Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much time off in lieu has been taken by staff in his Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
This information is not held centrally.
BEIS is committed to maintaining working hours for all workers that comply with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR). The provisions of the WTR are incorporated into BEIS's terms, conditions and policies. Our Working Time policy is published on our intranet and accessible to all staff.
Line Managers are responsible for ensuring that staff are aware of the hours they are required to work and the arrangements for taking appropriate breaks so that working time is complied with. Managers are also responsible for monitoring the working hours of their staff. Any time off in lieu taken because of excess hours worked is agreed at a local level between an employee and their line manager.
BEIS operates a variety of flexible working approaches where, subject to the needs of their team and the business, individuals can agree working hours/patterns with their manager which enable them to maintain their work/life balance.
BEIS follows the Civil Service Wellbeing Strategy - ensuring the good health and wellbeing of our staff is a priority for us. We have a range of support in place for our employees which includes the delivery of an ongoing programme of in-house health and wellbeing events and access to employee assistance programmes. BEIS promotes good mental health for all and has trained in-house Mental Health First Aiders. We have also delivered a tranche of “Wellbeing Confident Leadership” training to around 69% of our Senior Civil Servants to enable them to create a working environment which recognises the importance of individual wellbeing and how this might be affected by working patterns and practices.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons 31.2 per cent of freedom of information requests received by his Department were not fulfilled within the 20-day deadline in 2018.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) the 20 working day deadline for response to requests for information may be extended in order to consider the balance of public interest regarding disclosure of held information.
In 2018, 82% of requests received by the Department were answered within the statutory 20-day deadline or with a permitted extension. In the first quarter of 2019, 68% of requests were answered within the 20-day deadline or with a permitted extension.
The complexity and diverse nature of the Department means that individual requests may require the involvement of more than one area of the Department and/or consultation with key stakeholders. Regrettably this can sometimes lead to delays in the Department’s ability to providing a timely response.
The Department remains committed to improving the number of requests answered within the statutory deadline and is working closely with officials across the Department.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason only 55.4 per cent of FOI requests received by his Department in the first quarter of 2019 were met within the 20-day deadline.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) the 20 working day deadline for response to requests for information may be extended in order to consider the balance of public interest regarding disclosure of held information.
In 2018, 82% of requests received by the Department were answered within the statutory 20-day deadline or with a permitted extension. In the first quarter of 2019, 68% of requests were answered within the 20-day deadline or with a permitted extension.
The complexity and diverse nature of the Department means that individual requests may require the involvement of more than one area of the Department and/or consultation with key stakeholders. Regrettably this can sometimes lead to delays in the Department’s ability to providing a timely response.
The Department remains committed to improving the number of requests answered within the statutory deadline and is working closely with officials across the Department.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the amount of unpaid overtime worked by staff in his Department in the last 24 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
BEIS does not keep a record of unpaid overtime worked in the Department.
There may be occasions when employees have to work more than their conditioned hours. In these circumstances staff below the Senior Civil Service are be able to claim overtime or time off in lieu for the additional hours that have been worked.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to conduct an investigation into the effect of Interserve's entry into administration on that company's creditors.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The effect of Interserve Plc’s administration on creditors is an issue for the administrators who will advise of repayment prospects. The administrators have a legal duty to report confidentially to the Insolvency Service about the conduct of the directors.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many people working on the Local Land Charges Programme are (a) contingent labour, (b) supplier resource and (c) civil servants.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
As of 26th March, the Programme has the following full-time equivalents:
Contingent Labour – 2
Supplier Resource – 59
Civil Servants - 66.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the value of contracts held by his Department with (a) Deloitte, (b) Slaughter and May and (c) Mott MacDonald is in the last two years.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy holds a contact register detailing all live contracts with a whole life value of over £100K. The data from this register shows a contract value of;
(a) Deloitte £155,960;
(b) Slaughter and May £0;
(c) Mott MacDonald £5,293,380.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the corrected Answer of 22 January 2019 to Question 206251, how many civil servants in his Department were working part or full-time on projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio in (a) June 2016 and (b) December 2018.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The GMPP is a continually evolving portfolio of the Government’s most complex and high risk projects. Direct comparisons of the GMPP across years should therefore be treated with caution. Projects join and leave the GMPP throughout the year and it is therefore likely that a simple comparison across two time points will refer to different sets of projects.
At the end of June 2016 (i.e. the end of the Quarter 1 reporting period for 2016-17), 199 officials in BEIS were working on GMPP projects.
GMPP data for December 2018 (Q3 2018/19) has not yet been cleared and finalised.
This data refers to public sector employees, defined as those who are directly in the employment of the Civil or Crown Service, local government or Arms’ Length Body at the relevant snapshot date, including seconded members of staff who join the team as Civil, Crown or Public servants.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 3 September 2018 to Question 168999, if he will expedite the completion and publication of the investigation into the collapse of Carillon by the Official Receiver.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
A specialist investigation team was set up by the Official Receiver on the making of the winding-up order and, at the request of the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, the investigation into the company including analysis of company records, interviews with directors and close liaison with other investigating authorities is being expedited.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees relating to the UK leaving the EU since July 2016.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy spent £3.68m on EU Exit consultancy services for the period October 2017 to September 2018. Prior to October 2017 expenditure was aggregated as part of the Department’s overall consultancy spend and cannot be reported separately.