Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of money distributed from the Energy Entrepreneur Fund has been given projects where a female lead was the head of the lead partner of the project.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In the last round of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund (Round 8), the average grant won by female led applications was £504,797 and the average grant won by male led applications was £516,276. The difference between these two figures is not statistically significant.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help ensure that future funding given for the Energy Entrepreneur Fund achieves a gender balance.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Energy Entrepreneurs Fund has collected data on the gender of the principal applicants in all previous rounds and analysis has shown there is no statistical difference in success rates between female and male applicants. The Department will continue to monitor this in future rounds of the scheme to ensure this remains the case.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of Innovate UK funding has been allocated to businesses led by women in financial year (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21 to date.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Innovate UK does not currently hold data in this form. Innovate UK are committed to encouraging diversity and inclusion in business innovation, they wish to find the best and most talented innovators from a diverse range of backgrounds, and provide them with the resources, advice and self-belief to succeed.
Programmes have been implemented to tackle the low number of female applicants, for example the Women in Innovation programme, launched in 2016, and the Young Innovators programme, launched in 2017.
Since 2017, Innovate UK have shared an EDI survey with people registering for support to gather EDI data, however, low completion rates (16%) resulting from this approach has required a change. From June 2020, all applicants for Innovate UK competitions are required to complete a new EDI survey. The survey asks questions on gender, age, ethnicity and disability status. This data will then be aggregated, anonymised and analysed to inform future actions to address under-representation across competitions.
Historic data analysis indicates that between 2013 and 2016, 14.3% of applications submitted were led by a woman. Analysis since 2016 indicates that this percentage has increased to around 24% (70% increase) and can be attributed to the focus on Women in Innovation, including the Innovate UK 2019 Women in Innovation Awards. A new competition for Women in Innovation Awards opened on 1 September 2020.
Most recently, Innovate UK’s “Business-led innovation in response to global disruption” competition (Open April 2020), 21.7% of applications were woman-led. This is in line with the levels we have seen since the growth of woman-led applications following the Women in Innovation focus.
On International Women’s Day, the Government committed almost £3 million and a package of business support to help inventions by women and young people like clean energy solutions and healthcare services. Over 100 entrepreneurial women and young people are set to benefit from government-backed funds to turn inspiring ideas into thriving businesses.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on support for disabled employees of Arlington Automotive following the insolvency of that company and resulting job losses.
Answered by Paul Scully
Three companies in the Arlington Group entered administration on 7 May 2020. When any company becomes insolvent and redundancies are made, it is undoubtedly a distressing time for the company’s employees and workers and my officials at the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service are ensuring that relevant payments are made. Former employees of the Arlington Group can claim redundancy payments and other contractual amounts (subject to statutory limits) such as unpaid wages, notice pay and outstanding holiday pay from the National Insurance Fund.
BEIS officials are working closely with the administrators to identify and offer support to ensure that employees who may require assistance because of a disability, are helped to submit claims so that they can be paid as soon as possible. I also understand that officials in the Solihull Jobcentre have been supporting affected employees by providing help and explaining the support that is available through Jobcentre plus.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what gender awareness training staff at the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate have undertaken in relation to their inspections of employment agencies’ practices; and whether the inspectorate has a gender awareness strategy in place for those inspections.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
All staff in the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate have to undertake mandatory training on diversity and inclusion, including unconscious bias training. The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate has a published enforcement policy statement which details their approach to conducting inspections:
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Government plans to publish its response to the ethnicity pay gap consultation; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The consultation on ethnicity pay reporting closed on 11 January 2019 and we received over detailed 300 responses. We are currently analysing responses and will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether any Ministers from his Department attended the Presidents Club Charity Dinner run by the Meller Educatonal Trust in an official capacity.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
There were no Ministers from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy present at this event.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
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 promote and enable partners to share parental leave.
Answered by Margot James
Shared Parental Leave and Pay came into effect in December 2014 for the parents of children due or placed for adoption from 5 April 2015. The Coalition Government ran a multi-channel campaign comprising of PR, digital and advertising activity aimed at parents and their employers leading up to the scheme coming into effect. The scheme received national press coverage at the time of introduction and subsequently, and was also promoted through a number of stakeholder focussed events, targeted at parents, employers and HR professionals.
Information and advice on shared parental leave is available on GOV.UK and through Acas.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what research his Department has recently undertaken into the potential benefits of increasing paternity leave for men.
Answered by Margot James
In 2011, the Coalition Government consulted on a number of options to modernise employment entitlements relating to families. This led to the introduction of Shared Parental Leave and Pay for working parents; and the provisions in the Children and Families Act 2014 which enable Ministers to make Regulations to extend paternity leave and increase the rate of pay.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what grants and schemes his Department offers to small and medium-sized businesses to encourage innovation.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
My Department and its partner organisations are working to make the UK the best place in Europe to innovate, patent new ideas, start and grow a business. Innovate UK delivers a range of programmes to support business-led innovation, including tools specifically designed for early-stage small and medium sized businesses.
The Spending Review protects, in cash terms, total spending on innovation through Innovate UK. We are also expanding the network of Catapult Centres, which provide valuable innovation support to businesses, and helps turn their ideas into world-beating commercial applications. There are currently nine Catapults with a further two due to open later this year.
The UK Intellectual Property Office provides a wide range of support to businesses of all sizes through its on-line tools and direct engagement, including an IP audit scheme targeted at high growth SMEs.
Support is also provided by the Government through R&D tax credits, which now support between 70% and 80% of all business investment in R&D. In 2013/14 there were 18,000 companies using the R&D tax credit schemes, claiming a total of £1.75 billion. In addition, in the area of capital allowances, the permanent level of the Annual Investment Allowance has increased from £25,000 to £200,000 for all qualifying investment in plant and machinery made by business on or after 1 January 2016. 100% relief for capital expenditure incurred in the course of R&D activities is available under the Research & Development Allowance.