Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time taken by her Department was from an application being received to issuing National Insurance numbers to those people arriving from Hong Kong with British national overseas status.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Demand for the National Insurance Number (NINo) service is currently high with the average time taken to process applications around 13 weeks. This is for all employment inspired applications including people arriving from Hong Kong with British National Overseas status.
The Department is currently recruiting and training additional staff to reduce these waiting times.
The Department expedites NINo applications for those who require one in order to receive Social Security Benefits.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to update the guidance on ventilation for businesses in the hospitality sector in the context of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
HSE recently updated web guidance on Ventilation and air conditioning during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is aimed at most businesses, including the hospitality sector.
The guidance provides businesses with simple ways to identify areas in a workplace that may be poorly ventilated and measures they can take to improve ventilation in those areas. It also addresses the issue of balancing good ventilation with thermal comfort (keeping a comfortable workplace temperature).
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department has issued for businesses in the hospitality sector that wish to improve ventilation within their properties in order to expedite covid-safe reopening.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
HSE recently updated web guidance on Ventilation and air conditioning during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is aimed at most businesses, including the hospitality sector.
The guidance provides businesses with simple ways to identify areas in a workplace that may be poorly ventilated and measures they can take to improve ventilation in those areas. It also addresses the issue of balancing good ventilation with thermal comfort (keeping a comfortable workplace temperature).
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's 27 November 2020 policy document Transmission Risk in the Hospitality Sector, what proportion of hospitality businesses have been determined to have poor ventilation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Although the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has the national policy lead for occupational health and safety standards in the hospitality and catering industry, Local Authorities (LAs) are responsible for enforcing health and safety law at individual premises.
HSE is unable to provide data showing what proportion of hospitality businesses have been determined to have poor ventilation as this data is not collected from LAs.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many members of staff in her Department with complex physical and mental health disabilities requiring IT adaptations were employed in each of the last ten years for which figures are available; and how many of those employees had their employment terminated in each of those years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested is not held centrally. Retrieval of data would be a disproportionate cost.
At the end of December 2017 the Department had 883 employees who were using accessibility software. We are unable to say when they were employed.