Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the estimated annual cost of the age-related exemption to the payment of National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes the estimated annual cost of exempting individuals over State Pension age from paying National Insurance contributions (NICs) in the National Insurance contributions tab of the Structural Tax Reliefs publication. The estimated annual costs for employer NICs relief for apprentices under 25 and employees under 21 are published by HMRC in the NICs tab of the Non-Structural Tax Reliefs publication. These publications are both available online.
The figures for these three exemptions/reliefs are shown below:
Name | 2019 to 2020 | 2020 to 2021 | 2021 to 2022 | 2022 to 2023 | 2023 to 2024 | 2024 to 2025 |
Exemption for individuals over State Pension Age | 1,200 | 840 | 1,100 | 1,500* | 1,400* | 1,100* |
Relief on employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices under 25 | 190 | 190 | 230 | 290 | 320 | 340* |
Relief on employer National Insurance contributions for employees under 21 | 630 | 560 | 670 | 850 | 960 | 1,000* |
Note 1: Figures shown are in £ million.
Note 2: Figures marked with an asterisk (*) are provisional
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the age-related exemption for National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Employees and the self-employed make contributions that determine their level of State Pension until State Pension age. Payment of National Insurance contributions (NICs) builds an individual’s entitlement to claim contributory benefits which then replace earnings in certain circumstances, for example if someone is unable to work or is retired. After reaching State Pension age, the liability for employee and self-employed NICs no longer exists.
Employers are able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under-21s and under-25 apprentices. This means employers pay no employer NICs for apprentices under 25 or employees under 21 whose annual salaries are below £50,270.
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much was spent on the inspection of independent schools by Ofsted in the five financial years prior to 5 July 2024.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Ofsted inspects around 50% of the 2,496 (July 2025) registered private schools in England. There is currently disparity between the fees charged for inspections and full cost recovery.
The table below sets out the budgeted cost of inspections compared to the fee income, over the last three years. Ofsted do not hold comparable data for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years as Ofsted inspections were heavily affected by COVID-19 and were therefore not typical years of inspection activity.
Year | Full cost - £million | Fee income - £million | % of costs recovered |
2022/23 | 6.8 | 1.9 | 28% |
2023/24 | 6.4 | 2.3 | 36% |
2024/25 | 6.5 | 2.2 | 34% |
Government policy is that costs associated with inspections by government bodies should be recoverable. This will reduce the need for government subsidy. The government is considering options to close the gap.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many deprivation orders have been issued in cases of conviction for revenge porn offences.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
The numbers of all types of deprivation orders issued in cases of conviction for offences of “Disclosing private, sexual images” under section 33, Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 and “Sharing intimate images without consent” under section 66B, Sexual Offences Act 2003 is as follows.
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Jan-Sept 2024 |
5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 17 |
These figures relate to all instances that a deprivation order was issued to a defendant for these offences.
The Government is committed to halving violence against women and girls and has introduced legislation to criminalise several types of intimate image abuse, and to extend the powers of the court to issue deprivation orders in these cases. We are exploring what can be done to encourage the use of deprivation orders in cases such as these.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the HM Passport Office General Register Office Death Certificate Application Form (for events registered overseas) asks a question about marital status "if deceased is female", but the same question is not asked in relation to males.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The General Register Office (GRO) Death Certificate Application Form (for events registered overseas) asks for ‘Marital Status’ only if deceased is female, as the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 specifically defines ‘maiden surname’ in England and Wales as the name a woman has prior to her first marriage or civil partnership.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficiency and effectiveness of their Tell Us Once service.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since its launch in 2011, the Tell Us Once service has assisted over 5.2 million families. We monitor the number of notifications generated and the time it takes for recipient organisations to open them, ensuring that notifications are received and acted upon promptly.
We work closely with service delivery partners to ensure the service meets citizens' expectations. The most recent monthly internal evaluations of customer feedback show a satisfaction score of 4.6 out of 5 for the online service.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish an update to the calculation of the resource accounting and budgeting charge for student finance; and whether they propose to make any changes to the basis for calculation used at the time it was last updated.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
In the 2022/23 financial year, the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge was £5.5 billion, or 27% of the £20.0 billion of loans issued that financial year. The RAB charge for 2023/24 will be published in the department’s 2023/24 Annual Report and Accounts this summer.
Of student loans issued in the 2023/24 financial year, the government is expected to subsidise:
These forecasts are subject to change. The final RAB forecasts for 2023/24 will be available as part of the annual student finance statistical publication, released in June 2024.
The RAB charge, the government subsidy anticipated on student loans issued in any particular financial year, is calculated as the present value of student loan outlay less expected future repayments, in accordance with relevant International Financial Reporting Standards and guidance from HMT’s Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM).
The FReM requires future repayments of student loans to be discounted at the higher of the intrinsic rate and HMT’s discount rate, based on analysis of real yields on UK index linked Gilts and are specifically appropriate to central government.
The FReM is kept under constant review. It is updated to reflect developments in relevant standards and best practice.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current value of the resource accounting and budgeting charge for student finance.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
In the 2022/23 financial year, the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge was £5.5 billion, or 27% of the £20.0 billion of loans issued that financial year. The RAB charge for 2023/24 will be published in the department’s 2023/24 Annual Report and Accounts this summer.
Of student loans issued in the 2023/24 financial year, the government is expected to subsidise:
These forecasts are subject to change. The final RAB forecasts for 2023/24 will be available as part of the annual student finance statistical publication, released in June 2024.
The RAB charge, the government subsidy anticipated on student loans issued in any particular financial year, is calculated as the present value of student loan outlay less expected future repayments, in accordance with relevant International Financial Reporting Standards and guidance from HMT’s Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM).
The FReM requires future repayments of student loans to be discounted at the higher of the intrinsic rate and HMT’s discount rate, based on analysis of real yields on UK index linked Gilts and are specifically appropriate to central government.
The FReM is kept under constant review. It is updated to reflect developments in relevant standards and best practice.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to deposit in the Library of the House all tender documents for modular classrooms since July 2023 under the Offsite Constructions Agreement (Framework Agreement RM6184).
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
It is not our intention to deposit the tender documentation into the Library of the House. It is the responsibility of individual customer authorities to publish contracting information on Contracts Finder and/or other transparency platforms.
Asked by: Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the email from the Secretary of State for Education to school leaders and others on 20 July entitled 'Thank you for your work this year', (1) how many people were sent that email, (2) what proportion of recipients were sent it by virtue of (a) having signed up to receive it, (b) being school leaders, or (c) both, (3) what were the open rates for that email in respect of each of the categories above, and (4) what codes of guidance around the political nature of emails govern the (i) tone, and (ii) content, sent to headteachers by the Secretary of State.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The end of term email from the Secretary of State was sent to 45,418 email addresses. Of those recipients:
The email has a 45% unique open rate. It was opened 60,245 times as of 26 July 2023, indicating that it had been forwarded beyond the original contact list. The open rate cannot be broken down by categories of school leaders versus subscribers.
As with all departmental communications, Civil Service advice is provided on tone and content, along with factual accuracy checks to ensure it meets the needs of the audience it is intended for.