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Written Question
Public Lavatories: Men
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2023 to Question 189864 on Public Lavatories: Men, when the Health and Safety Executive plans to review its guidance on the disposal of sanitary dressings in toilets for men; and whether there will be a public consultation on this matter.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

HSE is the workplace regulator therefore the legislation and guidance will apply to toilets used by workers in workplaces made available to them as a place of work.

HSE have begun a review of the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and guidance for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations. They currently estimate they will be in a position to carry out a public consultation in summer 2024.

However, in the meantime, HSE have updated their web guidance to ensure it is clear that provision must be made for any worker with a disability to enable them to have access to facilities which are adjusted to their use if necessary.


Written Question
Universal Credit: Childcare
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Universal Credit claimants received childcare support in the latest year for which data is available.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Statistics on the number of households in receipt of Universal Credit are published every three months. The latest statistics are available by the number of households who either receive or do not receive the childcare element, to August 2022, on Stat-Xplore.


Written Question
Employment: Death
Wednesday 25th January 2023

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many fatalities have occurred in the workplace by sex in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

As the regulator for workplace health and safety, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) collects information on fatal injuries resulting from work-related accidents.

Statistics of work-related fatal injuries by sex are published by HSE on HSE’s website. Published statistics for work-related fatal injuries by sex for 2017/18 to 2021/22 are as follows:

Number of fatal injuries to workers

Year

All

Male

Female

2017/18

141

135

6

2018/19

149

142

7

2019/20

113

110

3

2020/21 (revised)

145

141

4

2021/22 (provisional)

123

116

7

Source: Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain reportable under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR).


Written Question
Kickstart Scheme
Wednesday 18th May 2022

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart scheme placements have been (a) approved, (b) advertised and (c) started by young people in each (i) sector, (ii) region and (iii) nation as of 11 May 2022.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The most recent data available is for the 8 May 2022. At that point over 162,600 Kickstart jobs had been started by young people. The last Kickstart jobs were started by young people on 31 March 2022, and we expect the number of starts to increase further as employers report commencement of employment.

We have previously published the number of jobs approved and advertised as of 31 January 2022, here. At that point, over 235,000 jobs had been advertised and over 305,000 had been approved. Kickstart has now closed to employer applications and, as of March 2022, all approved jobs proceeding to the advertisement stage, have been advertised. As such, these totals will not increase further.

Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 8 May 2022 and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

Jobs made available (advertised) and job starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs. Also included in the Great Britain total are a small number of jobs made available (less than 100 in total) that have an unrecorded job location.

The number of approved jobs is defined as the number of jobs associated with approved applications recorded on the Kickstart application system on the date above. This total excludes approved jobs that have been withdrawn from the Kickstart Scheme by agreement with employers and gateways. This is generally because, over time, some previously approved jobs were removed where the employer chose not to follow up the application.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.

Table 1: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by nation and region (figures rounded to nearest 100*)

Total jobs made available

Total jobs started

Region / Nation Split

(DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22)

(DATA EFFECTIVE 08/05/22)

Total, Great Britain

235,000

162,600

England

204,000

140,200

East Midlands

14,000

10,300

East of England

18,000

11,800

London

51,000

32,800

North East

11,000

8,100

North West

30,000

20,600

South East

26,000

17,300

South West

14,000

9,800

West Midlands

21,000

15,800

Yorkshire and The Humber

19,000

13,700

Scotland

19,000

14,300

Wales

12,000

8,000

Table 2: Number of Kickstart total available jobs and job starts, Great Britain, by Sector (figures rounded to the nearest 10*)

Sector Split

Total jobs made available

Total jobs started

(DATA RETAINED FROM 31/01/22)

(DATA EFFECTIVE 08/05/22)

Administration

57,350

40,000

Animal Care

1,610

1,330

Beauty & Wellbeing

1,720

1,320

Business & Finance

8,500

5,930

Computing Technology & Digital

15,840

12,360

Construction & Trades

7,230

5,190

Creative & Media

20,990

16,730

Delivery & Storage

6,380

4,430

Emergency & Uniform Services

520

360

Engineering & Maintenance

7,080

4,900

Environment & Land

4,620

3,450

Government Services

1,000

710

Healthcare

6,140

3,460

Home Services

1,560

900

Hospitality & Food

26,380

14,060

Law & Legal

650

520

Managerial

960

660

Manufacturing

6,430

4,400

Retail & Sales

34,970

26,450

Science & Research

990

790

Social Care

4,740

2,640

Sports & Leisure

5,920

4,170

Teaching & Education

11,000

6,800

Transport

900

460

Travel & Tourism

1,110

580

* Due to rounding, sum of figures may not match declared total


Written Question
Kickstart Scheme
Monday 28th September 2020

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the requirement that placements on the Kickstarter scheme be submitted in batches of 30 to batches of five.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

We will keep the 30 vacancy minimum under review throughout the scheme, which is open until December 2021 for the funding of new jobs.


Written Question
Statutory Sick Pay
Thursday 26th March 2020

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will help companies by extending statutory sick pay to gardening leave so employees stay with the companies they work in.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that everyone should be supported to do the right thing.


Written Question
Statutory Sick Pay: Coronavirus
Thursday 26th March 2020

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending statutory sick pay to people who are not self-isolating due to covid-19 but their place of employment has no work as a result of that infection.

Answered by Justin Tomlinson

As both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID 19 and we have been clear in our intention that everyone should be supported to do the right thing.


Written Question
Children: Maintenance
Wednesday 26th February 2020

Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support parents that have (a) ongoing claims and (b) been waiting for payment of arrears for up to 10 years through the Child Maintenance Service (CMS); whether she plans to reduce the amount of time before the CMS seeks a court order for enforcement of payment of arrears; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing greater penalties for parents that avoid making payments in cases where there are substantial arrears.

Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Where paying parents fail to pay their maintenance on time and in full, the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) aim to take immediate action to recover the debt and re-establish compliance using its range of enforcement powers.

If all efforts to re-establish compliance have been exhausted and the paying parent is employed, the Service can deduct their maintenance and any arrears directly from their earnings. The CMS can also deduct directly from bank accounts as a lump sum or regular amount. We have a range of other strong enforcement powers, including the use of Enforcement Agents to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, disqualification from holding a UK passport or commitment to prison.

The CMS is committed to using its wide ranging enforcement powers proportionally, and in the best interests of children and separated families, and must consider on a case by case basis whether taking action will secure more money for children.

Since 2018 we have introduced new collection and enforcement powers. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the new powers. At present we have no plans to further extend these powers.