Written Statements

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

Thursday 10 October 2024

Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Bill

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)]

Delivering the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay—Introduction of the Employment Rights Bill

The plan to make work pay sets out a significant and ambitious agenda to ensure workplace rights are fit for a modern economy, empower working people, and contribute to economic growth. Today, the Government are fulfilling the manifesto commitment to bring forward legislation within 100 days of entering office by introducing the Employment Rights Bill.

Upgrading the UK labour market so it is fit for our modern economy is a key step to kickstarting economic growth, alongside other planks of our modern supply side approach, including planning reform, kickstarting a skills revolution, a modern industrial strategy and a plan to tackle inactivity. The Bill will support the Government’s mission to increase productivity and create the right conditions for long-term sustainable, inclusive, and secure economic growth by giving the British public the work, wages, prosperity, security, dignity, and the living standards that everyone in Britain needs and deserves. This is a comprehensive Bill which, once implemented, will represent the biggest upgrade in employment rights for a generation. It will raise the minimum floor of employment rights, raise living standards across the country and provide better support for those businesses who are engaged in good practices.

Benefits of the Employment Rights Bill

This is a pro-worker, pro-business plan. The Government will tackle head-on the issues within the UK labour market that are holding Britain back. The plan to make work pay sets out a vision for modern and fair employment protections that will set the country up for the future.

Supporting families

Many businesses already provide good, family-friendly conditions for their workers because they know that doing so improves productivity, morale, and retention. This Bill will increase the baseline set of rights for employees with parental or other caring responsibilities, enabling more working parents to get on at work, and achieve a better work-life balance—whether that is raising children, improving their own wellbeing, or looking after a loved one with a long-term health condition. Businesses will gain too where this boosts increased workforce participation, helping employers fill vacancies. Measures will increase the likelihood of a request for flexible working arrangements to be granted, introduce day one entitlement to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave, and introduce a statutory entitlement to bereavement leave.

Despite existing protections, we know it is not always a level playing field, and too many women are being held back at work. By expanding gender pay gap reporting requirements, requiring large employers to produce action plans on how to address their gender pay gaps and support employees through the menopause, and strengthening rights for pregnant workers and new mothers, this Bill will put gender equality front and centre of our employment legislation. These measures will support women’s employment participation and tackle the gender pay gap.

Improving rights and addressing one-sided flexibility

Too many workers experience low-paid, insecure and poor-quality work. This Government believe that all workers should be able to enjoy fair rights, benefits and security in the workplace, no matter who they work for. The Government intend to support businesses so they are no longer undercut by those with low standards. By introducing day one protection from unfair dismissal (while allowing employers to operate probation periods), increasing protection from sexual harassment in the workplace, ending unscrupulous fire and rehire and fire and replace practices, strengthening rights and requirements for collective redundancy consultation, and banning exploitative zero hours contracts, we will raise the bar for workers and provide a baseline of security in work. The plan to make work pay sets out a vision for better, modernised, and fairer employment protections that will set the country up for the future.

Improving take home pay and conditions at work

We have already made progress in championing fair pay by changing the Low Pay Commission’s remit to take into account the cost of living for the first time. The Bill will go further, introducing powers to create a fair pay agreement in the adult social care sector, and reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body. We will also be reinstating and strengthening the two-tier code for public sector contracts, helping ensure that employees working on outsourced contracts will be offered terms and conditions no less favourable to those transferred from the public sector. We will strengthen statutory sick pay, removing the lower earnings limit to make it available to all employees, and removing the waiting period so that SSP is paid from the first day of sickness absence.

A better enforcement system

While the vast majority of employers champion the spirit of good business and workers’ rights, some fall short. By bringing together the various agencies and enforcement bodies that enforce employment rights into the new Fair Work Agency, we will ensure that where employers are not doing what is right, a simplified and strengthened enforcement system will protect workers and ensure justice in the workplace.

