Jim Cunningham

The House of Commons has implemented a variety of initiatives to reduce the amount of food waste. The only food which is disposed of consists of products that are not safe to be consumed, following guidance from, for example, the Catering Services’ Food Safety Policy and in relation to use-by dates.

Measures taken to monitor and reduce food waste from our catering venues includes:

• Menu plans and cycles are used which enables orders to be planned in advance;

• Most dishes are made fresh in-house, which allows for improvisation if products need to be used up, and enables short life products to be used in smoothies, soups and salads;

• Stock is regularly counted, and order volumes consider the level of stock-in-hand;

• Dates are checked regularly on ambient food products and any short life products are issued to the kitchens for immediate use;

• Many of the high-volume protein items are ordered by unit (rather than weight) which makes portion control more accurate and reduces the likelihood of over ordering;

• Venue orders are checked by a purchasing team for accuracy, to ensure that orders and volumes are correct and in-line with historic figures;

• The kitchens make salad items in-house, meaning venues can cook-off and utilise any surplus protein products effectively;

• Stock is always rotated using ‘first-in, first-out’ principles;

• Various smart storage methods and materials are used to help prevent premature spoilage;

• Some products are frozen if not used on the day;

• Products which show high levels of wastage are changed (for example, some high frequency/low volume lines are now frozen which enables portion control);

• Any hot food which is re-usable is transferred immediately to where it can be sold (or blast chilled within food safety requirements and used the following day).
  

The Sustainable Restaurant Association has rated the House of Commons as a good practice organisation in respect of food waste.

The Government strongly condemns sexual harassment in the workplace, and is committed to seeing it end.

The UK has some of the strongest workplace protections in the world. These include explicit protections against sexual harassment in the workplace under the Equality Act 2010, and the Government will be consulting this summer on whether these should be further strengthened.

The gender pay gap for women between 40 and 49 has actually fallen since 2010. Employers reported their gender pay gaps for the first time this year and we now expect them to take action to close them.

The Government published the Fuller Working Lives strategy last year, and continues to work with businesses to ensure everyone can adapt to the changing face of the workforce.

The Commission has no remit in relation to employees of Members of Parliament. It has therefore had no discussions with the Minister for Women and Equalities on increasing the proportion of Members’ parliamentary researchers who are women.

My Rt Hon Friend has not held any discussions with the Leader of the House on this matter. Where a Parliamentary assistant or researcher is engaged under a contract of employment, apprenticeship or contract personally to do work, the Member of Parliament, as their employer, is subject to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, and therefore must not unlawfully discriminate in any aspect of recruitment covered by the Act. The positive action provisions in the Act enable an employer to treat one gender more favourably than the other in connection with recruitment providing certain conditions are met.

As at 19 July 2018, the Pass Office database showed that 782 security passes were held by male researchers, and 512 security passes were held by female researchers. Parliamentary Assistant is not a category on the pass application.

Local funding for women’s centres is a matter for my Right Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice. The Minister for Women and Equalities has not had any discussions with the Treasury on this.

In addition, I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to him by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice on this topic on 26^th June 2018.

Local funding for women’s centres is a matter for my Right Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice. The Minister for Women and Equalities has not had any discussions with the Treasury on this.

In addition, I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to him by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice on this topic on 26^th June 2018.

The need to pay men and women equally for the same work has been required by statute for nearly 50 years, and we expect employers in the private sector to comply with equal pay law.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has a Statutory Code of Practice on Equal Pay, and provides extensive advice guidance on its website to ensure employers know what is required to comply with the law. The EHRC and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) also provide guidance to help individuals understand their rights and take action if they believe that they are being discriminated against in the pay they receive.

Employees who are concerned that they may not be being paid fairly can seek authoritative and free advice from Acas, before deciding whether to bring a claim before an Employment Tribunal. Where an employer is found to have breached equal pay law, an Employment Tribunal can order it to carry out an equal pay audit.

Our requirement for all larger employers to publish their gender pay gap is helping to increase transparency of all the factors underlying the endemic differences in pay between men and women.

The LGBT policy team at the Government Equalities Office meet with a range of organisations regularly and will continue to do so as part of their ongoing policy engagement. In 2017, they met with key stakeholders including the LGBT Foundation, Intersex UK, the LGBT Consortium, Stonewall, GIRES Gendered Intelligence and the Commonwealth Equality Network.

