Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Government will publish the official text that was included in the proposed measure to allow creative professionals to travel and perform in both the UK and EU without work permits.
Answered by Paul Scully
This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s thriving cultural industries, and that is why it pushed for ambitious arrangements to make it easier for performers and artists to perform across Europe as part of the negotiations on our future relationship with the EU.
This Government proposed to the EU that musicians, and their technical staff, be added to the list of permitted activities for short-term business visitors in the entry and temporary stay chapter of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This would have allowed musicians and their staff to travel and perform in the EU more easily, without needing work-permits.
The UK’s legal texts reflected this position, as the EU has now acknowledged. These texts are confidential negotiating documents and it is not appropriate for them to be published.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of the planned increase in the National Living Wage from £8.72 to £9.21 per hour in April 2021 on (a) incomes and (b) public finances.
Answered by Paul Scully
The minimum wage rates are set on the expert and independent advice of the Low Pay Commission (LPC). This year, we asked the LPC to recommend the National Living Wage rate which should apply from April 2021 in order to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, taking economic conditions into account.
The Government asks the Low Pay Commission to monitor the labour market and the impacts of the National Living Wage closely, advising on any emerging risks, to ensure that the lowest-paid workers continue to see pay rises without significant risks to their employment prospects.
We will announce the 2021 Minimum Wage rates in due course. A full Impact Assessment estimating the benefits and costs to employers and workers will be published alongside the legislation. We estimated that over 2 million workers benefitted from the increase earlier this year, which gave a full-time worker on the NLW an increase of £930 over the year.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on corporate social responsibility.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government welcomes the social responsibility that most businesses have shown in responding to the pandemic, including making their premises Covid-secure by using the Safer Working guidance led by Government. Groups such as Business in the Community are continuing to coordinate help for communities in need; and the CBI-backed Good Business Charter continues to promote corporate social responsibility.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps are being taken as part of the long-term programme that has been developed to reposition Salisbury after the Novichok attack last year; and what the objectives of that programme are.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Department is supporting the aspiration of Wiltshire Council to move the narrative away from the incidents and decontamination activity and look to the future for the city and South Wiltshire.
Wiltshire Council are in the early stages of developing a longer-term strategy to further promote recovery and ensure the sustainability of growth in Salisbury and South Wiltshire. Visitor numbers need to be supported to increase to pre-incident levels and wider support and investment in Salisbury and across South Wiltshire is needed to ensure the area retains its status an attractive location for tourists, businesses and investors.
The strategy will focus on local community and wellbeing; economy and regeneration; infrastructure, tourism and culture, with key elements expected to help inform the wider Swindon and Wiltshire Local Industrial Strategy which will be published by March 2020.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the criteria were for the Government decision to allocate the city of Salisbury a ministerial champion in his Department.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The unprecedented nerve agent attack in Salisbury and subsequent incident in Amesbury was an act of aggression on UK soil, with the hazardous agent involved resulting in the contamination of multiple sites across Salisbury and Amesbury and the tragic death of Dawn Sturgess.
The attack has resulted in an estimated loss of over 1 million visits to Salisbury which is a key tourist attraction in the region, and a potential loss to the local economy of £56 million. With the imminent completion of decontamination activity, the Department has agreed with Defra, Cabinet Office and other key partners that the focus should now move towards building confidence and long-term economic recovery.
In recognition of these unprecedented events, my noble Friend the rt. hon. the Lord Henley in his role as Local Growth Champion for Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which includes the boundaries of Salisbury and Amesbury has agreed to act as the ongoing single Ministerial point of contact within Government for the leaders of Wilshire Council so that they may continue to raise any legacy issues arising at a political level.