Chris Stephens

Public Health England has confirmed that the measures put in place to ensure the House remains Covid secure are appropriate to manage the risk of infection. As the risks are being managed, Public Health England has issued no advice around where suspension of work on the estate may be necessary.

The Commission has received no advice from Public Health England on what level of increased risk of covid-19 infection would require the suspension of work on the Parliamentary Estate.

As universal credit is paid directly to claimants, no data is held on the number or proportion of staff employed by the House of Commons who are in receipt of it.

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) do not hold the relevant information to be able to estimate the number and proportion of its staff in receipt of universal credit. Universal credit is dependent on an individual’s circumstances, including their housing arrangement, caring responsibilities and dependent children. This information is not held by GEO.

The Catering Service ensures that all tips and gratuities given to staff are paid to staff.

Payments from tips and gratuities are administered in the following way.

• Currently, tips and gratuities given by customers are distributed between directly employed front-of-house staff in all catering venues.
• Where a gratuity is given by card or on account these payments are collated and recorded centrally and then the value of each tip distributed between the relevant named staff members each month. Managers currently have an element of discretion in this process. Cash tips are treated separately in each venue and distributed amongst the team at the discretion of the venue manager.
• The terms for agency staff are different. They do not receive gratuities given by card or on account, though they may receive cash tips at the discretion of the venue manager, because payments are made on a monthly basis using the PAYE system. Distributing small sums between agency staff, who are not paid directly by the House and may only work one shift during the month, would be administratively burdensome.

Catering Staff receive their tip or gratuity from a customer using a bank card within 4–6 weeks.

On all dining room bills and menus the following information is written:

‘Tips given in cash are shared amongst all front of house staff, tips given on credit cards are distributed to permanent front of house staff’

When paying by debit or credit card only, the payment handheld machine will ask if the customer wishes to pay a tip or gratuity, yes or no.

The facility for paying tips or gratuities is only available in dining rooms and bars.

There is no facility to be able to pay for a tip or gratuity in most cafeterias or café bars. This is due to these venues being deemed as self-help although tip boxes are available for customers to give tips in some venues and this is shared amongst the staff.

On all banqueting events a 12.5% service charge on room hire and food and beverage spend is applied and distributed to staff via their monthly pay.

Catering staff have been made aware of these arrangements to help inform customers.

The Commission is responsible only for House of Commons catering services, which comply with all applicable legislation in relation to consumer protection regulations and the employment of its staff.

As at 31 October 2017, 264 staff were employed on fixed term contracts. This represents 9.8% of staff employed by the House of Commons Commission.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent public body and decisions on staffing requirements are operational matters for the Commission itself. I have therefore asked the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer to write to the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) with the information requested in (a)-(d) of the question. I will place a copy of the letter in the libraries of both Houses.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is allocated an overall annual budget, which is £19.3m in the current financial year. Funding for EHRC’s promotional activities is included within that budget. Decisions on allocation of resources within its overall budget are matters for the EHRC as an independent public body subject to Cabinet Office spending controls which apply to non Departmental public bodies.

The House of Commons (Administration) Act 1978 includes the requirement to remain ‘broadly in line’ with the terms and conditions of the Home Civil Service. The House of Commons Commission has yet to take a decision on a pay remit for 2018/19.

No staff are employed by the House of Commons on zero hours contracts. The House of Commons Commission does not hold information about staff employed by its contractors. Our standard terms and conditions of contract do not specify that contractors are not to be employed on zero hours contracts.

As a pre-qualification activity in the procurement process, potential contractors tendering for contracts with the House Service are asked to confirm whether they have breached labour law obligations, including the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, in the previous three years. Where this turns out to be the case, they are asked to explain what measures have been taken and provide evidence as appropriate to demonstrate the reliability of the organisation despite the existence of a relevant ground for exclusion. If the response is not satisfactory, the House Service has the right to exclude the organisation from the tendering process at its discretion.

Over the last three years the Government Equalities Office (GEO) has had and continues to have due regard, as necessary, to the public sector equality duty in exercising its functions. The Equality Act does not require this due regard to take the form of an equality impact assessment, nor does it define an equality impact assessment, and the GEO does not maintain a record of such assessments.

As a result of the spending review 2015, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been allocated a budget of £21.435m for 2016-17.

