Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the benefits, and (2) the disadvantages, of the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s lagged funding mechanism in assisting businesses to have a pipeline of employees with the skills they need to help the economy to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The skills for jobs white paper sets out how the department would place employers at the heart of local skills systems by leading the development of new Local Skills Improvement Plans. Through this, employers will be able to articulate their skills needs, and colleges and other providers will be able to reshape their provision in response.
We have recently launched an extensive government consultation on reforms to the further education funding and accountability system, including how funding is calculated. This consultation is a first step for a funding and accountability system that will maximise the potential of further education and help us build back better. We want to use the consultation to open a dialogue with the sector, employers, and other interested parties on how government funding can be administered more simply and effectively, so that colleges and other providers can focus on supporting students to develop the skills needed by employers and local labour markets. The consultation will run up to 7 October 2021.
Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to change policy so that funding for further education follows the learner, and (2) to scrap the lagged funding mechanism used by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Funding for providers of 16-19 education, including further education institutions, already follows the principle of funding per student. Funding is based on the characteristics of the student and the courses they study, alongside student numbers from the previous academic year. The system of lagged funding is well established and understood because it provides institutions with clear allocations each year based on student data, allowing them to make plans with confidence. Where institutions see a particularly large increase in student numbers in a year, they typically qualify for exceptional in-year growth funding, in addition to the lagged funding, to help them with the extra costs of these students, though this is subject to affordability. We do not have any plans to remove the system of lagged funding at this time.
The lagged funding system does not currently apply to funding for adult provision. On 15 July, we published a government consultation on reforms to the further education funding and accountability system, to gather views on how colleges and other providers can focus on supporting learners to develop the skills needed by employers and local labour markets. As part of this, we are seeking views on how government funding can be administered more simply and effectively which includes asking for views on whether we should move to a lagged system for core adult funding.
Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the business rates holiday beyond April 2021 for (1) retail, and (2) hospitality and leisure, businesses.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government will consider all reliefs in due course through the Business Rates Review.Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the withdrawal of the VAT retail export scheme from 1 January 2021 on levels of employment in (1) the retail sector, (2) the hospitality and leisure sector, (3) the creative sector, and (4) across all sectors.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Ahead of the end of the transition period, the Government has announced the VAT and excise duty treatment of goods purchased by individuals for personal use and carried in their luggage arriving from or going overseas (passengers). The following rules will apply from 1 January 2021:
- Passengers travelling from Great Britain to any destination outside the United Kingdom (UK) will be able to purchase duty-free excise goods once they have passed security controls at ports, airports, and international rail stations.
- Personal allowances will apply to passengers entering Great Britain from a destination outside of the UK, with alcohol allowances significantly increased.
- The VAT Retail Export Scheme (RES) in Great Britain will not be extended to EU residents and will be withdrawn for all passengers.
- The concessionary treatment on tax-free sales for non-excise goods will be removed across the UK.
The Government published a consultation which ran from 11 March to 20 May. During this time the Government held a number of virtual meetings with stakeholders to hear their views and received 73 responses to the consultation. The Government is also continuing to meet and discuss with stakeholders following the announcement of these policies.
The detailed rationale for these changes are included in the written ministerial statement and summary of responses to the recent consultation. A technical note has also been issued to stakeholders to expand on this document and to respond to issues raised by stakeholders.
HMRC estimate that VAT RES refunds cost around £0.5 billion in VAT in 2019 for around 1.2 million non-EU visitors. In 2019 the ONS estimate there were substantially more EU visitors (24.8 million) than non-EU passengers (16.0 million) to the UK. This implies an extension to EU residents would significantly increase the cost by up to an estimated £0.9 billion. This would result in a large amount of deadweight loss by subsidising spending from EU visitors which already happens without a refund mechanism in place, potentially taking the total cost up to around £1.4 billion per annum.
The final costings will be subject to scrutiny by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility and will be set out at the next forecast.
Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to provide additional resources to the Future High Streets Fund, and (2) to increase the current cap of £25 million per applicant to this fund.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The £1 billion Future High Streets Fund forms a central pillar of our £3.6 billion Towns Fund Programme. A competitive round of the High Streets Fund is underway currently. The parameters of this competition have been agreed and set out in the published Future High Streets Fund Prospectus, and subsequent local authority guidance. A further competitive round of funding for towns and high streets is planned to follow. Details of that further competition will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the remit of the new expert panel established to support UK trade negotiations includes the assessment of the impact of a policy change by leading emerging markets to reduce their dependence on imports; and if so, when the panel is expected to report the results of this assessment.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
The Department for International Trade (DIT) has convened a panel of academic experts in trade to advise on how we develop and use cutting-edge economic models and analytical techniques in our trade modelling. The purpose of the review is to examine DIT’s current approach to trade modelling and to consider how best to incorporate wider global economic developments and the latest academic thinking on measuring trade impacts in its modelling framework. The panel will advise on analytical methods and tools to capture the impact of changes in trade policy in general, it will not assess specific policy questions. Once the panel has made recommendations to improve DIT’s modelling capability, DIT will explore how best to incorporate these in our analysis in support of trade policy questions.
Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to widen the membership of the Trade and Agriculture Commission to include representatives from (1) animal welfare groups, and (2) environmental groups.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
Membership of the Trade and Agriculture Commission was announced by my Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade on 10 July.
Beyond the membership of the Commission itself, there are ways for relevant representatives to engage with and contribute to the work of the Commission, most notably as part of three technical working groups that have now been established around the themes of competitiveness, consumers and standards.
Further details on the terms of reference and membership of the Commission can be found on gov.uk: (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-and-agriculture-commission-tac).
Asked by: Lord Rose of Monewden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the tariff rate quotas outlined in the UK goods schedule submitted to the World Trade Organization on 24 July 2018; and if they have any such plans, which categories of goods are expected to be affected.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
On 21st December 2018, the United Kingdom opened a process under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to negotiate tariff rate quotas, as we work to certify our World Trade Organisation goods schedule. The quotas cover a range of agricultural and non-agricultural goods as listed in our draft goods schedule. Changes to the quotas are possible as a result of those negotiations, but no agreements have yet been finalised. Independent of the negotiations, the United Kingdom may from time to time make technical amendments to her goods schedule.