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to his Department's press notice of 9 May 2013, on inward investment and the London 2012 Olympics, how much of the additional £2.5 billion in foreign direct investment arising from the Olympics went to (a) Wales and (b) other nations and regions of the UK. [155385]
Michael Fallon: In the period up to the end of March 2013, £21.54 million of investment went into Wales arising from the Olympics.
Investment into other nations and regions of the UK is as follows:
| £ million | |
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to his Department's press notice of 9 May 2013, on inward investment and the London 2012 Olympics, how many of the 31,000 additional jobs arising from the £2.5 billion in foreign direct investment to the UK as a result of the Olympics were in (a) Wales and (b) other nations and regions of the UK. [155386]
Michael Fallon: 498 additional jobs arose for Wales from the £2.5 billion in foreign direct investment to the UK as a result of the Olympics up to the end of March 2013.
Other nations and regions of the UK received the following number of additional jobs:
| Number | |
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