Tag: Lord Browne of Belmont

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are taking steps to ensure that inward investment and job creation is encouraged on an equal basis across all the regions of the UK.

Lord Maude of Horsham

UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) actively promotes all areas of the UK and is investing significant effort and resources to fully support HMG’s drive to rebalance the UK economy, whilst staying true to UKTI’s ‘UK First principle’.

UKTI always ensures it offers the client the most suitable location options for that client’s businesses investment to be a commercial success, since success is the best guarantee of a long-term investment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of UK nationals who have travelled to participate in terrorist-related activity in (1) Syria, (2) Iraq, (3) Libya, and (4) another country, from 2013 to date.

Lord Bates

We believe approximately 800 UK linked individuals have travelled to take part in the conflict in Syria and Iraq since it began. Many have joined Daesh and other terrorist groups. We cannot provide specific data on how many nationals have travelled to Libya or other countries on national security grounds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made with their adult apprenticeship schemes.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Final data show that there were 499,900 apprenticeship starts in the 2014/15 academic year. 374,000 of these were aged 19+, an increase of 16.6% on 2013/14.

We have delivered 2.6 million apprenticeships starts since May 2010, 73% (1.9 million) of these were adults (aged 19+).

We are committed to reaching 3 million new apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. Our 2020 Vision for English Apprenticeships sets out how we will increase apprenticeships numbers for people of all ages – working with employers and setting new expectations for public sector procurement.

Apprenticeship reforms are being led by employers designing standards to meet their skill needs. Over 1300 employers are currently involved. 198 new standards have been published and more 150 are in development (including 60 Higher or Degree level). More Degree Apprenticeships are being developed, combining a high quality degree with an apprenticeship.

Through the UK-wide apprenticeships levy, we are also giving employers control over funding apprenticeship training in England.

We are establishing an independent employer-led Institute for Apprenticeships to regulate the quality of apprenticeships in England which will be fully operational by April 2017.

We are doubling the annual level of spending on apprenticeships between 2010-11 and 2019-20 in cash terms to £2.5bn, including income from the new apprenticeship levy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many business establishments in Northern Ireland have been fined for employing illegal national workers in each of the last four years.

Lord Bates

The information requested is shown in the following table. The figures are based on the number of civil penalties issued to individual employers during each of the last four complete financial years and the current financial year to 31st January 2016. This includes public and private limited companies, sole traders, partnerships and franchises.

Financial year	Civil penalties issued
2011-12	14
2012-13	19
2013-14	42
2014-15	85
2015-16 (to 31st January 2016)	57

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to curb gang culture across the UK.

Lord Bates

Ending gang violence and exploitation is a priority for the Government and on 13 January 2016 we published a paper setting out our refreshed approach. This has a twin focus concerned with both reducing violence, including knife crime, and protecting vulnerable individuals from exploitation by gangs. The full refreshed approach can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ending-gang-violence-and-exploitation.

This builds on our work since 2012 when we introduced the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme aimed and targeted at supporting local areas building their resilience and ability to respond to gangs. Since 2012, we have worked with 52 local areas facing problems associated with gangs through supporting peer reviews to identify the main local challenges.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ensure that young people gain key transferable skills in order to increase their future employment opportunities.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

This Government is taking a series of important steps to help young people gain a good broad education with transferable skills such as literacy and numeracy, as well as employability skills from work experience.

This includes our reforms to GCSEs to ensure that they are more stretching and provide greater assurance of core literacy and numeracy than the old GCSEs. We are also reforming Functional Skills to improve the rigour and relevance of these qualifications as well as improving their recognition among employers. The new Functional Skills qualifications will be ready to teach in 2018.

As of August 2015, the condition of funding has been revised, so all 16-18 year old full-time students starting their study programme who have a grade D GCSE or equivalent in maths or English must be enrolled on a GCSE or approved IGCSE qualification in maths or English to work towards attaining a good pass.

We have also built English and maths into the heart of traineeships and apprenticeships to ensure that young people have the literacy and numeracy skills needed by employers. Our traineeship programme is supporting 16-24 year olds to gain the skills and work experience they need to be able to compete for apprenticeships and other jobs. In addition, all of the new employer-led apprenticeship standards must demonstrate acquisition of transferable skills and offer more than just training for a single job or employer. Standards must ensure that an apprentice can adapt to a variety of roles, with different employers, developing the ability to progress in their careers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many extra days or weeks imprisonment have been given to prisoners for assaults committed on (1) fellow prisoners, and (2) prison staff, in each of the last five years.

Lord Faulks

The table attached shows the numbers of awards of additional days in prison establishments as a result of adjudications in each year since 2011, for breach of prison discipline involving violence, including the number of adjudications where awards of added days were as a result of an assault against (1) another prisoner or (2) a member of prison staff.

Violence in prison has increased in recent years. The nature of offenders currently in custody and the widespread availability of new psychoactive substances have both contributed to making prisons less safe. There is no single, simple solution to improving safety in prisons but we are making progress.

We are trialling the use of body worn cameras and training sniffer dogs to detect New Psychoactive Substances. We have made it an offence to smuggle New Psychoactive Substances into prison, but ultimately the only way to reduce violence in prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to reform and rehabilitate offenders more effectively.

Data for 2015 – 2016 is not yet available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent discussions they have had about the work of UK Trade and Investment in promoting inward investment in Northern Ireland.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The established relationship between UKTI and Invest Northern Ireland (INI) enables both to support each other’s efforts to achieve the shared ambition to increase trade and investment and in turn jobs and growth, this includes regular engagement at Ministerial, Chief Executive, and operational levels.

For example, over the last month Lord Maude visited Northern Ireland on 28^th and 29^th January, including both a meeting with the Chief Executive of INI and a number of company meetings. He has also conducted one overseas visit alongside Northern Ireland Assembly Minister Bell to Canada in February.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people from other EU countries have been admitted to (1) work, and (2) live, in Northern Ireland in each year since 2010.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken over the past five years to disrupt and intercept the supply of illicit drugs into UK prisons.

Lord Faulks

Prisons in England and Wales take a zero tolerance approach to illicit drugs. We have a comprehensive range of security measures and searching techniques in place to detect drugs, and to prevent smuggling into prisons. We are about to pilot the use of body scanners to reveal drugs concealed within the body, we have introduced specific dog training to allow dogs to detect new psychoactive substances (NPS) and will introduce widespread drug testing of prisoners for NPS as part of the national mandatory drug testing programme in April 2016. We have also made it illegal to smuggle NPS into prisons. We are working with the Department of Health and others to improve our understanding of the risks NPS present for offenders and to provide appropriate information, guidance and support to offenders and those working with them in prison. Anyone caught with any drugs in prison will be severely dealt with. Punishments available include closed visits, loss of privileges and up to 42 days added to their time in custody. Where prisoners are caught with controlled drugs, we will work with the police to consider prosecution and a further sentence.