The UK has a proud record of promoting equality for LGBT people, including introducing marriage for same-sex couples. We continue to be recognised as one of the most progressive countries in Europe for LGBT rights by ILGA-Europe. Meeting with LGBT+ organisations ensures that we continue to be at the forefront of progressing LGBT rights in this country.

We launched a national survey on 23 July to ask lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people living in the UK about their experiences of using public services, and about any experiences of discrimination that they may have faced throughout their lives.

The survey closed on 15 October. We received more than 100,000 responses, making this one of the largest ever surveys of LGBT people in the world. We will analyse the results and use them to inform the Government’s policy on LGBT equality. We will publish our findings when this analysis has been completed.

Since 2010, the number of women on FTSE 350 boards has more than doubled and we now have the highest ever percentage of women on boards – over 24% in the FTSE 350. We also have only eight all-male boards remaining in the FTSE 350, and none in the FTSE 100. We are supporting the Hampton-Alexander Review to meet their target of women holding 33% of FTSE 100 senior leadership positions and 33% of FTSE 350 board positions. The Hampton-Alexander Review will report on 9 November regarding progress over the last 12 months of women on boards for FTSE 350 companies.

We will continue to work with businesses to highlight the benefits they gain from a more diverse board membership.

The Department announced on 23 July that it will be consulting on changes to the Gender Recognition Act in the Autumn. We are currently considering the content of the consultation. We will be making an announcement shortly.

The support available under the student finance system is reviewed annually.

An Equality Analysis of changes to the support package for full-time students in 2016/17 was published on the GOV.UK website on 3 December 2015.

Statistics showing the number and value of Maintenance Grants awarded to English applicants for study at UK providers are published annually by the Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release ‘Student Support for Higher Education in England’.

The latest publication covering the last five academic years can be found here:

"http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx"

Publications covering previous academic years can be found here:

http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/full-catalogue-of-official-statistics/student-support-for-higher-education-in-england.aspx

We are working with UK universities in a number of important ways to increase our collaboration with Chinese researchers.

We have regular discussions with the Chinese government on education and research collaboration These discussions are both at the working level, where BIS science and higher education teams have a close relationship with their opposite numbers, and also through regular Ministerial exchanges such as the annual People to People Dialogue, the UK-China Education Summit, the biennial UK-China Science and Innovation Joint Committee meetings and the annual Prime Ministerial summit meetings.

In addition, our flagship international science and innovation fund, the Newton Fund, has achieved a transformation in UK-China research collaboration since it was launched in April 2014 and continues to strengthen our collaborative work. The fund, includes significant university participation in programmes on urbanisation, climate change, environment, food security and health. Universities also play a major role in building research capacity in China through means of Newton grants for partnerships, PhD placements, training and joint workshops.

The renewable electricity planning database (REPD - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewable-energy-planning-database-monthly-extract) extracts data on planning from authorities across the country but it does not collate information on the square mileage of projects

The table below provides the figures for full-time equivalent (FTE) staff employed by the Research Councils as at 31 March 2015. It is not possible to estimate the number of FTE positions supported by grant funding awarded by the Research Councils given the multiple sources of funding which support many researchers.

¹ Figures in this column include Research Councils UK Executive Directorate and cross-research council support staff.

² Locally employed staff at the MRC’s two units in Africa are not included in this data.

More people than ever before are now able to benefit from higher education, and the student loan system ensures that access to finance should not be a barrier to participation.

For students starting their Higher Education course prior to the 2020-21 academic year the nominal value of student loans that are expected to be written off in each of the financial years 2025-26 to 2036-37 are as follows:

Source: BIS Student Loan Repayment Model. Figures are rounded to the nearest £10m.

This table includes loans written-off owing to any of the following circumstances: a) if the loan borrower started their Higher Education course prior to 2006-07 academic year and has reached the age of 65; b) the borrower has died; c) the borrower becomes disabled and is permanently unable to work; or d) if the loan borrower started their Higher Education course between 2006-07 and 2011-12 academic years and 25 years have passed since the borrower became eligible to repay.

