Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - 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 reasons for the reportedly low levels of productivity in the UK over the last eight years.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government set out its assessment of the likely causes of the UK’s low levels of productivity in the 2015 Productivity Plan. This decomposes the problem into two components, a long standing productivity gap and a more recent productivity puzzle. Full details of this analysis can be found in the annexe to the Productivity Plan, here:
Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken across government departments and including the devolved administrations to co-ordinate the promotion of increased productivity within the UK.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Productivity Plan published in 2015 set out a whole of government approach to raising UK productivity, progress on which is regularly reported by government departments. This includes working in partnership with the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive in areas of policy where powers are partly or wholly devolved. At the Ministerial level a number of Cabinet Committees regularly consider issues relating to the main policies in the Productivity Plan, including the Economic Affairs sub-Committee. This will also be a key area of focus for the overarching Economy and Industrial Strategy Committee.
Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any published targets for UK productivity over the next five years; and if so, what they are.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government has not explicitly targeted a level of productivity for the UK. However, as part of the follow-up work to the Productivity Plan it has tracked progress made in implementing each of the Productivity Plan’s commitments, along with success metrics which can be used to measure progress against each of the Plan’s headline objectives.
Details of these can be found in the Government’s response to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee Inquiry into the Productivity Plan: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmbeis/931/93102.htm
Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what further measures are planned between now and 2020 to increase UK productivity measured as gross domestic product per hour.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
In addition to fully implementing the Government’s Productivity Plan (published in 2015), my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a new National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) as part of the Autumn Statement. This will be targeted at 4 areas that are critical for improving productivity: housing, transport, digital communications, and research and development (R&D). Productivity will also be a key underlying theme of the Government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what new resources are to be made available to encourage improved productivity in the UK.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
As part of the Autumn Statement, my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a new National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF). The NPIF will provide for £23 billion of spending between 2017/18 and 2021/22, and build on existing plans over this Parliament. In addition, improving productivity will be a key underlying theme of the Government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the Post Office about addressing the problem of financial exclusion.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
Ministers and government officials meet with Post Office on a regular basis and during these meetings services that help to address financial exclusion are often discussed. Post Office offers a wide range of financial services products, many of which are of benefit to those on low incomes or who are otherwise excluded from the traditional banking sector, and growth in financial services is a key opportunity to help make the Post Office network more sustainable.
With government’s support Post Office has been working closely with high street banks to offer a standardised service that enables customers of the banks to access their accounts at Post Office branches. This is particularly important for those communities that have seen bank branches closed, where often the only local shop is a Post Office. Post Office also offers the Post Office card account which enables people with no bank account to be able to access benefits, pensions and tax credits over the counter at their local branch.