Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to comply with principle (d) of schedule 1 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department empowers its managers to work with their team members to plan and agree their workload and ways of working, allowing for flexible, hybrid and collaborative working. The Department works with the Government Property Agency to provide a variety of work settings within its offices, including workstations, meeting rooms and collaborative workspaces. Department buildings are risk assessed to give a safe and healthy working environment for staff, and where required, specialist work equipment and software is provided. This allows staff to adapt and manage their workloads, working times and work equipment to best suit their activities.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether all (a) buildings and (b) workplaces staff from their Department occupy have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment under Section 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department works with the Government Property Agency, who acts as landlord for the Department’s estate, to ensure that all workplaces and buildings its staff occupy have a sufficient risk assessment.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether an Access to Work scheme has been implemented in their Department.
Answered by Graham Stuart
From 1st April 2022, criteria and assessments for the Access to Work scheme changed and government departments are not eligible to receive support from Access to Work. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is supporting staff with requirements for reasonable adjustments due to disability or long-term health concerns including for equipment, software and hardware, training, coaching and other reasonable adaptations. Specialist assessments are carried out as needed through the occupational health provider as per the flexible cross-government occupational health framework.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department is aware of the ruling and will reflect the position in its policies. The Department is still working through the mechanics of the recent Machinery of Government change. This includes finalising which staff will be transferred into the Department. It is therefore not yet possible to assess accurately the impact on the Department.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps they have taken in their Department to operate the Disability Confident employer scheme for those seeking a lateral transfer; and how many and what proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under that scheme where (a) interviewed and (b) laterally transferred in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was created following Machinery of Government changes announced on 7th February 2023, so we are not able to provide the requested data for 2021 and 2022.
It is standard practice within the Civil Service to operate the Disability Confident Scheme for candidates and the department plans to continue this in future.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps they have taken to operate a disability confident scheme for those seeking promotion in their Department; and how many and what proportion of those candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under the scheme were (a) interviewed and (b) promoted in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Recruitment data for 2021 and 2022 relates to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as this predates the recent Machinery of Government changes.
BEIS operated the Disability Confident Scheme for disabled candidates applying to roles in the Department.
The response below applies to recruitment campaigns advertised internally to BEIS and across government as the data requested is not held on externally advertised vacancies. The below figures apply to delegated grade recruitment from Administrative Officer (AO) to Grade 6.
In 2021, 306 candidates internal to BEIS applied to roles advertised across the Department only or across government roles on promotion under the Disability Confident Scheme. 89 (29%) of these candidates were invited to interview and 25 (8%) received an offer and were promoted.
In 2022, 505 BEIS candidates applied to roles advertised across the department only or across government roles on promotion under the Disability Confident Scheme. 142 (28%) of these candidates were invited to interview and 48 (10%) received an offer and were promoted.