Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) extending eligibility for the Christmas Support Payment for wet-led pubs to social clubs and (b) providing back payments to those clubs.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Christmas Support Payment was put in place specifically to help pubs without a significant food offering, whose businesses were severely impacted by the local restrictions over the festive period. The scheme eligibility period ended on 28 December 2020 and the closing date for applications is 12 January 2021.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Local Government Association on ensuring that local authorities administer grant funding to wholesalers as part of the Plan for Jobs five per cent discretionary fund in line with the recommendations in clause 23 of the Additional Restrictions Grant Guidance for Local Authorities.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There has been close engagement with the local government sector, including the Local Government Association, throughout the design and implementation of grant support for businesses since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
The Additional Restrictions Support Grant is a discretionary fund and local authorities are free to determine which support best fits their area.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had discussions with Debenhams on their redundancy process during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
Officials are in regular contact with Debenhams.
Whilst we cannot protect every job during this crisis, we continue to do everything we can to help people get through and back into work.
We know this continues to be a worrying time for their employees and families, and we stand ready to support them in any way we can.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on employers using money from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to make redundancy payments.
Answered by Paul Scully
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grants cannot be used to cover redundancy payments. The Government wants to ensure that employees do not lose out on their employment rights because they have been furloughed. New legislation which commenced on 31 July will ensure that pay received in relation to statutory redundancy pay, statutory notice pay, unfair dismissal compensation and pay for short-time working are based on an employee’s normal pay, rather than their furlough pay (potentially 80% of their normal wage).
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether employers should calculate (a) redundancy and (b) notice pay based on (i) employees' salary; and what the relevance of payments through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is to those calculations.
Answered by Paul Scully
During this difficult period, we urge employers to exercise discretion and not use the Job Retention Scheme to make someone redundant on less favourable terms than they would otherwise have received.
The provisions relating to calculation of redundancy and notice pay under the Employment Rights Act continue to apply when an individual is on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Employees who are dismissed due to redundancy and who satisfy certain qualifying conditions are statutorily entitled to a lump sum from their employer, based on their age, length of service and contractual weekly earnings, subject to a statutory upper limit, payable at, or soon after, the dismissal date.
Employees are also eligible for notice pay if they have worked for at least one month for their employers. The entitlements include one week’s notice if employed between one month and 2 years and an additional week’s notice for each year employed more than 2 years, capped at 12 weeks.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of enabling pubs and bars to host music performances from the 4 July 2020 in accordance with covid-19 social distancing guidelines.
Answered by Paul Scully
Following my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s announcement, all pubs, restaurants, bars, and cafes in England can begin to offer services to customers from Saturday 4 July as long as they follow the safer working guidelines.
Guidance is clear that venues should not permit indoor performances, including drama, comedy and music, to take place in front of a live audience.
Indoor performances or loud music can increase the risk of aerosol transmission from either the performer(s) or their audience.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of a new industrial site reclamation scheme to help bring regional strategic employment sites forward for development.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Officials in the Department recently met with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and will continue discussions on plans for Tameside and the vision for the city region.
The Government has made funding available to support these types of scheme. This includes £663.4 million from the Government’s Local Growth Fund 1, 2 and 3 to Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, of which £3.5 million went to the Tameside Minors project for highway and rail access improvements, as well as cycle links.
Tameside will soon have the opportunity to apply for further funding to support local regeneration. This includes a further round of the Future High Streets Fund to welcome proposals from local authorities to change their high streets. There are also plans to enable further places to benefit from the Towns Fund.
It is vital that we have well-resourced, efficient, and effective planning frameworks in place to unlock regeneration, investment, and business growth. Our ambitions build on the Government’s recent Planning White Paper, which aims to make the planning system clearer and more accessible. The White Paper includes options to introduce a new planning fee structure to ensure that planning authorities are resourced to improve the speed and quality of decisions.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he will meet with (a) the Hon Member for Denton and Reddish and (b) officers from Tameside Council to discuss plans for bringing the Ashton Moss regional strategic employment site forward for development.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Officials in the Department recently met with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and will continue discussions on plans for Tameside and the vision for the city region.
The Government has made funding available to support these types of scheme. This includes £663.4 million from the Government’s Local Growth Fund 1, 2 and 3 to Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, of which £3.5 million went to the Tameside Minors project for highway and rail access improvements, as well as cycle links.
Tameside will soon have the opportunity to apply for further funding to support local regeneration. This includes a further round of the Future High Streets Fund to welcome proposals from local authorities to change their high streets. There are also plans to enable further places to benefit from the Towns Fund.
It is vital that we have well-resourced, efficient, and effective planning frameworks in place to unlock regeneration, investment, and business growth. Our ambitions build on the Government’s recent Planning White Paper, which aims to make the planning system clearer and more accessible. The White Paper includes options to introduce a new planning fee structure to ensure that planning authorities are resourced to improve the speed and quality of decisions.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will provide support to Tameside Council to help bring forward the borough’s employment site investment strategy.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Officials in the Department recently met with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and will continue discussions on plans for Tameside and the vision for the city region.
The Government has made funding available to support these types of scheme. This includes £663.4 million from the Government’s Local Growth Fund 1, 2 and 3 to Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, of which £3.5 million went to the Tameside Minors project for highway and rail access improvements, as well as cycle links.
Tameside will soon have the opportunity to apply for further funding to support local regeneration. This includes a further round of the Future High Streets Fund to welcome proposals from local authorities to change their high streets. There are also plans to enable further places to benefit from the Towns Fund.
It is vital that we have well-resourced, efficient, and effective planning frameworks in place to unlock regeneration, investment, and business growth. Our ambitions build on the Government’s recent Planning White Paper, which aims to make the planning system clearer and more accessible. The White Paper includes options to introduce a new planning fee structure to ensure that planning authorities are resourced to improve the speed and quality of decisions.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when pubs without outdoor space will be allowed to reopen.
Answered by Paul Scully
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister set out a roadmap in his speech on the 10 May outlining steps, or ‘phases’, to get people in the UK back to work in a way that is safe.
The roadmap sets out our ambition to reopen sections of the hospitality industry, including pubcs, in Step Three of our strategy, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing. Any decision to reopen this sector will be subject to the scientific advice at the time.
We are working at pace to develop safe ways for pubs to reopen at the earliest opportunity it is safe to do so, through our pubs and restaurants taskforce, and this work is progressing well.