Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will undertake an investigation into compliance with statutory rules on (a) notice and (b) consultation of the redundancies at Debenhams.
Answered by Paul Scully
Employers proposing to make 20 or more employees redundant from one establishment are required to consult employees or their representatives:
- at least 45 days before the first dismissal takes effect where 100 or more redundancies are proposed.
- at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect where 20 or more redundancies are proposed.
The consultation must include consultation on ways to avoid redundancies, reducing the numbers of redundancies, or mitigating their impact. Where an employer has failed to adequately consult with their employees about impending redundancies, those employees may apply to an Employment Tribunal for a Protective Award.
Within the same timescales, the employer must notify my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the proposed collective redundancies. Failure to notify is an offence.
If special circumstances exist making it unreasonable for the employer to comply with the consultation or notification obligations, the employer must take such steps as are reasonably practicable to comply.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether pubs and restaurants could be permitted to reduce social distancing measures by introducing temperature checks for customers.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Pubs and Restaurants taskforce is considering a range of measures to support the reopening of this sector as soon as it is safe to do so.
The taskforce consulted with a cross-section of the sector to develop guidance, with representation from trade bodies to small and medium sized operators, unions, as well as the supply chain. We consulted these stakeholders due to their expertise and real-life knowledge and experience of the challenges faced by the industry during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The guidance will be published in due course.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
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 bring forward legislation to remove the legal obligation of pubs to pay rent to their landlords for a period of three months due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government recognises the significant impact on pubs caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and has announced measures, included in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill, to prevent landlords from using aggressive debt recovery tactics.
These measures include a temporary ban on statutory demands and winding up orders where a company cannot pay its bills due to coronavirus, to ensure they do not fall into deeper financial strain. Government is also laying secondary legislation to provide tenants with more breathing space to pay rent by temporarily preventing landlords using Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery.
However, while landlords are urged to give their tenants the breathing space needed, the Government calls on tenants to pay rent where they can afford it, or what they can, in recognition of the strains felt by commercial landlords too.
A working group has been established by the government with the commercial rental sector to develop a code which encourages fair and transparent discussions between landlords and tenants over rental payments during the coronavirus pandemic and guidance on rent arrear payments.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
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 Prime Minister's covid-19 announcement on 10 May 2020, whether personal trainers are permitted to meet a single client in a park to undertake a personal training session.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has published guidance to help employers, employees and the self-employed understand how to work safely during the coronavirus pandemic. If businesses are not required to close at this time, they can use this guidance to consider how they can operate to keep employees and customers safe.
Businesses should carry out a risk assessment to identify sensible measures to control risk in the workplace, wherever that might be. General guidance on how to complete risk assessments is available on the Health and Safety Executive website, and the guidance we published on 11 May sets out the steps employers should consider in relation to the risks of COVID-19. The guidance can be accessed at www.gov.uk/workingsafely.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
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 Prime Minister's covid-19 announcement on 10 May 2020, on what date the Government plans to permit the re-opening of (a) hairdressing and (b) beauty salons.
Answered by Paul Scully
On 11th May we published our COVID-19 recovery strategy, which sets out a roadmap to a phased recovery. Over the coming months, the Government will introduce a range of adjustments to current social distancing controls, timing these carefully according to both the current spread of the virus and the Government’s ability to ensure safety. Each step may involve adding new adjustments to the existing restrictions or taking some adjustments further.
The ambition at step three of the roadmap is to?open at least some of the remaining businesses and premises that have been required to close, including personal care?(such as hairdressers and beauty salons), and we will work with the sector to develop safe ways for them to open at the earliest point at which it is safe to do so. The Government’s current planning assumption is that this step will be no earlier than 4 July.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
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 suspend state aid rules for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme so that loss-making companies can be considered eligible for that scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
Although the UK has left the EU, under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, the EU State Aid rules continue to apply in the UK until the end of the Transition Period.
It is not possible for the UK (or indeed any EU Member State) to unilaterally suspend the EU State aid rules.
However, it should be noted that the European Commission has introduced some flexibilities into the rules to deal with the impacts of the Coronavirus, in the form of a Temporary Framework.
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is a State Aid approved scheme under the Temporary Framework. Companies that are in difficulty are eligible for support, in recognition of the impact of Coronavirus, unless they were in difficulty on 31 December 2019, prior to the outbreak.
CBILS does include a provision enabling banks to make the facility available on a de minimis basis to businesses that would not otherwise be eligible, for example because they were in difficulty as at 31 December 2019.
However, the British Business Bank is establishing a new Future Fund to support the UK’s innovative businesses currently affected by Covid-19. This will launch in May and is intended to help businesses that have been unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment. The £500m scheme will deliver an initial commitment of £250m of new government funding which will be match funded by private investment.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
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 ask the European Commission to exempt the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme from EU state aid rules.
Answered by Paul Scully
Although the UK has left the EU, under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, the EU State Aid rules continue to apply in the UK until the end of the Transition Period.
Although the European Commission declined to suspend the State aid rules because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Commission introduced flexibilities into the rules to deal with the impacts of the Coronavirus, in the form of a Temporary Framework. This facilitates aid going to the companies who need it most, quickly and with more efficiently.
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme was approved by the Commission (on 25th March) under this Temporary Framework. No exemption from the State Aid rules is required.
Since the launch of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Government has received a lot of helpful feedback on how the scheme has been working. We have been working with the financial services sector to ensure that companies feel the full benefits from this support. The Government will continue to seek to identify new areas for improvement across the scheme as a whole.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what international leaders he plans to meet as part of preparations for the UN Conference of the Parties in Glasgow.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The successful delivery of COP26 will require widespread diplomatic engagement with our international partners at all levels. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, along with the Prime Minister and Cabinet colleagues, will meet a number of international leaders at key moments throughout the year in order to encourage greater climate ambition and achieve an ambitious, shared outcome at COP26.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
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 meet representatives of businesses that make printed calendars to discuss the decision to change the date of the 2020 early May bank holiday.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government recognises that the decision to move the early May bank holiday from 4 to 8 May 2020 has caused difficulties to some individuals and businesses. But on this historic occasion the Government wants to ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to pay a fitting tribute to our heroes of the Second World War on the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Representatives from businesses that publish printed calendars have contacted the Department and we have responded to them directly.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the cost to businesses producing calendars of the alteration of the date of the 2020 early May bank holiday.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Government considered the implications of moving the early May bank holiday from 4 to 8 May 2020 very carefully and how this may impact business. Only after this process was completed were we in a position to make an announcement. My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Andrew Stephenson MP set out the Government’s position on this in an Adjournment Debate on 18 June 2019.
The Government recognises that the decision has caused difficulties to some individuals and businesses. But on this historic occasion the Government wants to ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to pay a fitting tribute to our heroes of the Second World War on the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Representatives from businesses that publish printed calendars have contacted the Department and we have responded to them directly.