Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, 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 Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport adopts smart working principles ensuring its workplaces are designed appropriately for the intended tasks. Each of its offices has a balanced mix of workspaces and considers accessibility for colleagues with additional needs.
Workplace adjustments are used to remove barriers, or disadvantages, enabling anyone with a disability or health condition to do their job. This can be a change to HR-related policies, working arrangements or the equipment provided to do a job.
Office workstations are provided with a varying range of adjustable equipment designed to cater for the majority of individuals.
For operational areas of the organisation, risk assessment processes are in place to assess the varying range of tasks and reduce health and safety risks to our colleagues.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, 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 Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All buildings and workplaces have a risk assessment in place. These are reviewed at suitable intervals or when any changes are made to the infrastructure or working practices.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether an Access to Work scheme has been implemented in their Department.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Following a cross-government consultation exercise in 2019, a decision was taken in 2020 to change the Access to Work eligibility criteria to standardise workplace adjustments for civil servants. As a result, departments were asked to take over the responsibility for putting in place workplace adjustments for their employees from 1st April 2022.
The Department for Transport (DfTc) therefore has a dedicated service to manage, procure and fund the provision of Workplace Adjustments for individuals with a disability and/or health condition.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, 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 Jesse Norman
In response to this judgement, the Department for Transport negotiated and implemented a policy for the core department and executive agencies effective 01 August 2019 to meet the statutory obligations placed on employers.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, 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 Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport is a ‘Disability Confident Leader’ in the Disability Confident Scheme which is the highest of the three levels of commitment to the scheme. In addition to taking steps such as providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process, the Department provides leadership in supporting the scheme, reports on disability, mental health and wellbeing and has undergone a rigorous validation process. The data available to the Department shows that around 10% of internal applicants since 1 May 2022 applied under the scheme, with a similar level of representation at interview stage.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, 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 Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport is a ‘Disability Confident Leader’ in the Disability Confident Scheme which is the highest of the three levels of commitment to the scheme. In addition to taking steps such as providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process, the Department provides leadership in supporting the scheme, reports on disability, mental health and wellbeing and has undergone a rigorous validation process. The data available to the Department shows that around 10% of internal applicants since 1 May 2022 applied under the scheme, with a similar level of representation at interview stage.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, 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 Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport routinely consults its trade unions when proposing new HR policies and conducts equality impact assessments in line with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty which are shared with the unions as appropriate.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, 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 Jesse Norman
Officials from the Department for Transport regularly engage with representatives of recognised trade unions, provide information to aid discussions and respond to requests for information in accordance with the legislative requirements.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure his Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code; and whether that monitoring data gathered is shared with union representatives.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code by collecting and analysing a range of data on, for example, recruitment, career development, promotion, job allocation and resignations. This data is published in the Department’s Equality Monitoring report. The department also carries out pay modelling and analysis of performance pay. This includes analysis to monitor diversity impacts.
This information is both publicly available and can be shared with trade unions on request.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has notified staff to (a) tell or (b) remind them that they can sell annual leave in the last four months.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport offers staff the opportunity to sell leave once a year. The last opportunity was between November to December 2022.
The Department released communications to staff through the staff intranet during November, reminding staff that the benefit window was opening, giving information regarding the buy/sell leave policy and reminding staff when the window was closing. Emails were also sent to all staff email addresses as a reminder of the employee benefit annual window.