Tag: Kevin Brennan

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the proportion of global patents for graphene that is held in the UK.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) estimates that 5% of global graphene patent documents published between 2005 and 2014 have coverage in the UK (in that they are applications to the IPO or the European Patent Office (EPO) with effect in the UK, but were not necessarily filed by UK applicants).

In the same period, UK applicants were responsible for filing 1% of published global graphene patent applications worldwide.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the quality of information and data used to inform his Department’s investment prioritisation process; and if he will make a statement.

Joseph Johnson

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is committed to ensuring that all of its key policies and programmes are based on high quality evidence and subject to robust monitoring and evaluation. The foundation for this vision was set out in the Department’s Evaluation Strategy published in December 2014 and the first update – BIS Evaluation Plan 2016.

A substantial amount of work is undertaken across the Department to better understand, and develop, the evidence underpinning investment options. For example, in preparation for Spending Review 2015, the Department thoroughly reviewed its evidence base, through Evidence Challenge Panels (ECP) and an Investment Gateway (IG) process. The ECP membership consisted of Directors of spend areas and provided senior peer review of work underway to address the key evidence gaps and to support longer term planning to develop BIS’ evidence base. The IG was set up to support prioritisation of spend and ensure investment decisions are based on robust business cases consisting of strategic, economic, financial, management and commercial assessments. The IG panel includes the chief analyst and DG finance. The ECP and IG in turn fed into the Department’s submissions to HM Treasury for the Spending Review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information he holds on the number of private sector employment agencies in each of the last 10 years.

Nick Boles

According to the Office for National Statistics the number of employment placement agencies and temporary agencies is given in the table below.

2015	22,445
2014	19,440
2013	18,180
2012	17,865
2011	17,515
2010	18,195

Data on number of the employment agency businesses are not available on a consistent basis prior to 2010. This is due to changes in methodology and the industrial classification system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received on reforming the law on surrogacy.

Jane Ellison

A search of the Department’s central correspondence system shows that, since November 2015, the Department has received 31 representations that made direct or indirect reference to reforming the law on surrogacy. I have also answered four Parliamentary Questions in this session about this issue.

The Government has no current plans to change the legislation in respect of surrogacy arrangements.

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.