Tag: Kevin Brennan

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

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department issues on conducting public consultations during the summer recess.

Mr Oliver Letwin

Cabinet Office publishes Consultation Principles, which it expects all government departments to follow. They were most recently updated on 14 January in response to feedback from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee.

Principle G includes the line:

‘When the consultation spans all or part of a holiday period, consider how this may affect consultation and take appropriate mitigating action, such as prior discussion with key interested parties or extension of the consultation deadline beyond the holiday period’.

The Principles also make clear that formal consultation should only form part of the engagement process and that departments should make use of new digital tools and consider whether an iterative approach is appropriate.

The Principles can be found online on gov.uk and a copy can be found in the House of Commons Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he has made an assessment of the projects with which the Green Investment Bank has been involved which would not have gone ahead without investment from that Bank.

Anna Soubry

One of the UK Green Investment Bank’s (GIB’s) objectives is to invest in green projects that would not go ahead, or would not go ahead as quickly, without investment from GIB. The majority of the projects GIB supports fall into this category.

Where GIB has invested in projects that are already operational, this has been for the purpose of building a secondary market for such assets which releases the funds of project developers to invest in new construction projects

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to exempt employers from the proposed public sector exit payment cap if an employer can demonstrate that they are in the middle of an ongoing restructuring exercise.

Greg Hands

The Government made a manifesto commitment to end six-figure payouts in the public sector and wants to do so as soon as possible. These payments cost around £2 billion a year and it is important that they are fair, proportionate and provide value for money to the taxpayer that funds them. As such, the Government does not see any case for transitional arrangements to delay ending six-figure exit payments. However, the power for Ministers to relax the restrictions imposed by the cap provides the flexibility to do so in appropriate circumstances.

Automatic indexing would fail to offer the flexibility that the clause currently provides for. As it stands, the Government can amend the level of the cap to take into account all prevailing circumstances, and with the additional scrutiny of the affirmative resolution procedure in Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending trade defence instruments to add a further exemption to the lesser duty rules in cases of social and environmental dumping.

Anna Soubry

The Government supports the use of the lesser duty rule in trade defence cases, as it allows for protection against unfair trade while at the same time avoiding the imposition of disproportionate costs on the wider economy. We do not support changes that would lessen its effectiveness as a trade defence instrument.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of UK firms was owed money for late payments in each of the last ten years.

Anna Soubry

The Department does not hold the information required to make an estimate of proportion of UK firms owed money for late payments in each of the last ten years. As late payment affects so many different types of business in different ways, no single survey gives a full picture of the impact of late payment on businesses. The three sources that we look to as an indicator of late payment are the SME finance monitor, the regular BACs survey and Experian’s late payment index. BACS data shows that small and medium businesses were owed a total of £26.8 billion as at June 2015, and the average small business is waiting for £31,900 in overdue payments.

The Government recognises that late payment remains an important issue for small businesses in the UK and is taking significant steps to assist small businesses to recover late payment debts. This is part of a package of measures to tackle late payment. We have also legislated for new transparency measures in the public and private sectors. Through the Enterprise Bill, currently before Parliament, we will legislate to establish a Small Business Commissioner to give general advice and to help small businesses resolve disputes relating to payment matters with larger businesses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress his Department has made on implementing its plans to impose financial penalties of up to £20,000 per worker against companies who fail to pay the national minimum wage.

Nick Boles

From 26 May 2015, the maximum penalty for underpayment of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) increased from £20,000 per notice of underpayment (NoU) to £20,000 per worker.

From 1 April 2016 the penalty has been increased to 200% of the total underpayment for all of the workers specified in a NoU. By increasing penalties for underpayment of the NMW it is intended that employers, who could otherwise be tempted to underpay, comply with the law and working people receive the money they are legally due. The maximum penalty will remain at £20,000 per worker.

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 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will raise with his Bahraini counterpart the treatment of Hassan Mushiema.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We are aware of the case of Hassan Mushaima and we have raised it with the Government of Bahrain. We continue to encourage the Government of Bahrain to deliver on its international and domestic human rights commitments and to appropriately address all reports of ill-treatment of detainees. We also encourage all those with concerns about their treatment in detention to report these directly to the Ombudsman.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to his oral contribution of 18 April 2016, Official Report, column 712, on the national minimum wage, what correspondence his Department has received from employers asking not to be named and shamed for breach of the legislation in each year since that approach was implemented.

Nick Boles

Since the naming scheme began we have received 107 representations from employers asking not to be named: 1 in 2013, 35 in 2014 and 71 in 2015.

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 powers are available to his Department to restrict dumping of steel imports in the UK; and which of those powers he has used.

Anna Soubry

Trade defence is an EU competence. The EU’s anti-dumping procedures are set out in Council Regulation (EC) No 1225/2009 (the EU’s basic anti-dumping Regulation). The process is mainly initiated following requests from EU producers to the Commission. The Commission is responsible for considering requests for and, if appropriate, opening anti-dumping investigations. The UK, or any other EU member state, cannot unilaterally impose tariffs.

It is for industry to demonstrate prima facie evidence of dumping to the European Commission. We encourage industry to present this evidence to the Commission where they have evidence of dumping. Where evidence is sufficient to justify an investigation the Commission will do so and present any proposals for imposing duties to Member States.

The Government stands ready to assist all parts of UK industry in making its case to the Commission and has actively lobbied the Commission in support of UK steel producers in a number of recent cases, including reinforcing bar and cold-rolled flat products.