Asked by: Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the UK and whether they will commission advice on this matter.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK’s foreign currency assets are held in the Exchange Equalisation Account. These assets are managed in line with the following investment principles:
Bitcoin has been a historically highly volatile asset relative to stable fiat currencies like the US dollar, and commodities, such as gold. This volatility makes Bitcoin unsuitable as a reserve asset for the UK.
Given this, the Government has no plans to adopt a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they currently hold any Bitcoin, and if so, how much they hold; when and under what powers they accumulated it; which body or individual has custody over it; and how it is being stored.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government does not hold any Bitcoin.
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) contains powers to deprive criminals of their money, or other property connected to criminal activity, and recover the proceeds of crime, including cryptocurrencies. As with all assets, action to seize, recover and manage crypto assets is for independent law enforcement bodies and the courts to consider.
We do not routinely publish the amount recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 by asset type. We publish annual statistics on the amount of proceeds of crime confiscated and recovered as detailed on GOV.UK Asset recovery statistics: financial years ending 2019 to 2024 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have not yet submitted an impact assessment of the measures outlined in the Employment Rights Bill to the Regulatory Policy Committee; when they plan to do so; and whether they plan to place a copy of that impact assessment in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On Monday 21 October, the Government published a comprehensive package of analysis on the impact of the Employment Rights Bill [Employment Rights Bill: impact assessments - GOV.UK ].
These Impact Assessments have been submitted to the Regulatory Policy Committee who have acknowledged their receipt [Employment Rights Bill: statement on lateness of IA submission - GOV.UK ].
As is standard practice, this has also been published on the Employment Rights Bill page on the Parliament UK website [Employment Rights Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament ].
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the Office for National Statistics plans to begin publishing data classifying jobs in the labour market based on the new six-digit Extended Standard Occupational Classification 2020 framework rather than the current four-digit Standard Occupational Classification 2020 framework.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
04 April 2024
Dear Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) plans to begin publishing data classifying jobs in the labour market based on the new six-digit Extended Standard Occupational Classification 2020 framework rather than the current four-digit Standard Occupational Classification 2020 framework (HL3670).
The ONS collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. In addition to their labour market status, working respondents provide a description of their job allowing us to classify their occupation to the appropriate Standard Occupational Classification 2020 (SOC2020) code.
Similarly, the 2021 Census collected information allowing us to identify the labour market status of individuals and classify their occupation in line with SOC2020.
Much of the job information from these sources, collected from respondents, do not contain sufficient detail to give an accurate coding at the six-digit lower-level classification. Consequently, the ONS currently has no plans to publish data at the six-digit SOC2020 level.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the latest available data on the number and percentage of students who left school after their A-levels to go into work; and what percentage of them received (1) 100 UCAS points or above in their A-levels, and (2) 150 UCAS points or above in their A-levels.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The department publishes information on the sustained destinations of students after 16-18 study, broken down by the level at which they studied. The table below gives the latest data on the number and percentage of students who were deemed to be at the end of 16-18 study in 2020/21 (2021 leavers) and their sustained destination in the 2021/22 academic year.
This is for students studying at level 3 and the number and percentage that went on to sustain an employment destination.
The destinations data does not include information on students’ A level results or UCAS points. However, over three quarters of students who studied an approved level 3 qualification completed A Levels.
Sustained employment destinations of level 3 students from state-funded mainstream schools and colleges in England for the 2020/21 cohort of 16-18 leavers. | |
| 2021/22 destination year |
Number of level 3 students completing 16-18 study | 288,726 |
Number of level 3 students with a sustained employment destination | 61,866 |
Percentage of level 3 students with a sustained employment destination | 21.4% |