The total administrative budget associated with the BIS Automotive sector team for the last five financial years was £6,265,356. This is illustrated below:

Financial Year Administrative Cost

11/12 £1,393,614*^

12/13 £1,187,636^

13/14 £1,207,986^

14/15 £1,256,570^

15/16 £1,219,550^

*Includes funding for the Advanced Manufacturing Showcasing team who were under the same administrative budget for these years.

^ Includes one FTE on loan to the Office for Low Emission Vehicles.

The total budget to support Industrial R&D primarily for the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Driverless cars over the last 3 years* was:

RDEL(Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit) - £79.327m

CDEL (Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit) - £11m.

RDEL CDEL

13/14 £452,000 £0

14/15 £26,000,000 £5,000,000

15/16 £52,875,000 £6,000,000

*There is no data available for 11/12 and 12/13

The administrative budget associated with the BIS Automotive sector team for the last five financial years is illustrated below.

*Includes funding for the Advanced Manufacturing Showcasing team who came under the same administrative budget for these years.

^ Includes one FTE on loan to the Office for Low Emission Vehicles

The table below shows (a) the number of commissioned installations under the feed – in tariff scheme, and (b) generation payments made under the scheme:

*Source; feed-in tariff annual report 2014-15

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/feed-in_tariff_annual_report_year_five_2014-15.pdf

** Source; DECC feed-in tariff statistics

Monthly feed-in tariff commissioned installations by month - Publications - GOV.UK

More people than ever before are now able to benefit from higher education. The student loan system ensures that access to finance should not be a barrier to participation in higher education.

For students starting their Higher Education course prior to the 2020-21 academic year the nominal value of student loans that are written off in each of the next 10 years is forecast as follows:

Source: BIS Student Loan Repayment Model. Figures are rounded to the nearest £10m.

This table includes loans written-off due to any of the following circumstances: a) if the loan borrower started their Higher Education course prior to 2006-07 academic year and has reached the age of 65; b) the borrower has died; or c) the borrower becomes disabled

The Automotive Council will lead a review of the Automotive Industrial Strategy in the first half of 2016, to take stock of progress since its publication in July 2013 and to confirm future priorities.

Information on the number of staff in the BIS Automotive sector team over each of the last five years is illustrated in the table below.

The Government has regular and constructive dialogue with the automotive industry – including through the Automotive Council, which is taking a leadership position in ensuring the sustainable growth of the sector in the UK.

The Government recognises that new businesses can encounter difficulties in obtaining the finance they need to start-up or grow. However I am encouraged that net lending to smaller businesses has been recovering strongly since the end of 2014. The Bank of England has reported that credit conditions for SMEs seeking finance are improving and the SME Finance Monitor shows that 80% of SME loan and overdraft applications were successful in the 18 months to 2015 Q3, up from 68% in Q4 2013.

Latest figures show that net SME lending from banks participating in the Funding for Lending Scheme grew by £675m in the third quarter and the Bank of England recently announced that allowances earned by banks for increasing their net lending under the scheme will be available to draw down for a further two years. The government also continues to fund start-up loans, with more than 33,000 loans worth over £180 million issued so far and a target to deliver 75,000 loans by the end of the parliament.

I am also encouraged by our growing alternative finance sector, with the UK the leading fin tech centre of Europe.

A recent report from the Legatum Institute rated the UK as the best country in the EU in which to start a business and the government will continue to back our small businesses to start and grow.

All Government Departments have a role in helping to raise productivity and foster a dynamic economy. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) holds many of the key productivity levers, including skills, innovation, competition and regulation. The bulk of BIS spending therefore supports the Productivity Plan. The table displays total BIS Departmental Expenditure Limits up to 2019/20, as set out in the Spending Review. Specifically with regard to research, the Government has committed to protect the science resource and capital budget in real terms during this Parliament.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/479749/52229_Blue_Book_PU1865_Web_Accessible.pdf

Energy price assumptions underpinning DECC’s 2015 Energy and Emissions Projections are available in Annex M of the supporting documentation available online.1 The table includes wholesale coal, crude oil, electricity, and natural gas price assumptions, and retail electricity, natural gas, and petroleum product price assumptions for a range of sectors. Assumptions are available out to 2035, and for a range of scenarios.

