Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to create a statutory definition of bullying at work.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Bullying and harassment are unacceptable and have no place in today’s workplace.
Bullying is not itself illegal, and the Government believes that the best way to address bad behaviour in the workplace is through cultural change.
The Government has published guidance on the steps that employees can take if they are experiencing bullying or harassment at work. This explains that anti-bullying and harassment policies can help prevent problems and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment.
Acas provides free and impartial advice for employers and employees and has published guidance for employers on preventing and handling bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints at work. This is available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/handling-a-bullying-harassment-discrimination-complaint.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent steps she has taken to reduce bullying in the workplace.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Bullying and harassment are unacceptable and have no place in today’s workplace.
Bullying is not itself illegal, and the Government believes that the best way to address bad behaviour in the workplace is through cultural change.
The Government has published guidance on the steps that employees can take if they are experiencing bullying or harassment at work. This explains that anti-bullying and harassment policies can help prevent problems and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment.
Acas provides free and impartial advice for employers and employees and has published guidance for employers on preventing and handling bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints at work. This is available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/handling-a-bullying-harassment-discrimination-complaint.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will take steps to help improve workplace (a) investigations and (b) enforcement in companies where there is a culture of bullying at work.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Bullying and harassment are unacceptable and have no place in today’s workplace.
Bullying is not itself illegal, and the Government believes that the best way to address bad behaviour in the workplace is through cultural change.
The Government has published guidance on the steps that employees can take if they are experiencing bullying or harassment at work. This explains that anti-bullying and harassment policies can help prevent problems and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment.
Acas provides free and impartial advice for employers and employees and has published guidance for employers on preventing and handling bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints at work. This is available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/handling-a-bullying-harassment-discrimination-complaint.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will take steps to work with employers where there is a high prevalence of bullying cases.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Bullying and harassment are unacceptable and have no place in today’s workplace.
Bullying is not itself illegal, and the Government believes that the best way to address bad behaviour in the workplace is through cultural change.
The Government has published guidance on the steps that employees can take if they are experiencing bullying or harassment at work. This explains that anti-bullying and harassment policies can help prevent problems and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment.
Acas provides free and impartial advice for employers and employees and has published guidance for employers on preventing and handling bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints at work. This is available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/handling-a-bullying-harassment-discrimination-complaint.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an estimate of the potential lost income to the economy as a result of bullying in the workplace in the last five years.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The department does not conduct research on the scale and impact of workplace bullying, including online.
Acas has published independent research which estimates the cost of workplace conflict more broadly. This measured conflicts at various stages and goes further than just bullying and harassment, including costs of mediation, absences and reduced productivity. This is available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/estimating-the-costs-of-workplace-conflict-report.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of bullying at work on levels of bullying in (a) schools and (b) other environments.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The department does not conduct research on the scale and impact of workplace bullying, including the impact on levels of bullying in schools and other environments.
All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying and have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies and monitoring approaches to best suit their environment.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an estimate of the number of working days that have been potentially lost due to bullying in the workplace in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The department does not conduct research on the scale and impact of workplace bullying, including online.
Acas has published independent research which estimates the cost of workplace conflict more broadly. This measured conflicts at various stages and goes further than just bullying and harassment, including costs of mediation, absences and reduced productivity. This is available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/estimating-the-costs-of-workplace-conflict-report.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an estimate of the proportion of workplace bullying that takes place online.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The department does not conduct research on the scale and impact of workplace bullying, including online.
Acas has published independent research which estimates the cost of workplace conflict more broadly. This measured conflicts at various stages and goes further than just bullying and harassment, including costs of mediation, absences and reduced productivity. This is available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/estimating-the-costs-of-workplace-conflict-report.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the impact of inflation on the construction industry.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
There has been a significant level of inflation in the price of construction products and materials, as a result of the impact of the pandemic on supply chains, and then the increase in the cost of energy and other disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Government continues to work with the industry to monitor and mitigate the impact of inflation, including through the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC’s) Product Availability Group. The ONS also publishes monthly statistics on the price of products and materials.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to clause 234E(1)(b) of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, if she will outline what reasonable steps she would expect a trade union to take in order to ensure that all members of the union who are identified in the work notice comply with that notice; and whether this instruction is compatible with (a) trade union governance structures and (b) the requirements of the Certification Officer.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The certification officer is responsible for regulating trade union finance and governance but has no locus in relation to industrial action.
There are a range of steps that trade unions could take, and what is considered reasonable will depend on each specific situation. However, a trade union should not call a union member identified in a work notice as required to work on a particular day out on strike that day. The trade union could also encourage those individual members to comply with the work notice and make it clear in their general communication with members that where members are named in a work notice, and therefore required to work on a particular day, they should attend work on that strike day.