Tag: Lord Taylor of Warwick

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve social support for unemployed young people, in particular in adapting to changing technology.

Lord Freud

As our Manifesto said, we are committed to abolishing long-term youth unemployment and ensuring that young people are either earning or learning.

DWP provides a broad range of additional support, over and above the standard Jobcentre Plus offer, to all young people on benefit, which is tailored to their needs. Through the Youth Obligation, from day 1 young people will participate in an intensive support regime equipping them with the skills to not only find a job but build capability to sustain work, and after 6 months they will be supported to apply for an apprenticeship, traineeship, gain work skills or go on a work placement. In addition, if needed, young people already receive support to help them to make and manage their claims on-line and to acquire and improve their digital skills.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support is available for disabled entrepreneurs.

Baroness Altmann

Anyone, including disabled people, can apply for financial and practical help through the Government’s Start Up Loans scheme.

Access to Work, which helps people with a disability or health condition to stay in work or start work, now features a new specialist self-employment team to support entrepreneurs and the self-employed.

Unemployed potential entrepreneurs, including those with disabilities or health conditions, can talk to their Jobcentre Plus Work Coach, or where appropriate, Disability Employment Adviser (DEA), regarding national programmes like Work Choice, Work Programme and the new Specialist Employability Support. These programmes offer tailored services which can include practical support and advice for becoming self-employed.

Work coaches can also refer claimants, including disabled clients, to the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA). Over 73,000 new businesses have started up through the scheme and 20% of NEA business starts have been made by disabled people. Disabled jobseekers who are accepted onto the NEA scheme may also be entitled to receive an Access to Work grant.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-12-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of why there has not been an improvement in the proportion of female high earners in the UK despite initiatives to reduce the gender pay gap.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

New figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that the gender pay gap in the UK remains the lowest on record.

I am proud of our achievements, but recognise there is still more we must do. To help eliminate the gender pay gap within a generation, we are requiring larger employers to publish information about their gender pay gaps and bonuses. We are also working with business to support and promote Lord Davies’ target of 33% of women on boards in the FTSE 350 by 2020.

The government is also introducing new regulations that will require larger employers to publish their gender pay gap information. This will encourage companies to take action and drive change on this important issue

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-01-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to support the UN Secretary-General’s first high-level panel on women’s economic empowerment.

Baroness Verma

The High Level Panel on women’s economic empowerment, convened by the UN Secretary General, will bring together leading politicians, expert economists, leaders from business and civil society to lead a step change in improving economic opportunities and choices for women and girls globally.

The Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, is a founding member of the Panel. In addition to our policy and technical inputs, DFID will also provide support for the Panel’s independent Secretariat to conduct a global consultation process, produce a research synthesis, and build momentum around tangible actions to unleash the full global potential of women’s economic power.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the 0.4 per cent fall in February in the volume of goods sold in UK shops.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Individual month on month changes can be volatile. Although the latest ONS Retail Sales Index reports a fall of 0.4 per cent in the volume of goods sold on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, it follows on from a strong monthly rise in January (2.3 per cent). It is also a 3.8 per cent increase on February of last year.

This monthly decline in sales volumes was seen across all the headline categories of retail (with the exception of household goods stores). However, for almost all categories the decline was substantially smaller than the growth seen in the previous month.

The latest Retail Sales Index publication and supplementary data is attached and can be found here:-

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/february2016

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-05-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of proposals by the European Commission to fine EU member states €250,000 for every refugee they decline to allow into their country.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

This is related to the European Commission’s proposal on a revised Dublin Regulation, which was published on 4 May 2016. Given the recent publication of this proposal and the significant amount of detail to consider, we are not in a position to give a clear view on this yet. An Explanatory Memorandum is due to be laid in Parliament in the week commencing 23 May which will include more detail of the government’s initial views. In any case the proposal is subject the UK’s opt-in protocol and we will only opt-in if it is in our national interest to do so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-09-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of higher stamp duty costs on activity in London’s housing market throughout 2016.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The housing market is affected by a wide variety of factors including exchange rates and the economic outlook. The Government continually monitors the housing market as part of the ordinary process of policy development.

At Autumn Statement 2014 the Government announced a radical reform of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on residential properties, cutting the tax for 98% of homebuyers who pay it.

The Government believes it is fair that those who can afford to buy the most expensive properties contribute the most. Whilst the reform does increase the SDLT paid on the top 2% of transactions, this increase is small relative to the price of the property.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help SMEs expand overseas.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Small businesses can find out what support is available to them by contacting their local Growth Hub. There are now 30 Growth Hubs across England that are bringing together local and national business support so that people can find the help they need quickly and easily. This includes referring on to UK Trade & Investment those businesses who want help and advice on how to export

UK Trade and Investment provides a range of support to help companies develop their capacity to export; that includes elements such as helping companies devise an export strategy, guide them on researching and selecting markets, and addressing language and culture barriers. UKTI also helps companies access international markets by organising a wide range of events and missions, supporting companies at overseas exhibitions and highlighting export opportunities.

UKTI supported almost 55,000 businesses in 2014/15, around 90% of which were SMEs

UK Export Finance (UKEF) also continues to support those who wish to export, including small and medium sized businesses and mid-sized businesses (MSBs)

In 2014/15 UK Export Finance provided over £2.7bn of support to help 160 exporters (129 of which were smaller businesses) win overseas contracts in over 100 markets.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to reconsider expanding Gatwick airport in the light of comments by the Chief Executive of that airport.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government continues to consider the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report before taking any decisions on next steps.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to increase diversity in police forces, in particular to close the gap between the percentage of applicants and percentage of appointments from black and minority ethnic groups.

Lord Bates

It is vital that the police reflect the communities they serve and I am determined to improve BME representation in all 43 forces in England and Wales.

Decisions on when and how to recruit individuals are for the chief officer of a police force. It is important that they use equalities legislation, including positive action provisions, to make better progress in terms of recruitment of under-represented groups.

The Government’s reforms have already made improvements, for example we set up the College of Policing which has embarked on a major programme of work, BME Progression 2018, looking at recruitment, retention and progression of black and minority ethnic officers, including the development of an evidence base of successful approaches used by forces.

As part of this programme the College recently published Positive Action Practical Advice, which advises forces on the use of lawful positive action to support the recruitment, retention and progression of officers from under-represented groups, and it has published case studies from forces showing what can be done.

The College of Policing is currently undertaking a review of initial police recruitment, including the SEARCH assessment centre for police recruits, to better understand disproportionality that can occur between white candidates and those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. The review is due to report by the 31 March 2016.

Under this Government, innovative schemes such as Direct Entry and Police Now are increasing the number of BME recruits to the police, showing that you can achieve better representation while attracting the best and the brightest into policing.

Of the nine direct entry superintendents who began their superintendent training on November 2014 four (44%) are women and two (22%) are from an ethnic minority background. This is significantly more representative than the current make up of the superintendent rank which comprises 17% women and 4% ethnic minority.

Police Now, introduced in the Metropolitan Police, has appointed 69 people to start their training, up from an anticipated 50 owing to the high calibre of applicants. Of these, 43% are women and 9% are from a BME background, compared to the national BME proportion of 5.5%.

With the joint leadership of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the Commissioner, the Metropolitan Police also introduced its London residency criteria for recruits in August 2014. Recent Metropolitan police figures show that in the three months from June to August 2015, 26% of new Metropolitan police recruits came from a black or minority background, more than double the 12% recruited in the same quarter of 2014, and the 12% of Metropolitan police officers currently from a black and minority ethnic background.