Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to page 8 of the consultation document Tackling Exploitation in the Labour Market, published in October 2015, if she will publish research conducted by her Department that shows that there has been a shift from abuses of employment regulation towards increasingly organised criminal activity engaged in labour market exploitation over the last 10 years.

Karen Bradley

Operational information, which is not publically discloseable, received from the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority indicates that, since the Authority began operations in 2006, it has seen an increase in the number of vulnerable people being exploited by organised criminals and criminal networks for profit in the sectors it regulates.

Further information about the role of organised criminal activity would come from the proposed new role of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement who will have a role to gather information on worker exploitation and publish a strategic approach to tackling it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether part-time students applying for maintenance support from 2018-19 will continue to be eligible for benefits.

Joseph Johnson

Eligibility criteria and specific rules of the scheme will be set out as part of the consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 16853, how the additional £4 million allocated for national minimum wage enforcement was allocated within national minimum wage enforcement activity.

Greg Hands

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.

Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only have to pay arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker. A further increase in penalties will come into force in April 2016 and will increase the penalty percentage from 100% to 200% of the underpayments owed to each worker, up to the existing maximum.

The extra funding was allocated in two tranches. The first of £3 million has been used by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to recruit additional staff primarily into front line compliance posts to increase the scope and coverage of interventions aimed at identifying employers who do not pay the minimum wage.

The second tranche of £1 million has been used to appoint staff into new roles specifically geared to promoting compliance with the National Minimum Wage, through education and support for employers, helping workers to understand their rights, and tackling serious non-compliance where deliberate behaviour is suspected.

Staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing National Minimum Wage, including people who work in legal advice, debt management, technical support and criminal investigation. However, HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified in UIN 16853.

HMRC does not breakdown the overall budget allocated into specific activities. For details of the overall budget in 2015/16, I refer the honourable member back to the answer provided at UIN 16853. Funding allocations for 2016/17 onwards have yet to be confirmed.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations on anti-Muslim violence in India to the government of that country.

Mr Hugo Swire

The Prime Minister, my right hon Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) discussed religious tolerance in India with Prime Minister Modi on 12 November. Mr Modi reassured the British government that he remained committed to diversity and fundamental freedoms. Mr Modi was clear in his commitment to and respect for India’s core values of tolerance and fundamental rights, as well as reaffirming the importance of social harmony and inclusive development. I also discussed concerns about religious tolerance with the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on 5 November.

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 benefits to his Department of conducting policy work outside of London.

Joseph Johnson

Since summer 2015 the Department has been reviewing its business model. By 2020, we want to simplify our structure, become more digital, be cheaper for taxpayers and better for users. As part of this we anticipate reducing the number of our locations from more than 80 to approximately 7 centres plus a regional footprint for the provision of local services. The intention to close the BIS Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place is based on a strategy to simplify delivery and focus expertise in specific areas. Consistent with this strategy the policy function will be in one place, close to Ministers, and the Department has made a decision to locate all its policy functions in the HQ in London. By 2020 the majority of employees in BIS and our Partner Organisations will continue to be based outside of London.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610, how many national minimum wage enquiries relating to non-payment or deductions were made to (a) the Pay and Work Rights Helpline and (b) Acas by people working in (i) domiciliary and (ii) residential care between 2009-10 and 2014-15.

Nick Boles

Information on the number of enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline or Acas by workers from the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sector is not available. The answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610 represents the most detailed breakdown of trade sector information available.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-21.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what training is provided to HM Revenue and Customs national minimum wage inspectors on identification and investigation of cases of human trafficking.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has developed a specific training package targeting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking which is mandatory for all visiting officers. This training advises officers on the indicators to look for and the responses to take where exploitation is suspected.

HMRC participates in multi-agency investigations into cases of Modern Slavery where there are potential tax or National Minimum Wage (NMW) offences. Since February 2015, HMRC has opened 73 tax investigations in cases where Modern Slavery is suspected. HMRC does not collate specific data on any NMW arrears identified in cases involving Modern Slavery.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what consultation took place with patient representative groups and charities representing older people on the changes to attendance allowance proposed in the provisional local government finance settlement 2016-17.

Mr Marcus Jones

In December, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced that the Government will be consulting on giving councils in England “more responsibility to support older people with care needs – including people who, under the current system, would be supported through Attendance Allowance”. We want to explore if there is a better way to provide support for older people with care needs through local integration and we intend to launch a consultation on this in due course. Any change would not affect those already receiving Attendance Allowance. The consultation will be an open process that will give everybody a voice in determining the nature of any reform and will inform the decision about whether and how to proceed with any reform.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2016 to Question 32406, if he will make it his policy that the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service collect the number of national minimum wage inquiries relating to the domiciliary care and residential care sectors.

Nick Boles

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) only record trade sector information when a caller chooses to provide it. There are no plans to request Acas collect more detailed sector information other than the sector categories that are currently available for National Minimum Wage (NMW) calls.

NMW callers that identify as working in the domiciliary care or residential care sectors are categorised in the ‘Health, social work and child care’ sector.

More detailed sector information may be available where a call is referred to HMRC and results in a full investigation taking place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish data gathered from border exit checks.

James Brokenshire

Exit checks were introduced in April 2015. They will, over a period of time, provide us with a range of insights into the behaviours of migrants and how they comply with restrictions placed upon their length of stay in the UK.

Data collected from exit checks is a record of cross border movement. It may in the future help inform but will not in itself answer questions on emigration.

The Home Office has announced that it is considering the use of exit checks data for statistical reporting and intends to publish an initial evaluation of the use of exit checks for this purpose. The evaluation will be a technical assessment of the analysis carried out thus far and of the further analysis necessary to better understand short, medium, and long term opportunities.

The initial evaluation of the use of exit checks will be published on 25 August to coincide with the next quarterly immigration statistics release.

Publication of the initial evaluation on the use of exit checks will be on the GOV.UK website