Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
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 make the UK a world leader in electric car manufacturing.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Government has a long-standing programme of support to maintain the competitiveness of the UK automotive sector. Through our Industrial Strategy and landmark Automotive Sector Deal, we are placing the UK at the forefront of new automotive technology development. Government and industry have committed £1 billion over 10 years to 2023 through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC). Government has also committed £274m to the Faraday Battery Challenge, and circa £80m in the last Budget to the Stephenson Challenge, newly named ‘Driving the Electric Revolution’.
In May 2018, as part of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister launched our mission to put the UK to be at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero emission vehicles and for all new cars and vans to be effectively zero emission by 2040. The Road to Zero strategy sets out a clear pathway to zero emissions. In order to achieve this, we are investing nearly £1.5bn between April 2015 and March 2021 with grants available for plug in vehicles, schemes to support chargepoint infrastructure and grant funding to support R&D into cleaner vehicle technologies.
There are a number of manufacturers already producing electric vehicles in the UK or with ambitious plans to begin production in coming years. The Nissan Leaf – manufactured in Sunderland - is currently the UK’s best-selling electric vehicle. From later this year, BMW’s MINI Electric – launched this month – will be made at its Oxford plant. Jaguar Land Rover also announced this month its commitment to invest in building a new range of electric vehicles at its Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham, and the first of the new vehicles to be produced will be the new, all-electric Jaguar XJ. In September 2018, Aston Martin Lagonda announced that its new production facility in Wales will become the home of its electric vehicle range.
Global demand for UK designed, engineered and manufactured vehicles is strong and the industry has one of the highest productivity levels in Europe. In 2018 the UK was the second largest market for ultra-low emission vehicles and the fourth largest market for battery electric vehicles in the European Union. The UK is also global leader in the development and manufacture of electric vehicles; in 2018 a fifth of battery electric cars sold in Europe were made in the UK. So far in 2019, sales of battery electric vehicles have increased significantly, up by 60% over the same period in 2018. There are 200,000 ultra-low emission battery electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles registered in the UK.
This Government will continue to work closely with the automotive industry, to ensure that it can succeed globally long into the future as it invests in electric car manufacturing. We are determined to ensure that the UK continues to be one of the most competitive locations in the world for the automotive sector.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps he has taken to protect workers rights in the gig economy.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Advances in technology and the rise of the gig economy have increased opportunities for people to work more flexibly. While we welcome these opportunities, they cannot be at the expense of workers’ rights.
That is why my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister commissioned Matthew Taylor to undertake his review of Modern Working Practices, and why we are taking the decisive action set out in the Good Work Plan to address his recommendations.
We have already made good progress. This Government have taken important steps to improve the transparency of information between workers and employers. Our research found that flexible workers, such as those in the gig economy, require stronger protections in terms of understanding the conditions of their employment before starting a job.
As such, we laid two statutory instruments in December that extends the right to a written statement to all workers and make access to a written statement a day one right.
Previously, an employee was entitled to a written statement after a month with the same employer. Our legislation means that from day one, workers in the gig economy have access to information such as maternity and paternity leave, specifics of when they are expected to work, whether the work is variable, and their eligibility for certain benefits.
This represents a significant step in the protection of workers rights in the gig economy and highlights our commitment to protecting the rights of workers across the country.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
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 potential effect of a four day working week on productivity.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Department is following trials of the four-day working week closely but has not yet conducted a robust assessment of the impacts.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
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 encourage more new parents to take up shared parental leave.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Between February and April 2018, we ran a £1.5m paid for communications campaign to promote Shared Parental Leave and Pay to eligible parents. This was supported by the publication of revised tools and guidance which make it easier for parents to understand and access the scheme.
We ran a further campaign between February and April 2019 to maintain the high levels of awareness that we achieved in 2018 and are planning further communications activity for 2019/20.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
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 encourage employers to be more flexible in their employee working hours.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Through the Industrial Strategy, the Government is working to transform our economy and ensuring that everyone, whatever their background, can access and progress at work.
Flexible working can play an important part in helping businesses to improve their productivity and recruit and retain the best available talent. All employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer have the right to request flexible working. The Government is also considering a new duty on employers to be clear when advertising a job whether it is available on a flexible basis.
In addition, the Government, with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, has established the Flexible Working Taskforce to promote wider understanding and implementation of inclusive flexible work and working practices. The taskforce has developed a high-level business case for flexible working guidance on flexible recruitment and continues to promote more flexible hiring through the on going campaign “Happy to Talk Flexible Working”.