Tag: Kevin Brennan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the Government’s policy is on the granting of market economy status to China.

Anna Soubry

The Government believes it is important that World Trade Organisation members meet their international obligations. But we are also committed to tackling unfair trade and ensuring that the Commission continues to have the necessary tools available to do this.

China’s 2001 Protocol of Accession to the WTO removes certain provisions after 15 years, so countries may need to alter the methodology for calculating dumping when conducting anti-dumping investigations involving China. In such an event, the EU would still be able to impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures against China, just as it does against Russia, the US and other market economies. We recognise there are real concerns about this. We are committed to discussing implementation of the Protocol’s requirements with our international partners.

The European Commission is due to present its proposals in this area in the summer. Alongside its proposal, the Commission is expected to present a detailed assessment of the legal, economic and social impacts of this issue. It conducted a consultation earlier this year to collect evidence to inform its assessment and on possible measures to mitigate any adverse effects on EU industry. We welcome this and will examine the Commission’s proposal and impact assessment carefully before deciding our position.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-05-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his most recent estimate is of when the public sector exit payments cap will be introduced in (a) England and (b) Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Greg Hands

The Government announced on 31st July 2015 that it intended to end six-figure exit payments for public sector workers, acting on its manifesto commitment. A public consultation over the summer of 2015 asked for views on the details of the policy, which received over 4,000 replies.

The public sector exit payment cap has now been legislated for in the Enterprise Act. The Government intends to publish draft regulations over the summer setting out the detail of how the policy will be introduced, alongside accompanying guidance. All affected parties, including public sector workers, will have a further opportunity to comment on the regulations and supporting guidance during that time.

The regulations implementing the public sector exit cap will not come into force before 1 October 2016 at the earliest. They will apply to bodies in England and those in Wales where the workforce is not devolved in this context. It will be for Welsh Ministers to determine when they bring into force the regulations in the Enterprise Act for bodies devolved to Wales.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent discussions he has had with the devolved administrations on the distribution and use of funds raised by the proposed Apprenticeship Levy.

Nick Boles

Skills policy is a devolved area so the devolved administrations will continue to have control over how to support businesses through training and apprenticeships.

We are working closely with the Welsh Government and other devolved administrations to ensure they get their fair share of the levy and can work out how best to use it to complement their own apprenticeships and skills policies.

We will engage with skills ministers in the devolved administrations, including Julie James AC/AM, to do all we can to make the levy work for employers and would-be apprentices across the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2015 to Question 8988, whether the Government has taken a decision on the funding of the Green Investment Bank’s business activity in future years.

Anna Soubry

Government funding for the Green Investment Bank (GIB) for the 2016-17 period and beyond has now been announced as part of the current spending review. This is a good settlement for GIB and provides what GIB management wanted by allowing for 100% funding of GIB’s investments to the point of majority sale, assuming a sale in the next financial year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-21.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the public sector exit payments cap on the ability of public sector employees to reduce the number of public sector workers through voluntary redundancy.

Greg Hands

The Government consulted on implementing a public sector exit payment cap in July 2015. The Government response to this consultation was published on 16 September 2015. This response provides detail on the potential impacts of the cap and sets out which organisations the Government intends to capture within scope of the public sector exit payment cap. The final policy is in line with the Government’s manifesto commitment to end tax payer funded six figure payoffs for public sector workers.

The consultation ran from 31 July to 27 August 2015. Over 4000 responses were received. These representations were considered during and after the consultation to inform the Government response that was published on 16 September 2015.

The response document can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464367/Public_sector_exit_payments_response.pdf

An impact analysis was published within the exit payment cap consultation document which respondents had an opportunity to comment on. Further, the Government worked with departments and took into account consultation responses received after the official deadline to inform the impact of a public sector exit payment cap set at £95,000 in different sectors and for different categories of workers. This assessment gave due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty.

The exit payment cap is intended to capture organisations classified as public sector by the Office for National Statistics with few exceptions as identified in the consultation response.

The Government does not expect the cap to have a widespread impact on the take-up of voluntary redundancy.

