Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government plans to update its guidance entitled Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) to include details on ventilation in workplaces following the discovery of the spread of the VUI-202012/01 strain of covid-19 in the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Working safely guidance was last updated on 6 January to reflect the new national lockdown. The guidance is kept under constant review based on the latest scientific evidence we receive.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
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 update its recommendations on cleaning in workplace settings to reflect updated guidance from the Health and Safety Executive on disinfecting surfaces and vehicles.
Answered by Paul Scully
BEIS has worked closely with Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Public Health England and others throughout the pandemic to ensure that guidance for businesses is based on the most up to date understanding of Covid-19. There are arrangements in place between BEIS and HSE for weekly reviews of the recommendations for workplaces to ensure that any changes are rapidly reflected either through direct changes to the GOV.UK guidance or through links to the recommendations published by other departments.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of investigations carried out by (a) the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, (b) the Gangmaster Labour Abuse Authority and (c) the HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement Team involve joint work with Immigration Enforcement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The proportion of investigations undertaken by Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate with Immigration Enforcement amounts to 0.6% of all cases between 1 April 2016 and 30 November 2020.
HMRC only conduct joint visits where there are pertinent risks for other enforcement agencies. From 2017/18 to 2019/20, joint visits involving Immigration Enforcement represent 1.3% of HMRC National Minimum Wage Team’s investigations.
The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority work with several partners, including Immigration Enforcement, in different ways which may change as an investigation develops. They only capture data on the lead agency in each case and therefore it is not possible to accurately state the total proportion of investigations carried out with Immigration Enforcement.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling based on the case of Federacion de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras v Deutsche Bank SAE, whether he plans to require employers to measure the duration of time worked by each employee, both normal hours and overtime, to ensure that staff (a) do not work beyond the legal maximum number of hours and (b) receive stipulated daily and weekly rest periods.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government does not currently intend to amend domestic legislation to require employers to record working hours as set out in the judgment.
It is important that employers comply with the Working Time Regulations in respect of working hours and daily and weekly rest, and that they are held to account if they don't. Workers can take a case to employment tribunal concerning insufficient rest, and the Health and Safety Executive directly enforces maximum working hours. The Government has also committed to bringing forward state enforcement of the rules in the Working Time Regulations on holiday pay for vulnerable workers, to ensure that workers get the paid time off they deserve.
The Government does not disclose the legal advice it receives in relation to its work.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what legal advice he has received on the Government requiring employers to measure the duration of time worked by each employee, both normal hours and overtime, to ensure that staff do not work beyond the legal maximum number of hours, and that they receive stipulated daily and weekly rest periods following the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling based on the case Federacion de Servicios de Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) v Deutsche Bank SAE.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government does not currently intend to amend domestic legislation to require employers to record working hours as set out in the judgment.
It is important that employers comply with the Working Time Regulations in respect of working hours and daily and weekly rest, and that they are held to account if they don't. Workers can take a case to employment tribunal concerning insufficient rest, and the Health and Safety Executive directly enforces maximum working hours. The Government has also committed to bringing forward state enforcement of the rules in the Working Time Regulations on holiday pay for vulnerable workers, to ensure that workers get the paid time off they deserve.
The Government does not disclose the legal advice it receives in relation to its work.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the (a) wages recovered for workers, (b) money recovered for workers from unlawful fees charges to workers and (c) unpaid holiday pay recovered for workers by the (i) Employment Standards Agency Inspectorate, (ii) HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement Team and (iii) Gangmaster Labour Abuse Authority in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Answered by Paul Scully
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) enforce the National Minimum Wage regulations on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). They investigate where they believe an employer is not paying the minimum wage and follow up every worker complaint they receive. HMRC only hold data relating to (a) wages recovered for workers. They do not hold data relating to (b) money recovered for workers from unlawful fees charges to workers or (c) unpaid holiday pay recovered for workers as these are outside of their remit.
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) do not differentiate between the amount of money recovered in unpaid wages, holiday pay or a potential unlawful deduction.
| Money recovered for workers | |||
| 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate | £69, 500 | £150, 000 | £61, 000 | £73, 500 (up to 30 November 2020) |
HMRC National Minimum Wage | £10,918,047 | £15, 615, 609[1] | £20, 800, 000 | Not yet available [2] |
Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority [3] | £93, 165 | £94, 444 | £116, 605.30 | £8, 285.90 (Up to 31 October 2020) |
[1] Source: 18/19 compliance and enforcement report
[2] These figures will be published in the enforcement and compliance report for that year.
[3] GLAA are sponsored by the Home Office, rather than BEIS. These figures have been provided by GLAA.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the annual budget was for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate for 2018-19; what the annual budget is for the year 2020-2021; and what the provisional budgets are for (a) 2021-2022 and (b) 2022-2023.
Answered by Paul Scully
Information on the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorates budget, FTE Staff and FTE Officers is set out below. Budgets for 2021-22 and 2022-23 have not yet been formalised:
Year | Budget | FTE Staff | FTE Officers |
2018-19 | £0.725m | 13 | 10 |
2019-20 | £1.125m | 28.8* | 18.8 |
2020-21 | £1.525m | 28.8 | 18.8 |
* Recruitment of staff took place towards the end of the 2019-20 Financial Year
The Employment Agency Standards Annual Report for 2018/19 was due to be published in April 2020. All non-COVID-19 publications were halted at that time to ensure the timely dissemination of business-critical information. The annual report will be published in due course.
Umbrella companies do not currently fall within the remit of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) and therefore no investigations have been undertaken. The Government has committed to extending the remit of the EAS to umbrella companies. EAS continues to work closely with the industries Trade Bodies to ensure Agency workers interests are addressed.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many FTE staff there were in the Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate for (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Paul Scully
Information on the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorates budget, FTE Staff and FTE Officers is set out below. Budgets for 2021-22 and 2022-23 have not yet been formalised:
Year | Budget | FTE Staff | FTE Officers |
2018-19 | £0.725m | 13 | 10 |
2019-20 | £1.125m | 28.8* | 18.8 |
2020-21 | £1.525m | 28.8 | 18.8 |
* Recruitment of staff took place towards the end of the 2019-20 Financial Year
The Employment Agency Standards Annual Report for 2018/19 was due to be published in April 2020. All non-COVID-19 publications were halted at that time to ensure the timely dissemination of business-critical information. The annual report will be published in due course.
Umbrella companies do not currently fall within the remit of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) and therefore no investigations have been undertaken. The Government has committed to extending the remit of the EAS to umbrella companies. EAS continues to work closely with the industries Trade Bodies to ensure Agency workers interests are addressed.