The Government is implementing a package of measures to reduce the projected cost of policies on the average household dual fuel bill by £30 from 2017. The bulk of these savings will come from reforms to the current Energy Company Obligation, which will be replaced by a new cheaper supplier obligation from April 2017. The new scheme will deliver on the government’s commitment to help 1 million homes see lower energy bills through energy efficiency improvements by the end of this parliament. The government is committed to ensuring that energy is affordable for families and businesses.

[1] Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/updated-energy-and-emissions-projections-2015.

The Government’s Productivity Plan in July set out our ambition that UK Universities will continue to increase their collaborations with industry to drive the translation and commercialisation of research and broader knowledge exchange. Universities’ external income from engagement with business and the community reached £3.93 billion in 2013-14, up by 27% from 2009-10. The World Economic Forum ranks the UK among the top four nations in the world for university-industry collaboration in R&D. The recent Research Excellence Framework 2014 has demonstrated the breadth and extent of economic impact arising from university research, with 84% of submissions assessed as outstanding or very considerable by expert and academic peer review.

We estimate that the proportion of electricity produced in the UK (gross total electricity supplied) which will be generated by non-renewable means over the next five years is as follows:

2016 75%

2017 71%

2018 68%

2019 66%

2020 62%

This excludes electricity supplied from other countries via interconnectors.

The above data is taken from the reference scenario in Annex J of DECC’s 2015 Energy and Emissions Projections. This and other scenarios with differing economic growth and fossil fuel prices are available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/updated-energy-and-emissions-projections-2015

No landward Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences have been applied for, nor issued, during the last 12 months. However, in the latest (14^th) Onshore Oil and Gas Licensing Round, which closed for bids on 28 October 2014, 95 applications were received from 47 companies covering 295 Ordinance Survey Blocks. The Oil and Gas Authority announced on 18 August 2015 that a first tranche of 27 onshore blocks will be formally offered to companies, and that a second group of 132 further blocks has been subjected to detailed assessment under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010. Subject to the outcome of this consultation, the OGA intends to announce offers for the second group of licence blocks later this year. A map showing the location of the first tranche blocks and those being considered further can be found here:

https://decc-edu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=29c31fa4b00248418e545d222e57ddaa.

There are currently no sites approved for fracking in England and Wales. Any operator would need a Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence (PEDL) in place before commencing hydrocarbon operations. A PEDL does not, in and of itself, allow an operator to commence hydrocarbon operations. Rather, they grant exclusivity to licensees within a defined area. All operations would also require local planning permission,Environment Agency permits, Health and Safety Executive scrutiny, Oil and Gas Authority consent and access agreement(s) with relevant landowner(s).

The Infrastructure Act 2015 introduced a range of further requirements that must be met before an operator can carry out hydraulic fracturing in a responsible, sustainable and safe manner. A hydraulic fracturing consent will not be issued unless my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State is satisfied that the conditions are met. The Secretary of State must also be satisfied that it is appropriate to issue the consent.

The Government recognises the importance of sustaining a strong research community across the UK. In allocating Science and Research funding, the Government asks the Research Councils, Higher Education Funding Council for England, British Academy, Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society to ensure that they are “maintaining a substantial flow of new researchers and high level skills”. Research Councils support 14,000 research staff and fellows, including 10,000 university researchers, many of whom are in early research careers. The National Academies provide over 690 early career research fellowships.

The Department encourages more responsible supply chain management by businesses, including retailers, by requiring companies to be more transparent about their business operations. UK listed companies are required to report on social and environmental matters where necessary for an understanding of their business.

More widely, the Government supports the Ethical Trading Initiative which helps member companies realise their commitment to continuous improvement in ethical sourcing.

We are also providing £18 million over six years to help Fairtrade International have a greater impact in their work and strengthen the global Fairtrade system.

The Government also supports work by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) on voluntary agreements such as the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan which encourages sustainability of clothing across the product life cycle including, for example, use of lower impact fibres. In addition, Government co-ordinates work on the UK statement on the sustainable production of palm oil, working with retailers and others towards achieving 100% sourcing of credibly certified sustainable palm oil in the UK.

In October the transparency in supply chains provision (section 54) of the Modern Slavery Act came into force.

The Government is of the view that there is a national need to explore and test our shale resources in a safe, sustainable and timely way.

It is too early to make an assessment of the future extent of shale gas and oil production. We do not yet know the full scale of the UK’s shale resources nor how much can be extracted technically or economically.

