Asked by: David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department are taking to encourage businesses to invest in skills training.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to delivering a world-leading skills system which is employer-focused, high-quality, and fit for the future. The department’s reforms are backed with an investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen higher and further education to help more people get good jobs, upskill and retrain throughout their lives and to improve national productivity.
Over 5,000 employers have been involved in the development of nearly 700 high-quality apprenticeships to meet their industry skills needs. To support employers of all sizes offer apprenticeships, the government has increased investment in apprenticeships to over £2.7 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes investing a further £60 million to meet overall increased employer demand for apprenticeships and encourage small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to take on young apprentices.
From April, the department pays 100% of training costs when SMEs take on new apprentices aged 16-21. Additionally, larger employers can now transfer more of their levy funds (50% increased from 25%) to support businesses of all sizes, which will help more employers to invest in apprenticeship training.
Skills Bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the chance to build sector-specific skills with an offer of a job interview on completion. Training providers work with employers to ensure training is designed to teach the skills employers need. To date, over 1000 employers have been involved in Skills Bootcamps. Employers play a range of roles from supporting the design and delivery of the training, to recruiting learners that complete training into a job, or an apprenticeship. Employers can also use Skills Bootcamps to upskill their existing employees, subject to a 10% contribution for SMEs and 30% contribution for large employers.
Institutes of Technology bring education and business closer together, creating unique collaborations between colleges, universities and industry which deliver higher-level technical education with a clear route to high skilled employment. The department has provided £300 million of capital funding for infrastructure and industry standard equipment to increase capacity to deliver level 4/5 technical skills. In addition, employer partners were encouraged to provide additional support (monetary and in kind) which for the wave 2 competition was set at 35% of value of capital expenditure.
In October 2023, the department launched a new website called Skills for Careers that provides a single digital front door to information about skills training options and careers. A link to Skills for Careers can be found here: https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/skills-for-life. From Skills for Careers, users are guided through government’s skills offer from apprenticeships to Skills Bootcamps, A levels to Multiply. The website provides an overview of each option along with information about writing job applications and CVs.
Across all areas of England, employer-led Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) have helped engage thousands of local businesses and have brought them together with local providers and stakeholders to collaboratively agree and deliver actions to address local skills needs. By giving employers a more strategic role in the skills system, LSIPs are helping to drive greater employer investment in skills and ensure businesses are more actively involved in the planning, design and delivery of skills provision.
Departmental officials are also working with the Office for Investment and Department for Business and Trade to provide support for investors to navigate the skills system at a national and local level and encourage take-up of government funded skills programmes and employer investment in skills, as well as build strategic partnerships with local education and training providers. Whilst it is not a core part of their role, some of the designated employer representative bodies leading the LSIPs have engaged with inward investors as part of developing and implementing their LSIPs.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many staff from its advisory non-departmental public bodies have left those bodies in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many Trade Remedies Authority staff have left that organisation in each year since its creation.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many Small Business Commissioner staff have left that organisation in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many Regulatory Policy Committee staff have left that organisation in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many Central Arbitration Committee staff have left that organisation in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many Competition Appeal Tribunal staff have left that organisation in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many Low Pay Commission staff have left that organisation in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many staff left the British Business Bank in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many staff have left the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We centrally hold some of the information requested.
In as far as data is centrally held, I refer the hon. Member to the Civil Service statistics, for The Department for Business and Trade, at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics
The Declaration on Government Reform (2021) stated: "There is however more we must do to attract a broader range of people to the privilege of public service... It should be natural for people with careers and skills built in business to serve in government for a period, and for those in public service to spend time in organisations which are not dependent on public money... We will develop new entry routes from industry, academia, the third sector and the wider public sector, with flexibility to suit those who want to build a career in government and those who want a shorter tour of duty.”