Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
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 that employers support staff to work from home where possible during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government’s safer working guidance is clear that in order to keep the virus under control, it is important that people work safely. In order to help contain the virus, everyone who can work effectively from home must do so. Where people cannot do so (for instance people who work in critical national infrastructure, construction, or manufacturing) they should continue to attend their workplace. This is essential to keeping the country operating and supporting vital sectors and employers. The full guidance is available on gov.uk.
In order to help employers support staff to work from home where possible, ACAS has produced comprehensive guidance on the key employment issues for when people are working at home during the pandemic. This covers practical issues such as pay and insurance, as well as offering training on managing people who work remotely – the link to the relevant section of the ACAS site can be found here https://www.acas.org.uk/working-from-home.
There is also a legal framework in place that grants all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer the statutory Right to Request Flexible Working, where employees can request a change to their hours, working patterns or to work from home. There is supporting guidance currently available online which explains eligibility, as well as the process for both making and receiving requests to work flexibly on GOV.UK – this can be found here https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
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 prevent employers dismissing and re-employing staff for the purposes of changing the terms and conditions of their employment.
Answered by Paul Scully
Terms and conditions of employment are for negotiation and agreement between employers and employees (or their representatives). Provided they do not discriminate unlawfully, for example on grounds of race, sex or disability, employers are free to offer the terms and conditions of employment which best suit their business needs. Once agreed, however, they form a legally binding contract of employment. While it is always open to either party to seek to renegotiate the terms of the contract, if the employer changes any of the terms without the employee’s agreement, the employee may be entitled to seek legal redress.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
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 Government's Covid-19 recovery strategy published on 11 May 2020, what funding the Government will provide to small businesses to enable them to comply with the Covid-19 secure guidelines.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has put in place a package of support for businesses of all sizes, including small businesses. This includes guidance developed with industry experts, unions, business organisations, local Government, and other stakeholders to get people back to work safely. It helps organisations meet their obligations under health and safety law and employers are responsible for taking all reasonably practical steps to address health and safety risks.
The small business grant fund has been created, specifically for hereditaments in England that were eligible for relief on 11 March under the small business rates relief (SBRR) fund. The funding is to support small and rural businesses which are ratepayers on a property, as these businesses are more likely to have ongoing fixed costs during this period. Unfortunately, businesses that were not eligible for percentage SBRR relief on 11 March are excluded.
Nevertheless, there are other new measures to provide support to those businesses, including Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme; deferral of the next quarter of back-payments for firms until the end of June, representing a £30 billion injection into the economy; and a new fast-track finance scheme providing loans with a 100% government guarantee. In addition, there is also the bounce-back loan scheme, which will ensure that the smallest businesses can access loans in a matter of days. We are working currently with local authorities to try to make sure that this support is delivered as fast as possible.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
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 number of social care providers that are eligible for the new Social Care Compliance Scheme through the use of sleep-in shifts.
Answered by Margot James
All social care providers who provide sleep-in shifts have the opportunity to apply for the Social Care Compliance Scheme; with the exception of those who have previously i) been prosecuted for underpayment of the National Minimum Wage; or ii) declined an invitation from HMRC to join the scheme.
The acceptance of any individual application is subject to HMRC’s discretion based on published criteria.