Tag: Stephen Timms

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he has issued to public bodies on the provision of social and affordable housing within any developments on land such bodies have sold for residential development.

Brandon Lewis

The National Planning Policy Framework requires local authorities to plan to meet the market and affordable housing needs in their area. Local authorities are expected to work closely with key partners and their local communities in deciding what type of housing is needed and where housing development should take place. Irrespective of the landowner, planning permissions must be determined in accordance with the Local Plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Central departments are committed to releasing surplus land they own to help meet local housing needs, with a goal of delivering 150,000 homes by 2020 and my Department will be playing a full part in this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to increase enforcement rates for the national minimum wage.

Nick Boles

The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break the National Minimum Wage (NMW) law. In 2014/15, HMRC conducted 2,204 investigations into potential NMW non-compliance, totalling £3,291,529 of arrears for 26,318 workers.

This is up from 1,455 investigations conducted in 2013/14, totalling £4,645,547

of arrears for 22,610 workers.

Building on our existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW. These include:

• increasing penalties from 100% to 200% of the arrears employers owed.
• the setting up of a dedicated team in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) focused on tackling the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance.
• increasing the enforcement budget in preparation for the National Minimum and Living Wage from April 2016.
• the creation of a statutory Director of Labour Market Enforcement and Exploitation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the ability of homeless people to access mental health services; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

The Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness report Addressing complex needs – improving services for vulnerable people (2015) highlighted the strong link between homelessness and poor mental health, and the high rates of mental health problems and substance misuse among the homeless population. Homeless people often have multiple health needs and the report showed how vulnerable people can become trapped in a cycle of homelessness because of their overlapping and complex problems.

Fairer access to all health services – including for vulnerable groups like homeless people – is at the heart of the health inequalities duties in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

Improving access to primary care services for homeless people and providing services in non-clinical environments can also help to enable homeless people to receive the services they need. This includes self-referral to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.

We are sponsoring schemes that help local areas address these complex mental and physical health needs faced by homeless people and improve service access. These include the £8 million Help for Single Homeless programme, which includes projects to prevent rough sleeping, and help homeless young people with mental health issues, as well as the Department’s Homeless Hospital Discharge Fund and Homelessness Change/Platform for Life programmes. Public Health England is working with local authorities to help them understand better the mental health needs of homeless people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the slowing of the growth of the Chinese economy on growth in the UK.

Harriett Baldwin

The Treasury continuously monitors global economic developments, including those in China, and their impact on the UK as part of the normal process of policy development.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what plans her Department has to close the gender pay gap.

Caroline Dinenage

The gender pay gap has fallen to its lowest ever level, and our ambition is to eliminate it within a generation. That is why we will require large employers to publish information on the differences between men and women’s’ pay and bonuses. Gender pay gap reporting will also be extended to the public sector. We will continue taking action to inspire girls and young women; modernise workplaces; and support older working women.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what forecast he has made of whether the total stock of local authority homes will increase or decrease in the next five years.

Brandon Lewis

Whilst we have made no forecast of what the stock of council homes will be over the next 5 years, I do note that more council houses have been built since 2010 than were built in the entire 13 years of a Labour Government.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what research his Department has commissioned or undertaken to assess the potential effect on small businesses of proposed changes to Sunday trading laws.

Anna Soubry

We have consulted on our proposals to devolve the power to extend Sunday trading hours to local areas, to which we received a large number of responses from a wide range of stakeholders. We will be publishing the Government’s response shortly. In the consultation, we said we considered that devolving this power would enable local areas to determine the Sunday trading hours that better reflect the need of local people, providing greater choice over when and where they shop. People may choose small retailers, as for example, they offer a diverse range of products and services from convenient locations. This is perhaps why the convenience sector last year saw the opening of two new stores a day and growth in turnover of 5%.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether it is her policy to increase the proportion of energy in the UK generated from renewable sources.

Andrea Leadsom

By 2020, the UK is legally committed to obtain 15% of its final energy consumption from renewable sources under the EU Renewable Energy Directive. We continue to make progress towards our target with provisional figures showing 7.0% of final energy consumption came from renewable sources in 2014. A strong start was made to 2015 with over a quarter of electricity generation coming from renewable sources in Q2 2015, up 8.6% from Q2 2014.

Electricity generation from renewable sources, in 2014, was at 19.1% compared to 14.9% in 2013; renewable heat sources accounted for 4.8% of total heat demand in 2014; and fuel suppliers are already required to meet a 4.75% renewable transport fuel obligation by ensuring that sustainable biofuel is supplied.

Since 2010, DECC estimates that over £42 billion of private capital has been secured in low-carbon electricity generation projects and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), spread geographically across the UK. 2014 was a record year for investment in renewable energy generation with over £8 billion being invested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to continue the Universal Jobmatch service after the contract expires in April 2016; and if he will make a statement.

Priti Patel

DWP intends to exercise its right under the current contract to extend the service for a further 12 months. Commercial discussions are currently underway with the supplier.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the progress of UK firms in reducing their contribution to climate change.

Andrea Leadsom

Since 2003, the UK has had the least energy intensive economy in the G7. In its recent progress report, the Committee on Climate Change set out provisional figures for 2014 [1] which indicate that industrial output grew while energy consumption and emissions fell. The Government response [2] to the CCC report provides further assessment of progress towards reducing emissions from all sectors, including business.

However, there is still significant untapped energy efficiency potential in the business sector, estimated at 45TWh in 2020, representing around 10% of current business energy use. On 28 September Government launched a consultation reviewing the business energy tax landscape that will seek to better exploit this potential, reducing energy costs and improving productivity, while minimising administrative burdens. For energy intensive industry, following publication of the 2050 Industrial Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency Roadmaps in March, the Government is working with sectors to develop action plans to enable industry to contribute to our decarbonisation targets while remaining competitive in the international marketplace.

[1] https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/reducing-emissions-and-preparing-for-climate-change-2015-progress-report-to-parliament/

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/committee-on-climate-changes-2015-progress-report-government-response

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