My Lords, in 2018, the Government published a serious violence strategy to take action to address serious violence. Our strategy places a new emphasis on early intervention and sets out a multiagency approach.

The CPS is developing new guidance about gang culture and gang offending, which will summarise the relevant principles in case law to be applied when making charging decisions in any gang-related offence.

The Department was renamed the Department of Health and Social Care in January 2018 and took on responsibility for the Social Care Green Paper.

Whilst we have made no specific assessment, the Department has been working on bringing health and social care together to achieve whole-person, integrated care with the National Health Service and social care systems operating in a joined-up way. The Better Care Fund continues to drive forward the integration of health and social care in England.

The apprenticeship levy is collected from all UK employers through the PAYE system by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC publish information on levy receipts in the monthly Tax and National Insurance contribution receipts publication, and in their annual reports and accounts, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2017-to-2018.

In 2017-18, the first year following the introduction of the levy, £2.6 billion was collected from UK employers and HM Treasury (HMT) allocated £425m of the levy collected to the devolved administrations. Annual data on levy collected in 2018-19 will be published by HMRC, and data on 2018-19 spending will be available from Department for Education in due course.

Skills spending is a devolved matter and HMT committed in advance to the share of the levy that would be passed to the devolved administrations in the three-year period from 2017-18 to 2019-20. HMT published these plans at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-agrees-apprenticeship-levy-funding-deal-with-devolved-administrations.

In England, levy-paying employers can use online apprenticeship service accounts to access their funds. In 2017-18, the total spend on apprentices employed with levy payers, and who started training after the levy was introduced, was £268 million. This figure represents more than the £170 million in training and assessment costs charged to levy payers’ accounts.

This is because these employers also benefit from additional payments to support certain types of learners, and extremely generous co-investment contributions for those employers that have exhausted their levy account funds. Such costs are not currently deducted from levy accounts. In 2018-19, levy-payers drew down a further £639 million representing the costs charged to levy-payers on the learners who started since the levy was introduced (and whose training is ongoing in 2018-19) as well as the costs of learners who started in the 2018-19 financial year.

Employers’ levy funds are distinct from the department’s ring-fenced annual apprenticeship budget, which is set in advance by HM Treasury to fund apprenticeships in England. This budget has risen year-on-year, from £2.01 billion in 2017-18 and £2.23 billion in 2018-19 to over £2.5 billion in 2019-20, double what was spent in 2010.

In 2017-18, we spent £189 million on training and assessment (including additional payments) for apprentices with employers who do not pay the levy and who started their apprenticeship since the levy was introduced. This includes apprenticeships started on both frameworks and new standards.

The ongoing cost of training and assessment for apprentices who started their apprenticeship before the levy was introduced in May 2017 was £1,065 million in 2017-18 (including additional payments as detailed above).

In 2017-18, £40 million (equating to less than 2%) of the £2.01 billion ring-fenced apprenticeships programme budget was spent on the cost of delivering and running the programme. This includes spending by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. The department is provided a separate budget for other administrative spending, and in 2017-18 total administrative spend was £44 million. These two budgets cover the cost of running the online apprenticeship service, employer engagement work, and the promotion of apprenticeships, in addition to staffing and other costs.

The apprenticeship levy is collected from all UK employers through the PAYE system by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC publish information on levy receipts in the monthly Tax and National Insurance contribution receipts publication, and in their annual reports and accounts, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2017-to-2018.

In 2017-18, the first year following the introduction of the levy, £2.6 billion was collected from UK employers and HM Treasury (HMT) allocated £425m of the levy collected to the devolved administrations. Annual data on levy collected in 2018-19 will be published by HMRC, and data on 2018-19 spending will be available from Department for Education in due course.

Skills spending is a devolved matter and HMT committed in advance to the share of the levy that would be passed to the devolved administrations in the three-year period from 2017-18 to 2019-20. HMT published these plans at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-agrees-apprenticeship-levy-funding-deal-with-devolved-administrations.

