EU Law

Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many EU directives his Department has transposed into UK law since 2010; and how many directly acting EU regulations have come into effect in his Department's area of responsibility in the same period. [183857]

Jenny Willott: I refer the right hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson), to the hon. Member for Harrow West (Mr Thomas), on 21 November 2013, Official Report, column 965W.

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Furniture: Imports

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent representations he has received on the importing of furniture that does not meet the requirements in the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988; and if he will make a statement. [183749]

Jenny Willott: In the past six months, Ministers in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have received three pieces of correspondence on this matter.

Higher Education: Private Sector

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2013, Official Report, column 821W, on higher education: private sector, who the providers were of the courses for students who had their loans halted in the academic year 2013-14. [183175]

Mr Willetts [holding answer 21 January 2014]:One or more students at the alternative providers listed as follows have had their student support payments suspended in academic year 2013/14, while the Student Loans Company carries out additional checks to assess personal eligibility of these students:

AA Hamilton College

ABI College

Academy of Live and Recorded Arts

Access to Music

American Intercontinental University London

Architectural Association School of Architecture

Ballet West

BIMM

BPP University College of Professional Studies

Brit College

British Institute of Technology & E-Commerce

British School of Osteopathy

Buckingham University

Centre for Homeopathic Education

Centre for Nutrition Education

Chicken Shed Theatre

Christ the Redeemer College

City & Guilds of London Art School

City of London College

College of Integrated Chinese Medicine

David Game College

Delamar Academy of Makeup

Eastend Computing and Business College

Edge Hotel School

Essex International College

European Business School

Fairfield School of Business

Futureworks Training Ltd

Grafton College of Management Sciences

Greenwich School of Management

Ice Academy

Icon College of Technology and Management

IFS School of Finance

International College of Oriental Medicine

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Islamic College for Advanced Studies

Jewish Teacher Training Partnership

Kaplan Holborn College

Kaplan Open Learning(University of Essex Online)

Kensington College of Business

London Bridge Business Academy

London Centre of Contemporary Music

London Churchill College

London college of Accountancy (LCA Bus. Sch)

London School of Academics

London School of Business & Finance

London School of Business & Management

London School of Management Education

London School of Science & Technology

London School of Theology

McTimoney College of Chiropractic

Met Film School

Middlesex College of Law

Mont Rose College of Management & Sciences

Moorlands College

Nazarene Theological College

Nelson College London

Newbold College

Northern College of Acupuncture

OLC Europe Ltd Incorporating EETTEC Ltd

Oxford Business College

Pearson College Ltd

Queens College Birmingham

Regents Theological College

Regents College-London School of Film Media

Resource Development International (RDI)

Richmond, The American Intl University in London

Royal Academy of Dance

RTC Education Ltd T/A Regent College

SAE Institute

Springdale College

St Patrick's International College

Steve Allison Associates Ltd

Stratford College London

Tech Music Schools

The Academy of Contemporary Music

The City College

The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance

The Interactive Design Institute

The London College, UCK

The London Oriental Academy

The MGA Academy of Performing Arts

The University of Law

Tottenham Hotspur Foundation

UCFB College of Football Business Ltd

UK College of Business & Computing Ltd

West London Coll of Business & Management Sciences

Williams College

Higher Education: Student Numbers

Mr Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of statistics on student participation in higher education. [902145]

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Mr Willetts: In 2013, the proportion of the 18-year-old population entering higher education in England was the highest ever. The rate for young people from the most disadvantaged areas was also the highest ever. And as a consequence of our reforms more students than ever before were accepted onto their first choice course.

Local Enterprise Partnerships

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to encourage local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) to encourage inward investment to their area; and what guidance he gives LEPs on steps they should take to differentiate their area from other parts of the UK. [183764]

Michael Fallon: UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has overall responsibility within government for the attraction and retention of foreign direct investment in the UK. It provides a range of support and services to new investors considering a presence in the UK for the first time, and works with established investors to help maintain and grow their business in and from the UK. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are an integral part of the national offer.

LEPs are developing Strategic Economic Plans, which will set out how they will encourage growth in their areas. UKTI is supporting them to help them better articulate their inward investment offer, focusing on differentiating their area from overseas rather than internal competition. UKTI is providing extra resource to ensure LEPs are better equipped to attract high quality foreign direct investment.

An early part of this work is the Local Investment Showcase:

www.localinvestuk.com

where LEPs and their delivery partners have been encouraged to represent their globally competitive sector strengths in the form of an attractive, searchable online profile.

Private Sector: Birmingham

Karen Lumley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how the Greater Birmingham City Deal will address the imbalance of private sector growth; and what effect it will have on neighbouring towns. [183918]

Michael Fallon: The proposals in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull (GBS) City Deal aims to accelerate economic activity in the long-term and is a commitment to seizing Greater Birmingham and Solihull's growth potential. The Deal aims to unlock growth and address imbalances in private sector growth by directing investments to key projects, infrastructure and sectors. It helps to implement the Local Enterprise Partnership's (LEP) 'Strategy for Growth' which focuses on Birmingham and its neighbours, including Redditch. The GBS LEP will work with neighbouring LEPs to fund projects across LEP areas that would have mutual economic benefits. Specifically, the Deal will drive growth in the GBS LEP target sectors (and wider economy) through a Skills for Growth Hub that will rapidly increase Apprenticeship uptake

23 Jan 2014 : Column 327W

and sustainable employment. Surrounding LEPs will benefit from the skills delivered through the Hub. Birmingham university will also establish a new Institute for Translational Medicine. This facility will support further growth in the health/medical services sector.

Solar Events

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what research the Government is undertaking or funding into solar flares. [184149]

Mr Willetts: The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has responsibility for funding research relating to solar physics, which includes research into solar flares. STFC funds research on solar physics/flares at a number of universities around the UK including Leicester, University College London, Imperial College London, Glasgow, Belfast, Dundee, St Andrews, Warwick and Sheffield, as well as at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In total, STFC commits approximately £0.5 million to research in this area each year.

UK Space Agency (UKSA) enables this research by supporting a number of world-leading UK instruments such as the Heliospheric Imager on NASA's STEREO satellites, and the solar wind plasma and magnetic field sensors on the future NASA Sunjammer mission. It is estimated that the UKSA contribution for the development and running costs of these types of instruments is around £3.0 million per annum.

Students: Loans

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much was collected in student loan repayments in 2012-13; and what estimate he has made of the value of student loan repayments made in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15. [183703]

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Mr Willetts: Repayments for 2012-13 have not yet been finalised as the Student Loans Company are still to receive final information from HMRC on deductions and payments made through Self-Assessment for which the deadline is 31 January 2014. Final numbers for 2012-13 will be published in June 2014 in the Statistical First Release (SFR) 'Income Contingent Repayments by repayment cohort'.

The SLC publication with data for 2011-12 can be found here:

http://www.slc.co.uk/statistics/official-statistics-(slc)/officialstatistics1.aspx

BIS forecasts for repayments are as follows:

Our work on forecasting loan repayments is continuous and ongoing and we would expect these forecasts to be amended as modelling changes are implemented, and as revised macroeconomic data are received.

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the average length of time taken by graduates to repay student loan debt under (a) the current fees and loan system and (b) its predecessor systems. [183932]

Mr Willetts: The average length of time to pay off loans in full was most recently estimated at the time of the reforms to the higher education system in 2011. This estimated that, under the pre-2012 system, those borrowers who fully repaid would do so in an average of around 13 years. The equivalent period of time for borrowers under the post-2012 system was around 17 years.