Voice at work

This Government believe that workers should have a voice at work, and trade unions are essential for tackling insecurity, inequality, and low pay. That is why this Bill will focus on strengthening the rights of trade union representatives and bring archaic and prohibitive trade union legislation into the 21st century. We are bringing forward multiple measures to protect workers from dismissal and blacklisting for trade union activity, ensure workers understand their right to join a trade union, to simplify the statutory recognition process, and to bring in a new right of access for union officials to meet, represent, recruit, and organise members in workplaces. As previously announced, we will repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and the Trade Union Act 2016.

The plan to make work pay was developed through close engagement with business and trade unions, and we are committed to continuing with this approach through full and comprehensive consultation on the implementation of the plan.

Next steps to make work pay

The Government are committed to implementing their plan to make work pay in full. Not all the commitments within make work pay require primary legislation to implement; in many areas the Government have existing powers to deliver on commitments through secondary legislation and non-legislative means. In addition, the Government have been clear that some parts of the plan will take longer to review and implement. In order to provide Parliament, workers and business clarity on how Government intend on delivering on the plan, we are today publishing the “Next Steps to Make Work Pay” paper. This sets direction and gives businesses and workers confidence in our long-term programme of work. Work is already under way to prepare consultations on several aspects of the plan.

As is typical with employment legislation, further detail on many of the policies in the Bill will be provided through regulations after Royal Assent. We expect to begin consulting on these reforms in 2025, seeking significant input from all stakeholders, and anticipate this meaning that the majority of reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026. Reforms of unfair dismissal will take effect no sooner than autumn 2026. We will continue working with partners right up to implementation. Advice and support will be available to businesses to support this.

The Government will continue to work hand in hand on these changes with business, trade unions and civil society in a spirit of partnership to get Britain moving again.

[HCWS117]

Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)]

Today, the Department for Business and Trade launches the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation. OTSI is a new unit equipped with enhanced powers to strengthen the implementation and enforcement of trade sanctions. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK imposed sanctions against Russia on an unprecedented scale. These sanctions have deprived Russia of more than $400 billion since February 2022. On one estimate, that is equivalent to four more years of funding for the invasion. The creation of OTSI will help ensure that the UK’s trade sanctions regimes have maximum impact.

The Trade, Aircraft and Shipping Sanctions (Civil Enforcement) Regulations 2024, which come into force on 10 October 2024, grant OTSI new civil enforcement powers, which complement His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ existing powers to enforce trade sanctions. While HMRC continues to be responsible for enforcement in relation to goods and technology that cross the UK border, OTSI will lead on the enforcement of:



the provision or procurement of sanctioned services;

moving, making available, or acquiring sanctioned goods outside the UK (where a UK person is involved);

transferring, making available or acquiring sanctioned technology outside the UK (where a UK person is involved);

providing ancillary services to the movement, making available or acquisition of sanctioned goods outside the UK (where a UK person is involved); and

providing ancillary services to the transfer, making available or acquisition of sanctioned technology outside the UK (where a UK person is involved).

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in HM Treasury remains responsible for enforcement of the oil price cap, alongside its implementation of financial sanctions.

With this new enforcement toolkit, OTSI can impose civil monetary penalties and has powers to request, share, and publish information about sanctions breaches. There are also new reporting obligations for financial services, money services businesses and legal service providers. These will help OTSI to detect and investigate suspected breaches.

A key part of ensuring UK sanctions are effective is improving compliance. As well as tackling breaches when they occur, OTSI is being established to help UK businesses comply with their obligations under UK trade sanctions, through engagement with industry and by providing information and guidance. OTSI will also deliver the sanctions licensing function for stand-alone services, including professional and business services.

The Department for Transport will lead on civil enforcement in relation to aircraft and shipping sanctions. The Trade, Aircraft and Shipping Sanctions (Civil Enforcement) Regulations 2024 also confer powers on the Secretary of State for Transport to request and share information, impose a civil monetary penalty, and to publish information about a breach of aircraft or shipping sanctions where a penalty has, or could have been, imposed. The legislation also places obligations on certain persons to report known or suspected breaches to DFT.

