Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what support her Department is providing to recipients of Green Deal funding whose vouchers expired before their home improvements were completed.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 26 May 2016, Question number 37787.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what support her Department is providing to recipients of Green Deal funding who have had their home improvements interrupted because the contracting companies have ceased trading.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (GDHIF), where applicants had their home improvements interrupted, they were free to engage another approved installer to undertake the work within the six month validity period of their voucher. The GDHIF scheme was designed to provide a financial incentive for work to be done at the applicant’s instigation. Installers were required to come from an approved list but applicants were responsible for engaging an installer. The same response applies where vouchers expired before home improvements were completed; the responsibility rests with the applicant to ensure works were completed before the voucher expired.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will bring forward legislative proposals on redundancy to specify that the word establishment applies to a whole business rather than an individual working environment.
Answered by Nick Boles
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will extend the protective award to employees made redundant at a company which dismisses more than 20 people across the organisation but fewer than 20 people in individual working environments.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislation amending collective redundancy provisions and the treatment of ‘establishment’. The European Court of Justice has confirmed that ‘establishment’ means the individual workplace and not necessarily the whole enterprise.Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to ensure the protective award is made to employees made redundant who worked across several establishments within one business.
Answered by Nick Boles
My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has no power to make a protective award to employees; the decision to make a protective award lies with the Employment Tribunal. The Employment Tribunal considers the facts of each case and decides whether to make a protective award, and if so, which employees are eligible, based on the circumstances of each case presented to it.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to extend the statutory obligation for employers to consult appropriate representatives of employees being made redundant when that employer dismisses fewer than 20 people at an establishment.
Answered by Nick Boles
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislation in relation to collective redundancies and existing thresholds for employers to consult with employee representatives nor in the treatment of ‘establishment’. The existing threshold balances such consultation rights of employees with the need for businesses to be able to restructure effectively to respond to changing market conditions.
Asked by: Anna Turley (Labour (Co-op) - Redcar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the number of people from the North East of England working offshore in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Oil and Gas UK in the UK Continental Shelf Offshore Workforce Demographics Report 2015 estimate that of the total number of offshore workers resident in the UK, 13.8 per cent (7,711) live in the North East of England.