Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the level of Government funding for the Citizens Advice Service in (a) Wirral and (b) Merseyside was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
This is not information that central government either holds or requests since funding for local Citizens Advice, including those in the Wirral and Merseyside, is provided by local not central government.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of his Department's policy on onshore wind on domestic energy prices.
Answered by Claire Perry
Domestic energy prices are impacted – both positively and negatively - by a wide range of Government policies. The Clean Growth Strategy sets out our ambition to secure the lowest electricity costs in Europe, particularly for domestic consumers, and also to deliver the Government’s carbon targets and ensure security of supply. Our policies for delivering clean growth generated an average net saving on household energy bills of £14 in 2016.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2018 to Question 128658 on Social Services: Pay, if he will publish the evidence on the drawbacks on requesting employers to disaggregate hours works on payslips.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Department met with employers, trade unions and payroll providers over the course of 2017 and concluded it would be disproportionately burdensome to require employers to disaggregate hours on payslips.
The accompanying Impact Assessment to The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 estimates that 88 per cent of employers already include the number of hours on payslips – some of whom are likely to disaggregate hours. This Impact Assessment is available on www.legislation.gov.uk.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018, what steps he is taking to ensure that workers with fragmented working patterns are able to identify that they are being paid at least the National Living Wage if their employer does not provide a clear breakdown of the different types of working time that they are paid for.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Order ensures time-paid workers know the total number of hours for which they are being paid, by reference to their payslip. If this figure is less than the total hours that the worker has actually worked, then there is a risk of underpayment and we would encourage the worker to raise the issue with their employer or raise a free, confidential complaint with Acas.
The Order’s provisions are in line with the Taylor Review’s recommendation to Government to increase transparency for workers over their employment rights. It fulfils out commitments in the Government’s response to the Review, to extend the right to receive a payslip to all workers and to require employers to state the number of hours being paid for on the payslips of time-paid workers.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018, if he will take steps to ensure that social care employers provide details of all working time including (a) travel time and (b) sleep-in time on pay slips.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Order requires all employers to provide details in payslips on the total number of hours paid for. This is to allow workers to identify any under recording of hours worked, and to encourage them to either raise this with their employer or make a free, confidential complaint to Acas. During a Government consultation we gathered evidence on the benefits and drawbacks of introducing further provisions requiring employers to disaggregate hours worked on payslips, and decided against making this a statutory requirement. However, many employers take this approach.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 to ensure that people with fragmented working patterns can record their hours of work.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Order is intended to ensure time-paid workers know the total number of hours they are being paid for by reference to their payslip. If this figure is less than the total hours the worker has actually worked, then there is a risk of underpayment and we encourage the worker to raise the issue with their employer or raise a free, confidential complaint with Acas.
The provisions in this Order increase transparency and information available to workers, to enable them to identify and then address underpayment.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the total budget was for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate in each year from 2007-2008 to 2016-2017.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
Information on the budget for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate:
Financial Year | Budget |
2007-08 | N/A * |
2008-09 | N/A * |
2009-10 | N/A * |
2010-11 | £0.925m (actual spend) |
2011-12 | £0.7m (actual spend) |
2012-13 | £0.55m (actual spend) |
2013-14 | £0.575m |
2014-15 | N/A * |
2015-16 | £0.5m |
2016-17 | £0.5m |
2017-18 | £0.725m** |
*For the years 07/08, 08/09, 09/10, 10/11 and 14/15, budgets were held at a higher level of aggregation and managed across a number of different programmes, and we do not therefore hold the information requested for these financial years.
** The increase in budget was provided to purchase new IT systems to increase casework productivity and support EAS’ intelligence capability.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment the Government made of the effectiveness of the insolvency system after the collapse of Comet in 2012; and what steps he has taken to improve that system.
Answered by Anna Soubry
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 20 December 2012, Official Report, column 989, whether he plans to keep the opposition front bench updated on the Insolvency Service's investigation into BHS.
Answered by Anna Soubry
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 20 December 2012, Official Report, column 989, for what reasons the Insolvency Service's investigation into Comet was not shared with the opposition front bench.
Answered by Anna Soubry
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.