Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what intensive care unit stockpiles are in existence which are available and suitable for use for a future respiratory pandemic; and what plans they have to maintain these stockpiles and at what levels.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom currently stockpiles medicines, vaccines, respiratory equipment including ventilators, and clinical consumables for a future pandemic.
The Department holds a strategic reserve of Intensive Care Unit equipment, originally set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is currently scaled to provide support for up to 1,000 intensive care unit bays and holds both invasive and non-invasive ventilators which can be accessed by National Health Service trusts across the UK.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department additionally procured a range of medicines to support intensive care, based on critical need and supply resilience. This included, but was not limited to, analgesia, sedation, and antibiotics. Options to maintain access to these products, including stockpiling for a future pandemic and potential volumes required, are currently being considered.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 19 September (HL9920), what plans they have to evaluate the success of the High Potential Individual (HPI) entry visa route to the UK; and what criteria and data they plan to use in assessing the extent to which the HPI route has met its stated objective of supporting the UK’s growth as a leading international hub for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We keep all visa routes, including the High Potential Individual route, under review and will update Parliament in the normal manner.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they identify the non-UK universities whose graduates are eligible for a High Potential Individual (HPI) entry visa; and which universities have either been removed from or added to the list of these universities since the HPI visa was introduced.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The High Potential Individual (HPI) route is for recent graduates of top global universities. Details of universities on the Global Universities List (GUL) and how the list is compiled is set out in paragraph 6 of the Immigration Rules (www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-introduction).
Applicants must have graduated from a top global university in the five years immediately preceding the application. Eligible institutions can be found on the Global Universities List for the relevant graduating year (www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-potential-individual-visa-global-universities-list).
This list of universities relates to qualifications awarded between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023.
Alphabetical Rankings Lists 2022 (establishments from Top 50 rankings which appeared on 2 or more lists) | Country |
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Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many businesses and organisations had a wage bill of between £2 and £3 million in (1) 2021–22, and (2) 2022–23.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
We estimate there were 11,100 and 12,200 employers with wage bills between £2m and £3m, in the 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023 tax-years respectively.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals were granted an entry visa to the UK in the 2022–23 financial year under the High Potential Individual (HLI) route; and of those, (1) how many had (a) a PhD or equivalent qualification, or (b) other postgraduate qualification, (2) how many had studied a STEM subject for their highest achieved qualification, and (3) how many of those studied in each of the universities which provide eligibility for this route.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Using the data from the published migration statistics for the year ending June 2023, the number of individuals granted an entry visa to the UK in the 2022–23 financial year under the High Potential Individual route is 1851.
We are unable to provide the information requested regarding the number of individuals holding a PhD or equivalent qualification or other postgraduate qualifications, how many individuals had studied a STEM subject for their highest achieved qualification or how many individuals studied in each of the universities which provide eligibility for the High Potential Individual route as the data is not readily available and would require a review of each individual case.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many apprenticeships started at (1) Level 6, and (2) Level 7, in (a) 2020–21, and (b) 2021–22, by individuals who already hold qualifications at this level; and of those, how many also had university degrees.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold representative data on prior qualifications held by apprentices, as this is not information that is mandatory for training providers to submit through an apprentice’s individual learner record. The department will only fund apprentices to undertake an apprenticeship at the same or lower level than a qualification they already hold if the apprenticeship allows the individual to acquire substantive new skills, and the provider can show that the content of the training is materially different from any prior qualification. This is to ensure that the department is not funding any duplication in training.
The department has seen year-on-year growth of degree level apprenticeships (Levels 6 and 7) with over 190,000 starts since their introduction in the 2014/15 academic year. An additional £40 million is being provided over the next two years to support degree apprenticeship providers to expand and help more people access this provision, on top of the £8 million investment in 2022/23.
