Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has notified staff to (a) tell or (b) remind them that they can sell annual leave in the last four months.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The department does not currently have such a policy.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to ensure his Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code; and whether that monitoring data gathered is shared with union representatives.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The department adheres with CS Management Code and workforce equalities data is shared regularly with relevant trade unions, such as the Departmental Trade Union Side.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what human resources information their Department shares with trade unions on a regular basis.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The department maintains a positive relationship with our trades unions and shares a broad range of appropriate material with them, depending upon the subject under discussion.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his levelling up policies in tackling inequality.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The levelling up missions are central to the government’s plan to tackle inequality across the UK. While these are long-term objectives for 2030, we are making early progress through rolling out gigabit broadband, introducing education investment areas, opening freeports, and devolving powers from Westminster.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill sets out proposals for an annual report on levelling up missions as set out in the Levelling Up White Paper.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what records his Department keeps relating to staff working times under Regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998; and how long those records are kept for.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Department's policies and processes are supported by payroll and other records that are retained for at least two years.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans (a) to bring forward legislative proposals to regulate the conduct of insurers offering Professional Indemnity Insurance to those tasked with the remedial works on unsafe buildings or (b) for the Government to underwrite or indemnify the risk under an extension to the Building Safety Fund.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We do not have plans to regulate the behaviour of insurers undertaking PII as this is activity already regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in line with their statutory objectives under the Financial Services and Market Act (2000) legislation.
We understand that some construction professionals are struggling to obtain appropriate PII, particularly for fire safety work. This directly relates to the Government's remediation objectives. We have been engaging with industry to investigate these challenges. This includes developing an industry survey with the Construction Leadership Council to provide a robust evidence base of the challenges in construction PII.
We are also monitoring the effect of PII restrictions on applications to the Building Safety Fund and are engaging with suppliers to ensure they have appropriate PII cover. We continue to work across Government and with industry, to investigate solutions that may improve the availability of PII and continue the delivery of remediation at pace.