The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Green on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that jobcentres help younger jobseekers plan for the future.
Priti Patel
This Government is committed to ensuring all young people are either earning or learning. That is why we have launched Jobcentre Plus support for schools and from April 2017 we will ensure all young people are supported through our new Youth Obligation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Allen on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of proposed changes to the employment and support allowance work-related activity group on claimants.
Priti Patel
The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the welfare policies in the Bill on 20th July last year.
We are committed to transforming people’s lives by supporting more disabled people into work. We have increased funding for support for those with health conditions and disabilities by almost 15% and are bringing in a new Work and Health Programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that small and micro-employers are able to comply with automatic enrolment for workplace pensions.
Justin Tomlinson
5.81 million people have already been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by 78,789 employers
We are focused on making compliance with automatic enrolment duties as straightforward as possible –especially for small and micro employers, to continue to build on this success.
As part of this, the Pensions Regulator has launched a new, simplified and much shorter ‘Step by Step’ guide on their website. This interactive Step by Step guide will help employers easily find out what they will need to do to comply by way of an easier to navigate, personalised journey. The number of steps an employer now has to take has reduced from 11 to just 5. This is designed to meet the specific needs of smaller employers who may well not have pensions experience, including those with just one or two staff. In addition, The Regulator provides online content for business advisers who play an important role in supporting smaller employers to meet their legal duties.
The Regulator has simplified and tailored all letters and guides to ensure that their guidance is easy for small employers to follow; and is working with the key providers in the automatic enrolment market to ensure that employers are offered a consistent automatic enrolment journey.
The Regulator’s website also provides guidance on what to consider when choosing a scheme and includes the list of independently audited, high quality ‘master trusts’ pension schemes. This will make scheme choice (one of the biggest challenges for small employers) easier.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Eagle on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if the Government will bring forward legislative proposals to increase the penalties for online infringement of copyright.
Mr Edward Vaizey
A consultation was held during summer 2015 on proposals to increase the maximum custodial sentence for online copyright infringement from two to ten years, to harmonise it with the penalty available for physical infringement. A summary of responses was published on 12 January.
Officials at the Intellectual Property Office are now giving consideration to the future direction and timings and will advise Ministers accordingly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Eagle on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the cost to higher education budgets in (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales of the replacement of maintenance grants with additional student loans, as a result of the Barnett formula.
Joseph Johnson
This reform in England reduces public sector net borrowing and was accounted for in the settlement for my department. Higher Education is a devolved matter and the Barnett formula was applied to the department’s Spending Review settlement in the usual way.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Eagle on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of replacing maintenance grants on the ability of the Government to reach its target of doubling the proportion of people from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education between 2009 and 2020.
Joseph Johnson
An Equality Analysis of changes to the living costs support package for full-time students in 2016/17 was published on the GOV.UK website on 3rd December 2015. Ministers considered the evidence in the analysis to assess the impact on particular groups and to inform their decisions on changes to the student support system.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the level of investment in UK oil and gas production until May 2020.
Andrea Leadsom
The latest published projections of development capital expenditure by the UK upstream oil and gas industry are those in Supplementary Table 2.1 to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s June 2015 Fiscal Sustainability Report:
http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/fsr/fiscal-sustainability-report-june-2015/.
This had annual investment (in £ billion) at the following levels:
|
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
|
8.3 |
6.6 |
5.9 |
4.9 |
4.2 |
Updated projections informed by recently-received information from operators should be published alongside the Economic and Fiscal Outlook which will accompany the forthcoming Budget.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what (a) statutory and (b) other guidance is available to higher education institutions on their duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards disabled students.
Joseph Johnson
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have clear legal responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support their students, including those with disabilities.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has produced a range of guidance for institutions on their obligations under the Equality Act 2010, including technical guidance setting out the detail of the law.
Guidance is also produced by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), a higher education sector body that supports equality and diversity for staff and students across the UK, including for disabled staff and students on managing “reasonable adjustments”. The ECU also published a report on the implications for institutions of the key issues contained in the Equality Act 2010.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will takes steps to ban the practice in the retail and leisure sectors of sending employees home during their shift without notice.
Nick Boles
We encourage employers to be clear with their staff up front on how work will be structured. However, the way in which work is arranged, or how shifts are decided upon will depend on each situation and sector. A ‘one size fits all’ solution would not be appropriate.
Where appropriate, Government publishes guidance. For instance, we recently considered the issue of late notice cancellation of shifts for those on zero hours contracts and have published updated guidance on gov.uk.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how long on average the Office of the Independent Adjudicator took to close a case in 2015.
Joseph Johnson
The Office of the Independent Adjudicator’s Annual Report (2014), which contains the latest published figures available, states that it took an average of 207 days to close a complaint from the time the student first submitted a complaint form. Provisional figures indicate that improvements have been made since then and the 2015 Annual Report is likely to show a significant reduction in this figure.
The European Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution, which came into force on 9 July 2015, now requires dispute resolution bodies such as the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) to issue complaint outcomes within 90 days of receiving the full complaint file, unless the case is highly complex. The OIA and other alternative dispute resolution bodies are required to report to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, which is monitoring compliance with the Directive.