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420564

registered interest
date	12/10/2015
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	Productivity
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of figures from the Office for National Statistics on the United Kingdom's productivity as compared to other G7 countries, what steps are being taken to increase productivity.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL2539
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2015 answer text <p>Closing the productivity gap represents a real opportunity for the UK to raise its living standards. In July the Chancellor published “Fixing the Foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation”. This report outlines a number of policies designed to improve UK productivity over the course of this parliament.</p><br /><p>Key new measures in the government’s productivity plan include:</p><br /><ul><li>A <strong>reformed planning system</strong>, with streamlined ‘zonal’ system for brownfield sites, and measures to ensure more land is made available for house building;</li></ul><br /><ul><li><strong>Simplifying and streamlining further education</strong> qualifications and inviting local areas to participate in the reshaping and commissioning of local provision;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>A <strong>network of prestigious Institutes of Technology</strong>, focused on delivering the higher level skills employers demand;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>Measures to <strong>sharpen incentives for providing outstanding teaching</strong> <strong>to university students</strong> and to <strong>open the higher education market to more new entrants;</strong></li></ul><br /><ul><li>A <strong>Digital Transformation Plan</strong> to support the adoption of digital technologies across the economy;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>A joint FCA/PRA <strong>New Bank Unit</strong> to promote competition in banking; and</li></ul><br /><ul><li>Building <strong>stronger trading links with emerging markets</strong>, and mobilising the whole of government behind exporting.</li></ul><br /> <br /><p>These policies build on the productivity improving measures announced in the Summer Budget, examples of which include:</p><br /><ul><li><strong>Cutting the UK’s Corporation Tax</strong> rate to 18%, the lowest in the G20;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>Setting the <strong>Annual Investment Allowance at its highest ever permanent level</strong>;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>Creating a <strong>Roads Fund</strong> through reforming Vehicle Excise Duty for new cars;</li></ul><br /><ul><li><strong>Funding new apprenticeships through a lev</strong>y on large employers, which will ensure that those who prioritise training get more out than they put in;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>Putting higher education funding on a more sustainable footing, with <strong>maintenance loans replacing grants</strong>;</li></ul><br /><ul><li><strong>Building a Northern Powerhouse</strong> and ensuring the productive potential of all parts of the UK is realised; and</li></ul><br /><ul><li><strong>Reforming Network Rail</strong> to ensure it can deliver a faster, more reliable and more efficient railway.</li></ul><br /> <br /><p>“Fixing the Foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation” can be found on the GOV.UK website, which is attached.</p> answering member printed Baroness Neville-Rolfe question first answered 23/10/2015 12:00:44 answering member 4284 label Biography information for Baroness Neville-Rolfe attachment 1 file name Productivity_Plan_print.pdf title Productivity Plan
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

390167

registered interest
date	15/07/2015
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	Productivity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of zombie companies on national productivity; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
uin	7261
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/07/2015 answer text <p>Zombie companies are companies that are allowed by banks to delay repayment of a loan so that they effectively only pay the interest due rather than the full loan amount. Bank of England analysis of this ‘loan forbearance’ suggests that only a relatively small proportion of small businesses are in receipt of any form of forbearance (around 6% of SME borrowers in 2013). The Bank concludes that forbearance by banks on loans to small businesses would therefore appear to account for only a small proportion of the weakness in aggregate UK productivity. The Bank’s analysis was published in the Bank’s quarterly bulletin which can be found on the Bank of England’s website.</p> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 23/07/2015 10:57:14 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

390168

registered interest
date	15/07/2015
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	Productivity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of employee ownership on national productivity; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
uin	7262
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2015 answer text <p>We are not aware of any studies into the link between employee ownership and national productivity. Research published in 2014 by the Employee Ownership Association showed that businesses with employee ownership (where employees have both a meaningful financial stake and a say in how the business is run) had a year-on-year increase in productivity of 4.5%.</p><p> </p><p>The Government worked closely with experts, including from the Employee Ownership Association, in delivering the 2012 Nuttall Recommendations to reduce barriers to increasing the number of employee ownership businesses. This work was completed in 2014.</p> answering member constituency Broxtowe answering member printed Anna Soubry question first answered 21/07/2015 14:32:07 answering member 3938 label Biography information for Anna Soubry
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

