Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to bring forward proposals for three days of paid volunteering leave for employees.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is keen to see greater corporate responsibility on the part of employers and to encourage the public sector, charities and businesses to consider their impact on society. Employer-supported volunteering can help to build stronger communities and a stronger economy, by helping charities and community groups to do more and by creating a more motivated and productive workforce. Many public sector organisations and businesses already run impressive volunteering programmes.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
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 announcement made by his Department on 27 March 2017 on new guidance to support working mothers of premature babies, what progress has been made on drawing up of such guidance; and whether it is still the Government's policy to publish guidance for employers.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is committed to supporting working parents with premature babies. We are working with the Advisory, Conciliation & Arbitration Service (Acas) to produce best practice guidance for employers on how best to support working parents with babies born prematurely. We expect guidance to be published in the autumn.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many British students have studied at universities in other European countries as part of the Erasmus programme in each of the last six years; and how many of those students were from Croydon.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The number of Erasmus placements from British Higher Education institutions is published on the Erasmus+ National Agency's website at https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/erasmus-projects.
The figures for each of the last six academic years for which figures are available are as follows:
2008/09 | 10,827 |
2009/10 | 11,723 |
2010/11 | 12,832 |
2011/12 | 13,660 |
2012/13 | 14,571 |
2013/14 | 15,566 |
It is not possible to say how many of these students were from Croydon.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the period of maternity leave for mothers of premature babies.
Answered by Margot James
The UK’s generous entitlement of 52 weeks’ maternity leave provides mothers with sufficient leave to take account of a range of circumstances. Parents who have been employees with the same employer for over a year also have a separate entitlement to parental leave of 18 weeks per parent per child, up to the child’s 18th birthday, of which typically up to 4 weeks can be taken in one year.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding from the European Regional Development Fund is currently committed to projects in each region of the UK.
Answered by Anna Soubry
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programmes for 2007-2013 have still to be formally closed by the European Commission. A list of projects in each region of England and the amount of funding awarded to each project under the 2007-2013 ERDF programmes can be found on GOV.UK at ‘2007 to 2013 ERDF programmes: achievements’.
A list of projects in Scotland and the amount of funding awarded to each project under the 2007-2013 ERDF programmes can be found on the Scottish Government website under ‘Structural Funds 2007-2013’ for ‘Highlands & Islands Programmes’ and ‘Lowlands & Uplands Scotland Programmes’.
A list of all projects in Wales and the amount of funding awarded to each under the 2007-2013 ERDF programmes can be found on the Welsh Government website under ‘Funding’, ‘European funds in Wales’, ‘Previous European Structural Funds programmes’, ‘Approved project database 2007-2013’.
A list of projects in Northern Ireland and the amount of funding awarded to each project under the 2007-2013 ERDF programme can be found on www.eugrants-successes.org.
Implementation of the 2014-2020 ERDF programmes is at an early stage. For the 2014-2020 period, England has an allocation of €3.6bn from the ERDF. This has been notionally allocated on the basis of Local Enterprise Partnership areas rather than regions. Information on the allocations to each Local Enterprise Partnership area, which include also the European Social Fund, can be found on GOV.UK.
Information on the 2014-2020 ERDF programme in Scotland can be found on the Scottish Government website under ‘Structural Funds 2014-2020’, ‘Scotland’s 2014-2020 Programmes’.
Information on the ERDF programme for 2014-2020 for Wales can be found on the Welsh Government website under ‘Funding’, ‘European funds in Wales’, ‘European Structural Funds 2014-2020’, ‘West, North Wales, and Valleys Programmes’ and ‘East Wales programmes’.
Information on the 2014-2020 ERDF programme in Northern Ireland can be found on the Department of Finance & Personnel website of the Northern Ireland Executive at ‘Finance’, ‘Funding’, ‘EU Funding Allocations’, ‘EU allocations to NI (07-13 & 14—20).