Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of people on zero hour contracts in (a) Ealing Central and Acton constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Zero hours contracts are an important part of the UK’s flexible labour market. They are useful where there is not a constant demand for staff, allowing flexibility for both employers and individuals – like carers, people studying, or retirees. For some, a zero hours contract may be the type of contract which works best for them.
Individuals on zero hours contracts represent a very small proportion of the workforce. The ONS estimates that 155,000 people aged 16 and over were employed on a zero hours contract in London in April – June 2023, representing 3.3% of people in employment in the area.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to ensure that guide dog owners are not refused access to businesses and services.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Equality Act 2010 places a general duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to allow disabled people access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act. In 2017 it published two pieces of guidance - ‘a guide to help businesses understand what they can do to meet their legal duties to assistance dog owners’, and ‘a guide to help tourism businesses welcome people with access requirements’.
Duties and protections under the Equality Act are ultimately enforceable through the courts, and anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to seek to resolve the issue. The EHRC will support people who have experienced discrimination through that process.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Government is taking steps to help protect businesses from harmful fake online reviews.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Yes. The Government introduced the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill on 25 April. The DMCC Bill includes a delegated power to amend the list of automatically unfair practices in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
The Government will consult on the use of this power during bill passage with a view to adding practices related to fake and misleading reviews to the list of automatically unfair practices. This will give greater clarity to business on their responsibilities in relation to consumer reviews and allow enforcers to take effective action quickly.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a human rights and environmental due diligence law to increase protection for (a) environmental and (b) workers' rights.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government both encourages and supports the mostly voluntary, business-led, approach to due diligence; as set out in international frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises. Additionally, the Environment Act has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation, in order to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has made an assessment of the impact on customers of the potential closure of Royal Mail customer service points.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Decisions on the closure of customer service points are an operational matter for Royal Mail, provided they meet Ofcom’s regulatory requirement on Royal Mail, as the Designated Universal Service Provider, to provide access points for the universal service.
Whilst the Government has no role in Royal Mail’s operational decisions, I understand that Royal Mail has completed the first stage of its review of customer service points and decided to maintain the current estate.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of appointing a garment trade adjudicator.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In response to the Single Enforcement Body consultation published in 2021, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to continue engaging with enforcement bodies and industry partners to strengthen our understanding of the garment trade. We will continue to review this issue and consider options to drive up standards across the sector.
The fashion sector relies on complex supply chains crossing multiple borders. Retailers only have direct relationships with suppliers they have a contract with, not their tier 2 or 3 suppliers, and an adjudicator could not regulate relationships with sub-contractors. This raises issues in terms of feasibility of an adjudicator to effectively regulate the vast complexity of global fashion supply chains, and risks driving even more production offshore.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional time for parliamentary scrutiny before automatically revoking certain retained EU law.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Retained EU law (REUL) will automatically cease to exist after 31 December 2023 unless the Government takes steps to keep it as “assimilated law” under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. This provides the most effective way to remove unnecessary or outdated EU laws, without taking up resources and parliamentary time to revoke every such law individually, and additional time for parliamentary scrutiny is not necessary.
We will continue to update a published REUL dashboard which lists over 3,700 pieces of REUL to provide transparency about affected legislation. We will also be bringing forward an extensive programme of secondary legislation, subject to parliamentary scrutiny, to preserve, restate, or reform REUL where it is in the United Kingdom’s interests to do so. This includes powers to extend the sunset date, or revoke legislation proactively, in specific instances where this is more appropriate than a 31 December 2023 sunset.