Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make a comparative assessment of the effect of tariffs on steel imports in the EU and the US.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Each anti-dumping case is different. Moreover the levels of dumping and injury occurring in EU and US markets may be very different. The Government examines the evidence in all EU anti-dumping cases closely before taking a view.
The Government believes that effective trade defence measures should be proportionate, not protectionist, and strike a balance between removing the injury to producers caused by dumping, and avoiding imposing unnecessary costs on user industries, retailers, consumers and the rest of the economy. The evidence we have to date is that duties that have been imposed on imports of Chinese steel into the EU have been effective in delivering rapid, substantial and sustained reductions in imports. For example, imports of wire rod, organic coated steel and stainless steel flat products are down by more than 90%.
Where the European Commission has set duties that we believe to be too low to remove the injury caused to EU industry by dumped imports, we will push for them to be increased, as we have done in the reinforcing bar and cold rolled flat products cases.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the Government's policy is on the granting of market economy status to China.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Government believes it is important that World Trade Organisation members meet their international obligations. But we are also committed to tackling unfair trade and ensuring that the Commission continues to have the necessary tools available to do this.
China’s 2001 Protocol of Accession to the WTO removes certain provisions after 15 years, so countries may need to alter the methodology for calculating dumping when conducting anti-dumping investigations involving China. In such an event, the EU would still be able to impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures against China, just as it does against Russia, the US and other market economies. We recognise there are real concerns about this. We are committed to discussing implementation of the Protocol's requirements with our international partners.
The European Commission is due to present its proposals in this area in the summer. Alongside its proposal, the Commission is expected to present a detailed assessment of the legal, economic and social impacts of this issue. It conducted a consultation earlier this year to collect evidence to inform its assessment and on possible measures to mitigate any adverse effects on EU industry. We welcome this and will examine the Commission’s proposal and impact assessment carefully before deciding our position.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many Renewables Obligation Certificates have been issued to steel producers who have recycled energy in their steel plants.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewable Obligation is designed to support investment in renewable electricity to meet our EU renewables target and contribute towards our wider low carbon goals. It only supports electricity generated from renewable non-fossil sources. This definition is taken from the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC and is set out in the Renewables Obligation Order 2015.
To date, no steel producer has accredited under the Renewable Obligation and so no Renewable Obligation Certificates have been issued to steel producers.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the value was of (a) private and (b) public sector investment in the British steel industry in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Anna Soubry
This information is not collected centrally. However, the following are examples of Government investments in the UK metals sector since 2008:
Information on private sector investment in the steel industry is not available from official sources.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what meetings he has initiated on steel in the last two years.
Answered by Anna Soubry
It is an established convention that Ministers of one Administration cannot see the documents of a previous Administration. I am therefore unable to provide the information requested by the hon Member for the entire period given in his Question.
I first met with Gareth Stace on 01 June 2015 and discussions with steel industry stakeholders continued thereafter to identify the policy priorities for dealing with the considerable challenges facing the sector. We convened a Steel Summit on 16 October 2015 which brought together all the major stakeholders, including key Government and industry participants as well as constituency MPs, recognising the significant part steel companies play in local communities. This led to the formation of three Ministerial Working Groups which took the lead on our efforts to deliver on the five key ‘Asks’ put to us by our partners in the steel industry.
To ensure a sustainable future we set up the Steel Council, co-chaired by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to build on the achievements of the three previous Ministerial working groups, by looking at the longer term future of the sector and how we can strengthen the capability and competiveness of the UK steel industry both at home and globally. The Council met for the first time on 2 March.
Since this Government took office, BIS Ministers have undertaken a number of visits to steel-producing sites across the UK, including: SSI Redcar; Tata Steel facilities at Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Rotherham; Celsa in Cardiff and the former-Tata Steel site at Motherwell recently re-opened by Liberty Steel.