389709

registered interest
date	14/07/2015
answering body	HM Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	CaTreasury
hansard heading	Productivity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the sustainable rate of productive potential in the UK economy.
tabling member constituency	Ross, Skye and Lochaber
tabling member printed	Ian Blackford
uin	7048
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/07/2015 answer text <p>In 2010 the government established the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to provide independent and authoritative analysis of the UK’s public finances.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The OBR forecast in July 2015 that potential productivity will grow by 1.4 per cent in 2015, 1.8 per cent in 2016, 2.0 per cent in 2017, 2.1 per cent in 2018 and 2.2 per cent thereafter.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Worcestershire answering member printed Harriett Baldwin question first answered 21/07/2015 14:41:07 answering member 4107 label Biography information for Dame Harriett Baldwin
tabling member	4390 label Biography information for Ian Blackford

381137

registered interest
date	15/06/2015
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Productivity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve the UK's productivity statistics.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
uin	2547
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2015 answer text <p>The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading East answering member printed Mr Rob Wilson question first answered 18/06/2015 12:50:56 answering member 1556 label Biography information for Mr Rob Wilson attachment 1 file name PQ 2547 Sir Soames.pdf title UKSA Letter to Member - UK's Productivity Stats
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

347908

registered interest
date	02/06/2015
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Productivity
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the latest figures for the employee activity rates in (1) Wales, (2) Scotland, (3) Northern Ireland and (4) each of the regions of England.
tabling member printed	Lord Wigley
uin	HL194
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2015 answer text <p>The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.</p> answering member printed Lord Bridges of Headley attachment 1 file name HL194 Lord Wigley ONS Reply.pdf title UK Statistics Reply 2 file name HL194 Tables.xlsx title Referenced Tables question first answered 11/06/2015 16:01:22 answering member 4535 label Biography information for Lord Bridges of Headley
tabling member	547 label Biography information for Lord Wigley

228952

registered interest
date	23/03/2015
answering body	HM Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Productivity
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the practical impact on United Kingdom productivity of net migration of 165,000 per year over the next five years.
tabling member printed	Lord Green of Deddington
uin	HL5917
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2015 answer text <p>The government does not forecast either UK GDP or GDP per capita. The independent OBR in the March 2015 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) used the central ONS migration population projection. The ONS central migration projection is for net migration of 165,000 a year in 2018/19 and 2019/20. In the March 2015 EFO the OBR forecast that UK GDP per capita for those aged 16 and over will increase by 9.2% total between 2014 and 2019.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In order to inform policy making, the government reviews and notes the wider evidence on the economic and productivity impacts of immigration on an ongoing basis. This evidence base includes the wider academic literature, and a range of reports commissioned or produced by the government looking at specific impacts, for example those produced by the independent Migration Advisory Committee. In addition, policies that influence migration are assessed using the government's impact assessment process which models the economic impact of the policy change using assumptions based on a range of evidence and the academic literature. Home Office Impact Assessments are published on gov.uk.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Deighton grouped question UIN HL5915 question first answered 26/03/2015 13:57:25 answering member 4262 label Biography information for Lord Deighton
tabling member	4346 label Biography information for Lord Green of Deddington

224638

registered interest
date	03/03/2015
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	Productivity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the increase in the UK's total factor productivity was in each of the last 15 years.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
uin	225955
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2015 answer text <p>The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have published experimental estimates of Multi-Factor Productivity (MFP), which is the terminology the ONS uses for total factor productivity. This is shown in Table 1.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Table 2 displays an index of these data, showing cumulative growth in MFP over the last 15 years.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Table 1: Annual Growth Rate of Multi-Factor Productivity </strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>1999</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2000</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2001</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2002</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2003</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2004</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2005</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2006</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2007</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2008</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2009</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2010</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p>0.96</p></td><td><p>2.02</p></td><td><p>0.87</p></td><td><p>1.13</p></td><td><p>2.71</p></td><td><p>1.21</p></td><td><p>0.27</p></td><td><p>1.54</p></td><td><p>0.58</p></td><td><p>-0.94</p></td><td><p>-4.62</p></td><td><p>0.91</p></td><td><p>0.39</p></td><td><p>-1.81</p></td><td><p>-0.53</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Table 2: Multi-Factor Productivity (1998=100)</strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>1999</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2000</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2001</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2002</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2003</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2004</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2005</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2006</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2007</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2008</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2009</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2010</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p>101.0</p></td><td><p>103.0</p></td><td><p>103.9</p></td><td><p>105.0</p></td><td><p>107.7</p></td><td><p>108.9</p></td><td><p>109.2</p></td><td><p>110.7</p></td><td><p>111.3</p></td><td><p>110.4</p></td><td><p>105.7</p></td><td><p>106.6</p></td><td><p>107.0</p></td><td><p>105.2</p></td><td><p>104.7</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Source: Multi-factor Productivity (experimental), Estimates to 2013, ONS (Jan 2015) <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-386314" target="_blank">http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-386314</a></p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 09/03/2015 16:47:34 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

