Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the data published by the Trussell Trust on 26 April which showed an increase in its emergency food parcel distribution over the period April 2022 to March 2023; and what steps they will take in response.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We take the issue of food security seriously, which is why we added internationally used food security questions to the Family Resources Survey in 19/20. These questions remain in the survey and will allow us to track food security over time.
Building on the food insecurity data which this Government first published in 2019/20, we have published official estimates of foodbank use for the first time this year covering the period 2021/22. These will, alongside the broad suite of poverty data, help shape future policy considerations. The new statistics on foodbank usage will help Government to understand more about the characteristics of people most in need and we will continue to work across Government to support the most vulnerable.
The Government recognises the pressures people are facing and has acted, providing total support of over £94bn over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living. In April 2023 we uprated benefit rates and State Pensions by 10.1 per cent, as well as increasing benefit cap levels by the same amount.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they will use the underspend of the apprenticeship levy.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The apprenticeship levy is an important part of the government’s reforms to create a high-quality, employer-led apprenticeships system, and it supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training.
The government, via HM Revenue and Customs, collects the apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on total payroll from businesses across the UK with a payroll of more than £3 million. From this, HM Treasury (HMT) sets an English apprenticeships budget for the department, and the devolved governments receive a share of the funding calculated using the Barnett formula.
The department’s apprenticeships budget is used to fund training and assessment for new apprenticeship starts in all employers, levy and non-levy paying employers alike, across England, and to cover the ongoing costs of apprentices already in training and any additional payments made to employers and providers. This means that levy payers’ unspent funds are used to support additional costs and apprenticeships in smaller employers.
In the 2021/22 financial year, the total spend on apprenticeships in England was £2,455 million, against the budget of £2,466 million, meaning that 99.6% of the apprenticeships budget was spent. Previous years’ spending on apprenticeships is set out in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts, which can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-to-2022.
Any underspends in overall departmental budgets by the end of the financial year are first returned to HMT, as per the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance. As employers choose which apprenticeships they offer and when, annual spend of the apprenticeship budget is subject to employer demand.
The government is increasing apprenticeship funding to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year and has removed the limit on the number of apprentices that small and medium-sized enterprises can recruit to support more employers to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many new homes they expect to build in the current year.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The department does not publish forecasts of new builds.
The most recent data for new dwellings shows an increase of 232,820 dwellings in the year to 31 March 2022. This represents over 75% of the Government’s ambition to see 300,000 new homes a year.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to report on the outcomes of the review of economic regulation.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
We are expecting to publish the review of economic regulation in the coming months, delivering on the Government’s commitment to drive growth through the activities of key economic regulators (Ofgem, Ofcom and Ofwat), as published in the Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy policy paper on 10 May 2023.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in negotiating a free trade agreement with India; and when they expect an agreement to be reached.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We have been in negotiations since January 2022, and talks are ongoing. Both nations have come to the table with the very highest of ambitions and a willingness to work together towards a mutually beneficial deal. We are now working through substantive issues like goods market access, services, and investment, and are starting to see a way forward that works for both sides.
However, we remain clear – the Secretary of State will only sign when we have a deal that is fair, reciprocal, and ultimately in the best interests of the British people and the economy.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States of America; and when they expect an agreement to be reached.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In 2020, the UK and US held five productive rounds of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
We remain ready to progress these discussions, but recognise that the US is not currently focused on FTAs with any country. In the meantime, we have done much to help grow our £279bn* of annual bilateral trade. In the last year, we’ve removed US tariffs on UK steel and aluminium and ended the US ban on UK lamb and beef exports. We’ve also been working closely on shared priorities identified at the recent UK-US Trade Dialogues – including digital trade and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
* Total UK-US trade (goods and services / exports plus imports) in 2022
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in negotiations for the UK’s membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); and when they expect to accede to membership.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK is continuing to negotiate accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. Recent discussions have seen the department make considerable progress towards concluding talks, aiming to finish them at the earliest opportunity. The Government is working to ensure that the UK joins on terms that work for British business and are in line with domestic priorities.
Joining CPTPP will offer significant benefits to exporters. It could give tariff free access to up to 99% of UK goods, to export to a market of 500 million people, while reducing barriers to our world leading service firms.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in negotiating a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council; and when they expect to reach an agreement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We have an ambitious programme of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations to help our nation become a truly Global Britain. We have completed two rounds of negotiations with Mexico, and three rounds of negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council. The fifth round of negotiations with Canada concluded on 24 March.
We look forward to concluding negotiations at the earliest opportunity, but it is the substance of trade deals that is important, not the timing.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in negotiating a new trade agreement with Canada; and when they expect an agreement to be reached.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We have an ambitious programme of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations to help our nation become a truly Global Britain. We have completed two rounds of negotiations with Mexico, and three rounds of negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council. The fifth round of negotiations with Canada concluded on 24 March.
We look forward to concluding negotiations at the earliest opportunity, but it is the substance of trade deals that is important, not the timing.