Tag: Paul Blomfield

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students from other EU member states who plan to start their studies in the UK in autumn 2017 will be considered eligible for student loans.

Joseph Johnson

The UK has a long-established higher education system that supports, and therefore attracts, the brightest minds, at all stages of their careers. Existing rules on EU and other EEA students remain in force and reassurances have been given for those starting their courses in 2016/17. Future arrangements for EU students wishing to study in the UK will need to be considered as part of wider discussions about the UK’s relationship with the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to maintain the system whereby UK citizens who live and work in EU countries are able to build up their entitlement to a state pension in the UK, and EU citizens who live and work in the UK are able to build up their entitlement to a state pension in their native country, after the UK leaves the EU.

Damian Hinds

The EU social security regulations allow citizens to build entitlement to a state pension from the EEA country where they have worked and contributed toward their pension, rather than building up entitlement in their native country through work in another country.

The Prime Minister has been clear that she wants to protect the rights of British citizens currently living in European member states, in the same way that we want to protect the status of EU nationals already living here. The reciprocal rights and entitlements that will apply following the UK’s exit are subject to the wider negotiation on our future relationship with the EU. Those negotiations have not yet begun and so it is not possible to set out any positions in advance. However at every step of the negotiations we will seek to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people, at home and abroad.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Government’s consultation document on Tackling Exploitation in the Labour Market, published in October 2015, what plans she has to use data gathered by labour market enforcement agencies in immigration enforcement activities.

Karen Bradley

The labour market enforcement bodies already work closely with Home Office immigration enforcement and share information. Where they identify suspected immigration offences during the course of their own investigations information is passed on and Immigration Enforcement may use information to conduct enforcement operations against businesses employing illegal migrants. This sharing of information will continue to be the case in the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has for her Department’s Future Fit Programme in each year between 2015-16 and 2019-20.

Mr Nick Hurd

The Future Fit initiative (2013-15) was an internal process to shape DFID’s response to climate change and resource scarcity in its development investments. Building on the lessons learnt through Future Fit, as set out in the new ODA strategy for the 2015 Spending Review DFID will have a greater focus on climate-smart development – particularly through investments in infrastructure, agriculture, cities, water and sanitation and health.

Through the International Climate Fund to date, the UK has helped over 15 million people cope with the effects of climate change and given 2.6 million people access to clean energy. The Prime Minister recently announced that over the next five years the UK’s climate funding will increase by at least 50%.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects the eighth place on the Board of the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority to be filled.

Mike Penning

In agreement with the Chair of the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority (GLA), the intention is to fill these positions once the Immigration Bill has been enacted and reforms to the GLA are confirmed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effects of confidentiality agreements between employers not paying the national minimum wage and their employees challenging that non-payment on the numbers of people coming forward to make a complaint to ACAS.

Nick Boles

Final approved answer for 2016/02785

No assessment has been made on the impact of confidentiality agreements on the identification of National Minimum Wage (NMW) non-compliance.

Confidentiality is an important protection for workers who wish to make a NMW complaint. If any worker is concerned they have not received what they are entitled to they should contact the ACAS helpline on 0300 123 1100 for free and confidential advice. HMRC follow up every complaint referred to them by Acas and compliance officers can investigate without knowledge of the complainant’s identity. In addition to complaint-led work HMRC investigate employers using third-party intelligence and risk-based targeted enforcement in sectors and areas where there is a higher risk of workers being paid below the NMW.

The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break NMW law. Between April 2015 and November 2015 HMRC took action against over 500 businesses, identifying over £8 million for 46,000 workers. This is already the largest amount of arrears identified in any single year since the introduction of the NMW.

Building on existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW including higher penalties, a dedicated HMRC team to tackle the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance and additional funding for HMRC from April 2016. We have also increased communications so that working people can access support to make complaints in confidence if needed

Table 1: NMW enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline by trade sector, 2009/10 to 2014/15.

Trade Sector	2009/103	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
Activities of households as employers	20	20	40	20	20	10
Admin/Office work	2,530	4,410	3,910	2,950	3,310	2,390
Agriculture and related activities	140	100	120	100	110	100
Cleaning services	440	400	350	320	420	320
Construction and related trades	1,350	1,290	1,050	760	1,010	810
Education and teaching	270	370	350	300	540	450
Food processing and packaging	90	40	50	20	30	30
Hairdressing	1,670	1,520	1,360	930	1,040	730
Health, social work and child care	1,590	1,750	1,590	1,430	2,090	1,930
Hospitality	1,880	1,580	1,560	1,400	1,780	1,340
Information technology and communication	150	170	180	120	240	150
Modelling, entertainment, recreation	90	90	110	80	160	50
Other manufacturing	240	200	150	140	140	120
Security services	240	170	140	120	150	110
Shellfish gathering	–	–	–	–	–	–
Taxi/minicab services	60	40	30	30	30	20
Textiles	30	10	20	20	80	30
Training Provider	–	–	–	–	70	70
Transport (other than Taxi/mini-cab)	350	380	280	270	440	260
Warehousing, storage and distribution	490	440	420	340	360	310
Wholesale and retail trade	1,580	1,560	1,550	1,150	1,470	930
Other	4,980	3,880	2,590	1,980	2,780	2,210
Not Known	3,580	2,190	5,020	5,350	5,210	7,180
Total	21,700	20,600	20,900	17,800	21,500	19,500

Source: Pay and Workers Rights Helpline and the Acas Helpline

Notes:

1. Calls to the helpline are in part driven by NMW policy announcements and communications activity.
2. Sector level figures are rounded to the nearest 10, totals are rounded to the nearest 100.
3. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2009/10 as the Helpline opened in May 2009.

