Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published on 28 July 2021, what progress his Department has made on the setting up of an Extra Costs Taskforce, in conjunction with the Cabinet Office.
Answered by Lee Rowley
To inform the scope and focus of the Extra Costs Taskforce, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, alongside the Cabinet Office, will identify the key areas where disabled people experience extra costs. We will be informed by the insights and experiences of disabled people, businesses, and other relevant organisations, to ensure the Taskforce delivers the greatest impact for those it is seeking to help. We will set out in due course our plans for establishing the Taskforce by summer 2022, as committed in the National Disability Strategy.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 Part One of the National Disability Strategy published July 2021, what recent steps his Department has taken on (a) encouraging and supporting workplace disability networks, (b) achieving and maintaining the highest level of Disability Confident accreditation, (c) ensuring responsive and timely support to meet workplace adjustment needs and (d) developing and embedding flexible working.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Department has taken the following steps:
a) BEIS has an existing disability network which brings together colleagues with disabilities and long-term health conditions. The network is supported by a champion from the Senior Civil Service and has access to Purple Space, which is a professional development hub for disability network leaders.
b) BEIS was accredited as a Disability Confident Leader in 2017 and was successfully reaccredited in 2020. This was validated by Business Disability Forum (BDF) and the Department continues to work closely with BDF as well as the disability network to ensure that BEIS maintains the standards of a Disability Confident Leader.
c) Support is given at recruitment stage for reasonable adjustments or in the event of ill health during employment. We have specialist software readily available to support several different disabilities, policies that allow flexible working patterns, and access to specialist equipment.
d) BEIS has developed a wide range of flexible working practices that have been operating since our creation in 2016. A recent addition is the opportunity for staff to work in a hybrid way (a blend of office and home working).
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published on 28 July 2021, what steps his Department has taken to date to challenge UKRI and other research stakeholders to use future innovation challenges to accelerate innovation in assistive technologies.
Answered by George Freeman
The future of any UKRI innovation challenge-funding is subject to an ongoing SR allocations process which BEIS is currently working through to set R&D budgets through to 2024/25.
The work that UK Research and Innovation have undertaken to accelerate innovation in assistive technologies is set out in the National Institute of Health Research’s report on Research and Development Work Relating to Assistive Technology: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-and-development-work-relating-to-assistive-technology-2018-to-2019
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 National Disability Strategy, published on 28 July 2021, when his Department plans to publish proposals to ensure that every disabled person who wants to start a business has the opportunity to do so.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Secretary of State has committed to publishing an Enterprise Strategy. This includes a focus on giving every disabled person that wants to start a business the opportunity to do so, including entrepreneurs with disabilities. The strategy is under development and will be published this year. Engagement has already taken place with disabled entrepreneurs and representative organisations, as well as with the relevant government departments.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of hospitality businesses that applied for a loan under the Recovery Loan Scheme were successful in their application in (a) Lewisham Deptford constituency, (b) London and (c) the UK.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) is delivered by the British Business Bank (BBB) through commercial lenders. The BBB does not capture application data on the RLS; lenders are required to notify the BBB of RLS facilities that have been offered and drawn.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 include in the forthcoming Employment Bill an extension of maternity allowance for fathers who are ineligible for paternity leave and pay or other statutory support.
Answered by Paul Scully
There are a number of entitlements that support partners in caring for their new baby and support the mother following birth. Employed partners who meet the qualifying criteria can take up to two weeks of paid leave between the birth of their child and the first 56 days following birth. In addition, partners who meet the eligibility criteria have access to paid annual leave, the Right to Request Flexible Working and Shared Parental Leave.
Maternity Allowance provides an element of earnings replacement for pregnant women and new mothers who are not eligible for Statutory Maternity Pay. This is because Maternity Allowance is intended to help a woman to stop working in the later stages of her pregnancy, and in the months after childbirth, in the interests of her own and her baby's health and wellbeing. There is no equivalent paternity allowance, as there are no equivalent health and safety considerations for fathers.
The detailed content for the Employment Bill will be published in due course. In the meantime, we continue to work with stakeholders to ensure that the measures for the bill deliver on our plan to build a high skilled, high productivity, high wage economy as we build back better.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure all claimants of the Warm Home Discount who have been forced to reapply as a result of their energy provider ceasing trading in recent months are not excluded from that support by their new provider.
Answered by Greg Hands
When an energy supplier leaves the market, Ofgem appoints a Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) to take over its customers. SoLRs are not obliged to provide the Warm Home Discount to transferred customers; however, all SoLRs have honoured this obligation in the past and we would expect that SoLRs continue to honour these obligations.
The Government recently concluded a consultation on the future scheme, which included a proposal to reform the scheme. Under the proposals, the vast majority of households would receive their rebates automatically, without having to apply. This would make it easier for SoLRs to make the Warm Home Discount rebate payments to newly transferred customers. BEIS will be publishing the Government’s response to the consultation in the coming months, with the reforms coming into force from the 2022/23 scheme year.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 help ensure that retailers are using payment card reader technology that is accessible to people who are blind or partially-sighted.
Answered by Paul Scully
The disability provisions in the Equality Act 2010 require providers of services and facilities to the public to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ so that disabled people are not placed at a “substantial disadvantage” compared to non-disabled people.
The reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty because it is owed to disabled people in general. This means that people who provide goods, services and facilities to members of the public are expected to anticipate the requirements of disabled customers and the adjustments that may have to be made for them.
The Act has reinforced the legal responsibility for all businesses to cater for disabled customers—and this includes accepting a chip and signature card. Retailers who take card payments are obliged to accept chip and signature cards.
Anyone who feels that they may have suffered unlawful discrimination may wish to contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service, which offers free advice to people across, England, Scotland and Wales. The service can be contact by Freephone on 0808 800 0082 or via its website at https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 the Independent Experts Committee on Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 and its meeting of September 2020, for what reasons that Committee's membership did not comprise existing stakeholders who had worked on the review for more than 10 years; and if he will publish details of the research that the Independent Experts Committee decided necessary for a review of (a) the overall regulations and (b) children's products.
Answered by Paul Scully
In July 2019, the Government announced it would develop a new approach to the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988.
The Government does not have an ‘Independent Experts Committee’ advising on the review of the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. The Government seeks independent expert input and advice from a range of individuals and organisations.
As part of the formulation of Government policy, it is essential that officials are able to seek advice from external parties with relevant knowledge and experience. Third parties must feel that they can provide Government with candid views without fear that that information will be made public, particularly when those views relate to sensitive and ongoing issues. As such, the Government does not intend to publish the individual pieces of advice received from independent experts on this topic. All completed research relating to product safety is published on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/product-safety-research). This is updated periodically with details of further commissioned research.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 Independent Experts Committee on the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, established in September 2020, whether that committee has published (a) details of its 13 members and organisations and (b) meeting notes; what process was used for selecting that Committee's membership; and what feedback was received from other Government departments on that selection process.
Answered by Paul Scully
In July 2019, the Government announced it would develop a new approach to the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988.
The Government does not have an ‘Independent Experts Committee’ advising on the review of the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. The Government seeks independent expert input and advice from a range of individuals and organisations.
As part of the formulation of Government policy, it is essential that officials are able to seek advice from external parties with relevant knowledge and experience. Third parties must feel that they can provide Government with candid views without fear that that information will be made public, particularly when those views relate to sensitive and ongoing issues. As such, the Government does not intend to publish the individual pieces of advice received from independent experts on this topic. All completed research relating to product safety is published on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/product-safety-research). This is updated periodically with details of further commissioned research.