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Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Health and Safety
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to comply with principle (d) of schedule 1 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities designs work and workplaces to enable staff to work effectively, safely and comfortably. Where individuals have particular needs, the Department provides suitable adjustments.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Health and Safety
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 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 Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Department currently occupies 22 buildings which the Government Property Agency manages on a day to day basis on its behalf. GPA responsibilities include ensuring that statutory health and safety requirements in relation to the buildings are met. GPA confirms that it has a comprehensive set of risk assessments for DLUHC buildings and therefore meets the requirements of regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

DLUHC itself is responsible for workplace risk assessments such as display risk assessments, lone working risk assessments, and travel risk assessments. DLUHC policy is for workplace risk assessments to be completed on a case by case basis, and Department staff routinely complete the assessments where they are required.


Written Question
Tenants: Government Assistance
Monday 16th October 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help support renters.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

Alongside the substantial package of financial support we already provide, this government is committed to delivering a fairer deal for renters through the Renters (Reform) Bill.

Our reforms will provide greater security and quality in the private rented sector while supporting those landlords doing the right thing for their tenants.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Access to Work Programme
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether an Access to Work scheme has been implemented in their Department.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which contributes to the disability-related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition in the workplace that are beyond standard reasonable adjustments. It does not replace an employer's duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments.

In 2006, DWP took over responsibility for providing adjustments that would previously have been funded through Access to Work, for civil servants working in their department. This removed the need for DWP staff to apply for Access to Work. DLUHC has since also assumed responsibility for providing such adjustments for its staff and has its own provisions in place for this.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Holiday Leave
Monday 15th May 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 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 Dehenna Davison

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities responded to the ruling of the Employment Appeal Tribunal on the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors case in 2017 by implementing a holiday pay scheme in July 2019. The Tribunal ruled that if you regularly receive overtime, on-call allowances/standby rates or shift working payments, you will annually receive holiday pay where eligible. On implementation of the scheme in 2019 we backdated payments for holiday pay to 31 July 2017, the date of the ruling, for all those who regularly receive overtime, on-call allowances or shift working payments. The scheme is run annually in September of each year, with payments made for the previous year.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Disability
Thursday 2nd March 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 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 Dehenna Davison

As the Ministerial Disability Champion for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), I am proud to lead on ensuring the department delivers our commitments to disabled people , removing the barriers disabled people face and putting disability at the heart of government decision making.

DLUHC operate the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS) for all campaigns advertised on Civil Service Jobs. The scheme is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff. All Disability Confident Scheme applicants who meet the minimum standard for DLUHC campaigns are invited to attend interview.

DLUHC demographic data for applicants is deliberately anonymised so this cannot be used to identify candidates. We are therefore unable to differentiate between candidate types such as those applying on promotion or lateral transfer from within the department. As such, we have provided the success rates of all candidates who declared themselves as having a disability for financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

2020-2021

2693 candidates declared a disability at application stage and submitted a full application. This was equal to 11% of all applications received.

485 of 2693 candidates were invited to interview. This was equal to 18% of applications received for those who declared a disability.

77 of 485 candidates invited to interview were successful and offered a role. This was equal to 16% of candidates invited to attend interview who declared a disability.

2021-2022

1680 candidates declared a disability at application stage and submitted a full application. This was equal to 12% of all applications received.

517 of 1680 candidates were invited to interview. This was equal to 31% of applications received for those who declared a disability.

87 of 517 candidates invited to interview were successful and offered a role. This was equal to 17% of candidates invited to attend interview who declared a disability.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Disability
Thursday 2nd March 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 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 Dehenna Davison

As the Ministerial Disability Champion for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), I am proud to lead on ensuring the department delivers our commitments to disabled people , removing the barriers disabled people face and putting disability at the heart of government decision making.

DLUHC operate the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS) for all campaigns advertised on Civil Service Jobs. The scheme is designed to give employers the skills, techniques and confidence they need to recruit, retain and develop disabled staff. All Disability Confident Scheme applicants who meet the minimum standard for DLUHC campaigns are invited to attend interview.

DLUHC demographic data for applicants is deliberately anonymised so this cannot be used to identify candidates. We are therefore unable to differentiate between candidate types such as those applying on promotion or lateral transfer from within the department. As such, we have provided the success rates of all candidates who declared themselves as having a disability for financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

2020-2021

2693 candidates declared a disability at application stage and submitted a full application. This was equal to 11% of all applications received.

485 of 2693 candidates were invited to interview. This was equal to 18% of applications received for those who declared a disability.

77 of 485 candidates invited to interview were successful and offered a role. This was equal to 16% of candidates invited to attend interview who declared a disability.

2021-2022

1680 candidates declared a disability at application stage and submitted a full application. This was equal to 12% of all applications received.

517 of 1680 candidates were invited to interview. This was equal to 31% of applications received for those who declared a disability.

87 of 517 candidates invited to interview were successful and offered a role. This was equal to 17% of candidates invited to attend interview who declared a disability.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Conditions of Employment
Wednesday 8th February 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if they will take steps to (a) publish an equality impact assessment and (b) consult with trade unions when proposing new HR policies for their Department; and if they will make a statement.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

The department has a good relationship with our Trades Unions and works constructively with them on a range of employment matters including new or revised policies.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
Tuesday 7th February 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps their Department takes to comply with section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; and if they will make a statement.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

The department maintains a positive relationship with our trades unions and shares a broad range of appropriate material with them, depending upon the subject under discussion.


Written Question
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Minimum Wage
Tuesday 31st January 2023

Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of employees in their Department are paid at the rate of the National Minimum Wage.

Answered by Dehenna Davison

In line with precedent, the Department will not release data concerning five or fewer employees.