In England, levy-paying employers can use online apprenticeship service accounts to access their funds. In 2017-18, the total spend on apprentices employed with levy payers, and who started training after the levy was introduced, was £268 million. This figure represents more than the £170 million in training and assessment costs charged to levy payers’ accounts.

This is because these employers also benefit from additional payments to support certain types of learners, and extremely generous co-investment contributions for those employers that have exhausted their levy account funds. Such costs are not currently deducted from levy accounts. In 2018-19, levy-payers drew down a further £639 million representing the costs charged to levy-payers on the learners who started since the levy was introduced (and whose training is ongoing in 2018-19) as well as the costs of learners who started in the 2018-19 financial year.

Employers’ levy funds are distinct from the department’s ring-fenced annual apprenticeship budget, which is set in advance by HM Treasury to fund apprenticeships in England. This budget has risen year-on-year, from £2.01 billion in 2017-18 and £2.23 billion in 2018-19 to over £2.5 billion in 2019-20, double what was spent in 2010.

In 2017-18, we spent £189 million on training and assessment (including additional payments) for apprentices with employers who do not pay the levy and who started their apprenticeship since the levy was introduced. This includes apprenticeships started on both frameworks and new standards.

The ongoing cost of training and assessment for apprentices who started their apprenticeship before the levy was introduced in May 2017 was £1,065 million in 2017-18 (including additional payments as detailed above).

In 2017-18, £40 million (equating to less than 2%) of the £2.01 billion ring-fenced apprenticeships programme budget was spent on the cost of delivering and running the programme. This includes spending by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. The department is provided a separate budget for other administrative spending, and in 2017-18 total administrative spend was £44 million. These two budgets cover the cost of running the online apprenticeship service, employer engagement work, and the promotion of apprenticeships, in addition to staffing and other costs.

There have been 305,200 starts on apprenticeship standards since May 2017 following the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, reported to date as at January 2019.

The Government’s priority is to keep consumers safe.

The review by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) published on 4^th April found that there is a low risk of harm or injury from lint fires in modified Whirlpool tumble dryers. The evidence indicates that the modification reduces the risk of fire.

OPSS has published specific requirements for Whirlpool to act on and issued a Decision Letter requiring that Whirlpool take further actions, including improving its management of risk and setting up a more rigorous system of quality assurance to ensure modifications are correctly installed and remain effective over time.

OPSS will hold Whirlpool to account in regard to these requirements as part of the company’s obligations with regard to the safety of products.

My Lords, business rates are an annual tax on non-domestic property. Bills are based on rateable value, which represents the annual rent the property would achieve if let on the open market, at a set valuation date, as assessed by the Valuation Office Agency.

The Government’s policy is to leave the EU with a deal.

Of course, any responsible Government plans for any eventuality and final decisions are now being taken on how to apply tariffs in the event of a no deal outcome.

The Government is clear these will need to balance between protecting consumers and downstream users from the possible price impacts of a no deal scenario and avoiding the exposure of industries to unfair competition.

Once a final decision is made on what is market sensitive information, we will communicate the decision to stakeholders and the public in an appropriate way.

Ministers and officials have carried out extensive engagement on EU exit with representatives of the telecommunications industry, trade bodies, consumer bodies and the regulator Ofcom. In the event of no deal, the government has published a technical notice on mobile roaming. The Technical notice is available here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/mobile-roaming-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/mobile-roaming-if-theres-no-brexit-deal.

On switching, certain changes in contractual terms during the term of a contract give the customer the right to exit that contract without penalty. For mobile phone contracts, telecoms companies have to follow rules set out by Ofcom. These set out that a customer is able to exit their contract penalty-free if the change in price under new roaming policies was considered to be material.

Customers can register to submit a self-assessment return in several ways, including online at Gov.uk, or by phoning HMRC on 03000 200 3500. After registering, the customer will receive a letter containing their 10 digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and information on what they need to do next; this letter can take up to 10 working days to arrive.

