Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish guidance to clarify whether overnight sleep-in shifts are exempt from the national living wage rate; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Margot James
The Government has published guidance to help employers meet national minimum wage legislation. The calculating the minimum wage document sets out on page 29 the guidance relating to National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) and sleeping time.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support library provision.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The Government, together with the Local Government Association, set up the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce in 2015. The Taskforce has already published Toolkits and case studies to assist local authorities. We have also been developing, with the Taskforce, a draft vision and action plan for public libraries in England and this will be published shortly.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, What the Government's commitments are to fulfil its obligations under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The principle of Article 5 – collective defence – is at the heart of NATO’s founding treaty. It is an enduring principle that binds NATO’s members together, and it is this unity that deters our adversaries.
The United Kingdom is fully committed to fulfilling the duty placed on us by Article 5, as we have repeatedly demonstrated through our substantial and continued commitment in Afghanistan, and contributions to NATO’s Enhanced Response Forces, air policing missions, and standing naval forces.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many doctors were working in hospitals in the West Midlands in (a) the first quarter of 2010 and (b) the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Data is not available in the format requested.
The number of full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the Health Education West Midlands area in the first quarter of 2010 and the latest period for which figures are available is shown in the table below:
Number of FTE doctors | First quarter of 2010 | October 2015 | ||
| April 2010 | May 2010 | June 2010 |
|
All Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) doctors (Including locums) | 9,680 | 9,660 | 9,615 | 10,746 |
| ||||
All HCHS doctors (non locum) | 9,383 | 9,365 | 9,328 | 10,518 |
Consultants (including Directors of public health) | 3,529 | 3,539 | 3,546 | 4,251 |
Registrars | 3,240 | 3,215 | 3,177 | 3,614 |
Other doctors in training | 1,366 | 1,360 | 1,357 | 1,449 |
Hospital practitioners and clinical assistants | 77 | 78 | 74 | 30 |
Other medical and dental staff | 1,170 | 1,173 | 1,174 | 1,176 |
| ||||
All HCHS doctors (locum) | 297 | 296 | 287 | 228 |
Consultants (including Directors of public health) (locums) | 209 | 202 | 200 | 194 |
Registrars (locums) | 35 | 37 | 37 | 14 |
Other doctors in training (locums) | 19 | 20 | 20 | 2 |
Hospital practitioners and clinical assistants (locums) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
Other medical and dental staff (locums) | 30 | 32 | 25 | 17 |
Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre, Provisional National Health Service HCHS monthly workforce statistics
Notes:
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will issue a call for evidence from industry and other stakeholders seeking suggestions on Government interventions and policies to further develop the energy efficiency and low carbon energy markets; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is in regular contact with industry and other stakeholders on energy efficiency and low carbon policies. At the Summer Budget in 2015 the Government announced that it would review the business energy efficiency tax landscape and consider approaches both to simplify the current framework and improve its effectiveness in driving energy efficiency and decarbonisation. The Government launched a consultation in September to seek evidence and set out policy proposals. This consultation closed in November 2015 and a full analysis of the responses is now underway. A formal response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the potential contribution to energy efficiency and low carbon energy from buildings markets to (a) improving infrastructure and (b) implementing the Government's (i) long-term economic plan, (ii) obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008 and (c) commitments to relieve fuel poverty.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is huge potential for buildings to contribute to our goals on reducing carbon, tackling fuel poverty, keeping bills down and driving economic growth. The UK’s housing stock accounts for around 30% of our energy consumption and a further 20% from non-domestic buildings. Collectively, once electricity emissions are taken into account, buildings make up around one third of our greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing building emissions is therefore key to meeting our Climate Change Act commitment of an 80% green-house gas emissions reduction by 2050.
Government is acting to harness this potential. A reformed domestic supplier obligation from April 2017, which will run for 5 years, will upgrade the energy efficiency of over 200,000 homes per year tackling the root cause of fuel poverty. Our extension of the Warm Home Discount to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per annum will also help vulnerable households with their energy bills.
Alongside this, we have set new minimum standards in law which will, from April 2018, require privately rented buildings to reach a standard of at least energy efficiency band E before they can be let.
In 2014 a total of 96,510 businesses were active in the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy sector, employing 232,500 full-time equivalent (FTEs) employees generating £45.3 billion of turnover. Over half of these businesses work in the production and supply of energy efficiency products.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the introduction of Staying Put arrangements on foster children.
Answered by Edward Timpson
Staying Put arrangements help to provide the security and stability that care leavers need to make a successful transition to adulthood. The Department for Education has provided funding of £44m to local authorities for 2014/15 to 2016/17 to support them in implementing the new duty.
Data published by my Department in October 2015 show that, for the year ending March 2015, 48% of eligible care leavers were in a Staying Put arrangement at age 18.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that good quality education is provided in (a) sixth form and (b) further education colleges.
Answered by Nick Boles
We are introducing reforms to ensure that all post 16 institutions are providing high quality academic and technical education. We are reforming A levels and technical qualifications so that they match the best in the world and ensure that young people are gaining the skills and knowledge they need to progress into employment, apprenticeships or further study.
A levels are now linear and technical qualifications approved for inclusion in 16-19 performance tables meet rigorous standards and are backed by employers. We will further reform technical and professional education to simplify and streamline the number of qualifications so that individuals have a clear set of routes which allow for progression to high level skills.