Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the regulations in place for umbrella companies.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government remains committed to tackling those who use umbrella company arrangements as part of abusive tax avoidance schemes. In the Finance Act 2021, the Government introduced a package of measures to strengthen existing anti-avoidance regimes and tighten the rules designed to tackle promoters and enablers of tax avoidance schemes. On 23 March 2021, the Government launched a consultation on a further package of measures to tackle promoters and the UK entities that support them. We will be publishing a summary of responses to this consultation and next steps in due course.
In addition to this, the Government has already taken steps to improve transparency for agency workers, including those employed by umbrella companies, by bringing in the Key Information Document from 6 April 2020. The Government has also committed to expand state enforcement for agency workers to cover umbrella companies, which will enable inspectors to investigate relevant complaints involving umbrella companies and take enforcement action where required. This will require primary legislation which the Government will bring forward in due course.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
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 assist the hon. Member for West Lancashire in securing a response from the Chief Executive of Centrica plc, to a letter dated 19 February 2021 on a constituent's utility and repair bills, reference ZA55579.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Department has no record of being sighted on the letter dated 19 February 2021 from the hon. Member for West Lancashire to the Chief Executive of Centrica plc.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire on weddings dated 26 February 2021, reference ZA55766.
Answered by Paul Scully
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth wrote to you on 20 April about support for the wedding industry.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to respond to the letter dated 12 February 2021 from the hon. Member for West Lancashire on support programmes for those who heat their homes using oil, reference ZA55510.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Lord Callanan, wrote to the Hon. Member on 14 April 2021 about support for households to reduce energy bills.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
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 assist the hon. Member for West Lancashire in securing a response from the Chief Executive of Just Eat plc, to a letter dated 18 January 2021 on outstanding payments to a constituent, reference ZA55172.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department has no record of being sighted on the letter dated 18 January 2021 from the Hon. Member for West Lancashire to Just Eat PLC.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recourse people have who are extremely vulnerable to covid-19 in the event that they feel pressured into work by their employer.
Answered by Paul Scully
Government guidance on shielding and protecting those who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 states that this group of people are strongly advised to work from home. If they are unable to do so they should not attend work for this period of restrictions. The full guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19.
The Government’s safer working guidance makes clear what employers should do to support clinically vulnerable and clinically extremely vulnerable workers. In all instances, employers must carry out a workplace risk assessment and take action, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees. The Government’s safer working guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19.
If a worker has a concern about the safety of their workplace, they can raise this through their employee representative, trade union or directly to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or their local authority. Where HSE identifies employers who are not taking action to comply with the relevant public health legislation and guidance to control public health risks, they will consider taking a range of actions to improve control of workplace risks.
Individuals can seek impartial advice on their specific situation from ACAS (or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland). ACAS have also provided detailed guidance for those who are clinically vulnerable or extremely clinically vulnerable from COVID-19, which can be found here: https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus/vulnerable-people-and-high-risk.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
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 allocate additional financial support to businesses in the West Lancashire hospitality sector affected by covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) was announced on 9 September to support businesses in England that are required to close during enhanced local restrictions introduced in areas by Her Majesty’s Government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On 9 October, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced changes to the grants within this scheme to provide further support to businesses required to close due to local restrictions.
These grants will be issued for each two-week period that a business is closed following the implementation of statutory localised restrictions and business closures.
The Government continues to monitor local restrictions and will work closely with any Local Authorities that become eligible for this grant scheme.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
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 take steps to encourage (a) Proctor & Gamble and (b) Assist Recruitment to respond to correspondence from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 27 May 2020 on their employment policies.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department is unable to intervene in individual cases of correspondence.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much the Government has spent on subsidising biomass for electricity in each of the last three years, and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
Subsidies for generating electricity from biomass are paid under three low carbon electricity schemes: the Renewables Obligation, the Feed-in Tariff, and Contracts for Difference. The Renewables Obligation does not pay a direct subsidy: instead support is provided through tradeable certificates. The costs of the Contracts for Difference scheme are levied on consumer electricity bills.
The table below provides a breakdown of payments made to biomass electricity generators under the Renewables Obligation and Contracts for Difference schemes in the last three financial years where figures are available[1]:
Breakdown of payments made to biomass electricity generators by low carbon electricity support scheme | ||||
Scheme | 2017-18 (£m) | 2018-19 (£m) | 2019-20 (£m) |
|
Renewables Obligation[2] | 864.7 | 1,076.1 | 966.3[3] |
|
Contracts for Difference[4] | 247.3 | 380.2 | 449.1 |
|
[1] Figures are not available broken down by technology for the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
[2] Renewables Obligation figures are based on Ofgem’s certificate report as at 17 June 2020 from their Renewables and CHP Register.
[3] Renewables Obligation figures for 2019/20 are provisional as not all the certificates have been issued yet, and the full notional value of each certificate is not yet known.
[4] Contracts for Difference figures are from the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) CfD dashboard, which is available on LCCC’s website.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government remains committed to the traffic light system to regulate fracking following seismic activity.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Government has always been clear that it will only support the exploration of our shale gas resources in a safe and sustainable way. The Oil and Gas Authority is undertaking a scientific analysis of the data from Cuadrilla’s earlier operations in 2018 which will be published shortly. The Government will set out our future approach once we have considered the findings.