Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 11 December 2024 (HL2971), when they will provide further information about contract extensions and variations to national providers of Skills Bootcamps.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Skills Bootcamps are an important offer in the skills landscape and at present they remain available for learners via national contracts and grant funding in local areas. Existing national contracts remain in place until the end of their term.
We recognise the need for clarity on national contract extensions or variations. The department continues to finalise 2025/26 budgets through the business planning process and will confirm the position as soon as possible.
In the longer term, we intend to fund Skills Bootcamps through funding Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and local areas directly. This supports the government’s commitment to empower local leaders to have greater control of skills development alongside an increased role in supporting people into work.
On 30 January the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government published the final details of the 2025/26 integrated settlements, confirming £18 million of Skills Bootcamps local funding will be devolved to Greater Manchester and West Midlands MCAs next year.
We are currently working through the process to inform non-devolved local areas of their Skills Bootcamps 2025/26 allocations as quickly as we can.
Providers will be able to look for opportunities through contract finders on GOV.UK, with procurement exercises likely to match the skills needs identified in a local area’s local skills improvement plan.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the Competition and Markets Authority accelerates the Digital Markets Unit's strategic market status designation for cloud services.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has indicated in its provisional Cloud Services report that it will recommend to its Board prioritising Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigations into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Decisions on which SMS investigations to launch are for the CMA, as the UK's independent competition authority. The Government will consider any additional recommendations made by the CMA in its final report, which is not expected until Summer 2025.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what actions they are taking to address restrictive software licensing practices by dominant cloud providers, as identified by the Competition and Markets Authority, to ensure fair competition in the cloud services market.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has indicated in its provisional Cloud Services report that it will recommend to its Board prioritising Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigations into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Decisions on which SMS investigations to launch are for the CMA, as the UK's independent competition authority. The Government will consider any additional recommendations made by the CMA in its final report, which is not expected until Summer 2025.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to issue guidance to public sector procurement authorities to mitigate the anti-competitive effects of restrictive cloud licensing practices.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As part of the Government’s blueprint for modern digital government published in January the government has committed to streamline the procurement of cloud services. We will also continue our work to negotiate whole-of-public-sector agreements and contracting once for a limited number of high value cases, including platform services such as cloud.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to discourage the use of excessive egress fees in public sector contracts for cloud services, to foster competition in the cloud services market.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As part of the Government’s blueprint for modern digital government published in January the government has committed to streamline the procurement of cloud services. We will also continue our work to negotiate whole-of-public-sector agreements and contracting once for a limited number of high value cases, including platform services such as cloud.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to reform cloud procurement frameworks to ensure a level playing field for small and medium-sized enterprises and challenger cloud providers.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The upcoming iteration of G-Cloud will introduce a streamlined ‘Open Framework’ under the new Procurement Act. This will simplify the existing portfolio of agreements, enhancing access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and challenger cloud providers.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent research by the Manifesto Club which found that private enforcement companies now issue over 75 per cent of all penalties for breaches of public spaces protection orders on a payment-per-fine or otherwise incentivised basis; what assessment they have made of the risks associated with these arrangements; and what plans there are, if any, for the Home Office to follow DEFRA in introducing guidance that prohibits incentivised enforcement action.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is for local authorities to determine how to operate the powers granted to them in legislation.
Contracting enforcement to third parties is a common arrangement and it is for the local authority to ensure use of powers remains just and proportionate.
Contractors are bound by the same legal obligations, and the same safeguards in legislation, as councils themselves. Local authorities are also obliged to follow the rules set out in the Public Contract Regulations 2015 in appointment of such companies.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of compliance with the littering enforcement guidance for local authorities; and what plans they have, if any, to place it on a statutory footing.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has not made an assessment of local authority compliance with the existing, advisory littering enforcement guidance.
Defra recognises the role that appropriate and proportionate enforcement can play in helping local authorities keep streets clear of litter. Defra is considering the benefits of bringing forward statutory litter enforcement guidance and any new guidance will be announced in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what role the National Security Online Information Team played in responding to the 2024 summer riots.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
During last summer’s unrest, the National Security and Online Information Team identified mis and disinformation themes and trends which resulted from the tragic events in Southport. It worked with wider government and major social media platforms to understand emerging risks and tackle content contributing to the subsequent disorder. This included proactively referring content within the team’s remit for platforms to independently assess and act on in line with their terms of service.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to align Skills Bootcamps funding and delivery with their ambition to position the UK as a global leader in AI and digital innovation; and how they plan to ensure that the workforce is equipped with critical skills to drive economic growth.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Skills Bootcamps are an important offer in the skills landscape. Latest published data shows that in the 2022/23 financial year, the majority of Skills Bootcamps were in the digital sector, with 61% of starts in digital.
This financial year, Skills Bootcamps are available in digital marketing, cyber security, software engineering, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Mayoral Combined Authorities and local areas can use their grant funding for Skills Bootcamps in the digital sector where they have identified a local need.
The department recognises the long term importance of supporting learners and employers to develop digital skills. In addition to Skills Bootcamps, learners and employers can benefit from more than 30 high quality digital apprenticeship standards, including the level 3 cyber security technician standard and the level 5 data engineer standard. Learners can study three Digital T Levels which include AI content and there are 77 Higher Technical Qualifications approved and quality marked as providing the skills demanded in the workplace by employers, including AI skills.
The role of Skills England will include developing a coherent picture of our national and regional skills needs, and shaping the technical education needed to meet that demand.