Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What plans he has to promote a green recovery from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are delivering on our commitment to build back greener. The Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution will create long-term advantage for the UK in low-carbon technologies and services. It will support up to 250,000 green jobs, levelling up regions across the UK, and reinvigorate our industrial heartlands. The Plan will mobilise £12 billion of Government investment to unlock three times as much private sector investment by 2030.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2020 to Question 64958 on Females: Coronavirus, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the cultural shift in flexible working for all during the covid-19 outbreak is embedded in future workforce practices.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is clear about the benefits of flexible working for employers and their employees.
Since Covid-19 measures were introduced many more people have been working from home with many businesses rapidly adapting to remote working, using new technology and finding new ways of working. As we move beyond the current situation we are keen to do more to promote flexible working in all its forms.
All employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer have the right to request Flexible Working. In our manifesto we committed to take this further and we will be looking at this in light of COVID.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he has taken to ensure that Local Industrial Strategies developed by devolved authorities have targeted plans in place to improve skills and access to jobs in areas with high deprivation.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Local Industrial Strategies which have been published to date are based on robust evidence, allowing places to make the most of their distinctive strengths, address their weaknesses, and maximise their potential contribution to UK productivity. Local Industrial Strategies have a strong skills focus and are supported by analysis by locally led Skills Advisory Panels (SAPs), to which Government has given each £75,000 funding for the 2020/2021 financial year. SAPs help places to identify local skills priorities based on analysis of the local area, and agree how these will be met through local education and training provision.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the higher education entry rate data, published in December 2015, what steps his Department is taking to increase the rate of entry to university from young people in (a) Bristol South constituency and (b) other areas that have a low rate of university entry.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone with the potential has the opportunity to benefit from higher education, irrespective of their background.
In the last academic year we saw record entry rates to higher education, including among those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Since 2010, we have established a stronger framework, with increased responsibility placed on higher education institutions to widen participation. The Director of Fair Access has agreed 183 Access Agreements for 2016/17 containing an estimated £745m to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds – up from £404m in 2009/10.
In addition, we will take steps through the Higher Education and Research Bill to widen access and participation further. This will include strengthening the system of access agreements, and introducing new transparency duties on higher education institutions. We have also asked Universities UK to form a Social Mobility Advisory Group to set out what further steps the higher education sector itself can take to promote social mobility.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish a detailed timeline for the introduction of the apprenticeship levy to assist small and medium-sized enterprises to develop future apprentice and training plans.
Answered by Nick Boles
In April 2016 we published a guide for employers on how they will pay the levy, access the digital system and pay for apprenticeships in future.
We have asked employers to tell us what information they need next and have already committed to publishing provisional funding rates and further funding information in June.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to ensure that young people who receive summer assessment results in September (a) 2017 and (b) 2018 will have improved prospects of securing an apprenticeship as a result of the apprenticeship levy.
Answered by Nick Boles
The apprenticeship levy is part of a number of reforms to boost the quantity and quality of apprenticeships supporting our commitment of 3 million new apprenticeships in England by 2020. The levy will put apprenticeship funding in the hands of employers and will encourage them to invest in their apprentices and take on more.
Employer-led reforms are making it more attractive for businesses to offer more apprenticeships. We are also setting new expectations for public sector bodies and through public procurement so that overall there will be more opportunities for young people to pursue good quality apprenticeships right up to degree level. Higher and degree apprenticeships are widening access to the professions, providing higher level technical skills employers need and giving young people an equally valid route as going to university.
Our goal, through our current communication campaign launched in May, is for young people to see apprenticeships as high quality and prestigious paths to successful careers across all sectors and at all levels.