Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to expand the powers of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate to include workers employed by umbrella bodies in enforcing the provisions of the Employment Agencies Act 1973.
Answered by Paul Scully
We have already made significant progress in improving the rights of agency workers, in particular by increasing the information they receive about pay rates, including when they are employed by umbrella companies.
The Government has committed to expand the remit of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate to include umbrella companies. In the Queen’s Speech we announced our intention to bring forward an Employment Bill. We will bring forward detailed proposals on future legislation in due course.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons the £2 billion of funding to help homeowners and landlords make their homes more energy-efficient in 2020-21 announced in the Chancellor's Plan for Jobs does not include water efficiency measures.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In his Summer Economic Update, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £2bn Green Home Grant scheme that will support homeowners and landlords in England to improve the energy efficiency of their properties, reducing energy bills and carbon emissions, and supporting a green economic recovery.
The funding will be spent on paying for accredited tradespeople to install a range of measures, for example insulation, to improve the energy performance of their homes. Further detail on the range of measures will be announced in the coming days, before the full launch.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what differences were identified between physiotherapists and sport therapists which led to the Government issuing guidance for those businesses to reopen on separate dates as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Paul Scully
Close contact services – which includes sports and massage therapy – in England, except Leicester, were able to reopen from Monday 13 July, subject to them following the COVID-secure guidelines.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the evidential basis is for the decision to delay the reopening of sports therapists in England; and what comparative assessment he has made between that evidence and that used by the devolved Administrations to reopen sports therapists in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Paul Scully
We’ve now provided close contact services, including sports therapists in England except Leicester, with the certainty they need to reopen from Monday 13 July, subject to them following the Government’s COVID-secure guidelines.
We need to be confident services are able to reopen in a COVID-secure way for the staff and customers. Our approach is guided by the scientific and medical advice, and our guidance has been developed with input from firms, unions, industry bodies and the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and in consultation with Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Hairdressers were the initial phase of safely reopening close contact services, and we are now assured that the necessary steps can be taken to reopen the rest of the sector.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on allergen labelling for (a) toothpaste and (b) other non food items that can contain milk protein.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals on allergen labelling for toothpaste and other non-food items that contain milk protein.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding was allocated to research into electric aviation in the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are various R&D funding programmes that can help support electric aviation, such as the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge (£80 million), ATI Programme (government investment of £1.95 billion), Future Flight Challenge (£125 million) and Faraday Challenge (£274 million). These programmes also support a broad range of other electric or aerospace-related technologies.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding was allocated to research into electric aviation in the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households with active green deals are in receipt of universal credit.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy does not hold information on how many households with live Green Deal plans are in receipt of Universal Credit.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households with active green deals are in receipt of Universal Credit.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy does not hold information on how many households with live Green Deal plans are in receipt of Universal Credit.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many consumers eligible for the guarantee credit element of pension credit are customers of (a) energy suppliers with more than and (b) fewer than 250,000 customers.
Answered by Claire Perry
Of the roughly 1.4m Pension Credit Guaranteed Credit recipients, over 1.2m receive the Warm Home Discount (WHD) automatically on their energy bills as a result of being with a participating supplier and being named on the energy bill. Some of these pensioners are with suppliers with less than 250,000 customers but who have opted to participate in WHD voluntarily. We estimate that roughly 60,000 pension credit guarantee credit recipients who would be eligible under the scheme do not receive the rebate as a result of being with a non-participating supplier