To date we have made significant progress in addressing the challenges faced by the industry, including:
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information he holds on the number of private sector employment agencies in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Nick Boles
According to the Office for National Statistics the number of employment placement agencies and temporary agencies is given in the table below.
2015 | 22,445 |
2014 | 19,440 |
2013 | 18,180 |
2012 | 17,865 |
2011 | 17,515 |
2010 | 18,195 |
Data on number of the employment agency businesses are not available on a consistent basis prior to 2010. This is due to changes in methodology and the industrial classification system.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he last reviewed his Department's industrial strategy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
At the Science and Technology Select Committee on the science budget and spending review held on Tuesday 19 January my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills stated that he wanted to see sector strategies that were formed under the coalition Government’s industrial strategy refreshed, as those strategies were put in place a number of years ago. My right hon. Friend has had meetings with many of the sector councils to discuss this and will continue to meet with sector councils and others, to consider what more the Government can do to support these industries and their growth.
My right hon. Friend also explained that there is an open door policy from his department to all industries, including newer industries and those that don’t yet have formal sector strategies.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to his oral contribution of 18 April 2016, Official Report, column 712, on the national minimum wage, how many of the employers who approached his Department and requested not to be named and shamed for breaking national minimum legislation were named and shamed.
Answered by Nick Boles
Since the naming scheme began we have named 490 employers and received 107 representations from employers asking not to be named. Of these 107 employers 85 were ultimately named.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to his oral contribution of 18 April 2016, Official Report, column 712, on the national minimum wage, what correspondence his Department has received from employers asking not to be named and shamed for breach of the legislation in each year since that approach was implemented.
Answered by Nick Boles
Since the naming scheme began we have received 107 representations from employers asking not to be named: 1 in 2013, 35 in 2014 and 71 in 2015.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many jobs there were in the manufacturing sector in each region and constituent part of the UK in each of the last 10 years; and what proportion of all jobs such jobs were in each such year.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Data on the number and proportion of manufacturing employees in each region and constituent country of the UK is available from the Office for National Statistics Employee Jobs data.
Please note that this covers employees only and excludes the self-employed.
The data requested is given below.
Employee Jobs in Manufacturing by Region and Country of the UK
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
North East | 129 | 128 | 121 | 116 | 113 |
North West | 364 | 361 | 334 | 329 | 305 |
Yorks/Humber | 288 | 283 | 267 | 253 | 248 |
East Midlands | 279 | 277 | 264 | 257 | 258 |
West Midlands | 350 | 331 | 318 | 285 | 280 |
East of England | 247 | 243 | 232 | 220 | 214 |
London | 144 | 139 | 133 | 118 | 111 |
South East | 302 | 297 | 287 | 267 | 265 |
South West | 244 | 245 | 232 | 224 | 216 |
Wales | 157 | 156 | 156 | 140 | 129 |
Scotland | 214 | 212 | 201 | 189 | 176 |
Northern Ireland | 84 | 84 | 82 | 75 | 73 |
UK | 2,800 | 2,755 | 2,626 | 2,472 | 2,388 |
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| 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
North East | 107 | 110 | 109 | 110 | 116 |
North West | 316 | 296 | 302 | 314 | 328 |
Yorks/Humber | 247 | 249 | 246 | 258 | 262 |
East Midlands | 249 | 261 | 253 | 251 | 256 |
West Midlands | 277 | 275 | 280 | 294 | 299 |
East of England | 221 | 226 | 213 | 216 | 212 |
London | 106 | 107 | 106 | 112 | 115 |
South East | 262 | 254 | 242 | 239 | 237 |
South West | 213 | 218 | 217 | 214 | 214 |
Wales | 133 | 133 | 138 | 147 | 145 |
Scotland | 178 | 180 | 174 | 182 | 189 |
Northern Ireland | 74 | 74 | 75 | 77 | 80 |
UK | 2,384 | 2,383 | 2,356 | 2,414 | 2,453 |