Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to end fire and rehire, following the events at P&O.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has been consistent in condemning the inappropriate use of firing and rehiring tactics during negotiations. As per the Written Statement I made on Tuesday 29 March (HCWS735), the Government will now bring forward statutory code later this year, under section 203 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
The code will be admissible in evidence before a court or Employment Tribunal in England, Scotland and Wales. Where relevant, statutory codes are referred to by employment tribunal judges when deciding the level of award an employee is entitled to. The Government will set out next steps after recess, and will be consulting on the draft code later this year as required by law.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the cost was of restoring power lost as a result of Storm Arwen; and how that cost was met.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The cost of restoring power during Storm Arwen was met by Transmission and Distribution Network Operators. Their expenditure and charges to customers are carefully regulated by Ofgem through the network price controls process.
As the independent regulator for energy, Ofgem has also announced that it will undertake a review into the impact of Storm Arwen. This will focus on the role of the network companies in maintaining the resilience of the system and their emergency response.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the average amount of time that people were without power as a result of Storm Arwen in (a) Wansbeck constituency, (b) Northumberland and (c) the North East.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Across Great Britain, around 830,000 electricity customers who were impacted by Storm Arwen had their power restored within 24 hours, however, nearly 10,000 households went without power for a week or more, many of whom were in the North East of England. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has commissioned his officials to carry out a post-incident review into the Distribution Network Operator’s response to Storm Arwen, which will ascertain the full scale of customer disruption.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the amount of profit made by private electricity companies compared to investment in electricity infrastructure in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Electricity network operators are private companies which build, own, and operate electricity network infrastructure. As regional monopolies, they are regulated by the independent energy regulator, Ofgem. The total value of the electricity transmission price control between 2013 and 2021 was over £15bn, while the forecast total value of the electricity distribution price control between 2015 and 2023 is over £29bn.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money his Department has spent on electricity infrastructure in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Electricity network operators are private companies which build, own, and operate electricity network infrastructure. As regional monopolies, they are regulated by the independent energy regulator, Ofgem. The total value of the electricity transmission price control between 2013 and 2021 was over £15bn, while the forecast total value of the electricity distribution price control between 2015 and 2023 is over £29bn.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department made of the resilience of energy networks and infrastructure prior to Storm Arwen in the regions affected by that storm.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Great Britain has one of the most reliable energy systems in the world and maintaining a secure electricity supply is a key priority for Government.
Government regularly liaises with industry through the Energy Emergencies Executive Committee to continually improve and maintain the resilience of energy infrastructure, networks and assets, to reduce vulnerabilities, and to ensure an effective response to actual or potentially disruptive incidents.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of net negative generator payments on the Contracts for Difference Scheme.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Under the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, a generator is paid the difference between the ‘strike price’ – a price for electricity reflecting the cost of investing in a particular low carbon technology – and the ‘reference price’ – a cost measure of the average GB market price for electricity. Generators have to pay back the difference to the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) when market prices are higher than the strike price.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to prevent the use of fire and rehire practices in the food production and processing sector.
Answered by Paul Scully
This Government has been clear that we expect employers to treat their employees fairly and in the spirit of partnership. Using threats about firing and rehiring as a negotiation tactic is unacceptable. We expect employers and employees to negotiate new terms and conditions and there are laws around how this must be done, and legal protections in place when firms are considering redundancies.
We asked Acas to conduct an evidence-gathering exercise to improve our evidence base. We welcome Acas’ report on this work which was published on 8 June.
The Acas report demonstrated that there are different views on whether the practice can ever be justified. For some of the organisations consulted by Acas, it is never acceptable. For others, in its most legitimate form ‘fire and rehire’ is a route for employers to avoid redundancies and business failures, after negotiations have been exhausted.
I have asked Acas to produce better, more comprehensive, clearer guidance to help employers explore all the options before considering ‘fire and rehire’ and encourage good employment relations practice.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that businesses receiving Government covid-19-related support do not make staff redundant.
Answered by Paul Scully
Throughout this crisis, the Government has sought to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods whilst supporting businesses and public services across the UK.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is specifically designed to protect jobs, and it has been used by 1.2 million employers to support 9.9 million jobs.
The legal position in relation to redundancy and dismissal remains the same whether or not an employee has been furloughed or whether or not the employer has received Government funding. Any redundancy process should be fair and reasonable with appropriate equalities considerations. Employees with the necessary qualifying service who believe that they have been unfairly selected for redundancy, or that the redundancy was unfair in some other way, may be able to complain to an employment tribunal.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what direct financial support or grants the Government plans to make available for food and drink wholesalers as a result of those wholesalers not qualifying for support as they are not categorised as retail.
Answered by Paul Scully
Food and drink wholesalers are able to benefit from additional financial support recently announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, including the extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of March 2021,?extension of the existing loan schemes?and Future Fund?to the end of January 2021, with an ability to top-up bounce back loans, and?increased support through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Grant Extension.
Additionally, £1.1bn is being given to Local Authorities, distributed?on the basis of?£20 per head, for one-off payments to enable them to support businesses more broadly.