Tag: Lord Taylor of Warwick

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures are in place to promote apprenticeships in the construction sector.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

In 2013/14 there were 15,890 apprenticeships starts in the Construction, Planning and the Built Environment Sector Subject Area.

We are taking action to support apprenticeships in all sectors to meet our commitment to 3 million starts. We are working with large and small businesses to encourage employers, colleges and schools to work together to increase the number of apprenticeships.

Over 1300 employers – including in the construction sector – are currently involved in designing new apprenticeship standards. These include apprenticeships in construction occupations at a range of levels such as Construction Technician (L6), Quantity Surveyor (L6), Construction Site Management (L6), Advanced Carpentry & Joinery (L4) and Steel Fixer (L2)

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce the deficit in the light of statistics from the ONS recording the highest level of borrowing in six years.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The government has made significant progress to date in reducing borrowing – the deficit has more than halved as a share of GDP since 2009-10 and the national debt as a share of GDP is forecast to be falling this year. But the job is not yet done – the deficit remains high among advanced economies.

At Summer Budget the government announced £17 billion of consolidation measures; £5 billion from tax avoidance, evasion and imbalances in the tax system and £12 billion from welfare reform. The Autumn Statement and Spending Review laid out a further £18 billion; £12 billion savings to overall RDEL spending; £3 billion from the Apprenticeship levy and £3 billion from delivering reforms such as Making Tax Digital and further measures to tackle tax avoidance.

In their November forecast, the independent OBR predict the deficit to fall in each year of this Parliament, reaching a £10.1 billion surplus by 2019-20.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the case for withdrawing funding for sporting associations if a certain quota of their board positions are not filled by women.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The government does not believe in fixed quotas for board representation. However we have an ambition that all sports’ boards should have at least 25% female representation by 2017. The government’s recently published sport strategy ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ states that UK Sport and Sport England, along with the other Home Nations’ Sports Councils, will agree a new UK Sports Governance Code by September 2016 to strengthen existing commitments, including the ambition on female representation on boards. This new governance code will be mandatory for all sports bodies seeking public funding in the next funding period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-02-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the analysis by Credit Suisse that Britain leaving the EU could cause a snap recession and reduce GDP by up to two per cent.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in Britain – so we can get a better deal for our country and secure our future. We are confident that the right agreement can be reached.

The Government notes wider evidence on an ongoing basis.

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 impact on sterling of the trade gap.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

No assessment has been made of the impact on sterling of the trade gap.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-06-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the study by Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business that gender diversity benefits do not materialise in organisations where internal competition is prevalent.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

We are grateful to Lord Taylor for raising this; officials are considering the findings within the wider evidence base on women in business. We know that supportive workplace cultures are an important factor in progressing female career development.

Our voluntary initiative Think, Act, Report promotes gender equality at work and has created a vast community of best practice on maximising female talent in the workplace. 300 businesses representing organisations of all sizes and sectors across Britain are signed up to the principles it embodies; collectively they employ over 2.5 million people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-09-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey showing that there has been a 20 per cent increase in the past year of workers on zero-hours contracts, what action they are taking to support those workers.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The latest ONS survey shows that less than 3% of the UK workforce is on a zero hours contract with nearly 70% happy with the hours they work. These contracts have a part to play in a modern, flexible labour market.

Government made exclusivity clauses in zero hour contracts unlawful in 2015, meaning individuals have more control over their lives and can work more hours with another employer if they wish. Government also created a route of redress for individuals whose employer mistreats them if they look for, or work elsewhere.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to work with credit card companies to support customers who are struggling with persistent debt.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Government has fundamentally reformed regulation of the consumer credit market, which includes the credit card sector. Consumer credit regulation transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 1 April 2014.

The FCA is currently undertaking a thorough review of the credit card market through its ‘credit card market study’. The market study is investigating three areas, one of which is the extent of unaffordable credit card debt. On the 3rd November 2015 the FCA published its interim report which found that the market was working reasonably well for most customers. However, the FCA expressed concern about the scale of potentially problematic debt in this sector and the incentives for firms to manage this.

The interim report also included the FCA’s early thinking on potential remedies which include measures to give consumers more control over their credit limits, measures to encourage customers to pay off debt quicker when they can afford to, and proposals that firms do more to identify earlier those consumers who may be struggling to repay and take action to help them manage their repayments. The FCA is currently asking for feedback on the findings and potential remedies.

The Government is looking forward to the full report in the spring and would encourage interested parties to give their views to the FCA to assist it in addressing the issues it has identified.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to commission a review into the obstacles that prevent more people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds from reaching senior positions in business, similar to the Women on Boards review by Lord Davies of Abersoch.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Government believes that businesses benefit from a rich and wide talent pool including people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Government is fully supportive of the private led Diversity initiative chaired by Sir John Parker who are currently considering this issue. We expect the group to report on their findings in 2016.

There are no current plans for Government to commission a separate review into the obstacles that are preventing more people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds from reaching senior positions in the boardroom.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-01-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the consequences that would follow if negotiations between the EU and the USA on the renewal of the Safe Harbour agreement on data transfers fail.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

I remain hopeful that the EU and US will come to an agreement on a replacement for safe harbor. If not, data transfers to the US will need to be based on an alternative method of transfer.

I visited Washington at the beginning of January where I discussed what this Government could do to aid discussions between the Commission and US. Since this visit, I hosted a roundtable together with the Information Commissioner’s Office where we provided business and other interested organisations with an update on the discussions.

The Government continues to urge both sides in these negotiations to reach a swift conclusion. Commissioner Jourova recently said that she believed an agreement was possible and the Committee comprising the data protection authorities of all 28 member states will meet to review the position on 2 February.

In the meantime the Commission issued a communication on 6 November 2015 regarding international transfers. This is based on guidance from the Article 29 Working Party which is the grouping of the European data protection authorities. The Information Commissioner’s Office has also issued guidance on the use of alternative methods of data transfer between the EU and US.