If the only reason for a customer filing late is that they are awaiting their UTR then, as long as they file their return within a reasonable time of receiving it, they will not have to pay a penalty.

My Lords, we intend to introduce a uniform recycling labelling system for all packaging, including plastic packaging. We also intend to have a simpler, more consistent waste collection system. We will consult on these proposals arising from the resources and waste strategy very shortly. Thereafter, we will seek legislative opportunities so that these measures can be introduced by 2023.

UK Research and Innovation is currently investing over £150m for research and discovery to tackle the challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including the development of new antibiotics, through schemes including the UK AMR Cross Council Initiative and the Biomedical Catalyst.

Growth in labour productivity, 2000 – 2022

• The table presents past and projected annual growth rates of UK labour productivity defined as output per hour worked.
• The growth rates for the period 2000 to 2017 were obtained from the ONS (Labour productivity time series (PRDY), UK Whole Economy: Output per hour worked % change per annum SA, released 5th October 2018, link)
• The projected future growth rates (2018 – 2022) were published by the Office for Budget Responsibility in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook – October 2018 (page 87, Table 3.10 Detailed summary forecast, link)

This analysis is a welcome initiative by the OECD to improve the international comparability of productivity statistics. It was initiated in response to a request from the ONS to examine how different countries go about measuring total hours worked (which are required to calculate output per hour worked).

When calculating labour productivity there is a trade-off between using the best available data sourced from different countries’ national accounts, or data compiled on the most consistent basis. The OECD research finds that while for many countries this choice makes a minor difference, for the UK it has a larger effect and improves our performance relative to other countries.

The ONS is examining how best to incorporate these findings into their international comparisons of labour productivity and plans to publish an article on this in January 2019; including more detailed breakdowns of how the UK compares with other developed countries on a more consistent basis.

Nine sector deals have been agreed so far. These are with the nuclear, creative industries, construction, AI, automotive, rail, aerospace sectors, and the life sciences sector has published two deals.

Sector deals are negotiated partnerships between government and Industry in key sectors of the economy to unblock barriers to productivity in specific areas. There is no new funding available, and they do not allocate funding to sectors. Some of the nine Deals agreed to date have involve supporting sector-led proposals with existing sources of Government funding.

My Lords, English local authorities collected 11.1 million tonnes of waste for recycling in 2016-17, the most recent year for which figures are available. Around 90% of this was from households. An estimated 1.3% of the 11.1 million tonnes ended up in landfill in this country. We will publish plans to increase recycling and boost the UK recycling industry in our resources and waste strategy later this year.

The Managing Fiscal Risks document, published by the Treasury on the 17^th July, projects that if the government only balanced the Current Budget every year from 2021-22, then after taking account of economic shocks, annual debt interest costs in 2045-46 would rise to 4.3% of Gross Domestic Product.

The cumulative cost of these interest payments from the current financial year to 2045-46 is projected to be £3.7 trillion.

My Lords, the UK has one of the best intellectual property regimes globally. The creative industries’ concerns focus on copyright, where reciprocal protections are underpinned by international law, and unregistered designs, which the UK will continue protecting. Some EU-derived copyright provisions and the reciprocal EU-UK protection of unregistered designs will be a matter for our future relationship.

My Lords, the Government are fully committed to complete and authoritative migration statistics. These are produced by the independent Office for National Statistics following best international practice and are overseen by the UK Statistics Authority. The ONS has embarked on an ambitious programme of work to improve migration statistics and the Government are supporting this programme, including by providing the ONS with access to data held by government departments.

My Lords, the Government have banned microbeads in cosmetics and taken 9 billion plastic carrier bags out of circulation with the 5p charge. More needs to be done and we will be taking an ambitious approach. My right honourable friend Michael Gove has recently set out in a four-point plan how we will reduce the use of plastic and ensure that where plastic is used it is easier for households to recycle.