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444464

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Universities: Finance
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government who supervises and audits public funding of universities in the UK.
tabling member printed	Lord Laird
uin	HL5015
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2016 answer text <p><strong></strong></p><p>Responsibility for higher education is devolved.</p><p>The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has responsibility for oversight of the higher education sector in England.</p><p>For Higher Education Institute’s that receive HEFCE funding, the individual HEI’s external auditor is required to provide a statement in their audit report that public funding has been used for the purposes for which it was provided. HEFCE also seeks a range of other accountability returns from each HEI and carries out periodic ‘HEFCE Assurance Reviews’ of all HEIs.</p><p>Similar arrangements are in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. BIS is responsible for “alternative HE providers”, which includes some private universities, who are not in receipt of funding from HEFCE.</p><br /><p>Individual public bodies (such as Government Departments and Research Councils) are separately accountable for any public funding that they distribute.</p><br /> <br /> answering member printed Baroness Evans of Bowes Park question first answered 25/01/2016 13:12:14 answering member 4329 label Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
tabling member	2479 label Biography information for Lord Laird

444473

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Students: Plagiarism
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards are in place to prevent students using paid-for commercial essay-writing services advertised on the internet.
tabling member printed	Lord Storey
uin	HL5024
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2016 answer text <p>The Government strongly condemns any form of cheating. All publicly funded providers of higher education courses are expected to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). One of the requirements of the Code is to ensure that students do not obtain awards through any form of unacceptable academic practice relating to assessment, including plagiarism. There is no centrally held set of data on the number of recorded plagiarism cases in UK Higher Education – responsibility for tackling plagiarism lies with the HE providers themselves, as autonomous organisations. Institutions have a variety of mechanisms to address cheating by both international and EEA/UK students, including strong policies and specialist software. Between 2012 and 2015, the QAA carried out approximately 650 reviews of institutions. Of these, it only had to make recommendations to 30 individual universities and colleges on the need to improve systems and information related to plagiarism. The QAA are discussing the legality of essay mills with the Consumer and Markets Authority.</p> answering member printed Baroness Evans of Bowes Park question first answered 26/01/2016 16:52:20 answering member 4329 label Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
tabling member	4238 label Biography information for Lord Storey

444474

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Students: Plagiarism
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether universities keep and make available statistics regarding the number of students who are caught having someone else write their work for them, broken down by academic year.
tabling member printed	Lord Storey
uin	HL5025
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2016 answer text <p>The Government strongly condemns any form of cheating. All publicly funded providers of higher education courses are expected to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). One of the requirements of the Code is to ensure that students do not obtain awards through any form of unacceptable academic practice relating to assessment, including plagiarism.</p><p>There is no centrally held set of data on the number of recorded plagiarism cases in UK Higher Education – responsibility for tackling plagiarism lies with the HE providers themselves, as autonomous organisations.</p><p>Institutions have a variety of mechanisms to address cheating by both international and EEA/UK students, including strong policies and specialist software. Between 2012 and 2015, the QAA carried out approximately 650 reviews of institutions. Of these, it only had to make recommendations to 30 individual universities and colleges on the need to improve systems and information related to plagiarism.</p><p>The QAA are discussing the legality of essay mills with the Consumer and Markets Authority.</p><br /> <br /> answering member printed Baroness Evans of Bowes Park question first answered 26/01/2016 16:43:26 answering member 4329 label Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
tabling member	4238 label Biography information for Lord Storey

444475

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Students: Plagiarism
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what strategies are in place to assist universities to monitor companies providing paid essay-writing services.
tabling member printed	Lord Storey
uin	HL5026
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2016 answer text <p>The Government strongly condemns any form of cheating. All publicly funded providers of higher education courses are expected to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). One of the requirements of the Code is to ensure that students do not obtain awards through any form of unacceptable academic practice relating to assessment, including plagiarism.</p><p>There is no centrally held set of data on the number of recorded plagiarism cases in UK Higher Education – responsibility for tackling plagiarism lies with the HE providers themselves, as autonomous organisations.</p><p>Institutions have a variety of mechanisms to address cheating by both international and EEA/UK students, including strong policies and specialist software. Between 2012 and 2015, the QAA carried out approximately 650 reviews of institutions. Of these, it only had to make recommendations to 30 individual universities and colleges on the need to improve systems and information related to plagiarism.</p><p>The QAA are discussing the legality of essay mills with the Consumer and Markets Authority.</p><br /> <br /> answering member printed Baroness Evans of Bowes Park question first answered 26/01/2016 16:43:54 answering member 4329 label Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
tabling member	4238 label Biography information for Lord Storey