171900

registered interest
date	05/01/2015
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	Productivity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to increase productivity.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
uin	219763
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/01/2015 answer text <p>I refer my Rt.Hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 9 December 2014, UIN 217275.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 08/01/2015 16:22:03 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

167973

registered interest
date	04/12/2014
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	Productivity
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to improve productivity.
tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
uin	217275
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2014 answer text <p>Government policy focuses on delivering growth; this in turn partly depends on longer term improvements to productivity. As such, much of the Government’s economic policy is about raising productivity, including but not limited to:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Tax cuts</strong>: Government is actively working to reduce the tax burden where possible to help give businesses the confidence to invest and grow. Initiatives announced at this year’s Autumn Statement include a doubling of the Small Business Rate Relief for a further year, and a continued cap on the annual increase in business rates at 2% from April 2015 to March 2016. More widely the UK now has the lowest headline corporate tax rate in the G7 and 4th lowest in the G20. Budget 2013 announced further measures to reduce the main corporate tax rate to 20% by 2015.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Deregulation</strong>: Government departments are working together to simplify and reduce the regulatory burden for UK businesses through the Red Tape Challenge, One In, One Out , and One In, Two Out policies. This will create a regulatory environment in which businesses have the confidence to invest and grow. This work is already showing significant signs of success; excluding EU regulation, the estimated annual net cost of regulation to UK business has fallen by £1.5bn since 2011.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Skills</strong>: Ensuring employers have access to workers with the right skills plays a crucial role in enhancing the UK’s productivity. This Government has driven up participation in education, employment or training for 16-24 year olds since 2011. Apprenticeship participation has risen by 77% from 2009/10 to 2012/13, and there have been over 2 million Apprentices started since 2010.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government is giving employers more direct control over the design and delivery of training solutions to address skills shortages and improve business performance through the Employer Ownership Pilot (EOP) and its successor Employer Ownership Fund (EOF). The Government is completing round 2 of EOP which will be worth £238m and has announced targeted activity for the auto supply chain and engineering under EOF.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Infrastructure</strong>: High quality infrastructure is essential for supporting productivity growth. Delivering the right infrastructure at a local, regional and national level, across the UK, is therefore key to the government’s long-term economic plan. Since 2010, this Government has completed 55 major roads and local transport projects, completed major improvements to Kings Cross station as well as 400 other stations, opened Heathrow Terminal 2 and introduced £22 billion of private sector investment in water assets.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The National Infrastructure Plan for 2014 outlines a £466 billion plan for the UK’s infrastructure, of which £189 billion is future investment. This includes £15 billion of road improvements, £38bn investment in rail and £46 billion investment in the gas and electricity network.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Science and Innovation</strong>: The government funds and supports innovation in science, technology and engineering to help the UK’s high-tech industries to thrive. This has already seen £600m of government funding committed to the development and commercialisation of eight great technologies, a further £106m investment in new Centres for Doctoral Training, which will train more than 750 new students, and £42m in the creation of the Alan Turing Institute – a world-class research institute specialising in Big Data science. Details of the government’s on-going commitment to science and innovation will feature in the soon to be released Science and Innovation Strategy.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 17/12/2014 16:23:19 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock previous answer version 32571 answering member constituency Tunbridge Wells answering member printed Greg Clark answering member 1578
tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching