Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department has had with local businesses and LEPs on the economic effect of the area reviews for further education.

Nick Boles

Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) have a central role to play in supporting area reviews and are contributing to the analysis of the current and future economic and educational needs of their area. They are also supporting the review process through their wider economic development role and use of their potential resource leverage including capital funding and other related funding streams like European Social Funding. Being impartial and economically driven, LEP involvement is allowing the business voice to feature largely in discussions and to ensure there is a full understanding of employer demand.

There is regular contact with the LEP network and with individual LEPs through the local steering group arrangements. In addition local employers are being actively engaged in each area review through the wide range of stakeholder engagement taking place.

LEPs and the British Chamber of Commerce are also represented on the National Area Review Advisory group which is influencing how the area reviews are taken forward.