Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of his Department’s Sheffield office on the delivery of his Department’s policies.

Joseph Johnson

Subject to consultation, the Department intends to close the Sheffield office at St. Paul’s Place by January 2018. This intention is based on the strategic vision for the Department that seeks to save 30-40% of its operating costs, reduce the number of locations it operates from (from currently around 80 to 7 centres and a regional footprint for the provision of local services), and halve the number of its Partner Organisations by 2020.

Intention is subject to consultation, to close the Sheffield office by January 2018. This gives us time to transition the policy roles affected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2015 to Question 13645, whether she plans to include young people in her Department’s direct consultation with stakeholders on PSHE and SRE.

Edward Timpson

The Department regularly speaks to a wide range of interested parties and will continue to do so regarding personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and sex and relationship education (SRE), including those who represent the views of young people.

The Secretary of State wrote to the ESC in February 2016 stating that the Department will continue to keep the status of PSHE in the curriculum under review. We will continue to work with headteachers, PSHE practitioners and other experts to identify further action the Government can take to ensure that all pupils receive high quality, appropriate PSHE and SRE.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2016 to Question 29835, and with reference to the Answer of 10 June 2013 to Question 158962, for what reasons information on the number of national minimum wage inquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights and Acas helplines relating to the domiciliary care and residential care sectors is not being collected at the previously available level of disaggregation.

Nick Boles

Information on the number of National Minimum Wage enquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) and Acas Helpline for the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sectors has never been systematically collected.

However, additional information about a complaint is collected after it is referred to HMRC and investigated further. This can include more detailed information on the sector in which the employer in question operates.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the annual cost is of rent, rates and maintenance for his Department’s office at (a) St Paul’s Place, Sheffield and (b) 1 Victoria Street, London.

Joseph Johnson

The annual cost of rent, rates and maintenance at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield is £891,694 and at 1 Victoria Street, London is £21,363,694.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to make a final decision on the proposed closure of his Department’s Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place.

Joseph Johnson

The Executive Board’s plan is to communicate its decision to staff, together with its response to the consultation on the proposal, during the week beginning 23 May.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 May 2016, on BIS consultation, HCWS30, what the evidential basis is for the decision to reduce the number of policy roles from 2,000 to 1,500 in his Department; and how many of those 1,500 staff will be allocated to which policy areas.

Anna Soubry

The decision was taken as part of our commitment to creating a department which is simpler, smaller, and better by 2020, including changing our business model and reducing our operating costs and associated headcount by 30 – 40%.

The policy landscape will evolve over time and so we are unable to determine now exactly how the 1,500 policy staff we will have in 2020 will be deployed. What we do know is that as we get smaller, we need to become more flexible, more agile and more easily re-deployable to emerging priorities. Specifically, we will need to be able to move policy staff more flexibly between different policy areas (reflecting business demands) and to create more flexible responses to short term pressures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will publish a plan setting out how all government departments plan to contribute to reducing the UK’s carbon emissions.

Andrea Leadsom

In preparation for our new emissions reduction plan we are working with colleagues across government to identify action that will cut emissions cost effectively. Our new plan will set out our proposals for meeting our carbon budgets and decarbonising through the 2020s. It will be published in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many slavery and trafficking prevention orders on sentencing have been (a) applied for and (b) made under section 14 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Karen Bradley

16 Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Orders (STPOs) have been made on sentencing in the Crown Court under section 14 of the Modern Slavery Act. Data on the number of STPOs applied for on sentencing is not collated centrally. No STPOs have been applied for or made in the Magistrates’ Court.

No slavery and trafficking prevention orders have been applied for or made on application under section 15 of the Modern Slavery Act in the Magistrates’ Court.

Nine Slavery and Trafficking Risk Orders have been applied for on application to the Magistrates’ Court, of which three have been made. Of the remaining six, two were refused, one was withdrawn and three cases were adjourned.

This data has been run specifically to answer this question and is not verified to the same standard as Official Statistics.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children with refugee status in the UK have been granted permission to sponsor family members to join them under the refugee family reunion rules in each of the last three years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Under the Family Reunion Rules, children cannot sponsor family members. Any grant of leave in such cases would be on an exceptional basis outside the Immigration Rules. To obtain the information would involve examining individual case records and would incur a disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the appointment of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement.

Margot James

The appointment of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement is being made through a formal recruitment process. A campaign was jointly launched by the Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS) and the Home Office in June after the Immigration Act received Royal Assent in May 2016. Shortlisting took place during the summer and interviews are scheduled for early October.

My Rt hon Friends the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Home Department plan to meet appointable candidates following interviews, and will have discussions before making a joint decision. The successful candidate will be announced as soon as practicably possible.

BEIS and the Home Office are working together to implement a Labour market Enforcement programme. This followed a formal consultation, Tackling Exploitation in the Labour Market, to which groups representing workers and victims of labour market exploitation responded.