The UK’s sanctions framework was severely tested by the unprecedented scale and scope of the sanctions we have imposed on Russia since 2022. This step change in how we use sanctions revealed areas which required further strengthening, including the need for civil enforcement powers for certain trade sanctions breaches. This Government are committed to maximising the effectiveness of UK sanctions, including through significantly strengthening our sanctions enforcement tools. Launching OTSI and equipping it, and DFT, with an enhanced enforcement toolkit demonstrates that commitment.

[HCWS121]

Infected Blood Compensation Authority: Independent Member Appointments

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Nick Thomas-Symonds)]

I should like to inform the House that I have appointed three interim non-executive board members to the Infected Blood Compensation Authority under part 3 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024:

Russell Frith, appointed as an interim audit and risk board member, effective from 1st October 2024 until 1 October 2025;

Deborah Harris-Ugbomah, appointed as an interim commercial board member, effective from 1st October 2024 until 1 October 2025; and

Paula Sussex, appointed as an interim digital and data board member, effective from 1st October 2024 until 1 October 2025.

Sir Robert Francis KC, the interim chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, has also appointed three interim non-executive board members:

Sir Robert Behrens, appointed as an interim community engagement board member, effective from 1st October 2024 until 1 October 2025;

Helen Parker, appointed as an interim community engagement board member, effective from 1st October 2024 until 1 October 2025; and

Gillian Fairfield, appointed as an interim medical board member, effective from 1st October 2024 until 1 October 2025.

These short-term appointments will support the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to deliver compensation to people who are infected and affected in a timely manner. An open and fair recruitment process will commence in 2025 to fill these posts substantively.

The Government are absolutely committed to acting on the findings of the infected blood inquiry and today’s announcement is progress towards that collective aim. I will continue to update the House as we progress work to deliver long overdue compensation to people infected and affected as a result of the infected blood scandal.

[HCWS116]

Long-duration Electricity Storage Consultation: Government Response

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)]

This Government are committed to making Britain a clean energy superpower. I am announcing a further important step in enabling this mission: a decision to introduce a cap and floor regime to support investment in the next generation of long-duration electricity storage assets.

Our national mission to achieve clean power by 2030 and accelerate to net zero will require the capability to store energy when it is abundant to be used when supply is scarce. LDES technologies, which include pumped storage hydropower as well as new, innovative solutions like liquid air energy storage, are designed to store large quantities of excess electricity, such as that generated by solar and wind during periods of high output, and then supply it back to the grid over periods of several hours or days when it is most needed.

Low carbon long-duration flexibility technologies such as LDES will be pivotal in meeting and maintaining our clean power needs as electricity demand grows. LDES will also diversify our technology mix, giving us greater resilience. And by using renewable energy that can be stored, LDES can help the UK move towards energy independence. Analysis commissioned by Government found that in the central scenario, 20 GW of LDES resulted in electricity system savings of £24 billion by 2050. This represents a saving to consumers of 3.5% of the total system costs.

However, despite the clear benefits of LDES and the potential for significant expansion, it has been almost 40 years since any meaningful new sites were commissioned. This is partly due to uncertainty faced by investors in committing to these complex, long-term projects that have high upfront costs despite having low operating costs. In January 2024, under the previous Government, a consultation was published exploring the introduction of an LDES cap and floor investment mechanism. Today I am announcing the publication of the Government response to this consultation, in which we set out our decision to introduce a cap and floor investment mechanism.

A cap and floor mechanism is an established way to provide investor confidence and enable investment decisions to be made by project developers. It does this by providing revenue protection—via the revenue floor which is set at a low level—while offering benefits to consumers in return by regulating revenue via the revenue cap. A similar approach has been used successfully to deliver several critical electricity interconnector projects—cables that allow us to trade electricity with overseas markets—without a revenue floor ever being triggered. We are also announcing that Ofgem has agreed to expand its role in regulating LDES assets, by becoming the investment framework delivery body for LDES, building on its existing role and expertise in already delivering the cap and floor mechanism for electricity interconnection projects.