At the 2015 Spending Review the Government announced it will consult on further cross public sector action on exit payment terms. This consultation will provide a good opportunity to collect further information on the trends in the level of exit payments between the private and public sector.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many and what proportion of his Department’s Named Day Questions have been answered on the named day since September 2015.

Joseph Johnson

Between 1 September 2015 and 27 January 2016 the Department received 441 questions for answer on a named day. Of these 250, or 57%, were answered on that named day.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the market conditions affecting the Government’s decision to postpone the privatisation of Lloyds Bank on the proposed privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.

Anna Soubry

Decisions about these separate matters will be taken on their individual merits. Further information on the Government’s proposals for a sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) is provided in our November 2015 policy statement on the future of GIB and in the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the future of GIB. Both documents can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-28.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the proposed public sector exit payments cap on public sector employers’ flexibility to restructure their workforce.

Greg Hands

The Government maintains that £95,000 is a significant amount of money for anyone to be receiving for an exit, while the large majority of exit payments are already significantly below the level of the cap. Voluntary redundancy and workforce restructuring is not contingent upon access to six-figure exit payments. As such, we do not expect the cap to have a widespread impact on the take-up of voluntary redundancy, and believe the cap will enable public sector employers to retain the tools to effectively make organisational changes to their workforce whilst offering those made redundant generous provisions for loss of employment.

The consultation on the public sector exit payment cap ran from 31 July to 27 August 2015, and received over 4000 responses. These responses included representations from public sector organisations. The Government will publish draft regulations and invite comment on them in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many jobs were lost in the North Sea oil industry in each of the last two years.

Andrea Leadsom

According to figures taken from Oil and Gas UK’s latest Economic Report, it is estimated that over the course of 2015 there was a 15% reduction in jobs to 375,000 across the entire employment spectrum, including direct, indirect and induced jobs. For the previous year OGUK estimated that around 440,000 jobs were supported by the sector.

The Government is committed to supporting industry to avoid further redundancies and helping those who have unfortunately lost their jobs. We are working with the Scottish Energy Jobs Task Force to ensure that employers support those at risk of redundancy helping them to access future opportunities through training, education, and employment. In addition to this, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced in January a new Inter-Ministerial Group on oil and gas that will publish a UK Oil and Gas Workforce plan in the Spring.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 23296, what estimate her Department has made of the amount of (a) public and (b) private sector investment for low-carbon infrastructure and supply chain investment which has been invested in each year for which data is available.

Andrea Leadsom

DECC’s March 2015 Energy Investment Report estimates that total investment in low carbon electricity was £42.1billion between 2010 and 2014. Table 1 below splits this investment out by technology type. Detailed information is not available on how this figure is split between public and private sector investment, though the majority is private sector investment supported by government policies, or how much is invested in the supply chain. In November, the Government renewed its commitment to the transition to a low carbon economy by confirming a continued budget for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The overall budget for the RHI is to rise from £430 million in 2015/16 to £1.15 billion in 2020/21.

Table 1: Estimated investment in low carbon electricity generation capacity for 2010-2014

	Estimated investment in electricity generation capacity in £’s billion (2012 prices)
Electricity generation technology	Total
Onshore Wind1	7.9
Offshore Wind	9.5
Biomass and Bioenergy2	8.8
Marine	0.1
Solar PV3	11.4
Hydro4	0.3
Other Renewable5	1.7
Renewables Generation Capacity Investment	39.6
Nuclear6	2.5
CCS	0.0
Renewables, Nuclear & CCS Generation Capacity Investment	42.1

Source: DECC’s Energy Investment Report March 2015

1 Including large scale onshore wind, but excluding Scottish Islands onshore wind

2 Including dedicated biomass, biomass conversions, bioliquids, energy from waste, anaerobic digestion (including small scale), advanced conversion technologies, landfill and sewage gas (including CHP variations of any of these technologies)

3 Including large and small scale solar PV

4 Including large and small scale hydro technologies

5 Including Scottish Islands onshore wind, small scale onshore wind, and geothermal (including CHP)

6 2010-2014 investment estimate includes the purchase of Horizon Nuclear Power by GE Hitachi, the purchase of the Moorside site by NuGen and expenditures in the period relating to the development of Hinkley Point C