Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with employers who use agency contracts on access to bereavement or compassionate leave.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Department’s discussions with employers about bereavement or compassionate leave have not referred to agency contracts.
Our manifesto made a commitment that bereaved parents should be able to take some time away from work to grieve for a lost child. To achieve that, the Government is supporting the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Bill. Consultations with business representatives took place last summer and further consultation will take place this year on the details.
Acas has developed guidance for employers on managing bereavement in the workplace, in conjunction with Cruse Bereavement Care. It recognises the effect that bereavement might have on employees in undertaking their duties, sets out the law in this area and provides guidance on good practice, including having a bereavement policy in place.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect on the level of workers' rights of people being employed on agency contracts.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Taylor review into modern employment practices highlighted several areas where the protections of agency workers’ rights could be strengthened.
In response, the Government is currently consulting on the regulation of umbrella companies, and intermediaries; state enforcement of the Agency Worker Regulations; whether “pay between assignments” contracts for agency workers (known as the Swedish derogations) should be repealed; and on the essential information that should be included in a ‘key facts’ summary of an agency worker’s contract.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of notice periods for people on agency contracts with regard to dismissal procedures.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The termination arrangements for agency workers are determined by the contract of engagement.
In recognition of a need for greater transparency to better support agency workers, the Government set out in its response to the Taylor review of modern employment practice the intention to introduce a “key facts” page for agency workers, which will set out clearly all the information needed by an agency worker to make an informed decision prior to entering into a contract.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people who have been employed as agency workers for (a) less than one year, (b) between one and two years and (c) more than two years.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Department holds no information on how long agency workers have been employed on contracts for specific periods of time.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with employers who use agency contracts on access to bereavement or compassionate leave.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Department’s discussions with employers about bereavement or compassionate leave have not referred to agency contracts.
Our manifesto made a commitment that bereaved parents should be able to take some time away from work to grieve for a lost child. To achieve that, the Government is supporting the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Bill. Consultations with business representatives took place last summer and further consultation will take place this year on the details.
Acas has developed guidance for employers on managing bereavement in the workplace, in conjunction with Cruse Bereavement Care. It recognises the effect that bereavement might have on employees in undertaking their duties, sets out the law in this area and provides guidance on good practice, including having a bereavement policy in place.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect on the level of workers' rights of people being employed on agency contracts.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Taylor review into modern employment practices highlighted several areas where the protections of agency workers’ rights could be strengthened.
In response, the Government is currently consulting on the regulation of umbrella companies, and intermediaries; state enforcement of the Agency Worker Regulations; whether “pay between assignments” contracts for agency workers (known as the Swedish derogations) should be repealed; and on the essential information that should be included in a ‘key facts’ summary of an agency worker’s contract.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of people in Delyn constituency covered by the Government's proposals to safeguard customers on the poorest value energy tariff.
Answered by Margot James
Ofgem is considering options to protect vulnerable consumers and has yet to announce a formal proposal. Alongside this Ofgem has announced a package of measures to help consumers move away from poor value tariffs.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the cost to the public purse has been of installing charging points for electric vehicles in each year since 2010.
Answered by Claire Perry
Please find below a breakdown of funding provided by the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) to support the installation of electric vehicle chargepoints in each financial year since 2010/11:
Financial Year | Total OLEV Spend |
2010/11 | £2.23m |
2011/12 | £2.58m |
2012/13 | £9.71m |
2013/14 | £14.86m |
2014/15 | £41.65m |
2015/16 | £16.88m |
2016/17 | £7.06m |
In addition, £22.9m of funding under the Government’s £40m Go Ultra Low City Scheme is for charging infrastructure, and is being awarded across four years from 2016.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to ensure that the roll-out of charging stations for electric vehicles is spread evenly across all regions and parts of the UK.
Answered by Claire Perry
The Government is supporting an increase in provision of electric vehicle chargepoints as part of its programme for ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs). At Autumn Statement 2016, the Chancellor announced additional funding of £80m for charging infrastructure for the period to 2020 and Government is considering how best to allocate this funding to meet the needs of drivers across the UK and deliver value for money.
Alongside this, Highways England has £15m to expand the existing rapid chargepoint network to ensure that across 95 per cent of the strategic road network there will be a chargepoint at least every 20 miles.
In addition, the Government is proposing to take forward powers under the forthcoming Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill that will enable the Government to require Motorway Service Areas, and large fuel retailers to install sufficient provision of electric vehicle chargepoints.
Additional grant funding is also available UK-wide to support the installation of chargepoints at workplaces, at homes, and on residential streets. Further detail of how to apply is available online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-for-low-emission-vehicles
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many charging points for electric vehicles there are in (a) Wales, (b) England, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland at the latest date for which information is available.
Answered by Claire Perry
Public chargepoints funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles must be registered on the Government’s National Chargepoint Registry, an open source data set containing information on the type and geographical location of chargepoints. The registry is available online at: www.national-charge-point-registry.uk
Operators of public chargepoints can also choose to add other chargepoints to this dataset. The Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill is due to include new powers that could require operators of public chargepoints to make openly available key information about all chargepoints that they operate, including geographic location.
The current dataset from the National Chargepoint Registry shows the following statistics for chargepoints in the UK:
Wales - 37
England - 4909
Scotland - 997
Northern Ireland - 346
Additional chargepoints will also have been installed with support from the private sector that are not listed on this data set but can be found on websites such as Zapmap (www.zap-map.com)