I would like to thank stakeholders who have taken the time to respond to the previous consultation. My officials will continue working at pace alongside Ofgem to facilitate Ofgem implementing the investment framework as soon as possible. Following this response, we expect the publication of a technical decision document this winter, along with documents by Ofgem as the LDES regulator and investment framework delivery body. We intend for Ofgem to be able to open the investment support scheme to applications from LDES developers in 2025.

[HCWS119]

Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant Relocation: Development Consent Order Extension

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Steve Reed)]

This statement concerns the application made under the Planning Act 2008 for the proposed development by Anglian Water for the Cambridge waste water treatment plant relocation project.

Under section 107(1) of the Planning Act 2008, the Secretary of State must make his decision within three months of receipt of the examining authority’s report unless exercising the power under section 107(3) to extend the deadline and make a statement to the House announcing the new deadline. The Secretary of State received the examining authority’s report on the Cambridge waste water treatment plant relocation development consent order application on 12 July 2024 and the current deadline is 12 October 2024.

The deadline for the decision is to be extended to 12 January 2025 to allow additional time for Department officials to conduct further consultation on emerging planning policy and analysis of responses to the consultation.

The decision to set a new deadline is without prejudice to the decision on whether to grant development consent.

[HCWS122]

Baby Loss Certificates Extension

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health (Baroness Merron) has made the following statement:

I wish to inform the House that an extension to the baby loss certificate service has been launched.

The baby loss certificate service is a voluntary scheme to enable parents who have experienced a pre-24 weeks baby or pregnancy loss to record and receive a certificate to provide recognition of their loss if they wish to do so.

Until this extension, this service was only open to parents who experienced a loss since 1 September 2018. We are removing this eligibility restriction so that the service is now available for all historic losses, with no backdate, as well as future losses.

The baby loss certificate service is not a compulsory certificate; it will remain the choice of all parents how they wish to manage the difficult time around a loss. Its introduction was a recommendation from the independent pregnancy loss review published in July 2023, which examined the impact on families of not being able to formally register a baby or pregnancy loss before 24 weeks gestation. So far, over 50,000 certificates have been issued.

Following this announcement, eligibility will now be:

Either parent (i.e., mothers, fathers, surrogates) who have experienced a pregnancy loss through miscarriage, ectopic/molar pregnancy or termination for medical reasons at less than 24 weeks gestation (i.e. up to 23 weeks plus six days gestation), or pre-28 week baby loss (i.e. up to 27 weeks plus six days gestation) for losses prior to October 1992.

Parents resident in England.

Parents who have experienced a historic pregnancy loss or experience a future pregnancy loss.

Parents aged 16 years and over.

Ensuring this important service is available for all losses, regardless of how long ago the loss was or when it may occur in the future, demonstrates this Government’s commitment to delivering personalised and compassionate care for women, and support for parents who have suffered a baby loss.

[HCWS123]

Forensic Information Databases Strategy Board: Annual Report 2023-24

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention (Dame Diana Johnson)]

I am pleased to announce that I am today publishing the annual report of the forensic information database strategy board for 2023-24. This report covers the national DNA database and the national fingerprints database.

The strategy board chair, DCC Ben Snuggs, has presented the annual report to the Home Secretary under section 63AB(7) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Publication of the report is a statutory requirement under section 63AB(8) of the 1984 Act as inserted by section 24 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

The report highlights the continued fundamental importance of fingerprints and DNA in solving crimes and the key part these biometrics play in bringing offenders to justice, keeping the public safe and preventing harm to potential future victims. I am grateful to the strategy board for their commitment to fulfilling their statutory functions.

The report has been laid before the House and copies will be available from the Vote Office. It will also be available on gov.uk.

[HCWS120]

Cabinet Committees

Thursday 10th October 2024 Written Statements

[The Prime Minister (Keir Starmer)]

Today I am publishing a Cabinet Committee list. I have placed a copy of the new list in the Libraries of both Houses.

[HCWS118]