Baroness Sharp of Guildford

We estimate that the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge for full time tuition fee and maintenance loans, and part time fee loans, is between 20% and 25%.

We estimate that the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge for Advanced Learner Loans is around 40%. BIS is collecting data on learners as it emerges and based on this data we regularly review and update the RAB charge estimate for Advanced Learner Loans.

These estimates take into account the changes to student finance and the new HM Treasury discount rate used to value the student loan book announced at Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015. We will update our estimates in summer 2016 and publish these at the same time as BIS accounts.

We have protected the core adult skills participation budget in cash terms, at £1.5 billion. Further details on what the settlement means for the Further Education sector is set out in the Skills Funding Letter.

Table 1 shows Apprenticeship starts in 2014/15 by learners aged 16-18 by region and age.

The Learner Support budget is predominantly demand-led and meets the costs of Discretionary Learner Support for grant-funded learners and the Advanced Learner Loan Bursary Fund for loan-funded learners. It also covers the government’s costs of the Professional and Career Development Loan scheme and Dance and Drama Awards for young adults.

The forecasted total expenditure for the 2015-16 financial year currently stands at around £132 million. Discretionary Learner Support assists the most learners and may equate to nearly £86 million, while the Bursary Fund may equate to about £35 million of the expenditure. The remainder will be for the costs of Professional and Career Development Loans (c£2.5 million) and Dance and Drama Awards (c£8.5 million).

(1) We estimate that the proportion of the value of full time loans which will not be repaid is around 45%.

(2) Our current published estimate is that around 65% of the value of part time loans will not be repaid. We will update our estimate as we get more information on the characteristics of the students taking out these loans, and, in due course, actual repayments.

The Department does not produce separate estimates for different levels of Higher Education qualifications. The figures mentioned above cover all higher education loans.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Funding responsibility for the Apprenticeship Programme is shared between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which funds adult apprenticeships and the Department for Education which funds 16-18 year olds. This is a demand-led budget and not allocated to any particular sector. Employers and providers are relied upon to work together to offer sufficient opportunities to meet local demand.

For the 2015/16 financial year, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will provide £770million to fund apprenticeships for those aged 19+ and the Department for Education will provide £797.5million to fund apprenticeships for those aged 16-18.

The Department for Education works closely with the National Careers Service (NCS), which supports young people directly through a website, telephone helpline and webchat service and through a brokerage role with schools and employers.

We consulted the NCS in advance of establishing The Careers & Enterprise Company, and since then the two organisations have worked together to understand where and how services can be coordinated to ensure that they complement each other.

In the spring we will publish a strategy for improved careers provision for young people and we are engaging with the NCS as we develop our proposals. In particular the NCS will support one of our key aims, which is to ensure that young people and their parents or carers can access the information they need to make informed decisions on their education, training and employment options.

We refer to both the £4 billion budget in the department’s Main Estimate, and the £1.6 billion of ‘other expenditure’ by the Education Funding Agency (EFA), identified in the July Memorandum to the Education Select Committee.

The £4 billion identified in the Main Estimate relates to the department’s £4.7 billion capital budget, of which £4,115,299 is paid out via the EFA. This capital investment enables local authorities to discharge their duties: to ensure that there are enough school places; to maintain the school estate; to undertake major replacement and refurbishment projects for schools in the worst condition through the Priority Schools Building Programmes; and to facilitate education reform through the Free Schools programme.

The Memorandum to the Education Select Committee provides a breakdown of expenditure within the Estimate Lines. The EFA’s major programme budget includes an ‘other’ heading that totals £1.6 billion. This heading groups together the smaller school’s programmes, including Universal Infant Free School Meals, Private Finance Initiative funding, Post-16 Free School Meals, Post-16 Bursary Fund, and Post-16 Learner Support.

The academy schools net expenditure totals £17 billion for programme and capital, the majority being for resource expenditure.

The Department for Education uses the national Teacher Supply Model (TSM) to assess the need for initial teacher training (ITT) entrants each year.

School Direct is an opportunity for schools in all areas to recruit and train the teachers that they need. For 2016/17, the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) listened to feedback from schools and universities and responded to recruitment challenges by moving to a more open approach which will provide School Direct lead schools and ITT providers with greater flexibility to respond to local conditions.

The viability of individual courses at secondary level are down to a mixture of local and institutional circumstances, including the number of applicants and the degree to which ITT providers engage in School Direct in partnership with schools.

The recruitment control numbers for postgraduate initial teacher training will be published by the National College for Teaching and Leadership before the UCAS teacher training portal opens for applications.

Young people who were aged 17 at the start of this academic year were covered by the first phase of raising the participation age (RPA) set out in the Education and Skills Act 2008. This required them to continue in education or training for one further year, to 27 June 2014. This cohort is therefore no longer under a duty to participate, although we expect that the vast majority of them will continue to participate this academic year.

Data showing the proportion of these young people participating in the current academic year will be published as part of the 16-18 participation statistical first release at the end of June.

Young people who were aged 16 at the start of this academic year will be under a duty to participate until their 18th birthday. We will encourage schools, colleges and training providers to ensure that young people are aware of this requirement.

In addition, local authorities have a duty to promote the effective participation in education and training of 16 and 17 year olds in their area with a view to ensuring that they fulfil the duty to participate.

We plan to invest £7.2 billion in 2014/15 to fund education and training places for 16 to 19-year-olds. The government has implemented a range of other measures to promote participation and help young people get the best possible start in life, including the reform of vocational education and the Youth Contract.

The Department does not set the standards/criteria for attainment of NVQ qualifications. This is the responsibility of the appropriate awarding bodies working in partnership with employers, employer representative bodies and sector skills council in the relevant sector. Any proposed revision to NVQ qualifications would be a matter for consideration by the awarding bodies with relevant employers, employer representative bodies and sector skills council.

There is no requirement in adult social care currently for a care worker to hold a specific qualification in order to work in this role. However, under the Care Quality Commission’s registration system, it is the responsibility of the social care employer to determine the range of duties undertaken by the care worker and to ensure they have the necessary training and skills for those duties.

No cross-government estimates have been made for the extra cost of agency and contract staff in 2016-17 departmental budgets, following the restriction of tax relief on travel and subsistence for workers engaged through an employment intermediary.

The changes are aimed at ensuring the tax system provides no individuals or business with an unfair advantage by preventing temporary workers, who are employed through employment intermediaries, and their employers, from benefiting for relief for home-to-work travel and subsistence expenses. This relief is not generally available to other workers who are employed directly or through temporary work contracts.

No estimates have been made for the extra cost of supply teachers following restrictions to tax relief on travel and subsistence expenses for those working through employment intermediaries. The planned changes will put supply teachers employed through an intermediary on the same terms as other supply teachers, either contracted directly, or through an agency contract.