Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have considered reversing the burden of proof to require Israeli exporters to demonstrate their goods are not produced in illegal settlements before being imported into the UK.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in Palestine are illegal under international law. The UK Government encourages accurate labelling of goods in order to avoid misleading consumers and promote transparency, including those goods produced in illegal settlements in Palestine. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Where there are doubts about the declared origin of goods, HMRC undertakes checks to verify the origin and ensure fiscal compliance.
It is a long-standing position that preferential treatment will be refused to Israeli goods if the production conferring originating status has taken place in a location within Palestine brought under Israeli administration since June 1967. A 2004 technical arrangement, rolled over from the EU, requires that the city, village or industrial zone and postcode where production conferring originating status has taken place appear on all proofs of preferential origin issued or made out in Israel. A change in policy to this long-standing requirement is not currently under consideration.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Johnson of Lainston on 4 April (HL6685), how many previously unpaid Employment Tribunal awards have been recovered for claimants under the section 150 penalty regime since April 2016; and what is the total value of those awards.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
As stated in the answer to HL6685, data held on Employment Tribunal Penalties is derived from a live case management system used for internal purposes which has not been subject to sufficient validation that would be required for us to release this to Parliament at this time.
We will consider what data we may be able to publish on this subject in the future.
Linked to this, the Government is also currently reviewing at what point it is appropriate to start to use the powers that we have to name employers who do not pay relevant awards.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of employers who have been named under the Employment Tribunal naming scheme established in December 2018.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
As stated in the answer to HL6685, data held on Employment Tribunal Penalties is derived from a live case management system used for internal purposes which has not been subject to sufficient validation that would be required for us to release this to Parliament at this time.
We will consider what data we may be able to publish on this subject in the future.
Linked to this, the Government is also currently reviewing at what point it is appropriate to start to use the powers that we have to name employers who do not pay relevant awards.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) warning notices, and (2) financial penalty notices, were issued to respondent employers under section 150 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 for failure to pay an employment tribunal award in each year since 2016–17, including 2022–23 to date; how many of those financial penalties (a) have been paid, and (b) remain unpaid; how many previously unpaid awards have been recovered following (i) the issuing of a warning notice only, and (ii) the issuing of both a warning notice and a financial penalty notice; and how much money has been recovered for claimants in total in each category.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
While we do hold data on Employment Tribunal Penalties, this is derived from a live case management system and has not been subject to sufficient validation that would be required for us to release this to Parliament at this time. We will give consideration to what data we may be able to publish on this subject in the future.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 8 March (HL Deb col 793), where she stated that "the number of couples taking up shared parental leave and pay is increasing year on year; last year it was at 13,000", what was the total number of claimants of Statutory Shared Parental Pay in each year since 2015–16, broken down by gender.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
Information provided by employers to HM Revenue and Customs show the number of individuals in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP). This data provides a broad indication of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) take-up but does not include anyone taking unpaid Shared Parental Leave.
Table 1: Individuals in receipt of ShPP by gender, 2015/16 to 2021/22
Year (April to March) | No. of individuals in receipt of ShPP | ||
Women | Men | Total | |
2015-16 | 1,100 | 5,100 | 6,200 |
2016-17 | 1,600 | 7,100 | 8,600 |
2017-18 | 1,700 | 7,500 | 9,200 |
2018-19 | 2,200 | 8,500 | 10,700 |
2019-20 | 2,600 | 9,900 | 12,600 |
2020-21 | 2,600 | 8,600 | 11,200 |
2021-22 | 3,200 | 9,800 | 13,000 |
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 8 March (HL Deb col 793), when they expect to publish (1) the report of the evaluation of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme that they initiated in early 2018, and (2) the findings of the Parental Rights Study 2019.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
Evaluating Shared Parental Leave and Pay is an important part of the policymaking process. As part of the evaluation, we commissioned surveys which asked about a range of parental leave and pay entitlements as well as about Shared Parental Leave specifically. We are currently considering this information and will publish our findings in due course.
In 2019 the Government consulted on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will respond in due course.