Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Money and Health Policy Institute report entitled Debts and Despair, published in December 2023, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of instructing the Financial Conduct Authority to place limits on how often creditors can contact people in debt.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants to see fair treatment of individuals in problem debt, and there is a range of work underway across government and regulators to promote responsible debt collection practices.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) new Consumer Duty aims to ensure firms provide a higher standard of care to their customers. This includes that firms take reasonable steps to contact customers at a suitable time, taking individual needs into account.
The Government and the FCA will continue to work closely together to ensure consumer protections are fit for purpose, including through the upcoming reform of the Consumer Credit Act.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to announce the pay award for NHS workers for 2024-25.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has submitted its evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body, the Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body, and the Senior Salaries Review Body, in order for them to make recommendations on a pay uplift for National Health Service workers for 2024/25. We will carefully consider the pay review bodies’ comments and recommendations when we receive them, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism entitled Thousands of care workers risk deportation after employers breach rules, published on 11 May 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government will carefully consider the evidence put forward by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The Home Office does not tolerate exploitation in the labour market and our systems are designed to ensure exploitative employers are unable to sponsor migrant workers. Any decision to revoke an employer’s licence will only be done in circumstances where they have failed to meet the obligations and duties such as ensuring workers are being paid the correct salary and given guaranteed work.
We are working hard across government and with the sector to support care workers who wish to seek alternative employment with a Home Office approved sponsor and remain in the UK.