The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on the Northern powerhouse of the closure of the Business Growth Service.
Anna Soubry
We do not expect closure of the Business Growth Service to have an impact on the growth of Small and Medium sized Enterprises or the Northern Powerhouse.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2015 to Question 902718, what transfer arrangements are in place for the 70 green specialists employed by the Green Investment Bank should they be transferred to the private sector.
Anna Soubry
Private investors will be buying the Green Investment Bank company and employees will continue to be employed by that company. No transfer arrangements are therefore required.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-21.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, for which departments and organisations which receive public funding it is his policy that exit payment caps for public sector workers as proposed in the Enterprise Bill should not apply.
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 2016-01-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans his Department has to ensure that a privatised Green Investment Bank will support the UK’s cities, regions and nations in creating robust low carbon economies.
Anna Soubry
The Green Investment Bank (GIB) can best contribute to UK green policy objectives by doing what it does best – achieving the demonstration effect and mobilising much needed private capital into green sectors.
GIB will continue to perform that role in private ownership – getting more investment into green sectors that are relatively mature but nevertheless suffer from a lack of investment
In private hands, GIB will have access to much more capital than if it remained in Government hands – and will be able to have a bigger impact.
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 mechanisms he plans to put in place to measure and monitor (a) value for money for the public purse and (b) the effect on the green economy of a privatised Green Investment Bank; and if he will report regularly to the House on those aspects.
Anna Soubry
Details of why the Government believes moving UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) into private ownership represents the best way to enable the company to deliver its ambitious green business plan and have a greater impact on green investment while minimising burdens on the UK taxpayer are provided in our November 2015 policy statement on the future of GIB and are further set out in the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the future of GIB which was laid in Parliament on 2 February. Both documents can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website.
The Government has committed to report to Parliament setting out our plans for a sale of GIB and will provide a further report following completion of a transaction and any subsequent transactions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-28.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will consult public sector organisations which would be affected by the proposed exit payment cap on the technical considerations of that cap.
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 the Home Department, how many shop workers were assaulted in each of the last six months for which figures are available.
Mr John Hayes
The data requested is not available broken down by month. However, the Home Office runs an annual Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) which asks business premises in different sectors about their experience of various crime types, including assaults and threats (a combined category) in the last year.
In 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available, there were around 410,000 assaults and threats against businesses in the wholesale and retail sector. The 2015 figures will be published on 28th April.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also publish annual figures on the number of violent incidents in the workplace based on findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. However, this information is not available just for shops. According to the 2013/14 crime survey, there were an estimated 583,000 incidents of violence at work, comprising 269,000 assaults and 314,000 threats. HSE will publish figures for 2014/15 on 31st March.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which companies have failed to pay the national minimum wage since the introduction of the new naming and shaming regulations on 1 October 2013.
Nick Boles
Since the introduction of the revised naming and shaming scheme, details of employers who have failed to pay the National Minimum Wage have been published on gov.uk. Details can be found via the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-minimum-wage-offenders-named-and-shamed-october-2015
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-minimum-wage-offenders-named-and-shamed (July 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-minimum-wage-offenders-named-and-shamed (March 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-and-shames-largest-ever-number-of-national-minimum-wage-offenders (February 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-and-shames-37-national-minimum-wage-offenders (January 2015)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-employers-who-fail-to-pay-the-national-minimum-wage (November 2014)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-names-employers-who-fail-to-pay-minimum-wage (June 2014)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-gets-tough-with-employers-failing-to-pay-minimum-wage (February 2014)
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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 assessment he has made of differences in mortality rates for (a) permanent and (b) temporary workers.
Nick Boles
My Department has not made an assessment of the differences in mortality rates for permanent and temporary workers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the net earnings were from direct investment in UK companies in each year since 2010.
Mr Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.