Since the 1^st April 2015, the Acas Helpline has, in addition to its usual services, been answering queries previously handled by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.

Provisional in-year data for 2015/16 show there have been 9,800 queries relating to NMW legislation to the Acas Helpline and 3,700 queries relating to non-payment/deductions from NMW. Information on the number of NMW enquiries by trade sector is not collected on a comparable basis as Acas do not ask callers to disclose information about the sector worked in. Therefore, Acas only record this information when a caller chooses to provide it.

Table 1: The number of NMW related calls received by Acas, 2011/12 to 2015/16.

Query topic	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/164
NMW	4,400	3,800	3,800	4,400	9,800
Non-Payment/Deductions from NMW	2,000	2,500	2,900	3,100	3,700

Source: Acas

Notes

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
2. One call may be counted as both a ‘NMW’ and ‘Non-payment/Deductions from NMW’ issue. A caller may enquire about the NMW rates and then raise a NMW underpayment issue therefore these categories should not be added together as it will involve double counting.
3. For years earlier than 2015/16, a proportion of calls would have been referred to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.
4. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2015/16 which covers April 2015 to January 2016, the latest period for which information is available.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) number of additional jobs and (b) amount of additional housing resulting from a Victoria High Speed 2 station location.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Analysis of the Sheffield City Region station options was published in the ‘Engineering options report; West Midlands to Leeds’ dated March 2012. This included analysis of several station sites around the city centre.

The current estimated difference in cost between locating a High Speed station at Victoria and Meadowhall is £680m. Previous work on the cost of options at Victoria and other city centre sites are not comparable to the current estimate given above. With regards to the Meadowhall station, following the 2013 public consultation, no significant changes have been made to the original station design therefore there have not been any changes in cost.

When recommending a station location HS2 Ltd. uses a number of criteria, including;

1. engineering and construction feasibility;
2. sustainability;
3. demand considerations, including journey times;
4. cost; and
5. wider impacts

Potential options were sifted by HS2 Ltd. according to these criteria. To support and challenge this approach, external stakeholders and advisors from the Department’s Project Representative Team were involved in reviewing the process and outcomes where appropriate. Further information about the appraisal process can be found in the 2012 ‘Options for phase two of the high speed rail network’ report and 2013 ‘Appraisal of Sustainability’ report. Both of these documents are available on the government website.

Analysis undertaken by HS2 shows that the introduction of the Sheffield Meadowhall HS2 station could support up to 5,400 jobs and up to 300 residential units, while a HS2 station at Victoria could support an estimated 9,000 jobs and 900 housing units.

Finally, I can confirm that Department for Transport officials have received a copy of Sheffield City Region’s study into connectivity for a city centre High Speed 2 station at Victoria which Network Rail was involved in.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 25610, on minimum wage, what the average call time was to the Pay and Work Rights and ACAS helplines; how many calls reached an ACAS operative; what definition of call was used in the data provided; and what translation facilities are available on the ACAS helpline.

Nick Boles

The average length of calls for the former Pay and Work Rights Helpline was 6 minutes 32 seconds. For the Acas Helpline which covers all call types, not just National Minimum Wage (NMW), the average length of calls is 7 minutes 54 seconds

Between April 2015 and January 2016, the latest period for which data is available, Acas have handled 768,849 calls on workplace relations and employment law.

The data collected by the Acas Helpline records the topics discussed by a caller. The figures show that there were 9,800 calls specifically related to NMW legislation and 3,700 where the caller was specifically concerned with non-payment or deductions related to the NMW. Some callers may have had queries about both subjects but due to the complexity of the data we cannot identify the number of callers that would fall into this category.

The Acas Helpline uses LanguageLine to allow real time translation with customers over the phone. Callers can request a translator at any stage in the call. A translator will join the call via a conference call, usually within seconds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many compensation orders were made by HM Courts and Tribunals Service against people convicted of modern slavery offences in each of the last five years; and how much compensation was awarded to victims of modern slavery related to such compensation orders in each of those years.

Mike Penning

The information requested can be found in the CJS Outcomes by Offence data tool at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014

Data for 2015 and 2016 will be published in due course.

“

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when the rent review will take place on 1 Victoria Street; and what plans he has to publish the results of that review.

Joseph Johnson

The due date for the rent review is 1^st January 2016.

In line with standard commercial practice there are no specific plans to publish the results.