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) number, and (2) percentage, of apprenticeship completions in England in 2022 were in occupations listed in the Migration Advisory Committee's shortage occupation list for that year.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not publish apprenticeship starts and achievements by occupation but can use occupational maps from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to estimate occupation for apprenticeship standards. The occupational maps can be found here: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/occupational-maps/what-are-the-occupational-maps/.
In the 2021/22 academic year there were 68,400 starts on apprenticeship standards relating to occupations on the ‘Skilled Worker visa: shortage occupations’ list. The list can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations. These starts represent 20% of all starts on apprenticeship standards. There were 24,300 achievements of apprenticeship standards on the list, representing 21% of all achievements on apprenticeship standards.
Note:
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) number, and (2) percentage, of apprenticeship starts in England in 2022 were in occupations listed in the Migration Advisory Committee's shortage occupation list for that year.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not publish apprenticeship starts and achievements by occupation but can use occupational maps from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to estimate occupation for apprenticeship standards. The occupational maps can be found here: https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/occupational-maps/what-are-the-occupational-maps/.
In the 2021/22 academic year there were 68,400 starts on apprenticeship standards relating to occupations on the ‘Skilled Worker visa: shortage occupations’ list. The list can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations. These starts represent 20% of all starts on apprenticeship standards. There were 24,300 achievements of apprenticeship standards on the list, representing 21% of all achievements on apprenticeship standards.
Note:
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many organisations were liable for the apprenticeship levy in (1) 2018, (2) 2019, (3) 2020, (4) 2021, and (5) 2022.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
Please find a table of the estimated number of employers paying the Apprenticeship Levy in each tax year below:
Tax Year | Number of Employers |
2017 to 18 | 32,200 |
2018 to 19 | 31,400 |
2019 to 20 | 30,600 |
2020 to 21 | 30,400 |
2021 to 22 | 33,400 |
Asked by: Baroness Wolf of Dulwich (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, for each academic year since 2018–19, how many foundation year students were enrolled for degrees which fell into price groups (1) A, (2) B, (3) C1.1, (4) C1.2, (5) C2, and (6) D.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The data for all three tables below cover English-domiciled foundation year students studying at approved fee cap English higher education (HE) institutions and further education (FE) colleges.
The data is currently unpublished and is based on internal department analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data. As such, figures are rounded to the nearest five in line with the following HESA guidance: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/regulation/data-protection/rounding-and-suppression-anonymise-statistics.
The price group data for the 2018/19 academic year is not directly comparable to price group data for the following academic years because of a change in the system for classifying subjects from the 2019/20 academic year onwards.
The number of students enrolled onto one-year foundation courses is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Full-person equivalent of foundation year entrants studying one-year courses at HE institutions and FE colleges in England since the 2018/19 academic year.
Academic Year | Number of students undertaking a one-year foundation year course |
2018/19 | 35,995 |
2019/20 | 43,395 |
2020/21 | 53,590 |
2021/22 | 69,325 |
The number of foundation year students studying in each of the different price groups since the 2018/19 academic year is shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Full-person equivalent of foundation year entrants at HE institutions and FE colleges in England since the 2018/19 academic year shown by price group.
| Academic Year | |||
Price Group | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
A | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
B | 9,315 | 10,585 | 9,510 | 11,260 |
C1.1 | 2,220 | 2,450 | 2,700 | 2,900 |
C1.2 | 2,475 | 2,470 | 2,860 | 3,160 |
C2 | 4,870 | 7,105 | 9,440 | 10,905 |
D | 15,065 | 20,785 | 29,070 | 41,090 |
The number of students studying a foundation year in a business and management or social sciences degree for each academic year since 2018/19 is shown in Table 3.
Table 3: Full-person equivalent of foundation year entrants studying business and management and social science degrees at HE institutions and FE colleges in England since the 2018/19 academic year.
Academic Year | ||||
Subject | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Business and management studies | 8,900 | 13,600 | 23,420 | 35,585 |
Social sciences | 3,855 | 6,265 | 6,345 | 6,915 |