Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to help tackle the impact of the humanitarian situation in Gaza on children.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
I [Minister Milling] recently visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) where I saw first-hand the challenges of the prolonged conflict and the impact of the occupation. I reiterated UK support for a two-state solution and the need to improve conditions for ordinary Palestinians in my meetings with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Roll, and with the Palestinian leadership, including Prime Minister Shtayyeh. The UK continues to urge the parties to prioritise progress towards reaching a durable solution for Gaza and to take the necessary practical steps to ensure Gaza's reconstruction and economic recovery. We repeatedly call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and have a regular dialogue on legal issues relating to the occupation, including the treatment of Palestinian children.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Saudi Arabia on judicial cooperation.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Justice signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in September 2014.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Redcar constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have been affected by the underpayment of benefits after transitioning from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance in Middlesbrough constituency.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19th January to question number 104377.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the Government plans to bring forward a Bill on boycotts, divestment and sanctions.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
We are committed to our manifesto pledge to ban public institutions from imposing their own divisive boycotts, divestment and sanctions measures directly or indirectly against foreign countries. We will legislate as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs spent on national minimum wage enforcement in Financial Year (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS funds HMRC to deliver this activity.
For the year 2019-20, HMRC were given a budget allocation of £26.3 million. In the year 2020-21 this was increased to £26.4 million. The vast majority of the NMW funding allocation is invested in front line NMW compliance activity so that HMRC can provide adequate coverage across the UK. HMRC aim to keep their resourcing level at a minimum of 410 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. There are many factors that impact on their level of resourcing, including staff moves and pay settlements.
The total number of FTE staff employed by HMRC, working out of 12 regions across the country, to carry out NMW enforcement and compliance in the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 is provided in the table below.
Region | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 |
East Midlands | 24.81 | 22.2 |
Greater London | 40.07 | 41.2 |
North East | 33.74 | 37.2 |
North West | 106.06 | 100.5 |
Northern Ireland | 25.23 | 26.2 |
Scotland | 63.95 | 55.1 |
South East | 12.34 | 11.2 |
South West | 13.46 | 11.0 |
East of England | 3.00 | 2.00 |
Wales | 24.05 | 23.4 |
West Midlands | 51.98 | 47.3 |
Yorkshire and Humberside | 43.36 | 42.6 |
Total | 442.05 | 419.9 |
The table shows where the staff were located but this does not necessarily mean these staff were working on cases linked to the locations given. HMRC deploy a national resource deployment model, to enable them to flexibly deploy their resource to deal with the highest risk area.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many national minimum wage enforcement staff were employed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in each region in Financial Year (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS funds HMRC to deliver this activity.
For the year 2019-20, HMRC were given a budget allocation of £26.3 million. In the year 2020-21 this was increased to £26.4 million. The vast majority of the NMW funding allocation is invested in front line NMW compliance activity so that HMRC can provide adequate coverage across the UK. HMRC aim to keep their resourcing level at a minimum of 410 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. There are many factors that impact on their level of resourcing, including staff moves and pay settlements.
The total number of FTE staff employed by HMRC, working out of 12 regions across the country, to carry out NMW enforcement and compliance in the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 is provided in the table below.
Region | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 |
East Midlands | 24.81 | 22.2 |
Greater London | 40.07 | 41.2 |
North East | 33.74 | 37.2 |
North West | 106.06 | 100.5 |
Northern Ireland | 25.23 | 26.2 |
Scotland | 63.95 | 55.1 |
South East | 12.34 | 11.2 |
South West | 13.46 | 11.0 |
East of England | 3.00 | 2.00 |
Wales | 24.05 | 23.4 |
West Midlands | 51.98 | 47.3 |
Yorkshire and Humberside | 43.36 | 42.6 |
Total | 442.05 | 419.9 |
The table shows where the staff were located but this does not necessarily mean these staff were working on cases linked to the locations given. HMRC deploy a national resource deployment model, to enable them to flexibly deploy their resource to deal with the highest risk area.
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 workplace (a) inspections and (b) investigations were carried out by the (i) Employment Standards Agency Inspectorate, (ii) HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement Team, (iii) Health and Safety Executive and (iv) the Gangmaster Labour Abuse Authority for the yearly reporting period 2020-21.
Answered by Paul Scully
In the yearly reporting period 2020-21, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate closed 177 inspections and 1,800 investigations (complaint-based cases).
The HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement Team closed 2,740 cases.
The Health and Safety Executive carried out 14,880 inspections and 14,426 investigations (8,026 of which were workplace concerns raised by employees, members of the public or others; 6,189 were non-fatal accidents; 211 were fatalities). HSE also conducted over 182,700 spot checks to ensure workplace premises were Covid-secure.
The Gangmaster and Labour Abuse Authority carried out a total of 221 inspections (157 application inspections and 64 compliance inspections). The GLAA conducted 476 investigations in total, 380 of these were led by the GLAA and the remaining 96 were led by other agencies and supported by the 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, how many front-line enforcement officers there were in the (a) HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement Team, (b) Health and Safety Executive and (c) Gangmaster Labour Abuse Authority in 2020-21.
Answered by Paul Scully
In 2020-21 HMRC National Minimum Wage Enforcement Team had 420 full time equivalents at year end.
The Health and Safety Executive does not distinguish between ‘front line’ and non ‘front line’ enforcement roles. However, for the year 2020-21 HSE employed 953 warrant-holding staff in all grades and roles, including trainees, managers and specialists.
As of March 2021, the Gangmaster and Labour Abuse Authority had 63 frontline officers.