Tag: Kevin Brennan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of whether there have been market failures in green and low carbon investment over the last five years; and if she will make an assessment of the most important potential threats to such investment.

Andrea Leadsom

Electricity Market Reform was introduced to overcome barriers to investment and deployment of large scale low carbon UK power generation. The UK has enjoyed record levels of deployment of renewables in recent years and the Government has also agreed a deal to bring forward the first new nuclear power station in a generation. Increasingly, as we benefit from the lower technology costs arising from this deployment, we can expect competitive forces increasingly to stimulate further investment in the low carbon power generation that the country needs.

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of workers who would be affected if the exit payments cap for public sector workers was set at any other amount than £95,000.

Greg Hands

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.

Exit payment terms vary significantly across the private sector, and there will be examples of terms that match or even exceed those in the public sector. However, the Government has seen no evidence that redundancy terms such as employer-funded early retirement, which are widely available across the public sector and often cost employers tens, or even hundreds of thousands of pounds per person, are replicated to anything like the same extent in the private sector.

The precise number of those affected by the public sector exit payment cap will depend on the number and type of exits in coming years.

However, as the average cost of an exit in the public sector in recent years has been around £25,000 the vast majority of exits are below the level of the cap. For example, less than 2% of recent exits in local government were above the level of the cap.

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will place in the Library a timescale for the introduction of the proposed exit payment cap for the public sector.

Greg Hands

The public sector exit payment cap will come into effect at a date after the Enterprise Bill has received Royal Assent. The Enterprise Bill is currently expected to receive Royal Assent by May 2016. A set of secondary regulations which will give effect to the public sector exit payment cap are currently expected to come into force during autumn 2016.

In the response to the consultation the Government stated that ‘the government would request Legislative Consent Motions from the Devolved Administrations where appropriate, however it would be for the Devolved Administrations to decide the approach they wish to take to this measure.’

On 7 December 2015 the Northern Ireland Assembly declined to agree a Legislative Consent Motion. Subsequently, no provisions relating to Northern Ireland are included in the clauses relating to exit payments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many successful prosecutions there have been against employers who have taken action against workers who have refused to work on Sundays under Section 45 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Anna Soubry

Section 45 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 gives certain shop workers and betting workers the right not to be subjected to detriment by their employers on the ground that the employee refused (or proposed to refuse) to do shop work, or betting work, on Sundays. This right can be enforced by bringing a complaint to the employment tribunal. There is no relevant criminal offence, so there have been no prosecutions.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department has invested in (a) large facilities and (b) other (i) national and (ii) international capital projects managed by the Research Councils in each of the last ten years.

Joseph Johnson

This Government a record £6.9 billion in new equipment, new laboratories and new research institutes across the UK from 2015/16 to 2020/21.

Details of investments in large facilities and national and international capital projects by the Research Councils is held by the Councils themselves, in line with the delivery responsibilities placed on the Partner Organisations that BIS funds. We do not hold this level of information for the period you request centrally, however, aggregate capital expenditure for each of the seven Research Councils is available through their individual delivery plans, which are published and available online.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-21.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Principle G of the Cabinet Office Consultation Principles 2016, what steps he took to (a) consider how the summer holiday period would affect consultation with stakeholders and (b) mitigate such effects when deciding on the consultation period on proposals relating to exit payments in the public sector.

Greg Hands

The consultation on a public sector exit payment cap ran from 31 July to 27 August 2015. These dates ensured that the consultation concluded in advance of the Enterprise Bill’s introduction on 16 September 2015, to inform the content of the ‘public sector employment: restrictions on exit payments’ clause.

In addition, this policy was a clear manifesto commitment made in April 2015 and the intention to legislate was announced in May. The Government also considered responses received after the official consultation deadline.

The consultation received over 4000 responses, which is a good indication that there was sufficient time to comment and demonstrates that stakeholders were able to effectively engage with the proposals. The measure has also undergone full Parliamentary scrutiny during the passage of the Enterprise Bill.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will conduct an assessment of UK science infrastructure to inform departmental decision-making on spending priorities.

Joseph Johnson

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 11 April 2016 to Question 32088.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what process he is following to develop the Apprenticeship Levy Digital Voucher.

Nick Boles

The digital apprenticeship service is being built by the Skills Funding Agency in accordance with Cabinet Office best practice.

To ensure that the service is focused on employer and training provider needs we are performing extensive user research. The service will build on insights gathered from over 2000 employers and around 400 training providers. To make sure that the service is ready for the levy in April 2017, we plan to launch a substantial pilot with employers and providers later this year.

Further details on the apprenticeship levy and the digital apprenticeship service will be available in the guide for employers which will be published shortly on gov.uk.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many jobs there were in the manufacturing sector in each region and constituent part of the UK in each of the last 10 years; and what proportion of all jobs such jobs were in each such year.

Anna Soubry

Data on the number and proportion of manufacturing employees in each region and constituent country of the UK is available from the Office for National Statistics Employee Jobs data.

Please note that this covers employees only and excludes the self-employed.

The data requested is given below.

Employee Jobs in Manufacturing by Region and Country of the UK

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
North East	129	128	121	116	113
North West	364	361	334	329	305
Yorks/Humber	288	283	267	253	248
East Midlands	279	277	264	257	258
West Midlands	350	331	318	285	280
East of England	247	243	232	220	214
London	144	139	133	118	111
South East	302	297	287	267	265
South West	244	245	232	224	216
Wales	157	156	156	140	129
Scotland	214	212	201	189	176
Northern Ireland	84	84	82	75	73
UK	2,800	2,755	2,626	2,472	2,388
	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
North East	107	110	109	110	116
North West	316	296	302	314	328
Yorks/Humber	247	249	246	258	262
East Midlands	249	261	253	251	256
West Midlands	277	275	280	294	299
East of England	221	226	213	216	212
London	106	107	106	112	115
South East	262	254	242	239	237
South West	213	218	217	214	214
Wales	133	133	138	147	145
Scotland	178	180	174	182	189
Northern Ireland	74	74	75	77	80
UK	2,384	2,383	2,356	2,414	2,453

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 assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of a UK withdrawal from the EU on the British steel industry.

Anna Soubry

The UK is stronger, safer, and better off in a reformed EU, and this very much applies to our steel industry. The EU is our most important market for steel, buying over half our steel exports, and it is a powerful voice pushing for fair international trading conditions. Our membership provides access to a vast open market with a good system that balances the interests of producers and users. Outside the EU, we could find ourselves on the receiving end of EU tariffs, which would result in additional costs for the UK steel industry. In addition, we would be less able to defend ourselves against unfair competition from third countries. The Commission now has a record 37 measures against steel products, 16 of which are on Chinese imports.