Blog

  • Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hain on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions (1) the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, and (2) the Minister of State for Skills, Nick Boles, have had with Welsh Government ministers regarding the Trade Union Bill.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Ministers have engaged with the Devolved Administrations on the Trade Union Bill.

    As part of our engagement, Nick Boles, the lead Minister for the Trade Union Bill, has received four letters from Leighton Andrews, Minister for Public Services in the Welsh Government on 20 November 2015, 18 January 2016, 27 January 2016, and 9 February 2016. These letters related to specific aspects of the Bill and on the Welsh Government position on their applicability in Wales. On 5th February 2016 Nick Boles had a telephone conversation with Leighton Andrews on the Bill; and on 4 March, he replied to the letters and has placed a copy of the correspondence in the Library.

    The Trade Union Bill relates to employment rights, duties and industrial relations, all of which are reserved.

  • Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hain on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to making concessions on the provisions in the Trade Union Bill that the Welsh Government has argued relate to powers devolved to Wales, in particular (1) clause 3 regarding the 40 per cent threshold, (2) clauses 12 and 13 regarding facility time, and (3) clause 14 regarding check-off.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Ministers have engaged with the Devolved Administrations on the Trade Union Bill.

    As part of our engagement, Nick Boles, the lead Minister for the Trade Union Bill, has received four letters from Leighton Andrews, Minister for Public Services in the Welsh Government on 20 November 2015, 18 January 2016, 27 January 2016, and 9 February 2016. These letters related to specific aspects of the Bill and on the Welsh Government position on their applicability in Wales. On 5th February 2016 Nick Boles had a telephone conversation with Leighton Andrews on the Bill; and on 4 March, he replied to the letters and has placed a copy of the correspondence in the Library.

    The Trade Union Bill relates to employment rights, duties and industrial relations, all of which are reserved.

  • Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hain on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the decision by the National Assembly for Wales to vote against the Trade Union Bill legislative consent motion on 26 January.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Ministers have engaged with the Devolved Administrations on the Trade Union Bill.

    As part of our engagement, Nick Boles, the lead Minister for the Trade Union Bill, has received four letters from Leighton Andrews, Minister for Public Services in the Welsh Government on 20 November 2015, 18 January 2016, 27 January 2016, and 9 February 2016. These letters related to specific aspects of the Bill and on the Welsh Government position on their applicability in Wales. On 5th February 2016 Nick Boles had a telephone conversation with Leighton Andrews on the Bill; and on 4 March, he replied to the letters and has placed a copy of the correspondence in the Library.

    The Trade Union Bill relates to employment rights, duties and industrial relations, all of which are reserved.

  • Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hain on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with Welsh Government about its position that a number of clauses of the Trade Union Bill relate to devolved issues, and in particular regarding its position that (1) provisions in clause 3 regarding the 40 per cent threshold, (2) provisions in clauses 12 and 13 regarding facility time, and (3) provisions in clause 14 regarding check-off, relate to devolved issues.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Ministers have engaged with the Devolved Administrations on the Trade Union Bill.

    As part of our engagement, Nick Boles, the lead Minister for the Trade Union Bill, has received four letters from Leighton Andrews, Minister for Public Services in the Welsh Government on 20 November 2015, 18 January 2016, 27 January 2016, and 9 February 2016. These letters related to specific aspects of the Bill and on the Welsh Government position on their applicability in Wales. On 5th February 2016 Nick Boles had a telephone conversation with Leighton Andrews on the Bill; and on 4 March, he replied to the letters and has placed a copy of the correspondence in the Library.

    The Trade Union Bill relates to employment rights, duties and industrial relations, all of which are reserved.

  • Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Hain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hain on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with Welsh Government about the (1) the Trade Union Bill in general, and (2) the Trade Union Bill’s application in Wales.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Ministers have engaged with the Devolved Administrations on the Trade Union Bill.

    As part of our engagement, Nick Boles, the lead Minister for the Trade Union Bill, has received four letters from Leighton Andrews, Minister for Public Services in the Welsh Government on 20 November 2015, 18 January 2016, 27 January 2016, and 9 February 2016. These letters related to specific aspects of the Bill and on the Welsh Government position on their applicability in Wales. On 5th February 2016 Nick Boles had a telephone conversation with Leighton Andrews on the Bill; and on 4 March, he replied to the letters and has placed a copy of the correspondence in the Library.

