Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the chemical industry on potential chemicals stockpiling before the end of the transition period.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Ministers and officials are engaging regularly with representatives across the chemicals industry on all areas relating to the end of the transition period.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what advice he has given to local authorities on providing financial support for fox hunts from covid-19 funding schemes during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government put forward an unprecedented package of support, including loan schemes, grant funding and wage packages, to help as many individuals and business as possible during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This support package included the?Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF) which was provided via local authorities to support small businesses and businesses in some of the sectors?hardest hit by the measures taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The Government also created a Local Authority Discretionary Grants Scheme to ensure that local authorities could use their knowledge and discretion to direct funds to businesses not covered by the SBGF or the RHLGF. In recognition that economic need varied across the country, government set some national criteria for this fund but allowed local authorities to determine which cases to support within those criteria.
The guidance provided to local authorities on all three of these schemes are available on gov.uk. No specific advice in respect of fox hunts was provided to local authorities as part of the guidance around these schemes.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to expand the powers of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate to include workers employed by umbrella bodies in enforcing the provisions of the Employment Agencies Act 1973.
Answered by Paul Scully
We have already made significant progress in improving the rights of agency workers, in particular by increasing the information they receive about pay rates, including when they are employed by umbrella companies.
The Government has committed to expand the remit of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate to include umbrella companies. In the Queen’s Speech we announced our intention to bring forward an Employment Bill. We will bring forward detailed proposals on future legislation in due course.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
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 the £2 billion of funding to help homeowners and landlords make their homes more energy-efficient in 2020-21 announced in the Chancellor's Plan for Jobs does not include water efficiency measures.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
In his Summer Economic Update, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £2bn Green Home Grant scheme that will support homeowners and landlords in England to improve the energy efficiency of their properties, reducing energy bills and carbon emissions, and supporting a green economic recovery.
The funding will be spent on paying for accredited tradespeople to install a range of measures, for example insulation, to improve the energy performance of their homes. Further detail on the range of measures will be announced in the coming days, before the full launch.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what differences were identified between physiotherapists and sport therapists which led to the Government issuing guidance for those businesses to reopen on separate dates as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Paul Scully
Close contact services – which includes sports and massage therapy – in England, except Leicester, were able to reopen from Monday 13 July, subject to them following the COVID-secure guidelines.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the evidential basis is for the decision to delay the reopening of sports therapists in England; and what comparative assessment he has made between that evidence and that used by the devolved Administrations to reopen sports therapists in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Answered by Paul Scully
We’ve now provided close contact services, including sports therapists in England except Leicester, with the certainty they need to reopen from Monday 13 July, subject to them following the Government’s COVID-secure guidelines.
We need to be confident services are able to reopen in a COVID-secure way for the staff and customers. Our approach is guided by the scientific and medical advice, and our guidance has been developed with input from firms, unions, industry bodies and the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and in consultation with Public Health England (PHE) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Hairdressers were the initial phase of safely reopening close contact services, and we are now assured that the necessary steps can be taken to reopen the rest of the sector.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on allergen labelling for (a) toothpaste and (b) other non food items that can contain milk protein.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals on allergen labelling for toothpaste and other non-food items that contain milk protein.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding was allocated to research into electric aviation in the last five years.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are various R&D funding programmes that can help support electric aviation, such as the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge (£80 million), ATI Programme (government investment of £1.95 billion), Future Flight Challenge (£125 million) and Faraday Challenge (£274 million). These programmes also support a broad range of other electric or aerospace-related technologies.