Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage firms to pay a fair wage to workers in their overseas supply chains and (b) stop other forms of exploitation of those workers.
Answered by Jo Swinson
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has introduced a requirement for large listed companies to include in their Strategic Report information on human rights issues. This requirement will be further enhanced by the Non-Financial Reporting Directive, due to come into force by 2017, which specifically includes human rights due diligence and supply chains.
In December last year, I announced support from BIS for the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, which will assess and rank the human rights performance of 500 companies worldwide. The combination of enhanced disclosure and published assessments of company performance will provide a powerful incentive to businesses to ensure that workers in their overseas supply chains are free from exploitation and are paid fair wages.
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle the gender pay gap and (b) increase the number of women in the video games industry.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Changes to the national curriculum mean all children now have the opportunity to learn to code and initiatives such as the Your Life campaign, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Ambassadors help challenge gender stereotypes and encourage more girls to consider careers in the video games sector.
We are working with industry on developing new routes into video games development, including the Next Gen Skills Academy and Creative Skillset’s trainee placement scheme. Initiatives specifically designed to help address barriers to women working in the video games industry include the Next Gen Skills Academy's Gender Balance Workforce programme. This is investigating career challenges faced by women in the games industry and offering practical workshops and knowledge sharing, for employees and employers, based on the evidence collected.
For women in the workforce the Government has extended the right to request flexible working to all employees, and is introducing a new system of shared parental leave from April 2015. To help women return to the sector Government will provide support for a dedicated platform to match STEM trained women graduates to return to jobs in industry following career breaks and to provide them with advice and information about support on offer.
The Government will make free software available to all UK companies later this year which will enable them to calculate their gender pay gap easily, and help them identify issues preventing women from progressing in their career
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps the Government is taking to protect the economies of Scottish cities linked to the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Answered by David Mundell
The Secretary of State for Scotland has regular discussions with colleagues and industry leaders on support for the Oil and Gas sector in Scotland.
The UK Government has demonstrated its long term commitment to supporting this vital industry with a package of fiscal measures designed to ease the tax burden on the industry and expected to drive around £7 billion of additional investment. We are also delivering the full implementation of the Wood Review recommendations.
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the Government's policy is on handling and sharing personal data.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The UK Government takes the protection of people’s personal data very seriously. Where there is a legal basis to share information, the handling and sharing of personal data is primarily governed by the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), which establishes a legal framework of rights and obligations which protect personal information. The EU is currently negotiating a new data protection framework, which when agreed will repeal and replace the DPA.
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what measures are in place to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses, which have made losses as a result of having been sold inappropriate complex financial products including fixed rate swaps and embedded swaps, are fully compensated.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any business which feels it has been mis- sold a fixed-rate loan should contact its bank’s customer complaints department. The FCA’s rules require the banks to properly investigate all complaints and, through ongoing supervision, the FCA monitors the banks’ complaint handling process.
If a business is not happy with its bank’s response and the business has a turnover of less than €2 million and fewer than 10 employees, the business will be eligible to apply to have a further review conducted by the Financial Ombudsman Service
Additionally, if a business believes a bank has acted unlawfully, they can seek to take action through the courts.
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what amount the Government has allocated to the Creative Skillset Skills Investment Fund; how much of that funding has been allocated to the video games industry; and what assessment he has made of the effects of that funding.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
DCMS is investing up to £8 million each year in 13/14 and 14/15 through the Skills Investment Fund. With industry match funding, this will support skills development in the film, TV, and video games sectors. By March 2015, Creative Skillset estimate that in total, over £4,300,000 of SIF funding will have been spent on training for the games sector. One element of this Fund, the Trainee Finder scheme, has so far placed 122 trainees in 67 games companies.
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the effect of the result of the Scottish independence referendum on the Scottish economy.
Answered by Alistair Carmichael - Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Justice)
Scotland made the decision to remain part of the UK family – part of an economy that is expected to grow faster than any other G7 country this year, with a falling deficit and record numbers of people in work. We are part of a large and resilient economy that provides stability, opportunities and more prosperity to people and businesses in Scotland.
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effect of illegal settlements on the economic development of Palestine.
Answered by Justine Greening
Denying Palestinians access to the resources of Area C, whether through expanding illegal settlements, declaring closed military zones and national parks, or restricting movement and access, is crippling the Palestinian economy. The World Bank estimates that easing these restrictions could increase Palestinian GDP by 35%.
Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many sanctions were applied to jobseeker's allowance claimants in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland and (c) Dundee in each of the last three years.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Statistics on the number of Jobseeker's Allowance benefit claimants, who have been sanctioned in Great Britain, Scotland and Dundee, are published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance for users is available at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm
Information for Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Social Development. Northern Ireland statistics can be found at:
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research.htm