Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Office for Product Safety and Standards plans to report on its progress against its objectives.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards published its strategy and delivery plan in August, alongside detail of early actions taken in the first months of its operation. The Office will publish an update on progress following its first year of operation.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how the Office of Product Safety and Standards is held accountable by his Department.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards is a departmental office within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. As such, it reports and is accountable for delivery against its strategy and action plan to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the resources allocated to the Office for Product Safety and Standards; and whether he plans to make an up to date assessment of those resources.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards was allocated £9m of new programme funding in 2018-19 and this will increase to £12m in 2019-20. Assessment on future resourcing will take place in due course in preparation for the next spending review.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Office for Product Safety and Standards has plans to undertake an investigation into the safety of Whirlpool tumble dryers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is currently reviewing the corrective action taken by Whirlpool in respect of certain models of tumble dryer and the results of the review will be published when completed.
The level of risk for affected models is currently assessed as low and OPSS is keeping this under continuous review. The advice to consumers is that they should not use affected machines until they have been modified by Whirlpool.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many posts there are at the Office for Product Safety and Standards; and whether all those posts have been filled.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards was established in January 2018 and has been implementing a plan to increase its staff resource in line with its strategy and action plan over the current financial year. The Office currently has almost 250 staff with 50 more posts to be recruited by the end of the financial year.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department will publish data on Government steel use and compliance with procurement policy.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
This data will be published in due course.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many post offices offer Post Office Current Accounts in branch by (a) region and (b) Local Enterprise Partnership area in England.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Post Office Current Accounts can be serviced across the UK-wide network of over 11,500 Post Office branches, for deposits, withdrawals and balance enquiries. Services can also be accessed over the phone, online and via the Post Office Money Current Account app.
The most recent information available (June 2018) on the Post Office network is available by Government Office Region online: http://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/sites/default/files/Network%20Report%202018%20FINAL.pdf
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many (a) Crown post office and hosted Crown post office, (b) franchise post office, (c) Main post office, (d) post office Locals, (e) traditional sub-post office and (f) other types of post office branches there were on 1 November 2018 by (i) region and (ii) Local Enterprise Partnership area in England.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The overall number of post offices across the UK remains at its most stable in decades with over 11,500 branches thanks to significant Government investment of over £2 billion since 2010.
The Post Office branch network overall is reported annually in the Post Office Annual Network Report which is available at http://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/modernising-post-office. The most recent information (June 2018) on the Post Office network by Government Office Region is below. Apart from the Directly Managed branches the rest of the network is operated on a franchise/agency basis and the groupings below reflect the branch models.
Government Office Region | Directly Managed Branch | Hosted Directly Managed Branch | Main | Local | Traditional | Outreach | Total |
East Midlands | 7 | 1 | 257 | 277 | 204 | 143 | 889 |
East of England | 14 | 5 | 280 | 355 | 311 | 150 | 1115 |
London | 61 | 4 | 334 | 187 | 81 |
| 667 |
NI | 6 |
| 121 | 199 | 112 | 49 | 487 |
North East | 6 |
| 148 | 167 | 88 | 77 | 486 |
North West | 25 | 4 | 446 | 342 | 184 | 114 | 1115 |
Scotland | 16 | 2 | 280 | 506 | 361 | 234 | 1399 |
South East | 26 | 11 | 359 | 517 | 325 | 146 | 1384 |
South West | 20 | 4 | 289 | 360 | 341 | 257 | 1271 |
Wales | 10 | 2 | 167 | 305 | 241 | 190 | 915 |
West Midlands | 7 |
| 346 | 271 | 186 | 98 | 908 |
Yorkshire and the Humber | 20 | 3 | 326 | 293 | 200 | 114 | 956 |
Total | 218 | 36 | 3353 | 3779 | 2634 | 1572 | 11592 |
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what financial services the Post Office provides at (a) Crown post office and hosted Crown post office, (b) franchise post office, (c) Main post office, (d) post office Locals, (e) traditional sub-post office and (f) other types of post office branches.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Financial services such as Everyday Banking, Bill Payment and Postal Orders are available in over 11,500 Post Offices around the UK. Additional Post Office Money services are available on-line, over the phone, and in selected Post Office branches.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 effect the US Steel tariffs have had on the UK steel sector since they came into place.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
We are working closely with affected companies across the UK steel industry to fully evaluate the impact of these measures on the UK. The total value of US imports of steel from the UK in 2017 was £360m which amounts to 7% of UK steel exports.
We remain deeply disappointed that the US has decided to apply tariffs to steel and aluminium imports from the EU on national security grounds. The UK and other European Union countries are close allies of the US and should be permanently and fully exempted from the tariffs.
We will continue to work closely with the EU and US Administration to seek a constructive, permanent resolution to avoid further escalation that would harm businesses and consumers in both the US and EU.