Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative environmental impact of awarding procurement contracts to British businesses compared to foreign businesses.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As part of the Greening Government Commitments, Departments are required to report on the systems they have in places and the actions they take to buy sustainably.
The 2017/2018 Greening Government Commitments Annual Report found that:
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking, in line with their commitment to level up regional inequality, to address the statistic set out in the report by City and Guilds Group Missing Millions, published in February, that 21 per cent of people in the North East felt positive about job opportunities in their area compared with 45 per cent of people in London.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This Government is committed to levelling up the country by creating opportunities outside of London. Of the £3.4 billion invested in Growth Deals across the Northern Powerhouse, £505 million has been awarded to the North East and Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas. The most recent report released by the North East LEP highlighted that jobs in the area have increased by 74,000 since 2014, which represents strong progress towards their target of 100,000 new jobs by 2024.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Henley on 27 November (HL Deb, col 485), what precisely was revised in 1998 in respect of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 amended the Employment Rights Act 1996. It provided a right of redress for workers who are dismissed or suffer detriment at the hands of their employer because they ‘blew the whistle’ by making a protected disclosure.
To ensure that whistleblowers have the confidence that a disclosure is effectively looked into the Government has recently introduced a duty for prescribed persons to report annually on the number of whistleblowing disclosures they receive. The duty will help to increase confidence in the actions taken by prescribed persons through greater transparency about how disclosures are handled. It will also help improve consistency across different bodies in the way they respond to disclosures.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer given by Earl Howe on 9 January (HL Deb, col 1728), which defence companies were consulted on their National Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
We aim to publish a Green Paper on our Industrial Strategy in the coming weeks. The publication of the Green Paper will continue the open and collaborative dialogue to develop the new strategy and we look forward to receiving contributions from people and organisations across the country, including from the defence sector.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer given by Earl Howe on 9 January (HL Deb, col 1728), on what date they plan to publish their National Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
We aim to publish a Green Paper on our Industrial Strategy in the coming weeks. The publication of the Green Paper will continue the open and collaborative dialogue to develop the new strategy and we look forward to receiving contributions from people and organisations across the country, including from the defence sector.