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:
Since the 1st 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
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;
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 1st January 2016.
In line with standard commercial practice there are no specific plans to publish the results.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the level of his Department’s budget for estates after completion of the BIS 2020 change programme.
Joseph Johnson
Detailed plans are being developed across the BIS estate. An initial estimate is that some £40M savings in office estate could be achieved. This depends on a range of other factors.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33117, which programmes the reprioritisation of £100 million in capital funding to deliver low-cost second stage accommodation for rough sleepers will affect.
Mr Marcus Jones
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many of his Department’s staff based at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield, have a length of tenure of (a) under one year, (b) between one and five years, (c) between five and 10 years and (d) over 10 years.
Joseph Johnson
The length of service, within the Civil Service, of employees of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) based at St Paul’s Place Sheffield, is shown in the table below.
|
Employees |
|
|
Less than 1 year |
6 |
|
1-5 years |
16 |
|
5-10 years |
30 |
|
Over 10 Years |
187 |
This data is based on all people based in Sheffield as at 31 May 2016 and includes BIS employees and those currently on loan to BIS from other government departments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Written Statement of 26 May 2016, HCWS30, how many roles there are (a) at and (b) below Senior Civil Service level based in the Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place.
Joseph Johnson
As at 31 May 2016 the number of employees of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, working in the Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place at (a) Senior Civil Service level and (b) below Senior Civil Service level, are shown in the table below.
|
Grade |
Employees |
|
Senior Civil Service level |
8 |
|
Below Senior Civil Service level |
214 |