444476

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Students: Plagiarism
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there are legal implications for a business that advertises on the internet to write a student’s essay or dissertation, which the student then pays for and submits as their own work for academic accreditation.
tabling member printed	Lord Storey
uin	HL5027
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2016 answer text <p>The Government strongly condemns any form of cheating. All publicly funded providers of higher education courses are expected to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). One of the requirements of the Code is to ensure that students do not obtain awards through any form of unacceptable academic practice relating to assessment, including plagiarism.</p><p>There is no centrally held set of data on the number of recorded plagiarism cases in UK Higher Education – responsibility for tackling plagiarism lies with the HE providers themselves, as autonomous organisations.</p><p>Institutions have a variety of mechanisms to address cheating by both international and EEA/UK students, including strong policies and specialist software. Between 2012 and 2015, the QAA carried out approximately 650 reviews of institutions. Of these, it only had to make recommendations to 30 individual universities and colleges on the need to improve systems and information related to plagiarism.</p><p>The QAA are discussing the legality of essay mills with the Consumer and Markets Authority.</p><br /> <br /> answering member printed Baroness Evans of Bowes Park question first answered 26/01/2016 16:52:28 answering member 4329 label Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
tabling member	4238 label Biography information for Lord Storey

444527

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Apprentices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 20474, what proportion of businesses which have been in receipt of funding from the apprenticeship programme for the creation of apprenticeships in the retail and commercial enterprise sector subject area (a) pay at least the living wage to employees under contract and (b) have paid at least the living wage to such employees since the beginning of the apprenticeship programme in 2010.
tabling member constituency	Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill
tabling member printed	Phil Boswell
uin	22349
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/01/2016 answer text <p>We do not hold this information.</p><p><strong></strong></p><br /> answering member constituency Grantham and Stamford answering member printed Nick Boles question first answered 22/01/2016 14:10:28 answering member 3995 label Biography information for Nick Boles
tabling member	4388 label Biography information for Philip Boswell

444528

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Apprentices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 20474, how many apprenticeships created in the retail and commercial enterprise sector subject area have led to full-time, permanent employment with that employer following the completion of the apprenticeship.
tabling member constituency	Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill
tabling member printed	Phil Boswell
uin	22350
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2016 answer text <p>The 2014 Apprenticeship Evaluation Learner Survey found that for apprentices in the survey who completed Retail and Commercial Enterprise sector frameworks, 90 per cent were employed following their apprenticeship. Of these, 73 per cent were employed by the same organisation with whom they completed the apprenticeship. The sample size of this cohort is not large enough to produce robust estimates of the proportion that are employed full-time.</p><br /> answering member constituency Grantham and Stamford answering member printed Nick Boles question first answered 25/01/2016 16:23:54 answering member 3995 label Biography information for Nick Boles
tabling member	4388 label Biography information for Philip Boswell