Budgets for the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 are being finalised by the Department for Education in consultation with the EHRC, and are consistent with the spending review settlement provided to the Department. We hope to be in a position to confirm budgets for these years shortly.

The Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is an independent body which, among other statutory functions, enforces the Equality Act 2010, encourages good practice in relation to equality and diversity, and monitors the effectiveness of the equality and human rights enactments. My Department promotes the EHRC’s functions where appropriate in the normal course of its own activities but since 2010 has not spent anything on advertising its services.

Details of Ministers' meetings with external organisations are published up to 31 March 2015 and can be accessed on Gov.uk at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=Ministers&publication.

Further publications of Ministerial meetings will be published in due course across Government in the usual way.

Details of meetings between Ministers and external organisations are published quarterly on the Departmental website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-climate-change/series/ministers-meeting-with-external-organisations.

Details of Ministers' meetings with external organisations are published up to 31 March 2015 and can be accessed on Gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications

Further publications of Ministerial meetings will be published in due course.

The Low Pay Commission will continue to recommend the National Minimum Wage rates for all workers under 25 at a level that maximises their earnings without damaging employment prospects by setting it too high.

The Government’s view is that the proposals set out in the Trade Union Bill comply with the EU Social Charter and International Labour Organisation conventions and that the proposed legislation complies with Convention rights. None of these changes will affect that compliance.

The Government has assessed the compatibility of the Trade Union Bill with the European Convention on Human Rights and a memorandum has been published on July 2015 by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, containing input from the Cabinet Office.

Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

A consultation on the Apprenticeships Levy was launched on 21 August 2015 and will close on 2 October 2015. A link to the consultation can be found below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/apprenticeships-levy-employer-owned-apprenticeships-training

Brief details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are all publically available on the Gov.UK website.

This answer is in respect of the Attorney General’s Office, the Government Legal Department, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.

The introduction of GDPR has not affected the rights of unions in the organisations above in relation to bargaining information provided under section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

This part of the response is in relation to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), the Government Legal Department (GLD), and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI).

The three organisations above, and Government more widely, recognise that there are significant benefits to both employers and employees when organisations and unions work together effectively to deliver high quality public services. Whilst facility time within the public sector must be accountable and represent value for money, departments have an obligation to provide reasonable paid time off to recognised trade union representatives to undertake trade union duties. This includes paid time off for safety representatives as set out in section 3.1.8 of the Civil Service Management Code.

In line with the legislative obligation, set out in the Trade Union Act (2016), information relating to facility time for relevant union officials is published annually by GLD, with facility time defined by that Act as including time off taken by a relevant union official that is permitted by the official’s employer, including where this arises under “regulations made under section 2(4) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The Serious Fraud Office (whose HR service is independent of the other Law Officer’s Departments) Facility Time Agreement allows for paid time off for health and safety representatives but that time off is set against the overall level of facility time agreed between the employer and the 3 recognised trade unions.

The Attorney General’s Office, a small ministerial department, is recruiting four staff members (full time equivalent) specifically to support EU Exit in 2019/20 if the UK leaves the EU with or without a deal. This is in addition to the work ongoing from existing resources.

The table below shows the number of staff employed by the Attorney General’s Office on 20 December 2018 and 23 June 2016 respectively:

Neither the Attorney General’s Office nor the Law Officers Departments collate information on staff in receipt of universal credit.

In October 2022, the Government made interim payments of £100,000 to those infected and bereaved partners registered with the existing Infected Blood Support Schemes, as recommended in the Inquiry’s first interim report. We are actively looking at the recommendations of the Inquiry, including the recommendation for more interim payments, and the Government will respond to the recommendations of the final report following its publication on 20 May.

The Government recognises that the Inquiry's second interim report made a recommendation that compensation be delivered by a UK-wide central body in the interests of parity, and we remain committed to working with the Devolved Governments where appropriate to develop an effective response that delivers for victims across the UK.

The Government is committed to working with the Devolved Governments to develop an effective response that delivers across the UK. I also note the parity agreement reached in 2021 which enabled the four national financial Infected Blood support schemes to align, resulting in broader parity in annual payments and lump sums. In December 2023 the Government announced the introduction of a bespoke psychological service in England, to be in place by Summer 2024, bringing it alongside the other Infected Blood Support Schemes across the UK.