Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include bookshops on the lists of businesses permitted to remain open in all areas subject to restrictions to address the COVID-19 pandemic should tiers of restrictions be reintroduced from 2 December.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The current restrictions will expire on 2 December, and our intention is to return to?a system of?local and regional restrictions.?We will set out what this means for retailers and other businesses as soon as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of poor literacy skills on women relative to men.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Skills for Life Survey 2011 showed no notable difference between the levels of literacy of men and women:
Literacy levels by gender (%) | |||
Literacy Level | Gender | ||
All | Male | Female | |
Entry Level 1 or below | 5 | 5 | 5 |
Entry Level 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Entry Level 3 | /8 | 8 | 7 |
Level 1 | 28 | 29 | 28 |
Level 2 or above | 57 | 54 | 59 |
Unweighted base | 5824 | 2520 | 3304 |
(Skills for Life Survey 2011)
For both women and men, poor literacy is associated with higher rates of unemployment and poorer health and well-being. We do not have evidence to suggest that illiteracy affects women any more than men.
This Government nevertheless understands the importance of English for all adults and has made this subject a priority for support within the adult skills system. An example of this is the Government-funded English and ESOL programmes, which include more female than male learners:
English and maths participation figures 2014/15 | ||
| English | ESOL |
Total Learners | 668,600 | 131,100 |
Gender |
|
|
Female | 379,700 | 88,000 |
Male | 289,000 | 43,100 |
(Statistical First Release – first published January 2014)
We are undertaking a range of research to better understand where Government investment in English and maths has the greatest impact and delivers value for money. This includes: using behavioural insights to identify how to motivate adults to improve their English and maths and encourage learners to keep studying once enrolled on a course, through our partnership with the Behavioural Research Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge (ASK); longitudinal research into skills gain and skills atrophy of adult English and maths learners; and a comparison of the impact of blended and more traditional classroom learning.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the UK economy of poor literacy skills on the part of 16–24 year-olds.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
There are a number of ways in which the Government assesses the impact of poor literacy on the economy.
On 28 January 2016, the OECD published its report ‘Building skills for all – a review of England’. The report was commissioned by BIS following the publication of the OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills in 2013. Key findings from Building Skills for All are:
The BIS Research Paper 195 ‘Estimation of the labour market returns to qualifications gained in English Further Education’, published in December 2014, shows that there are higher returns to qualifications achieved at younger ages and that English (and maths) Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications provide an additional wage uplift for achievers of higher learning aims. Increased earnings and employment rates following training provide an indication of the positive impact on the economy of improving skills.
In 2012, when the PIAAC carried out the survey fieldwork for both reports, only 70% of 16-19 year olds were participating in education and training that leads to a formal qualification; compared to almost universal participation in some other OECD countries. Since then the participation age in England has been increased to age 18 and action has been taken to improve GCSE qualifications and raise standards in post-16 education. These reforms have been welcomed by the OECD in its latest report. .
Since changing the requirement for all learners who did not achieve a Level 2 in English and maths by the age of 16 to continue to study these subjects as part of their 16-19 study programme, we have seen a positive effect on participation and attainment. In 2014/15, 97% of 16 to 19 year olds without GCSE A*-C English and/or maths attending an FE institution continued their study of these subjects. In 2015, for 17-year-olds and over, entries for English rose by 23% (30% for maths). As a result, last year there were over 4,000 more GCSE passes at grades A*-C in English by students aged 17 and over (7,500 more maths passes).
On 5 February 2016 we published a new report on the impact of poor English and maths from the perspective of employers. Some key findings are:
The full report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/poor-basic-literacy-and-numeracy-effect-on-employers
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the merger of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education and the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
No assessment has been made of the merger of these two independent organisations.