    The Trade Union Bill relates to employment rights, duties and industrial relations, all of which are reserved.

  • Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government for each government-approved tenancy deposit scheme for assured shorthold tenancies, what is the average time taken to (1) return deposits, and (2) resolve disputes regarding deposits; what proportion of cases of dispute remain unresolved after (1) three months, (2) six months, and (3) 12 months; what proportion of deposits are (1) returned in full, and (2) not returned at all, and of those what proportion are not disputed; and what is their estimate of the proportion of tenancies in which a deposit is not protected.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Tenancy Deposit Schemes in England currently protect over 3 million deposits on behalf of tenants, helping to raise standards in the private rented sector and ensuring that tenants are treated fairly at the end of the tenancy.

    At the end of September 2015, over 11.5 million deposits had been protected by the tenancy deposit schemes and less than 1.5 per cent of these had gone to adjudication. Tenancy deposit schemes are required to deal with disputed cases within 28 days. An adjudicator’s decision is final and can only be challenged through the courts. Information is not collected on such court cases. A breakdown by scheme of the average time taken to return deposits, resolve disputes and the award of decisions are set out in the attached table.

    My Department has not made an assessment of the proportion of tenancies in which a deposit is not protected.

  • Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what type and proportion of tenancy deposits in other than assured shorthold tenancies are protected by tenancy deposit schemes.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Housing Act 2004 only requires deposits taken specifically in relation to assured shorthold tenancies, the most common form of tenancy, to be protected in a Government approved tenancy deposit protection scheme.

    The Tenancy Deposit Schemes in England are currently protecting over 3 million deposits on behalf of tenants, helping to raise standards in the private rented sector and ensuring that tenants are treated fairly at the end of the tenancy.

  • Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which national and local authorities have the powers to allow structures and equipment to be erected on or adjacent to highways in order to allow driverless vehicles to use those highways; which authorities would be responsible for giving technical accreditation and approval to such erections; whether a person responsible for the operation of a driverless vehicle requires a driving licence or some other kind of authorisation; and whether a person when operating a driverless vehicle is required to be present in that vehicle while it is moving or otherwise in operation on a highway.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Any structure off the highways would need local planning permission. For structures on the highways, local planning authorities have a power to stop the erection of structures within the permitted development rights of all highway authorities where they think there would be an environmental impact. This includes visual as well as other impacts.

    The local Highway authority is responsible for technical approval of structures‎ within the highway boundary. In the case of the Strategic Road Network the agency would be Highways England and design would be in line with the requirements of the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB).

    In February 2015 the Government published “The Pathway to Driverless Cars”: a detailed review of the regulation around the use of driverless cars on UK roads. It established that it is possible for a driverless vehicle to be tested on UK roads provided that, among other conditions, a suitably qualified test driver or test operator would be in a position to take control of the vehicle if necessary. A test operator is someone who oversees testing of an automated vehicle without necessarily being seated in the vehicle, since some automated vehicles might not have conventional manual controls and/or a driver’s seat.

    The Government is currently working to establish what changes to the domestic and international regulatory system will be necessary to safely enable the sale and use of driverless vehicle technology on UK roads.

  • Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether it is legal to cause a driverless vehicle to be operated on a public highway, and if not, what legislation would be necessary to allow that to happen in the future.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    In February 2015, the Government published “The Pathway to Driverless Cars”: a detailed review of the regulation around the use of driverless cars on UK roads. It was followed by the Code of Practice for testing which was published in July 2015 – a light-touch non-regulatory approach that established the UK as among the best places in the world to test driverless cars.

  • Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their technical or legal definition of a rogue landlord”.”

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The term "rogue landlord" is widely understood in the lettings industry to describe a landlord who knowingly flouts their obligations by renting out unsafe and substandard accommodation to tenants, many of whom may be vulnerable. The Housing and Planning Bill contains a number of measures to help local authorities crack down on rogue landlords and force them to either improve or leave the sector.