Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when her Department plans to bring forward regulations to implement the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023; and whether she plans to hold discussions with businesses that (a) supply and (b) use agency workers before doing so.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government is planning to bring the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 into force in Autumn 2024. We will hold discussions with businesses about the regulations, as part of our regular stakeholder engagement.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's publication entitled BEIS: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel, meetings, January to March 2023, published on 20 July 2023, what was spent on (a) flights and (b) accommodation during the Minister of State for Industry's visit to San Francisco on 7 to 11 February 2023.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The total cost of flights and accommodation for the Minister of State for Industry's visit to San Francisco from 7 to 11 February 2023 is included within the "BEIS ministerial travel, January to March 2023" transparency data published on GOV.UK.
The total cost of flights and accommodation for the Minister for Investment's visit to San Francisco from 10 to 14 January 2023 is included within the "DIT Ministers' Overseas Travel: January to February 2023" transparency data published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's publication entitled DIT ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, published 20 July 2023, what was spent on (a) flights and (b) accommodation during the Minister of State for Investment's visit to San Francisco on 10 to 14 January 2023.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The total cost of flights and accommodation for the Minister of State for Industry's visit to San Francisco from 7 to 11 February 2023 is included within the "BEIS ministerial travel, January to March 2023" transparency data published on GOV.UK.
The total cost of flights and accommodation for the Minister for Investment's visit to San Francisco from 10 to 14 January 2023 is included within the "DIT Ministers' Overseas Travel: January to February 2023" transparency data published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to round 19 of the National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme, published in June 2023, how many and what proportion of the named employers have now paid arrears to people who were paid less than the minimum wage.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government only names once HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has finished its investigations and once employers have repaid arrears to workers and paid the penalty to government.
Where there has been an underpayment, HMRC will instruct the employer to pay workers the arrears owed, and a penalty of up to 200% of arrears. In 2021/22, HMRC concluded over 2,800 minimum wage investigations and returned more than £16.3m in arrears to over 120,000 workers. HMRC issued 696 fines totalling £13.2m to businesses who had failed to pay the minimum wage.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of employers that were included on a National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme list published since January 2011 have not paid arrears to affected employees.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government only names once HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has finished its investigations and once employers have repaid arrears to workers and paid the penalty to government.
Where there has been an underpayment, HMRC will instruct the employer to pay workers the arrears owed, and a penalty of up to 200% of arrears. In 2021/22, HMRC concluded over 2,800 minimum wage investigations and returned more than £16.3m in arrears to over 120,000 workers. HMRC issued 696 fines totalling £13.2m to businesses who had failed to pay the minimum wage.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2023 to Question 184678 on Conditions of Employment: EU Law, how many hon. Members contacted her on that matter.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The information can only be obtained at disproportionate cost and would fall above the £850 cost threshold to retrieve this information.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2023 to Question 184678 on Conditions of Employment: EU Law, if she will publish the cost of retrieving that information.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The information can only be obtained at disproportionate cost and would fall above the £850 cost threshold to retrieve this information.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2023 to Question 184678 on Conditions of Employment: EU Law, which Hon. members wrote to her on that matter.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The information can only be obtained at disproportionate cost and would fall above the £850 cost threshold to retrieve this information.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of energy costs on the hair and beauty sector; and what meetings (a) she and (b) officials in her Department has had with business leaders from that sector on energy costs.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
We recognise the importance of hair and beauty businesses and their significant challenges with energy costs. We meet regularly with businesses through ministerial roundtables and official-level engagement.
The Government has introduced a range of measures to support businesses with energy costs including the £18bn Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the Energy Bills Discount Scheme, and the Energy Advice Service. I have also written to Ofgem to discuss small business’ relationships with their energy suppliers and encourage fair treatment.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Written Statement of 10 May 2023, HCWS764, on Regulatory Reform Update, if she will publish the advice her Department has received on the risks of legal uncertainty posed by sunsetting instruments made under EU law.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Amendments to the Bill have been laid at the Lords Report stage that will amend the operation of the sunset by introducing a schedule of legislation to be revoked. This Schedule should provide increased legal certainty and clarity for all stakeholders on retained EU law that will be revoked by 31 December 2023. These amendments were further debated during Commons Consideration of Lords Amendments on 24 May and remain part of the Bill.