In relation to SSI’s closure in Redcar, I expect the majority of the fund announced on 2 October to go towards supporting training of former SSI workers and those in the supply chain, helping businesses to grow and create jobs, and the future of the Tees Valley economy more broadly. We are working with the local Task Force, chaired by Amanda Skelton, to shape these proposals and in total, we have agreed over £40 million of support aimed at skills and jobs creation:

• £3 million has been made available to four Further Education colleges in the region to support re-training activity, as well as a further £2.65m skills funding to plug any gaps in skills provision not available via the Further Education Offer;
• £1.7 million to ensure that the fifty apprentices who were with SSI can continue their apprenticeships with alternative employers;
• A £16.5 million Jobs and Skills Fund to help local firms employ former SSI workers or their spouses in full-time or part-time jobs for a minimum of three years;
• £16 million support for firms in the SSI supply chain and wider Tees Valley impacted by the Redcar steelworks closure, to safeguard jobs, provide the stimulus to create new posts and provide expert assistance to help them expand their business
• £750,000 to fund advice and grants to start up a new business.

In addition, we have announced a package, worth up to £9 million, jointly with Tata, to support Scunthorpe steelworkers, the local economy and supply chain. We are working closely with a local Task Force, chaired by my noble Friend Baroness Liz Redfern, to deliver this support.

In August, DECC published projections for UK solar electricity capacity by 2020/21:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/457313/Estimated_capacity_of_selected_renewable_technologies_in_2020-21.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/458662/IA_for_FITs_consultation_August_2015_-_FINAL_docx__e-signature_included__v2.pdf.

This projected that, as of August 2015, UK solar electricity capacity would be 9.55GW by 2020/21, which would be 9.1TWh of generation, or 2.8% of UK electricity generation. The projections as of August 2015 for each of the next five years as follows:

These estimates include assumptions about policy changes which have been proposed but not yet finalised and which could therefore change subject to the responses received – in particular, the consultation on a review of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme and the consultation on changes to financial support for solar PV under the Renewables Obligation.

Licensing and consent of onshore oil and gas activities in England is now a matter for the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA). Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences are not specific to shale gas. They grant exclusive rights to extract hydrocarbons, including shale gas but also other hydrocarbons, within a particular onshore area. A separate consent from the OGA is required before any drilling or hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can take place, as well as planning permission, environmental permits and review of the well design by the Health and Safety Executive.

The OGA does not have any undetermined consent applications.

The Written Ministerial Statement by my rt. hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on 16 September 2015 (Official Report, Column 34-38WS), sets out the Government’s view that there is a national need to explore and develop our shale gas and oil resources in a safe, sustainable and timely way, to help meet our objectives for secure energy supplies, economic growth and lower carbon emissions.

A successful shale industry could help create jobs and grow local economies. Investment in shale could reach £33billion and support up to 64,000 jobs in oil, gas, construction, engineering and chemical sectors. The opportunity to extract this energy, as well as to secure jobs and investment, cannot be ignored.

As set out in the November 2013 Renewable Energy Roadmap Update, analysis indicated a potential deployment range of 7-20 GW (equivalent to 6-18 TWh) of solar PV at all scales, with 20GW being our estimate of the technical maximum level of solar PV deployment by 2020 on the basis of grid and other constraints. Solar PV in the UK was 8.007GW as of August 2015¹.

In the absence of cost effective storage, solar PV can make a contribution to meeting electricity demand but this will be limited by the nature of its diurnal cycle.

REF:

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solar-pv-deployment-august-2015

The latest statistics available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that in the academic year 2013/14 there were 1.1 million UK domiciled enrolments at UK Higher Education Institutions, of which 138,670 declared a disability.

Further information is published on the HESA website and can be located from this web-link https://www.hesa.ac.uk/content/view/1973/239/

Disabled Students’ Allowances are available to help meet the additional costs that a disabled student is obliged to incur, in relation to their study, by virtue of their disability.

Disabled Students’ Allowances, along with all other types of student support, are reviewed before laying the annual student support regulations.

Information on students awarded and paid Disabled Students’ Allowance is published annually by Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release ‘Student Support for Higher Education England’. The latest statistics are available at the following link: http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx

Payments to full-time undergraduate students are presented in table 3b on page 21 and payments to part-time undergraduates and postgraduates in tables 5a and 5b on page 31.