Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to investigate whether employees of Sports Direct are paid the minimum wage.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government takes the enforcement of National Minimum Wage very seriously.Any worker who believes that they are being paid below the minimum wage should make a complaint to the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reviews every complaint that is referred to them by the Acas helpline. Additionally, HMRC collate and analyse data from various sources in order to identify those employers who are potentially more likely to be underpaying National Minimum Wage, so that they can undertake targeted enforcement against those employers.
For reasons of confidentiality, HMRC do not divulge information relating to the affairs of an individual or company or confirm whether or not there is an ongoing enquiry.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if HM Revenue and Customs will investigate enforcement of the minimum wage at Sports Direct.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government takes the enforcement of National Minimum Wage very seriously.Any worker who believes that they are being paid below the minimum wage should make a complaint to the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reviews every complaint that is referred to them by the Acas helpline. Additionally, HMRC collate and analyse data from various sources in order to identify those employers who are potentially more likely to be underpaying National Minimum Wage, so that they can undertake targeted enforcement against those employers.
For reasons of confidentiality, HMRC do not divulge information relating to the affairs of an individual or company or confirm whether or not there is an ongoing enquiry.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of halving Air Passenger Duty in Scotland on Birmingham Airport.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government is currently undertaking a consultation into options to support regional airports from the impacts of air passenger duty devolution. We are carefully considering the evidence we have received from stakeholders and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the effect of changes to tax credits on the average income of families in Dudley North constituency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This information is unavailable.
The Government is making changes to Tax Credits and Universal Credit which will help put welfare spending on a more sustainable path. The emphasis is on supporting hardworking families on low incomes by reducing income tax through increases in the personal allowance and increasing wages, rather than on topping up low wages through tax credits.
HMT has published distributional analysis information on the impact of the Summer Budget 2015 which includes the effect of tax credit and other welfare measures on households. This information can be found here:
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how his Department will monitor the effect of changes to tax credits on the income of the poorest families.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Department for Work and Pensions publishes a series of statistics on the number and percentage of people living in low-income households in the UK. These publications are located here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/households-below-average-income-hbai--2
Another publication series which monitors low-income households is The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income. These are produced by the Office for National Statistics and are located here:
An update of these publications are provided at the end of each financial year. They examine how taxes and benefits redistribute income between various groups of households in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the difference in the average proportion of income paid in tax annually by claimants of (a) employment and support allowance, (b) disability living allowance and (c) incapacity benefit.
Answered by David Gauke
There are no published estimates of the tax paid by claimants of the three benefits.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance his Department issues to employers on helping employees with the cost of childcare.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
HM Revenue & Customs has published extensive guidance to help employers run successful childcare schemes, including the Employer Helpbook E18 ‘How you can help your employees with childcare'.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the value of Landfill Community Fund grants to projects in (a) Dudley North constituency, (b) Dudley Borough, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
ENTRUST, the regulator of the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF), has provided the value of the LCF in Dudley, the West Midlands and England from the inception of the fund to date and for the last financial year. This is set out in the table below. ENTRUST does not have this information broken down by constituency.
Dudley | West Midlands (includes Dudley) | England | |
£m | £m | £m | |
2013-14 | 0.142 | 2.17 | 67 |
1996 to date | 2.3 | 24 | 987 |
Given the level of unspent funds that the LCF continues to hold, reducing the value of the fund by less than 10% is not expected to impact on communities' ability to receive LCF funding.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had on the future of the Landfill Communities Fund.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
The Government regularly meets a range of stakeholders on the Landfill Communities Fund.
The LCF makes a valuable contribution to local communities. All projects have to be approved by ENTRUST as meeting specific criteria, to ensure the project benefits the wider community.The value of the landfill communities fund for 2014-15 will be reduced to £71 million. This reduction takes account of progress that environmental bodies have made to address the government's challenge to reduce unspent funds. The saving will be used to fund an equivalent one-off increase in Defra's budget to address waste crime. The government intends that environmental bodies' performance against the challenge is published once the final information is available later this year.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the performance of projects funded by the Landfill Communities Fund; what plans he has for the future of the fund; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
The Government regularly meets a range of stakeholders on the Landfill Communities Fund.
The LCF makes a valuable contribution to local communities. All projects have to be approved by ENTRUST as meeting specific criteria, to ensure the project benefits the wider community.The value of the landfill communities fund for 2014-15 will be reduced to £71 million. This reduction takes account of progress that environmental bodies have made to address the government's challenge to reduce unspent funds. The saving will be used to fund an equivalent one-off increase in Defra's budget to address waste crime. The government intends that environmental bodies' performance against the challenge is published once the final information is available later this year.