Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many small businesses went bankrupt in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) the London Borough of Enfield in the last (i) three, (ii) six, (iii) 12 and (iv) 24 months.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information on company insolvencies is sourced from Companies House, which does not hold information on the size of companies or all types of businesses. Therefore, we cannot provide specific numbers of small business failures. Furthermore, the registered office address for a company may not be its trading location, and is often the address of the appointed Insolvency Practitioner handling the case. Subject to these caveats, estimated company insolvencies in Enfield North and Enfield in the periods up to 31 May 2023 were:
Period | Enfield North Constituency | Enfield Borough [1] |
3 Months | 7 | 106 |
6 Months | 16 | 191 |
12 Months | 36 | 402 |
24 Months | 59 | 756 |
[1] 685 of the 756 company insolvencies registered in Enfield Borough have the same postcode, which is the location of an insolvency practitioner firm. Many of these companies may not have traded in Enfield Borough prior to insolvency.
Numbers of trader (self-employed) bankruptcies to 31 March 2023 (the latest date for which data is held) were:
Period | Enfield North Constituency | Enfield Borough |
3 Months | 0 | 3 |
6 Months | 1 | 5 |
12 Months | 1 | 8 |
24 Months | 7 | 18 |
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many small businesses opened in (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) the London Borough of Enfield in the last (i) three, (ii) six, (iii) 12 and (iv) 24 months.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The latest available data shows that at the end of March 2023 in the London Borough of Enfield there were:
- 560 business births in the last three months;
- 985 business births in the last six months;
- 2,035 business births in the last 12 months; and
- 4,720 business births in the last 24 months.
(ONS, Business demography, Quarterly experimental statistics, Low-level geographic breakdown, UK, Q1 2023)
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the impact on levels of land based extraction of critical minerals of emerging green industries.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
Within the Critical Minerals Strategy, we are seeking to maximise what the UK can produce domestically, where viable for businesses and where it works for communities and our natural environment. As part of this effort, we commissioned an assessment of the UK’s geological potential for critical mineral extraction. In April this year, the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre published its report on “Potential for Critical Raw Material Prospectivity in the UK”, which highlighted the UK’s potential to produce a variety of critical minerals, including lithium – a key ingredient of electric vehicles. It is a preliminary assessment, and the Government is working with the British Geological Survey to understand next steps.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will hold discussions with Royal Mail on publishing a list of the 20 parliamentary constituencies in which Royal Mail has most frequently failed to meet its universal service obligation.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Postal Services Act 2011 delegates responsibility for the regulation of Royal Mail, as the UK’s universal service provider, including reporting requirements, to Ofcom.
The Government does not have a role in Ofcom’s regulatory decisions.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when her Department plans to bring forward secondary legislation to implement the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are committed to introducing Neonatal Care Leave and Pay as quickly as possible. Work is ongoing across Government to deliver these new entitlements.
Delivery requires a significant amount of secondary legislation which will be brought forward in due course.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment the Government has made of the impact of the National Minimum Wage Apprentice Rate on the ability of apprentices to afford (a) housing and (b) food in (i) Enfield North constituency and (ii) the UK.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
On 1 April 2023, the Apprentice National Minimum Wage (ANMW) rate increased by 9.7% to £5.28. This is an above inflation increase and worth over £850 a year before tax for a full-time apprentice.
The ANMW is designed and set at a rate that acknowledges the particular costs for employers and benefits for young people involved in the provision of apprenticeships and which does not adversely affect apprenticeship opportunities in the labour market.
The Government has published a full impact assessment on gov.uk that assesses the regional impacts of the National Minimum Wage increase.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing guidance to businesses on the potential merits of calculating holiday entitlement on the basis of hours worked on average across the year for people who work more than their contracted number of hours.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has recently consulted on how holiday entitlement is calculated for part-year and irregular hours workers. As part of our response to this consultation, we will consider what additional Government guidance may be required to help employers in calculating holiday entitlement for their workers including those who work more than their contracted hours.