Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Government plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce an entitlement to leave for unpaid carers.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
This Government is determined to make Britain the best place in the world to work. As announced in the Queens’ Speech, we will be bringing forward an Employment Rights Bill to deliver the greatest reform of workers’ rights in over 20 years. This will include measures to introduce an entitlement to leave for unpaid carers.
The Government’s proposal is to introduce a week of unpaid Carer’s Leave. This will be in addition to existing employment rights, such as the right to request flexible working, annual leave and the right to time off for family and dependants which help employees balance work with caring responsibilities. In taking this forward, the Department will continue to engage widely to understand how carers’ needs can best be met.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2019 to Question 262229 on Compassionate Leave, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing statutory long-term leave for unpaid carers alongside the planned introduction of one weeks' additional leave.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
This Government is determined to make Britain the best place in the world to work. As announced in the Queens’ Speech, we will be bringing forward an Employment Rights Bill to deliver the greatest reform of workers’ rights in over 20 years. This will include measures to introduce an entitlement to leave for unpaid carers.
The Government’s proposal is to introduce a week of unpaid Carer’s Leave. This will be in addition to existing employment rights, such as the right to request flexible working, annual leave and the right to time off for family and dependants which help employees balance work with caring responsibilities. In taking this forward, the Department will continue to engage widely to understand how carers’ needs can best be met.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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’s plans to extend the entitlement to leave for unpaid carers to one week will be in the form of paid leave.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
This Government is determined to make Britain the best place in the world to work. As announced in the Queens’ Speech, we will be bringing forward an Employment Rights Bill to deliver the greatest reform of workers’ rights in over 20 years. This will include measures to introduce an entitlement to leave for unpaid carers.
The Government’s proposal is to introduce a week of unpaid Carer’s Leave. This will be in addition to existing employment rights, such as the right to request flexible working, annual leave and the right to time off for family and dependants which help employees balance work with caring responsibilities. In taking this forward, the Department will continue to engage widely to understand how carers’ needs can best be met.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2020 to Question 4707, when the Office for Product Safety and Standards will publish the findings of its fact-based evidence base on the key issues that have been raised around fireworks.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The work that the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is conducting to develop an evidence base is ongoing. It is continuing to review new and emerging data and will report in due course.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer to Question 119263 of 18 December 2017 on Fireworks: Antisocial Behaviour, to Question 119263, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of strengthening existing regulations on the (a) supply, (b) storage, (c) possession and (d) use of fireworks.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is developing a fact-based evidence base on the key issues that have been raised around fireworks. This includes looking at data on noise and disturbance, anti-social behaviour, non-compliance, environmental impact, and the impact on humans and animals. This will build a full picture of the data around fireworks in order to identify whether any further action is appropriate.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to prevent insolvency; and what assessment he has made of the disparity in insolvency rates between (a) regions of England and Wales and (b) men and women.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government is committed to helping people make good financial decisions, establishing the Money and Pensions Service to provide free support and guidance on all aspects of people’s financial lives. It has increased funding for the provision of debt advice in each of the past two years rising to almost £56million this year in England, which will deliver 560,000 debt advice sessions.
Where individuals do get into problem debt the government has announced it will deliver its manifesto commitment for a Breathing Space scheme, which will protect debtors from creditor action, help them get professional advice on their debt problems, and enable them to find an appropriate and sustainable debt solution.
The regional personal insolvency rate increased in 2018, driven mainly by individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), with all regions following the national trend.
Historically, males had a higher rate of insolvencies per 10,000 adults than females, but the gender gap noticeably narrowed from 2009 onwards and, by 2014, females began to have higher insolvency rates than males. This change coincided with a decline in the number of bankruptcies (where males have a higher rate of insolvency), the introduction and growth in the number of debt relief orders (where the rate for women is higher), and the narrowing and subsequent reversal of the gender gap for IVAs.
The latest data providing a breakdown of individual insolvencies can be found in Individual Insolvencies by Location, Age and Gender, England and Wales, 2018; released on 17th July 2019 on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress has been made on ensuring that (a) people who purchased a defective Whirlpool tumble driers are compensated and (b) those dryers are made safe.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
Under the agreed terms of the recall that Whirlpool is carrying out, consumers with an unmodified affected tumble dryer are entitled to a new replacement machine. This will be delivered and installed, with the old one removed, all at no cost. Alternatively, consumers can choose to upgrade to a different model for a reduced fee. A refund based on product age or a modification will be available to those consumers who do not want to take up the offer of a free replacement dryer from Whirlpool.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that people employed on zero-hours contracts are able to take advantage of employment rights which are gained after a period of qualifying service.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
An individual’s eligibility for statutory employment protections in the UK is determined by their employment status and not the type of work they do, or label given to the arrangement. Individuals who are on a zero hours contract, part-time contract, or any other type of flexible arrangement can still be eligible for the same statutory employment rights as any permanent, full-time individual if they are doing the same work.
The latest figures show that the proportion of people on zero hours contracts remains small (2.6 per cent of the labour force). The number of people reporting being employed on a zero hours contract is 57,000 fewer than for a year earlier.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of providing a statutory entitlement to up to 10 days paid care leave.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government recognises the challenges of balancing work and care. Improving support for carers to do so is a key part of the action plan that we published in June 2018.
The Department is working with colleagues across Government to consider the question of dedicated employment rights for carers alongside existing employment rights (such as the right to request flexible working and the right to time off for family and dependants).