Tag: Lord Taylor of Warwick

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.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are supporting and promoting the #itaffectsme campaign, which aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and their prevalence.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This Government is working to reduce stigma around mental health and supports all campaigns, including #itaffectsme, in this area. Any campaign, such as #itaffectsme, which raises awareness in mental health issues, is welcomed. In his speech announcing almost a billion pounds in investment into mental health services on 11 January, the Prime Minister recognised the need to reduce the stigma around mental illness. He said that, ‘as a country, we need to be far more mature about this. Less hushed tones, less whispering; more frank and open discussion. We need to take away that shame, that embarrassment, let people know that they’re not in this alone’.

We continue to provide financial support to the Time to Change programme which works to reduce the stigma associated with mental health and to encourage people to talk about mental health issues and seek help when needed. We are working with the programme and funders to develop the next stage of the programme.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to help revive the UK’s oil industry.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

At the Budget, my rt. hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a radical £1bn package to support the North Sea Oil and Gas industry, including reductions to the headline rates of tax and targeted measures to encourage investment in exploration, infrastructure and late-life assets.

This package will ensure the UK has one of the most competitive tax regimes for oil and gas in the world, safeguarding jobs and investment.

The Budget measures build on the action plan the Prime Minister set out in January to help build a bridge to the future for the industry, which included:

• A £20m package of new investment in exploration, innovation and skills;

• A new Inter-Ministerial Group on Oil and Gas to coordinate the UK’s response to the oil price crash and focus on vital issues such as exports, skills and investment, and;

• Funding for the £250m City Deal Package for Aberdeen, which includes a new energy innovation centre to support exploiting remaining reserves.

In addition, we have established the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and it is already helping industry to drive down costs and improve efficiencies. Subject to the will of parliament, the OGA will transition to a fully empowered, strong, independent regulator in summer 2016.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the timetable for deciding whether to allow a third runway at Heathrow.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

A number of important decisions on airport capacity were taken by the Government in December, including to accept the case for expansion in the South-East. However, we must take the time to get the decision right on a preferred scheme. The Government is further considering the environmental impacts and the best possible measures to mitigate the impacts of expansion, this work will conclude by summer 2016.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to support all businesses in the UK to best take advantage of the opportunities presented by the EU referendum result.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

We remain committed to making Britain the best place in Europe to start and grow a business and build an economy that works for all. The best way of supporting business is to ensure that the economic fundamentals are strong. Employment is at a record high, there are almost a million new businesses in our country since 2010, and the budget deficit has been reduced by almost two thirds.

The BEIS ministerial team have during the summer met businesses, investors, workers and local leaders in all four home nations, as well as travelling to India, China and Japan.

Furthermore, and for the first time, each local enterprise partnership area and each of the devolved Administrations will have a specific Minister in my Department assigned to them. Personal relationships matter in business, and that should start with the Business Department.

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 encourage more firms to use name-blind job applications in order to counter unconscious bias.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Government is committed to tackling discrimination in the graduate jobs market. On 26 October the Prime Minister announced that agreement to implement name-blind applications had been reached with a range of major public and private sector graduate employers. The agreement covers some of the largest graduate employers, including the NHS, Teach First , HSBC, Deloitte, Virgin Money, KPMG, BBC, Learn direct and local Government and the Civil Service. Collectively, the organisations that have signed up to this agreement employ 1.8 million people in the UK.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are holding discussions about reducing EU regulation of UK business.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Reducing the burden of EU regulation is a critical element of stimulating jobs, competitiveness and growth in Europe. We welcome the European Commission’s recent progress in this area, but want them to go further. Together with other like-minded Member States, we are pressing the Commission to bring forward proposals for an EU target to cut the total burden on business, in line with the Prime Minister’s EU reform letter to European Council President Tusk.

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 impact on aid to least developed countries of spending on refugees arriving in European countries.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

Spending on refugees in the UK is expected to increase over the course of the Parliament to reflect the government’s commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years. However, this is in the context of wider growth in the UK’s aid budget.

This is in line with the UK aid strategy: UK aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest, which is available on the gov.uk website.

The precise geographical focus of the Department for International Development’s aid spending will be determined through the multilateral and bilateral aid reviews, to be published in Spring 2016.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to better inform all landlords of the new rules that oblige them to check new tenants’ immigration status.

Lord Bates

The Home Office has undertaken a proactive engagement and communications campaign to raise awareness about the roll out of the scheme. This has involved private rented sector engagement, media engagement and the distribution of communications materials across a range of Government and partner channels. We are continuing direct engagement with the private rented sector through a consultative panel, chaired by the Immigration Minister and Lord Best, which includes housing experts and homelessness charities. The Home Office has also undertaken a programme of engagement including training events for all local authorities and presentations at sector conferences.

The panel has helped to shape the communications strategy for the scheme and has collaborated on communications tactics and methods. The Home Office has collaborated with the panel to produce various communications materials which have been shared with the sector and published on GOV.UK. Since October 2015, there has been an increase in web traffic to Right to Rent guidance on GOV.UK with over 80,000 unique views of key pages.

The Home Office will continue proactive engagement and communications activity in the months ahead to ensure landlords and tenants are aware of the materials and guidance available.

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 finding in the study of attitudes to work by the Smith Institute that more than two-thirds of British workers are spending longer at their workplace for little or no gain in productivity.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Smith Institute survey of trade union members asked whether respondents thought they were working “harder” and whether they were more productive than two years ago. Given the ambiguity over the term “working harder” and the unrepresentative sample used, caution should be drawn on the relationship between hours worked and productivity.

However, ONS data indicate that between 2010 and 2015 the total number of hours worked per week in the UK economy has increased by 8.4%¹. The vast majority of the increase, around 80%, came from higher employment. While the remainder did come from increased average hours this in part reflects a reduction in the share of part-time work.

It has been this significant increase in the number of people employed that has driven growth in the UK economy in recent years. The challenge now is to ensure the UK continues to grow through rising productivity. The government’s ‘Fixing the Foundations’ productivity plan, sets out an ambitious vision and the pro-productivity agenda designed to meet this challenge. Productivity, measured as output per hour worked, increased by 1.0% in 2015 as a whole – the largest annual increase since 2011.

References

1. ONS UK Labour Market (March 2016): Actual weekly hours worked (seasonally adjusted)

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/actualweeklyhoursworkedseasonallyadjustedhour01sa

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