444529

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Employment Agencies: Inspections
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2015 to Question 19955, whether the figures relating to (a) cases and (b) breaches in the tables are a measurement of the number of (i) employment agencies or (ii) agency workers.
tabling member constituency	Hampstead and Kilburn
tabling member printed	Tulip Siddiq
uin	22241
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2016 answer text <p>a) The figures for the number of cases are measurements of the total number of different complaints and investigations into employment agencies in each year. In some instances, there are a number of complaints against a single agency, or branches of a larger agency, which are recorded as separate cases for the purposes of these figures.</p><p>In some instances, a case will be an investigation into an employment agency which leads to the identification of numerous breaches relating to several agency workers, and this would be recorded as a single case for the purposes of these figures.</p><br /><p>b) The number of breaches relates, in all cases, to the total number of breaches found during contact with employment agencies. For example, when investigating a complaint, the issue which prompted the complaint may not be the only breach that is discovered. In the case of an inspection, the whole of the agency’s relevant documents and procedures will be examined, which may lead to a higher number of breaches being identified and recorded.</p> answering member constituency Grantham and Stamford answering member printed Nick Boles question first answered 25/01/2016 11:51:07 answering member 3995 label Biography information for Nick Boles
tabling member	4518 label Biography information for Tulip Siddiq

444530

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answers of 12 January 2016 to Questions 19955 and 19954, (a) how much funding was allocated to and (b) how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.
tabling member constituency	Hampstead and Kilburn
tabling member printed	Tulip Siddiq
uin	22253
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2016 answer text <p>In 2009-2010 the spend for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) was £1,072,608 and the Inspectorate employed 30 staff, including administrative support and call handling staff.</p><p>In 2010-2011 the spend for EAS was £932,000 with 29 staff employed (as of 1 May 2010).</p><p>In 2010 the Pay and Work Rights helpline was created. This took over complaint handling and provision of advice and guidance for agencies and agency workers, thus reducing the need for EAS support staff who had previously performed this function. Consequently, in 2011-2012 EAS spend reduced to £637,631 with 23 staff employed.</p><p>Following a restructure in the Department and streamlining of processes, in 2012-2013 EAS spend was £551,461 with 16 staff employed.</p><p>In 2013-2014 EAS spend was £532,023 with 12 staff employed (as of the 1<sup>st</sup> April 2013).</p><p>In November 2013, as part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to review regularly the enforcement of the national minimum wage, a more targeted enforcement strategy for the recruitment sector was announced, focusing on protecting the most vulnerable, low-paid workers. Resources from EAS moved to HM Revenue and Customs’ National Minimum Wage (NMW) team to form a new HMRC team which mainly focussed on enforcing non-payment of national minimum wage in the recruitment sector. This ensured that the most vulnerable workers were protected and created a level playing field for the vast majority of agencies who play by the rules. Two staff remained in BIS to enforce the recruitment sector regulations and prioritised complaints using a risk-based approach.</p><p>As part of the Government programme on illegal working and tackling exploitation, a decision was taken in February 2015 to increase EAS resourcing. In June 2015 the number of full time equivalent staff increased to nine. Actual spend will not be available until the end of the financial year.</p> answering member constituency Grantham and Stamford answering member printed Nick Boles question first answered 26/01/2016 16:29:05 answering member 3995 label Biography information for Nick Boles
tabling member	4518 label Biography information for Tulip Siddiq

444531

registered interest
date	13/01/2016
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Research: Investment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the amount of private sector investment in research and development in each of the last three years; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of such investment.
tabling member constituency	Fermanagh and South Tyrone
tabling member printed	Tom Elliott
uin	22286
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2016 answer text <br /><p>The amount of UK R&amp;D expenditure performed by the business sector is set out in the table below<sup>1</sup>. Expenditure in this sector increased by £1.1 billion in cash terms, to £19.9 billion in 2014 compared with 2013.</p><br /><p>Support for business through the R&amp;D Tax Credit scheme has continued to grow, from 9,250 companies claiming £1.0 billion on £10 billion of expenditure in 2009/10 compared with nearly 18,200 companies claiming £1.75 billion on £14.3 billion of expenditure in 2013/14.</p><br /><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>£ million</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>UK Expenditure for R&amp;D performed by Business Enterprise sector - current prices</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>17,409</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>18,799</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>19,935</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <br /><p><em><sup>1 </sup></em><em>Figures are taken from the ONS publication on Business Enterprise Research and Development, 2014.The business sector figures exclude the private non-profit sector.</em></p><br /><p><strong></strong></p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Joseph Johnson question first answered 25/01/2016 15:45:57 answering member 4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone
tabling member	4367 label Biography information for Tom Elliott