Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
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 any meetings with Invest Northern Ireland on the challenges which face Northern Ireland after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
Lord Henley, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting roundtable on 19th April in Belfast where he met the CEO of Invest NI, who chaired the meeting, BEIS also engages with Invest NI in a range of fora, including:
BEIS officials also have regular engagement with the Northern Ireland Civil Service on key issues related to EU Exit and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what guidance his Department issues to (a) retailers and (b) consumers to raise awareness of the threat of online scams.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
There is guidance on how to spot and avoid scams available to retailers and consumers from organisations including Citizen’s Advice, Trading Standards, banks, UK Finance, Action Fraud, and the FCA.
In addition, we are currently in the first week of Scams Awareness Month (SAM) – an annual campaign which BEIS supports bringing together organisations nationally and locally to take a united stand against scams and fraud. The campaign which runs until the end of June aims to raise awareness with both consumers and business about all types of scams – online, telephone, mail and at the doorstep – with a focus on encouraging victims to speak up and report to the appropriate authorities.
In the 2017 campaign last July over 360 organisations participated reaching over 1/3rd million consumers face to face and offline and saw a 17 percent increase during the campaign in people accessing online advice about scams through the Citizens Advice website. We hope to increase on those numbers this year.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that employers comply with the national minimum wage.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Government is committed to fair pay by ensuring workers are paid at least the National Minimum Wage (NMW). In 2017/18, HMRC secured a record volume of pay arrears (£15.6 million) for a record number of workers (201,800).
In 2018/19, we have increased the enforcement budget for the NMW to £26.3 million. This additional resource will allow HMRC to proactively target those employers judged most at risk of not paying the minimum wage. As part of this, we will spend £1.48 million raising awareness of workers’ entitlement to the NMW.
Employers found to be breaking the rules could face penalties of 200% of arrears owed to the worker to a maximum of £20,000 per worker. Anyone concerned they are being underpaid should call the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) Helpline (on 0300 123 1100) for free and confidential advice. HMRC respond to 100% of complaints made.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many wind farms have been established in each of the last five years.
Answered by Claire Perry
The table below sets out how many onshore and offshore wind farms have been established in the UK in each of the last five years for which full year data is available.
Table 1: UK onshore and offshore wind farms that have become operational between January 1 2013 and 31 December 2017
Technology | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
Onshore wind | 91 | 69 | 56 | 69 | 77 |
Offshore wind | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database (April 2018 extract) BEIS: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewable-energy-planning-database-monthly-extract
Note: extensions to existing sites have been counted as new sites.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his policy is on encouraging consumers to source their energy from providers of renewable energy.
Answered by Claire Perry
There are a number of suppliers in the GB energy market that offer electricity tariffs backed 100% by renewables sources. Consumers can make an active choice to sign up to these green energy tariffs. Energy is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much financial support his Department provided to help people start up businesses in 2017.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
Our Industrial Strategy aims to make Britain the best place to start and grow a business. Programmes operated by the government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) are supporting £4 billion of finance to over 65,000 smaller businesses (as at end Sept 2017).
This includes funding from the Start Up Loans programme which made 8,551 loans in the 2017-18 Financial Year, totalling £104m. Since its inception in 2012, the Start Up Loans programme has lent over £400m, making over 54,000 loans. We also offer support for SMEs across a broad range of sectors to tackle barriers to growth.
The Government also provides support to start-up businesses across England through GOV.UK and the Business Support Helpline. In addition, in 2017-2018 we have provided £12m of funding to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to enable them to provide tailored support and advice to start-ups and existing businesses through their network of Growth Hubs.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department plans to take to help women get back into work after maternity leave.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
A woman has the right to return to the same job if she has taken 26 weeks of maternity leave or less. If she has taken more than 26 weeks of maternity leave, she has the right to return to the same job or another job which is suitable and appropriate, if it is not reasonably practicable to give her the same job.
It is also possible for a woman to work up to 10 days during a period of maternity leave (with her employer’s agreement) without bringing her maternity leave or entitlement to statutory maternity pay to an end. These days are called ‘keeping in touch days’.
The Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme can make it easier for a mother, if she wishes, to return to work sooner by curtailing part of her maternity entitlement to provide for shared parental leave and/or pay for the father or her partner to take, subject to eligibility and compliance with the correct notification requirements. The Government is currently running a communication campaign to promote the scheme.
Flexible working can also help a returning mother balance her work with other responsibilities. In addition to the statutory right to request flexible working, we have established a Flexible Working Taskforce to work with groups representing business, workers and relevant interests, to respond to the Prime Minister’s call to businesses to make flexible working a reality for all employees by advertising all jobs as flexible from Day 1, unless there are solid business reasons not to.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
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 effectiveness of the Construction Supply Chain Payment Charter; how many companies have signed up to that charter; and what steps he is taking to ensure that 30 day payments become standard across the industry.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Construction Supply Chain Payment Charter is a voluntary measure which sets standards for payment practices within the industry and aims to create a more collaborative culture and ensure a strong, resilient and sustainable supply chain. To date there are 42 signatories to the Charter.
Unjustified late and non-payment of any amount owed is unacceptable. These practices cause particular problems for small businesses in the construction sector. The Government is committed to tackling them and a number of steps have been taken to improve payment performance including through its own procurement activities, introducing reporting requirements on payment policies and practices and other voluntary measures such as the Prompt Payment Code that promotes 30 day payment terms as the norm for acceptable behaviour in the UK. At the Spring Statement my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer also announced that BEIS will lead on a call for evidence, which will consider evidence to ensure unfair payment practices are eliminated for small business.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what information his Department holds on the number of foreign companies that have moved their headquarters to the UK since 23 June 2016.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy does not collate information on foreign companies that have moved their headquarters to the UK.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the cost to the public purse has been of energy subsidies to private energy companies in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
There are no direct Government energy subsidies to private energy companies.
The costs of renewable energy schemes for electricity are funded through consumer energy bills rather than from general taxation.
The Government provides financial support to non-domestic renewable heat generators and producers of biomethane through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).
The RHI payments made to all participants including energy companies are to bridge the cost differential of installing renewable plant over fossil fuel alternatives.
The Department publishes data of renewable heat generation (or equivalent energy for biomethane injected to the gas grid) broken down by Standard Industry Classification Code (SIC) but does not hold data on payments by SIC code.
This information may be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/rhi-deployment-data-october-2017